Adwords account permanently suspended

[ss1c]

I tried adwords about a year ago and found the process frustrating. I paused all my ads and quit messing with it. Last night, I decided to try again. This time instead of pointing to affiliate product sales pages, I pointed it to a page on my own site.

The adwords ad said "learn hypnosis free", and offered a free hypnosis course. The page I sent them to was a basic "squeeze" page where I offered a free email mini course, along with a bonus ebook. All they had to do was fill in name and email address to get the free stuff.

This morning I got a notice that said, "Your Google AdWords account has been permanently suspended for repeated violation of AdWords or Landing Page and Site policies in this or a related account." I do not know why. The landing page is | Hypno Mind Control Secrets Revealed, in case that helps.

Is there any way to get the account unsuspended, or is permanent truly permanent. Did I violate a rule I was not aware of to get my site suspended? All of the keywords for the campaign show a 6/10 or 7/10, with "no problem" on landing page and site quality.

I was hoping to someday actually be successful at building lists and selling clickbank stuff, rather than just relying on adsense for most of my sites, but adwords seems frustratingly... complex(?).

Thanks for any help.

Steve

[BarryWheeler]

Here's the guidelines - Landing page and site quality guidelines - AdWords Help

Which portion did you violate?

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by BarryWheeler

Here's the guidelines - Landing page and site quality guidelines - AdWords Help

Which portion did you violate?

Good question. I read all that before I posted. My site's content is 100% unique, as is the content on the squeeze page. I offer a free hypnosis course in my ad, and the page the ad takes then too is the page that offers the course for free ("just tell us where to send the free course"). No malware, no pop-ups, no background info collecting... I honestly do not know. That is why I included the landing page in my post - maybe someone else has an idea?

[paulgl]

Have you actually looked at your page? Seriously.

It's a walking violation.

A better question would be, what part doesn't?

Ridiculous claims, harvesting emails, etc.

Unique content? Is that what you call that? Unique content
does not mean it's adwords ready.

It's hard to believe that you are wondering why.

Paul

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Have you actually looked at your page? Seriously.

It's a walking violation.

A better question would be, what part doesn't?

Ridiculous claims, harvesting emails, etc.

Unique content? Is that what you call that? Unique content
does not mean it's adwords ready.

It's hard to believe that you are wondering why.

Paul

Okay, well then, clearly I do not get it. I thought the whole point was to do an adwords campaign to send visitors to a page where I give them something free in exchange for getting them to sign up to my list. Like I said, I am new to this facet of IM and trying to learn it. Unfortunately, the WSOs that I buy that tell me to do exactly this, are either not detailed enough or wrong or something. Always something missing...

Personally, I do not see the ridiculous claims, nor would I consider asking for their name and email address "harvesting", but okay. By "original content" I meant that I did not copy/paste from a generic squeeze page template or something... I wrote it myself. Of course I am wondering why. I do not see anything on the adwords help link that says anything that describes my site. Like I said, I am trying to learn this stuff. Not trying to be made to look stupid.

**Edit - I just went back to my page and looked again. where are the "ridiculous claims"?

[wolfmmiii]

Originally Posted by ss1c

where are the "ridiculous claims"?

For starters:

Exactly how you can apply hypnosis in your day-to-day life, on other people, in order to reach your goals

Also, implementing an opt-in form is clearly harvesting.

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

For starters:

Exactly how you can apply hypnosis in your day-to-day life, on other people, in order to reach your goals

Also, implementing an opt-in form is clearly harvesting.

Well, whether or not you believe in covert hypnosis is irrelevant. Unless, of course, you believe that my account was permanently suspended because the person that reviewed my landing page does not either (?). It is not an illegal topic, and adwords has a category for it. Not to mention there is plenty of competition in that niche that make similar "rediculous claims".

As for the opt-in form... okay, fine. I was not aware that asking for an email address to receive an email course was against the rules. Obviously, I have a lot to learn, which is why I am here asking for help. I thought that was how you were supposed to use adwords to grow your list. It seems I was wrong. Fine, I will accept that.

I still need to know if it is possible to get an account un-suspended, and if so, I need to learn how to do this stuff right, because obviously my attempts at trying it have failed. Like I said, I buy WSO after WSO, all promising to show me ways to make "huge" money (talk about rediculous claims), but none of them can tell me how to use a resource that I am sure the majority of you guys use?

I have money from adsense earnings from other sites, and even more coming next month, that I am looking into invest into growing my business. I also have plenty of time, due to the fact that I can no longer work. If I need to "buy" the advice, I will. Just looking for help.

[paulgl]

Adwords is not the place to build your list. With all due respect,
that page is a really great one for traffic exchanges. Or a
forum sig.

It may not be the case 100%, but making (un)scientific claims
that can't be proven are not allowed.

Stop buying WSO after WSO.

A generic product on learning the art of hypnosis would probably
pass, with little if any claims except the most mundane.

That would be the way to do it, and also allow to "harvest" emails.

The main page is a product, on the side is an email optin box for
a free newsletter or something. It's not that getting an email is
wrong, but having the whole thing be for an email is.

In the end, can't say it would be worth your while to try and
get another adwords account and use a different site.

Youtube, traffic exchanges, etc.

Paul

[ss1c]

Thanks, Paul. That was actually helpful.

I agree that I need to stop buying WSO after WSO. My point was that I am willing to put time and money into something that works. I put almost 2 years and a LOT of time into keyword academy, but after all the changes from Google lately, I am sitting at around $600 a month for my efforts. Without going into a lot of details about the frustrations I have faced with adsense, I will suffice it to say, I desperately need to diversify my income streams. I guess adwords is not the way to do it. I have lists set up for 4 of my sites now, but I have never been any good at list building.

Hard not to be frustrated.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

**Edit - traffic exchanges actually work? I use to use them back in 2003, when I was running MLMs. They didn't work to well then.

[wolfmmiii]

Originally Posted by ss1c

Well, whether or not you believe in covert hypnosis is irrelevant.

You are right. However, what Google feels is unsubstantiated is what counts. That is probably the case here. No need to be defensive - you asked for feedback and I gave it.

Also, I'd avoid trying to get a new account. It will inevitably be linked to your old one via a cookie, a site, an IP, etc. and will just be banned also. Your best bet is to try and work with them on this account but that can be difficult at very best.

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

You are right. However, what Google feels is unsubstantiated is what counts. That is probably the case here. No need to be defensive - you asked for feedback and I gave it.

Also, I'd avoid trying to get a new account. It will inevitably be linked to your old one via a cookie, a site, an IP, etc. and will just be banned also. Your best bet is to try and work with them on this account but that can be difficult at very best.

No problem. I apologize if I was being unnecessarily defensive. Your feedback had a tone of snideness, to be honest... at least to me. At any rate, thanks for the input. I will abandon adwords. For what, I do not yet know. I am a pretty smart dude. I will think of something.

[wolfmmiii]

No sweat. I can be blunt at times. My wife tells me all the time that I'm arrogant at times. Maybe she's right....

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

No sweat. I can be blunt at times. My wife tells me all the time that I'm arrogant at times. Maybe she's right....

Well, you would not be the only who has been thus accused. Tell me, then, in your opinion, which way should I go? I have sites that rank well, sites that rank really well, and sites that do not rank, but that I can make rank if I put some work into them. Adsense is a disappointment. I have a site that gets 100+ uniques a day, that statcounter says I get about a 10% click ratio for ads, but google counts maybe 1 or 2 a day. I have a site that ranks #1 for its main and secondary keywords (plus a few longtails) that is earning me less than a third of what it's potential was supposed to be (for just the main KW) when I did my KW research. Amazon kicked me to the curb because I live in California. The site that ranks #1 in google gets 300+ uniques a day, and has an optin form on the sidebar (with a free ebook related to the niche), but nobody subscribes.

Face to face, I could sell matches to Satan, but for some reason I cannot convert in writing.

[paulgl]

I feel your pain on amazon. That CA thing sucked for me BIG time. Not
only was I selling, but my amazon pages were top ranked. That's a double
whammy. So, I decided to just leave the pages intact, as they do funnel
traffic, have adsense, etc.

The thing about traffic exchanges, is I heard they would good for building
lists. Not much else, but good for list building. I would not mess around
with garbage, and most TE's are garbage. That's being polite. More
like 99.9999999% are garbage.

The haters can calm down. I got my start on traffic exchanges, but
joined forums and morphed to dot coms. I still have an affinity for
TEs and have a few lifetime memberships.

I was expecting you to blast me back. I would have agreed with you.
You deserved a more meaningful and respectful answer at first.

Paul

[ss1c]

Thanks, Paul. I appreciate the response. Something that you said earlier actually sparked something, and that is youtube videos. I have a channel, but have only done 2 promo videos so far (the rest are all personal videos). i didn't get any traffic to the promo ones I built, and they pretty much suck anyway.

I had a thought that maybe if I can build videos and leave them as video responses to some of the more popular videos within my various niches, that might get me some traffic. Am I on the right track? Of course, I know exactly squat about how to make them (and less than squat about how to make them well). I am willing to pay someone to teach me how to use youtube effectively while building a video or two for me. Any suggestions?

As I am writing this, I see a banner add for something that offers $15,000 per month. What are the chances that if I purchase that WSO and follow the instructions to the letter, I will make $15,000 a month? Sorry, rhetorical question.

[ss1c]

Update - I have been emailing support back and forth, and got the following reply (truncated):

Your account can only be re-enabled once your site 'www.ultimatewowguide.com' is made to comply with all our policies. Please note that pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled sites will not automatically re-enable the ads nor remove the violation history.

That was a site that I targeted about a year ago when I first trying to use adwords, and it is not even my site. It is a site that sells a world of warcraft guide. I deleted the ad forever ago. This makes no sense to me.

[wolfmmiii]

that is the danger of direct linking. from google's perspective, it makes perfect sense since they don't care who owns the site. what people do not realize is that google is not forgiving like many vendors/sites are when it comes to TOS. I afraid this is not something they will relent on based on other similar stories I have seen.

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

that is the danger of direct linking. from google's perspective, it makes perfect sense since they don't care who owns the site. what people do not realize is that google is not forgiving like many vendors/sites are when it comes to TOS. I afraid this is not something they will relent on based on other similar stories I have seen.

Thanks, I will add that to the growing list of things I learned from this experience.

[skeeloj]

Hi can anyone offer some advice please. I am newbie to internet marketing and have had one of my adwords account suspended by google because they said the site breeched their terms and conditions because my site is a bridge page and doesn't have much value content for users etc. I didn't know anything about this otherwise I would never have used adwords.

This got me scared a bit so I closed that adwords account and also the email account associated with it as my understanding is you want to stay on the right side of Google. Have I over reacted by closing the account instead of trying to fix it (which means re-doing the whole site and not having it as a landing page for an affiliates product) will this affect my sites ability to get ranked on any of pages of for google let alone trying to get to page one?

I also have another adwords account but the two were not linked and was created before the one that got suspended, but I stopped using it a while ago. Do you know if this account affected and again would that have a negative impact on trying to get my site ranked in Google's search engines with a view to one day making it to page one?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Skeeloj.

[Qualibid]

If you are willing to advertise sites with email submit or so called bridge pages, you need to find alternatives with more user friendly policies.
Take a look at 2 tier PPC networks (one of them in my signature).

Originally Posted by skeeloj

Hi can anyone offer some advice please. I am newbie to internet marketing and have had one of my adwords account suspended by google because they said the site breeched their terms and conditions because my site is a bridge page and doesn't have much value content for users etc. I didn't know anything about this otherwise I would never have used adwords.

This got me scared a bit so I closed that adwords account and also the email account associated with it as my understanding is you want to stay on the right side of Google. Have I over reacted by closing the account instead of trying to fix it (which means re-doing the whole site and not having it as a landing page for an affiliates product) will this affect my sites ability to get ranked on any of pages of for google let alone trying to get to page one?

I also have another adwords account but the two were not linked and was created before the one that got suspended, but I stopped using it a while ago. Do you know if this account affected and again would that have a negative impact on trying to get my site ranked in Google's search engines with a view to one day making it to page one?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Skeeloj.

[ShaneBoyd]

From what I've been seeing and studying, Google is banning people left and right. In a nutshell...if you are not spending $10,000 a month on Adwords then it seems they don't want your business. Crazy, but it's getting worse. I'm sure there are viable ways to make a go of Adwords...but I've not found one yet.

Most of the PPC traffic has shifted to FaceBook. Crazy.

I stick with SEO, blogging, and JV's for most of my traffic. Google Adwords is just too frustrating and hasn't been worth my time.

Happy marketing,

Shane

[wolfmmiii]

Originally Posted by ShaneBoyd

From what I've been seeing and studying, Google is banning people left and right. In a nutshell...if you are not spending $10,000 a month on Adwords then it seems they don't want your business.

Nah...I spend just a few hundred dollars per month when I use AdWords and very rarely have problems with my Amazon sites.

[CeeCee123]

Just when you think you know everything, you read a great post with helpful answers such as this to teach you more. Kuddos to all .

[skeeloj]

Hi Qualibid,

Thanks for your response. I don't have an email submit form on my site and was just trying to use Adwords as a way of getting traffic to my site. Think I'll give it a miss for a while until I learnt a bit more. Thanks again for your response.

Skeeloj.

[skeeloj]

Thanks Shane for the link and document. Seems interesting. Will give it a go too.

Skeeloj.

[howsyamama]

Originally Posted by ss1c

Is there any way to get the account unsuspended, or is permanent truly permanent. Did I violate a rule I was not aware of to get my site suspended? All of the keywords for the campaign show a 6/10 or 7/10, with "no problem" on landing page and site quality.

Steve, hi...

Sorry I'm joining in a little late. Hope you and others here read this - because I've just been through the same thing AND FINALLY got my account unsuspended.

I recap the whole thing in another thread, in this post: GOOGLE/ADWORDS EXPERTS! Please help me get my AdWords account UN-SUSPENDED

IMPORTANT - Google would NEVER give me any clue as to what was wrong, only that my site was in violation of their terms. I went on WF and on Adwords forums for help from others.

I'm happy to share my site (I'm not really doing anything with it at this time... it became more of an exercise/challenge) - and this is the exact version that was finally approved. So presumably, it is in compliance: How To Start Your Own Business - Take Control Of Your Life, Start Building Your Future.

Remember... I'm not 100% sure what finally got me whitelisted. But here are some things to take note of...

1. I do have email capture (in exchange for a newsletter offer - but my original site was a pure squeeze page - DEFINITELY an Adwords no-no. ) and Adsense on the site. But no affiliate offers. (At one point I took it ALL OFF - and still wasn't in compliance.

2. I try not to make any real claims or promises of any kind.

3. MOST IMPORTANT - you only have TOS. Not enough from what I learned. Note that I have a PRIVACY POLICY - in my top navigation - apparently very important if you are capturing email. Also down below in my footer... every policy/disclaimer you can imagine. PLUS a compensation disclaimer on the home page itself. I believe these things are of UTMOST importance.

4. Finally... I do believe (just my sense) that a certain amount of time and demonstration that you are sincere is necessary to get unsuspended. The person I was mailing with in Customer Support was great - very nice. BUT, they could get no direct advice from "the team." I'm not saying here that Google wants to make you squirm. I believe they want to know that you truly want to abide by their guidelines. So someone willing to make multiple rounds of changes to their site - rather than a couple of quick fixes - is clearly making the effort.

ALSO, remember this (something it took me several rounds of revisions to realize). This is ADWORDS who has banned your site/account. So what they are looking for is whether your site is ADWORDS-worthy. This was a mistake I made - I took all monetization off, took off the opt-in, tried to make my content bland and like a "personal blog" - and nothing. Then someone pointed out to me that they EXPECT to see a commercialized site. Why else would you pay for advertising to drive someone there?

Sorry this is so long... so was my process in getting unsuspended. But it can happen.

Hope this is helpful to you and others!
Adam

[howsyamama]

Originally Posted by ss1c

No problem. I apologize if I was being unnecessarily defensive. Your feedback had a tone of snideness, to be honest... at least to me. At any rate, thanks for the input. I will abandon adwords. For what, I do not yet know. I am a pretty smart dude. I will think of something.

Steve... a couple more things.

I am NOT an Adwords user - which is what makes all of this ironic. I simply decided to give it a try for some quick traffic to a new squeeze page, not realizing this is taboo.

HOWEVER - a suspension is for LIFE (really). SO... while you might not plan on using Adwords now, you may in the future. Up to you, but I decided it was worth getting back in G's good graces.

Also... I'm NOT a guru, nor am I making a full-time living from IM. But I have created a dozen or so niche sites, and studied LOTS on how to do it. And I don't think your site is so horrible at all. I've noticed here on WF that there are many people who will encourage and help. And LOTS who will swiftly and mercilessly criticize (often without any valuable advice about how to actually make things better).

I've seen lots of REALLY BAD niche sites - I mean BAD. (Some of mine included. LOL) And while I agree you can certainly improve yours (we all can), it has a lot of good stuff going on.

Keep at it and best of luck!
Adam

[LarryW]

Steve,

I found this discussion very useful, even if it is a few months old. I am planning to get a WSO or two that you offer elsewhere, no not on Adwords (!). This does partly show how you've gotten experience, learning by dealing with difficulties.

Fixing your Adwords situation aside- Concerning your Hypno site, you could try to do what you started, but using other methods. As mentioned there are other places to advertise, maybe try Adcenter (Bing)?

Or instead rework your model, for example you want to build a list and don't seek a profit, instead of giving away the ebook maybe you could give 100% commissions to others, so you would find an affiliate marketplace (not clickbank) where your sales price should be enough for others to want to promote (but still get buyers). Do think- How will they promote??? (and why couldn't YOU just sell it cheap instead, which would rework the Adword target, maybe moving the email entry to another page?).

Sorry I am branching off, but one more thought for the Hypno site promotion where you are willing to pay $$, use email lists of others (one time, like rent/buy), with an email sales letter link to the exact site you now have?
.
Larry
.

[ss1c]

Originally Posted by LarryW

Steve,

I found this discussion very useful, even if it is a few months old. I am planning to get a WSO or two that you offer elsewhere, no not on Adwords (!). This does partly show how you've gotten experience, learning by dealing with difficulties.

Fixing your Adwords situation aside- Concerning your Hypno site, you could try to do what you started, but using other methods. As mentioned there are other places to advertise, maybe try Adcenter (Bing)?

Or instead rework your model, for example you want to build a list and don't seek a profit, instead of giving away the ebook maybe you could give 100% commissions to others, so you would find an affiliate marketplace (not clickbank) where your sales price should be enough for others to want to promote (but still get buyers). Do think- How will they promote??? (and why couldn't YOU just sell it cheap instead, which would rework the Adword target, maybe moving the email entry to another page?).

Sorry I am branching off, but one more thought for the Hypno site promotion where you are willing to pay $$, use email lists of others (one time, like rent/buy), with an email sales letter link to the exact site you now have?
.
Larry
.

Hey Larry,

Yea, this is a big part of how most people learn, I think - making mistakes. lol

To be honest, I have always been better at KW research, ranking, and gaining "organic" traffic than paying for it. I have not had much luck with selling as an affiliate either. I did pick up a WSO a few months ago that explained how to effectively rent people's lists, and have had a little success with it... but not much. At any rate, not enough ROI considering the $$ and time involved.

I am really trying to focus more on product creation, right now. I am getting ready to launch RSSonator on clickbank soon (at which point I may decide to close the WSO for that product). I also have a wp plugin in the R&D phase, and some ideas for some other products as well. Doing all that, while trying to make sure my sites don't drop too much in the serps is taking up virtually all of my time.

I am actually getting some subscribers to the hypno list from organic traffic right now. I think my next goal for that site is to create a better converting squeeze page, and develop an email series that will do a better job of getting those subscribers to buy.

Steve