Yesterday, I wrote about how I carelessly lost my wallet on this past Saturday. That was a big enough deal, but what happened the day prior still has me confused. On Friday, I received the following email from Google Adsense:
Hello,
With our advertising programs we strive to create an online ecosystem that benefits publishers, advertisers, and users. For this reason we sometimes have to take action against accounts that show behavior towards users or advertisers that may negatively impact how the ecosystem is perceived. In your case, we have detected invalid activity on your AdSense account and as a result it has been disabled.
We are limited in the amount of information we can provide about your specific violation. We understand that you may want more information about your account activity. However, in order to protect our proprietary detection systems, we are unable to provide further details.
In some cases publishers can make significant changes to correct the violation and are willing to comply with the AdSense program policies. For this reason, we offer an appeal process as an opportunity to work with you to resolve the issue. Please be sure to provide a complete analysis of your traffic or other reasons that may have generated invalid activity in your appeal. Submit your appeal using this form and we will follow up accordingly. Before submission, please review the list of the top reasons for account closure.
Thanks for your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
I was in shock, but I thought that there was an easy answer to why my account was disabled. Over the three weeks prior to that email, my AdSense account had grown to over $115. I figured that one person clicked a lot of ads when they visited my site to which Google did not appreciate. I sent an AdSense appeal with the above information. On Saturday morning, I received the following response:
Hello,
Thanks for the additional information provided in your appeal, we appreciate your continued interest in the AdSense program. After thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we’re unable to reinstate your AdSense account. If you’d like more details on our invalid activity policies or review process, please visit http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153. As a reminder, further participation in the AdSense program by publishers whose accounts have been disabled is not permitted.
Thanks for your understanding,
The Google AdSense Team
Confused. I sent another appeal stating that I did not knowingly violate the terms of the AdSense account. Apparently growing tired of me, Googled emailed the following response four minutes after I submitted the second appeal:
Hello,
Thanks for the additional information provided in your appeal, we appreciate your continued interest in the AdSense program. After thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we’re unable to reinstate your AdSense account. If you’d like more details on our invalid activity policies or review process, please visit http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153. As a reminder, further participation in the AdSense program by publishers whose accounts have been disabled is not permitted.
Thanks for your understanding,
The Google AdSense Team
I was good with it at that point. This blog was created solely as an outlet for me to share my travels, not to make money. Earlier today, I was reading the fine print about invalid activity on Google AdSense again (for better understanding). That is when I came across a section regarding copyrighted material. The light went off in my head. One of my YouTube videos had been flagged for copyrighted content. YouTube sent me the following email in regards to the post:
Hi Phillips Loop Blog,
A copyright owner using Content ID claimed some material in your video.
This is just a heads up. Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble and your account standing is not affected by this.
There are either ads running on your video, with the revenue going to the copyright owner, or the copyright owner is receiving stats about your video’s views.
Video title: Bodega Boston
Copyrighted content: Juicy
Claimed by: WMG
I thought that I was good. YouTube uses Google AdSense to monetize videos so I figure that Google was tracking the copyrighted video. I submitted a third appeal stating that I removed the copyrighted material and am awaiting a response. Between the increase in clicks and the copyrighted music, one has to be the culprit. I hate that I do not know why my account was disabled. Hopefully, Google is able to provide clarification after this appeal. I hope this story prevents you all from getting your AdSense account disabled.
featured image courtesy of futurearise.com
