When I started blogging, I never intended it to be a huge source of income for me. But, like any other website, I had costs that I wanted to cover. The most common way to generate a little bit of money was to use Google AdSense. I was so excited to make $0.03 a day for my work, because it was something – which is better than nothing!
Then, about 6 months ago I was banned from Google Adsense. Why? I, to this day, have no idea. I received an extremely generic email from Google that read:
While going through our accounts recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.
I was devastated. Even though my site was relatively new, AdSense was how I was making the little bit of money my site was generating. When I was banned, my account balance totaled a whopping $5.
However, I felt that this was just not right. I immediately searched for ways to get unbanned, and every story was the same. You need to appeal to Google, state your case and be honest about everything and anything you could have done, offer your logs in case you were a victim of a click-attack, and cross your fingers.
The first thing I did was post on Google’s AdSense forums to see if some experts on there could identify any issues my site may cause Google. I actually received a very informative response, but it just got me down more:
This is probably one of the most difficult disabling emails to resolve. I sense it occurs when the Google algorithms sense something “fishy” about click rates, location and activity even if the automated systems cannot directly prove that something isn’t right. It is part of Google’s advanced fraud detection system and even Google AdSense Pros don’t have contact or communication to the extent that they can explain “why” accounts are disabled for this reason.
I notice a Facebook reference on your site and this may be a clue — when your traffic and visitors is from a close network of friends and acquaintances, there is a higher-than-normal probability of problems. This of course is a problem for both you and (on a much larger scale) Google. AdSense just doesn’t scale well in the Facebook “social networking” era.
So, I removed the Facebook widget from my site, offered this up in my appeal, and I was still denied. Google didn’t tell me what happened or what I could have done wrong. I barely made any money from them, but apparently I was a risk to their network.
At this point, I made it my mission to search the internet and find alternative sources of income. My site didn’t have a strong enough readership base for me to launch my own product and be successful, so affiliate income was my best bet.
I found that there were several other Pay-per-click networks similar to AdSense, such as Chikita and AdBrite, and also many other types of affiliate programs: pay-pay-action, pay-per-post, etc. I listed all of the sites I found, and compiled The Most Comprehensive Affiliate Marketing Program List I could find. I started using several of these other networks, and I have seen my income increase 10x from what I was making with Google AdSense.
This is partially because I have grown my site readership, but also because I have found several products that are well suited to my niche. For example, being a finance site, I promoted TurboTax, as I have used the program for years, and felt that it was good for my readers.
By finding the right affiliate program for my niche, I have been able to increase my revenue far beyond anything that AdSense was able to provide. I still have PPC links, and even those generate more that what AdSense was generating for me.
Don’t Let The Fake Internet Police Get You Down
The moral of this story is that while many individuals have felt being banned from AdSense as the death of their potential revenue generation online, I have found that it has made me more focused on delivering high quality content to my readers and providing links that are relevant to them, which has increased my revenue in the end. It is not just about making a website – it is about writing content for a site that is valuable to readers. If you can do that, the money will follow in the end.
Readers, what are your thoughts about Google Adsense? Do you feel OK about the ads they deliver to your site? Does it bother you that it directs your readers away from your site? Do you ever click those links when visiting other sites?
Editor’s Note: For an interesting follow-on read, here’s John Chow’s take on why he doesn’t use Adsense, and he makes tens of thousands of dollars a month in advertisement revenue.
No, I never click on Google ads. (Also, they’re butt ugly). Honestly, I think almost any site can make much better money selling ads to individual advertisers.
As I approach the infamous $100 mark in Adsense, I fear that I might get a similar email. To the best of my knowledge, all of my Adsense clicks have been on the level, but as your experience shows, you just never know.
Thanks for the tips on other income sources that compare to Adsense. If those fake internet police decide to take me down, I’ll now have other options. Thanks!
The $100 Adsense level is famous. You need to be extra diligent, b/c I know of COUNTLESS examples where you just breach your $100 level to get paid the big bucks, and an account gets banned.
Definitely diversify your revenue base. I hope you get that check!
I have the same fear Derek. I just hit the $100 mark this week, but nothing’s guaranteed with Google!
I hope Google doesn’t kick me out, but if they do, I’ll definitely look into your suggested ad sites.
I have Google AdSense, but now that I have read about so many people being banned, I am waiting for the letter to come one day. I went to your affiliate info link the other day and have it bookmarked to go through later. I love how comprehensive it is. Thank you!
I do make money off my blog in other ways, and think it is best to think of AdSense as a component of my revenue, not the entire source. I am glad to hear you are having more success now.
I don’t see much income from Adsense so I don’t think I would care that much. Have you ever considered opening a different account? I would agree that affiliate sales are better, I just need to tweak the way I present them in order to maximize their potential.
I did open another account with my wife’s name and info, but it was shut down less than a week later. Google really doesn’t like something about my site, and I guess I will never know what!
Interesting, and it is frustrating they don’t tell you what’s up. Amazing really, which is why competition is good for consumers. Google’s monopoly needs to be broken.
Very frustrating! Just tell me what is wrong so I can fix it! I’m not trying to be a shady publisher, I’m just trying to make a little money with the tiny amount of web experience I have!
A very informative post Robert! Which affiliate has been the most successful for you so far?
I have had a lot of success with both FlexOffers and CJ. Both have a lot of companies in the finance niche, and as a result, the ads are very relevant.
I recently joined FlexOffers, haven’t put it up yet. Good to know!
I’ve had no luck w/ flexoffers but I haven’t tried them since my traffic switched from mainly referrals to SE traffic. Perhaps I should look at it again.
It is nice to know that there are alternatives to AdSense. Congrats on being able to increase your income and more than cover costs.
Thankfully I just made it through the $100 mark about two months ago and was actually paid–hurrah! I guess my blog passed the test. Everyone is righ though–once you hit the first payout (which took, admittedly, like 10 months), then the second one comes much more quickly (2.5 mths). Hopefully the rest will come even faster…
Either way, am so sorry to hear that you are banned–I would be devastated as well.
I have to say that I’m fine with the Google Adsense ads on my site, but I personally NEVER click adsense ads on anyone elses’ sites so I’m not surprised that it took me a year and a half to earn the $100 to get paid out. I think other ad revenue options are more lucrative than Google’s, but if I can continue diversifying my income, I’m all for it.
I just don’t know if I could wait 1.5 years for a $100 check b/c the Google ads take up space and take visitors away from my site. I found a lot of “Make 1,000% Penny Stock” type ads right in the middle or top of my content (which is where they recommended placing the ads), and it just kinda bummed me out.
It’s a good additional revenue stream though. $8/month is better than a poke in the eye I guess!
Another thing I find disturbing about GA is that the experts encourage you to match the style of ads to the look, feel, and navigation of your blog. And those blogs that get the highest click through rates have adsense blocks that are hard to distinguish from the rest of their navigation. To me, these ad blocks are designed to trick your user into clicking. Doesn’t this seem to go against everything google says they frown upon?
That being said, I agree, their are plenty of other ways to monetize a blog without tricking your users. By the way, great list on your site! I’ve got to spend a little more time reading through your write-up and picking out some gems.
Note: I do use GA myself, but more as a “monetization experiment” than a source of income at this point.
I agree. I have been so some sites where the ads are barely distinguishable. I’m sure it makes them a lot of money, but it is deceptive. The sad part was my ads were on the sidebar, clearly marked…
I just checked out that John Chow link you posted and he mentions OIOpublisher. Do you or anyone else have experience with that? Just curious.
I dont use google adsense – I dont think they provide ads that are all that relevant to the user (I’ve seen some pretty bad ones) and I never click on them to look at the actual product, though I do click them to pay the site a bit of money if I do like the site. I think they are a waste of time, and I think an advertiser can easily backdoor their way into your site for much less than you may charge them for an individual link
Great job finding those other PPC’s! Thanks to Google (for banning you :)), you now have a better income with these other networks.
TCI – That resource you provided on all the alternatives is AWESOME! What a resource, and thanks for putting that together! Hope all Members can take a look and share with the rest of us here or in the forums what their experience has been with each.
In fact, I recommend you start a new subject in the Blogger’s Lair Forum called, “Alternatives to Google Adsense” with your link and start a discussion. I think it would be very helpful.
Whatever happened to Yahoo or Microsoft’s Publisher’s Network? I’m assuming that the better Bing gets, the increased chance there will be a great alternative Google Adsense platform.
Everybody should really look to a diversification of income for their sites and note be beholden to one. We have a right to advertise whatever we like, and Google telling sites what to do and what not to do is wrong, b/c they don’t own the internet.
I have many mid-level Google friends and they say their goal is to evoke fear into publishers to comply to their wishes, which can’t be enforced b/c they have a monopoly. Now you know why monopolies are bad. They provide a good service, but they need to “do no evil” either and provide further transparenecy. Check out their stock price.
There is a “war” going on against Google and Facebook now in the valley, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are negative repercussions if any publisher overly favors FB. Again, diversify, diversify, diversify!
Best, Sam
I will create that today! Maybe you can sticky it!
TCI, thanks for providing that great resource on other income streams. I do make some money with adSense, but I found affiliate programs a much better fit. If you’re willing to put time and effort with both hunting for the right programs that fit your audience and writing honest reviews it can be a win-win situation. Diversification is important with finances and you bring up some good alternatives.
Some cool resources…I always remind new bloggers though, if you have 27 visitors a day it doesn’t matter what ad system you are using, so just focus on content at first.
I make a good amount of income comparative to affiliates (receive 300 to 400 a month from adsense vs less than that from FlexOffers). Don’t really know why but I’ll take it!
Great post thanks for sharing this one. I havent made much money from Google and I havent been banned from their services yet, but with that being said I have felt that I would like better targeted adverts to suit my content. I think the popularity of the program blinds you to other programs that may be out there. I will definitely be taking a look at your list and hopefully my income can improve too!
I don’t like adsense much either. I’ll check your alternatives, it would be really nice to get 10x the ad revenue. :)
As I get closer to the $100 per month mark I fear every single month of the dreaded “get off” e-mail. I actually removed an ad block because it was getting so many clicks that I was afraid that something was wrong. Sigh. Oh well. Adsense won’t pay off my bills but it’s nice gas money. :)
This is an example of a corporate bully that couldn’t care less about the little guy. I currently don’t run GA, and I think they look like crap. I don’t recall ever clicking an adsense link…they really do like cheap pharming devices.
It seems like bloggers are precariously exposed to advertiser whims. Perhaps an industry association would be able to exert some power in these situations. If enough bloggers formed an advocacy group, we could force them to review the case (honestly) or we would steer members to alternative sponsors and advertisers. It must be be May.
I had the similar experience with adsense. I did try Chitika, Infolinks and Adbrite. They made my page load slow. Moreover in 1.5 months I made a full $0.39 cents with on avg. 40 visitors per day. Now I am completely add free. Not planning to quit my day job soon, hence I am covered. Still thinking, shouldn’t I have some incentives?
If you think your site is “clean”, you could have other family members apply for an account, or you can set up an corporation.
In any case, I feel bad for you especially when I see numerous crappy/scraper sites out there using AdSense.
I’ve tried under another account…it’s my site, but I don’t know why and Google won’t say why.
Have you considered contacting the advertisers directly Robert? I am not talking about the text link advertisers, I am talking about the big folks, for example Intuit to buy ads for Turbo tax, or some other products that do well on your blog?
I tried TurboTax, and they didn’t give me the time of day. I ended up having their ads through FlexOffers. Maybe we can chat strategies for contacting advertisers?
Sure Robert. After I was banned I went on a mission to find as much alternative as I can. I found a lot of the networks you found, but to be honest I didn’t like any of them. So I contacted advertisers individually and also hunted for CPM networks. Found some I like, not as good as ad sense earning wise but at least it will be easy on visitors until I get somewhere with the appeal.
Wow, didn’t know that the big G would act so much like big brother. I actually make some decent money with adsense (well, gas money every month I suppose) but most of the people who click the ads are search engine visitors. Regular returning readers don’t usually click ads (I personally never do). I remember when I first started, there was an image ad of singles meeting other singles or something completely non-PF related and I was quite appalled. There is very little control over the content. Though sometimes I do enjoy seeing what new image ads they have up.
I haven’t monetized my account…why? I have been busy writing posts, working on my networking, etc. There is time for that later. I do have real presentation issues with the Google ad layouts. I am not sure I will ever use Google Ad…they might be the gold standard but if it doesn’t jive with my theme…then I won’t use it. I do not want to be the victim of blog erosion…
Hi College, You knocked it out of the park witht this informative article. I stuck one block of adsense up about a year ago and haven’t received a check. I’m too lazy (busy with other activities) to follow up, it does take up a lot of real estate for thus far zero return. I’m going to check out all of your links and resources.
TCI, I am glad you wrote this article about adsense alternatives. Even though I have been getting paid on a monthly basis, you never know when an alternative becomes necessary.
Every time I come here I start to get the sense that I’m the only person in the world who likes Google Adsense. So much Google hate…though I can understand most of it.
I’ll drop it on a dime for a private placement on a CPM basis, but I don’t think there are many other networks that do as well as Adsense does in picking advertisements, and also picking high-revenue advertisements that relate to the visitor’s interests.
Keep in mind that Adsense delivers on the individual visitor. If you’re getting ads about X, it is very likely that you searched for X in Google recently. To test it out, go to Google and search for payday loans, loans, cash advances, etc. and then head over to an Adsense site. I bet you’ll get ads for loans.
I loved Google AdSense! What I don’t appreciate is being banned for an unknown reason, without even getting the time of day from Google. I’m not out to screw Google at all. Apparently something was amiss. I would have loved to fix it. I didn’t earn anything from them at the time either, so I couldn’t have been costing them anything.
When it comes to ad content and CPC, AdSense does lead the way, without a doubt. I would take it back if I could, but as I wrote, I even tried a different account. Once my site was attached to the account – banned.
JT_McGee, no you are not the only one. I loved (and still do) adsense. And I was banned too… so it is not because google has been good to me :)
Sorry to hear this happened to you! Sounds like you’re keeping a good attitude about it though!
Great article. Sorry to hear about the big G, but looks like you turned a negative into a positive. Irritating that you will never know why, but everything happens for a reason and looks like you’re doing quite well without AdSense!
Could really be the best thing that could have happened to TCI. Seriously. There are folks who become complacent with Adsense, bc it’s easy to use. Best to have a variety of everything.
It’s too bad Google ends up banning so many good guys in their attempt to combat fraud. Google is great in a lot of ways but adsense isn’t one of their strengths by far. Better to have been banned now with only a $5 balance than $99.
Indeed! Or, gettig banned after being used togetting thousands and being too lazy to diversify revenue.
Exactly! That’d be so aggravating.
I am very new to this whole thing! I am very busy trying to achieve a decent ranking. From your description of Adsense, I think I will look elsewhere when I am ready to monetize.
Adsense can be great on niche sites but for a blog, it’s a terrible way to make money. You earn so little and you don’t want users seeing an ad and clicking away from your site.
I never click on Google adsense ads. No matter how hard the website tries to blend it in, it doesn’t entice me.
I am with you on that 100% buddy
You would think Google would be happy since you are giving them business. I haven’t reached the $100 point yet but when I do I am going to be sweating in my boots.
We made it through $100 w/o a problem
Thanks for the list. I also got the dreaded letter a while back :(
Out of curiosity, half way through the list, you have a Google AdSense block – Can you explain why you have it? Did you manage to get it back?
I’m giving a new strategy a try. If it works, and I don’t get banned, I will share the wealth!
I use AdSense in my blog but still no income. I also click from time to time on AdSenses if i found something interesting. But in any case this blog post is very helpful if a blogger want to use another way to earn some money from advertisement. I think that you must make a research before select an alternative way since Google maybe is ugly but on the other hand it is certainly not a scam!
[…] College Investor had two important articles; What to do After Being Banned by Google and A Comprehensive Affiliate Network Marketing […]
I once had the same problem with AdSense… actually it was my own fault, since I clicked the advertisements on my own site, and didn’t realize that it was actually generating revenue. But I re-entered into the program.
Still, the Affiliate Marketing Program List is awesome, and I know that I am putting too much importance on AdSense. I am still building my site, but will definitely diversify the income as soon as the visitor base grows more solid, and when my site layout is definite.
Hi Alex, so you were able to reapply and they let you in? Share with us this process as this is a main topic of the post. thx
I am not sure what happened myself… but I think, the fact that I was in the process of moving abroad helped me; at the same time, there was a take-over of my hosting provider. So, my website name was still the same, but with a different hosting provider, my address was different, and my bank account was different… and I put it up a notch and changed my e-mail address. Maybe Google simply thought the website has been sold to someone else; I was quite surprised myself.
However, I have never experienced any problems with Google since. I have the program up and running for around 4 years now, successfully, and I am receiving regular payments.
To be very honest, I don’t expect too much from the AdSense program though. Myself, I usually never click a Google advertisement when I am visiting someone else’s website, and I find the financially related advertisements pretty dull.
Cheers.
Thanks for clearing up what Google AdSense really was for me and now I will know not to use it! I don’t ever click on the advertisements really anyways, but I always thought that is how bloggers made their money! Thanks for the list though – this is definitely something to look into and I appreciate you posting it.
you can always create another account under your corporate EIN, but then again it appears G has an issue with your website.
Not sure what you mean with “Corporate EIN” and “account”… but in my case my entire access to Google Adsense was deleted, meaning I was not able to access any data or statistics anymore, and they had basically shut me down completely.
With my old blog, I got banned from Adsense too! I suspect it was due to fraudulent clicks, since my account jumped from less than $100 to over $200 in one day.
Oh well. Now I’m sticking to affiliate programs, and maybe I’ll try other PPC programs down the road.
[…] also recently shared my story of Being Banned From Google AdSense. Man, in less than a year I lost two sources of income for my websites: Google AdSense and […]
How ironic! I signed up for AdSense and canceled the same day. As the ads began to appear, they were by all the wrong advertisers. My blog is a human rights blog, specifically, for elders. The purpose of the blog is to address the horrors of senior affordable housing. So Google sent me ads by just the people whose products and services are the problem. The ads were unattractive, to begin, and they offended me. I have a following among my Facebook friends, so I’d likely have been banned.
I just started using AdSense about a week ago. I’m too new to the program to be able to report any opinion, positive or negative, which is why this discussion fascinates me … I literally read every single comment, in addition to (of course) your post and the John Chow post you linked to. I plan on diversifying my income through ads, affiliates and — I hope — my readership will grow enough that the bulk of my income will eventually come through selling my own books and videos. Ask me again in 6 months how my AdSense experience is going!
Thanks for the very informative post. I’m still figuring out what would be the perfect Ads for my site. I’m thankful I have a mentor :)
Interesting piece. I was with GA for several years and made over $28,000 from them. I’d get checks every month for between 6 and 7 thousand, regular as clockwork. Then I got the dreaded generic email. I had (and still have) no idea what I did wrong. I asked but they did not reply. I asked again with the same result.
The galling thing is that if they don’t TELL you what they don’t like then how are we meant to fix it?
Personally I think that Google is shooting itself in the foot by refusing to tell webmasters what it is that we’re doing wrong. They are losing massive amounts of revenue and also depriving advertisers of a huge amount of reach. Also, I suspect that Google are not telling their shareholders about this policy of negativity, because the share price and the dividends would be MUCH higher if their revenues were up where they used to be before Google started banning people for no reason.
It is also the reason that people don’t bother to build sites speculatively any more. If I know that Google will close my account at any moment without reason then I will not bother to waste my time with them.
The market will tell.
It really is kind of scary how dependent we are on them, and how controlling they are of everyone isn’t it? This is why I use Media.net, to mix things up. My RPM is around $3, so that is just as good if not better than Adsense.
[…] Well, I actually lost two streams of advertiser income in June. First, you may have noticed I had AdSense running on my site. Well, they decided to ban me once again…arg… I still don’t know the reason, and even after appeal, it still didn’t go through. You can read my story of getting banned by Google here: Life After Google AdSense – What To Do If You’ve Been Banned. […]
I think bloggers and webmasters are just overdependent on Adsense. They have to think beyond it and explore different ways of generating some extra income. Affiliate marketing for one is a bit tricky but extremely lucrative as well. There are countless other methods as well.
[…] Well, I actually lost two streams of advertiser income in June. First, you may have noticed I had AdSense running on my site. Well, they decided to ban me once again…arg… I still don’t know the reason, and even after appeal, it still didn’t go through. You can read my story of getting banned by Google here: Life After Google AdSense – What To Do If You’ve Been Banned. […]