Adsense Has A Scam Side

June 28th, 2006, 5:09 pm

How many small websites have gotten the dreaded termination email from Google? AdSense is a very clever scam.

Here's how it works.

Google never terminates anyone until they cross the threshold for payment. Each month Google targets a predetermined quota of websites for non-payment of funds that have been earned by those websites. They send out the standard termination notice knowing full well that the website owners have no recourse. They tell the website owners that the funds that they have accrued will be returned to the advertisers when, in fact, no such return of funds to the advertisers ever occurs. Google simply pockets the money AND they have enjoyed considerable free advertising on the "offending" websites. Since this is done on a regular monthly basis this is a very lucrative 100% PROFIT CENTER for them.

This is why they only speak in vague generalities about why they have terminated a website. This is why they will never answer a specific request to explain specific reasons for a website termination.

The Google AdSense program is a very slyly cloaked scam. But only for the unfortunate websites that make it onto this month's quota list. Everyone else thinks the program is great. That is until they make it onto the monthly quota list. Remember, the monthly quota list is a 100% PROFIT CENTER for Google.

I strongly urge all of you to find other more reputable firms to deal with. They're out there!

June 28th, 2006, 5:27 pm

I would have to disagree with that.

Errors do happen, people do get re-included ( although not easily from what I have read elsewhere) ... but 9 times out of 10 it has been the fault of the webmaster for either clicking on their own adverts, signing up to a mutual click exchange, violating the TOS by having rival advertisements on the same page, having multiple publisher codes on the same page, having a script that would generate clicks on a regular basis, or various other methods that I see daily when surfing the net.

For the honest webmaster, it should not cause a problem.

However, for webmasters that are trying to make a quick buck then it will only be a matter of time before google are able to verify some TOS violation and failure to reply to any google requests to change things is cause for termination of the adsense account.

It is impossible for google, or any organisation to be 100% free of TOS abusers and generally it is a matter of time before people get caught. Often it is nothing sinister by the webmaster, a simple mistake may cause an account to be termiated in the same manner as a deliberate attempt to fool google.

The course of action is the same, account termination. It may be harsh on some people who genuinely made a mistake, but in the long term it serves to improve the google image for advertisers ... afterall, it is the advertisers who will be paying to publish ads on the network and therefore they need to have high confidence in the product... mistake or not.

June 28th, 2006, 5:40 pm

That one mistake out of ten should bother you a lot. When Google accuses someone of being dishonest and offers no explanation it displays a blatant disregard their partners. Too many people have experienced this arrogance for it to be mere happenstance. Even if it was a result of error those people loose their money and Google reaps the benefit. Now that is dishonest! Like I said it is a 100% PROFIT CENTER.

June 29th, 2006, 10:39 am

You can appeal, And if they believe you are the mistake that happens 1 in 10 times then your account will be reactivated and your money returned to you.

A lot of the time bannings happen not because the publisher has been clicking thier own adverts but because they decieve visitors into clicking adverts, Or suggest clicking adverts to visitors. Anything to increase CTR besides positioning and colour sceme is against tos.

Banned from adsense

June 29th, 2006, 11:18 am

Appeal? Appeal to whom and how?

Why doesn't Google offer the appeals process up front before they summarily pull the plug on a website? (BTW how on earth could a website owner appeal when Google will not tell them what infraction they have made?) To unilaterally pull the plug on a website owner without warning and steal their money is way beyond the pale. They do this to smaller website owners because they know they can get away with it. This is happening to thousands of websites.

No honest website owner should have to go with their hat in their hands to beg for money they have earned fair and square much less to defend their honesty.

I see a class-action suit in Google's future.

June 29th, 2006, 1:15 pm

To appeal you should contact google.

Google have more of an obligation to advertisers than they do to publishers.
If they think you are ripping them off they have to pull the plug on you, Otherwise they lose money and adverisers are likely to start using thier competition.

June 29th, 2006, 4:54 pm

The allegation that Google has a higher responsibility to its advertisers is preposterous--pure and simple. Google has a financial responsiblity to pay its creditors. Once a publisher executes its legal responsibilities in publishing advertisement on its website on behalf of Google Adsense the contractual responsiblity passes to Google to execute its part of the bargain as defined in its "Terms of Agreement". This obligation cannot be avoided by claiming a "higher resposiblity". The agreement Google has with its advertisers is covered by an entirely separate agreement. There is no statement in contract law that supports such a claim of "higher responsibility".

Furthermore, Google cites the "protection of its algorithm" as the basis for not stating it reasons for pubisher termination. And, it has no clearly defined appeals process available to the accused publisher. The fact is, Google has been and continues to appropriate funds that it legally owes to the so-called "10% mistakes" portion of its publishing community. These failures on Google's part could be and should be tested in a court of law.

Co-mingling the so-called "10% mistakes" with the 90% valid violators and, then, issuing the death sentence to both is draconian at best and illegal at worse.

June 29th, 2006, 5:05 pm

B-mann,

You are very well-spoken (or well-written, as it were ), and I agree with much of what you have to say. Namely, that Google is not very forthcoming with information related to dealings with their business partners. I have always been of the opinion that they didn't share more information simply because they didn't have to, based on the stranglehold they presently have in this market.

Yours is the first mention I've seen of this lack of communication being a deliberate and malicious action on their part, and just out of curiosity, do you have any evidence to support your accusations? I'm not saying they're not true - simply that I haven't seen any evidence to support them, either here in this thread or elsewhere on the Web. I'd be interested in knowing if you have more information.

Sam

June 29th, 2006, 5:39 pm

Thy don't have a legal obligation to advertiisers over publisher, But in a business sense advertisers are far more important than publishers.

The only thing i would suggest is reading the terms properly next time you sign up with someone online.

The fact is they had reason to believe you, or someone on your site, was trying to steal from them.
And that's all they need to terminate your account and hold funds.

Most people have no trouble with getting payments from google, big and small sites, So unless you think you have been singled out and victimised i can't see how it would be a scam. At the end of the day they want you to display thier adverts, It means they get paid, But if they think you are ripping them off they will ban you.

And really i think most people who get banned allready know the reason, Whether it was intentional or not, But want to deny it hoping that thier denial will mean they get thier money back.

June 29th, 2006, 5:56 pm

WF,

Thanks for your observations and compliments. As for as evidence of wrong doing on the part of Google, suffice it to say that it would not be in the interests of the "10% mistakes" parties to publicly tip any hands at this time.

However, I invite you to visit the many forums out there that deal with these issues. Oddly enough you can find them via Google Search. You will see a high degree of frustration that exists with a vast number of small website operators that have been arbitrarily terminated by Google. For every expression of frustration you encounter you can be sure there is five hundred that you don't see.

In some cases they may, indeed, be in violation of Google policies but they have no idea what offense they have committed and Google won't tell them. And because Google treats them so harshly they assume themselves to be wrongly treated.

However, in the case of the "10% mistakes" they have, in fact, been wrongly treated. These publishers: A. Have their legally earned money illegally appropriated by an internet giant and: B. Have been accused of dishonesty. Both classes of publishers become highly incensed for basically the same reasons. But, since they are isolated in their frustration, they are essentially conquered by Google.

My purpose in bringing these issues out is to give some focus to those wrongly accused individuals with hopes that they can coalesce into group that can deal more effectively with the arbitrary appropriation of their funds and reputations by Google.

June 29th, 2006, 6:16 pm

Meman,

You state in your post "The only thing i would suggest is reading the terms properly next time you sign up with someone online."

Nowhere in my posts will you see where I claimed to have signed up for anything with Google. That is an assumption that you make, albeit incorrectly.

As for interpreting the language of the legal "Terms of Agreement"? Well I guess that is why there are so many lawyers among us! BTW what on earth does that have to do with Google's lack of explanation of their arbitrary actions.

I guess the accused publishers are supposed to accept it just because Google says so! Also, I think its rather presumptuous of you to suppose that all violators know that they are violators beforehand. Your presumption that I am/was a Google publisher is evidence of what preconceived ideas can do for you.

June 29th, 2006, 6:37 pm

Then whoever these people are that you are so valiently defnding need to read the terms.

nobody has any right to any money earned while using adsense if google decide that they are in violation of the TOS, and good luck going into court and acting as if terms don't matter just because some people are incapable of understanding what they mean.
If they didn't understand the language they shouldn't have agreed to it...

Quote:

I guess the accused publishers are supposed to accept it just because Google says so!

No, they have to accept it because that is what they agreed to when they signed up.

[joebert]

June 30th, 2006, 12:24 am

Quote:

These failures on Google's part could be and should be tested in a court of law.

If that's true, why do so many people spend time promoting against Google, when they could have a multi-million dollar company by the proverbial balls (see Google logos) in court ?

June 30th, 2006, 4:54 am

Well, now. That's the arrogant attitude the tobacco companies held for years--and it worked for a long time. Until one day---well, you know the outcome! BTW I'll wager that the Google legal department doesn't view the matter as quite the joke that you do.

So on behalf of all the lemmings out here, we'll see.

June 30th, 2006, 5:11 am

I doubt the google legal dept are that bothered, They are the ones who wrote the terms, The terms that state if they believe a publisher to be guilty of fraud they can terminate the account and hold funds.

I think your main point is that you don't think the terms are fair, You might be right, They may not be fair, But that doesn't matter, because people agreed to them when they signed up.
The correct time to complain about terms is before they sign up, Not afterwards when the terms have been enforced and people have had thier funds held.

Google are within thier right, legally, to ban people and keep thier money, and no amount of moaning is going to change what is written in thier terms and what every adsense publisher had agreed to.