

Our Adsense account was abruptly shut down - one2many
http://innovationmedian.blogspot.com/2012/09/google-does-not-want-newspapers-to-make.html

======
ChuckMcM
From the post:

 _"We migrated all of our videos from the expensive Brightcove platform in
August and went live on YouTube in August and on our site with YouTube on
August 22, using the embedded player."_

I am wondering if anyone has yet connected "expensive" vs "cheap" to "Has
customer support" vs "Has no support" ?

It isn't exactly a zero sum game. Youtube seems to work really well for indie
publishers who put up cat videos and large partners with deep pockets like
Vevo and the music labels, and for people in the middle, it seems to be hit or
miss. And if you have issues, it is all miss.

------
DanBC
That blog makes the same mistake that many blogs makes and has no links to the
product, nor to whatever the hell it is their talking about.

(<https://www.youtube.com/user/pe?feature=watch>)

I'm guessing that's the channel.

Their website (<http://www.pe.com/>)

The subscription link on the website, which takes you to this page:
(<http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=pe>)

There are 5 videos with viewership over 5,000. The rest? Most have less than
500 views.

The innovationmedian blog links to a few sites that make my neck itchy, in
that "I'm sure these people are doing something unsavoury with online ads or
reviews but I have no idea what it is". I know I'm over critical of
advertising stuff.

~~~
jeremymims
This personal blog post is referring to one of the top 100 local newspapers in
the country. You may not like advertising, but this paper is 130 years old and
has won a Pulitzer prize. It's the paper of record for the Riverside
community.

~~~
DanBC
Why isn't it linked anywhere?

------
andrewcooke
it's like the guy at the newspaper cannot read. google sent him a link to a
list of issues, and he doesn't address them at all.

if you look at the link, it was shut down for bad clicks, incitement to users
to click, or similar. at the very least he could have said in the reply
something like "we don't think we have people clicking on links, but if you
could provide some IPs we might be able to track down someone at the paper
who's being over-enthusiastic".

even if he knows nothing like that has happened he could have added to the
reply (talking about XML uploads, copyright issues) something like "these
don't seem to fit into the ilicit activities listed. we don't have incitements
to click on ads (see ...) so if the above isn't relevant we suspect there has
been some mistaken clicking locally. we have educated the users and we've put
in place the following measures to track ..."

instead, he shows no sign of having understood the issues and no inclination
to help solve the problem. he just whines.

this is basic psychology. you need something from these people. so you try to
act like you understand and want to help, even if you think they are
incompetent assholes.

[edit: maybe i come across as unsympathetic. i can understand how maddening
this must be. but surely that's more reason to get it fixed? and to get it
fixed you need to cooperate, not act like a victim. at least, that's how i
would play it (it's _his job_ to make this work).]

~~~
jemka
Am I reading something different than you? Perhaps my reading comprehension is
as poor as "the guy at the newspaper".

The "list of issues" Google provides is a generic list of possible reasons.
Essentially, "Thanks for choosing Google. Your account has been disabled. Here
is a list of reasons we normally disable an account with no warning. You may
or may not have directly or indirectly done any of the activities listed, but
we're not going to tell you either way. Feel free to figure it out. If you
think you know and have taken steps to remedy the issue(s), then please let us
know by submitting an appeal. However, you only get one chance and our single
response to your appeal is final."

So this guy and every other person that has to go through this terrible
experience has a right to be mad and express their anger.

And it's not a matter of being able to read. It's a matter of Google's
terrible customer service.

~~~
chris_wot
Google tried this in NSW, and they had to reinstate the account and all th
money owing. Helps to have. Strong regulator!
[http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20120206-meet-the-
en...](http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20120206-meet-the-entrepreneur-
who-took-on-google-after-his-adsense-account-was-suspended-and-won.html)

------
downandout
It's most likely that "invalid clicks" have occurred. If you clicked a few
times on your own ads, this is why. It could also be a competitor
intentionally trying to take you down. They just simulate automated clicks
from the same IP on your ads. In this case you would have no control, and
Google would yet be justified in destroying your account because of the
activity that your participation in their network is generating - even if it
is through no fault of your own.

This is one of many reasons why Adsense is not recommended. Another reason is
that fact that they take so long to pay. No one pays on Net-60 anymore, except
Google, because they can get away with it.

You are lucky though. In many cases, they wait until you've sent them a ton of
traffic for 60 days - just before payday. They then tell you that you aren't
being paid, close your account, and refuse to provide a reason for it. There
is no indication about how much (if any) of the traffic you aren't being paid
for is being refunded to the advertisers. I'd suspect it's not anywhere near
100%.

I'd suggest you join a CPA network that pays weekly and then choose
advertisers from their inventory.

~~~
omarchowdhury
They pay net 30.

------
fredsanford
Questionable Decision #1

You went from something you paid for (Brightcove) to something free (Youtube).

Questionable Decision #2 You put all your eggs in one basket with a platform
(Youtube) that's known to have horrible support AND act unilaterally in its
own favor with totally automated systems.

You have somewhat low view counts. (Based on what's stated in the HN comments
page, I'm too lazy to look) I'm not sure what you expected, but it looks like
old media jumping on a new media bandwagon and expecting it all to just work.

~~~
keithnoizu
Fair enough but fark adsense. I had my account locked out as well after
getting click bombed. Horrible customer service/follow up.

------
tlogan
Here is the problem:

"We migrated all of our videos from the expensive Brightcove platform in
August and went live on YouTube in August and on our site with YouTube on
August 22, using the embedded player."

That is all. Google is free and nice but it is not really smart to run
business based on company which essentially has no support.

------
huyvun
I run a moderately successful chat site , and have been utilizing Adsense for
almost 5 years, with an average revenue of around $8000/month. For no apparent
reason our site was removed from Adsense.. Apparently Google has recently
purchased Meebo, and as a result have been shutting down and have added 'no
chat sites' to their policy..

------
geargrinder
Adsense does this 99% of the time when the content provider clicks on the
Adsense links on their page. Basically, you can't even test the adsense links,
especially if you aren't sending a lot of clicks.

------
smoyer
Wow ... two in one day may be a new record and if Google doesn't step up with
answers, they'll end up scaring everyone away. I completely understand their
perceived need for secrecy, but is there some critical mass that once reached
will cause business to decline?

The other HN link: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4585043>

~~~
fooey
their customer support it pretty bad, but their ad tech, and hence their
profitability, is so much better than anyone else they have no real
competition

i have agents approach me directly with ad networks specifically targetting my
niche, and the best I've seen is off by more than a factor 10 when it comes to
revenue

------
robomartin
Man, I could write pages about how badly Google executes on AdSense customer
service.

You'd think that for all of the smart people who work there they'd figure
something out that makes sense and is fair for all involved.

I mean, without thinking too hard, things like:

\- Probation periods starting at zero revenue and ramping-up based on various
criteria

\- No account cancellation but rather revenue throttling WITH good feedback
for site/content owner to fix problems

\- Paid account verification. I'm sure most of us would not mind paying a one
time or annual $1,000 fee to be verified and have real customer service. If
you have a real business this is nothing.

Think about the revenue throttling idea. You do something they don't approve
of and your revenue is throttled down. Some feedback is provided. You make
some changes. If they are adequate, revenue throttles back up. Conceptually
simple.

One argument against this is that you could be teaching scammers how to work
around the rules. Not so. You are teaching scammers to work within the rules.
If Google is smart enough in guidance and feedback they stand to turn
questionable sites into "law abiding" sites. Those who don't play by the rules
get to host ads and make no revenue or nearly nothing. I think this would be a
far better approach.

They also need a learning mode. I worked with someone who implemented AdSense
and didn't really understand it all. He didn't really do anything violently
bad. I don't remember the details, but the account got shut-down within a
week. This was a case of an honest business person who probably doesn't have a
single molecule of malice in his body that got treated like crap by Google for
not knowing what they want. The problem is that you can't know what they want,
not all of it.

There needs to be a "learning mode". Maybe the throttling period is exactly
that. Make it a smoothly rising function that is driven by quality criteria
that is communicated clearly and effectively. As long as you develop your site
you get flags to guide you into compliance. This, to me at least, makes too
much sense.

~~~
thenomad
Yes, yes, yes, this.

And the thing is, Google aren't losing free users or pennies with this crap. I
know of one SINGLE case where Google's silly Adsense banning policies lost the
Big G 6 figures a year - because they couldn't be bothered to have a human get
in touch and just auto-banned. As I've mentioned elsewhere, they've dropped
low 5 figures a year by disabling my Adsense account with no clear explanation
why.

I really, really cannot see what the business case here is. Can anyone
enlighten me?

------
mylittlepony
How come we still haven't seen a YC company competing with Adsense/Adwords?

~~~
jonknee
I'd love to see some competition, but it's a tough nut to crack. Yahoo gave it
a try for a few years, but ended up shutting their offering down. Google has
millions of paying advertisers, billions of page views and the ability to
match them up in real time. All the while providing analytics to both sides.
You're not going to beat them at efficiency.

I get pitches from ad networks all the time, but they are almost never able to
beat AdSense. Google never had to set up a conference call to win my business,
they just do a better job,

~~~
thenomad
Yahoo have just opened their offering up again, in partnership with Media.net.

I currently run ads through Media.net, and they're responsive and good to work
with (so far). I'm quite excited by this new development.

