Paul Middleton asked:

AdSense is a fantastic product that has provided many webmasters with a decent income. Some webmasters have even become millionaires on AdSense income alone.

It is understandable that Google are very strict when it comes to fraud. Webmasters who click on their own ads aren’t stealing from Google they’re stealing from the advertiser who has placed the ad with Google. If Google weren’t hot on finding and banning fraudsters their AdWord customer base would diminish as advertisers lost all faith in the scheme and choose another online advertising strategy.

Sometimes however Google gets it wrong and ban someone from their scheme who is innocent. Once Google ban you from AdSense it is notoriously difficult to prove your innocence and get accepted back onto the scheme.

It may be difficult but it’s not impossible.

How do I know this?

Well I was banned incorrectly by Google from AdSense and managed to prove my innocence, get reinstated and have been earning decent AdSense money ever since. If you find yourself in the same position hopefully reading my story will help you get re-instated on the AdSense programme.

OK lets start at the beginning. I’d built my first website and applied for AdSense. I didn’t hear anything for three weeks so I asked them if I could have an update via the Google website. Within 48 hours they sent the following reply.

“Hello Paul Middleton,

Your AdSense account was found to be related to an account previously disabled

for invalid click activity and we have therefore disabled your account.

Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further

participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment.

The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers.

As outlined in our programme Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to terminate any publisher’s participation at any time.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team”

Well I can assure you I was surprised and a bit upset. I’d never had an AdSense account in my life so how could my account be related to anything let alone an account previously disabled for invalid click activity!

I was at a loss. What could I do? I knew I was innocent but Google obviously thought otherwise. Google don’t provide a phone support line so I had no one to ask.

I trawled the AdSense forums for answers and various theories were given some seemed a bit far-fetched but one stuck a chord. ‘Possibly the previous owner of your domain was guilty of click fraud and now your domain is blacklisted’. This made some sense as I’d only purchased the domain a few weeks earlier. This had to be it.

I then thought of a reply that would go some way to proving my innocence and ended up sending the following.

“Hi guys,

Thanks for the reply.

I have never had an active AdSense account so it can not have been me that had the ‘invalid click activity’.

My only thought is that a previous owner of the domain makingonlinemoney.com had their account disabled for this??

Please see the whois data below which shows that I have only owned the domain since May this year. The domain was available and I have no idea who owned it before me. I can get godaddy.com to confirm this if required.

I am keen to try the AdSense programme and can assure you I will fully respect your Terms and Conditions and programme policies if accepted onto your scheme.

I would ask therefore that you enable the account if my site meets your criteria.

If you have any further questions regarding my ownership of the makingonlinemoney.com domain please let me know. As I said I will be happy to get further confirmation from godaddy.com if required.

Thanks & Rgds, Paul.”

I didn’t get a reply for a week so I resent the above email. The next day I got the following from Google.

“Re: Disapproved application.

Hello Paul,

Thank you for your email.

We apologise if the prior disapproval of your application was made in error.

We’ve now reviewed and approved your application. Please check for a separate application approval email for your records. The approval email also includes detailed instructions on how to access your new account and get started.”

Great!! I was in and able to start making money with the AdSense scheme.

So what is my advice to people who get banned from AdSense incorrectly?

I have four points of advice for anyone unfortunate enough to be in the same position as me.

1. Be patient. – AdSense is constantly growing in terms of participants and the AdSense team gets thousands of requests a day regarding their scheme. Don’t be to upset if you don’t hear back from them in 48 hours. If a week has passed since your communication resend.

2. Be polite! – Quite often I hear of people banned from AdSense who go in with all guns blazing. I can understand that people are angry and frustrated by being accused of something they didn’t do but remember you’re dealing with human beings. Human beings don’t react positively to being ordered to do something or worse verbally abused. To increase your chances of a positive outcome be firm but polite at all times.

3. Provide evidence to back up your innocence. – If possible include evidence to help prove your innocence. I included my ‘whois’ data for my domain to prove I had only owned the domain a few weeks. I also offered to provide any further information they required.

4. Never give up! If you’re innocent don’t give up. If after emailing them several times using the above techniques you don’t get anywhere find the details of Google’s head office for your area (use Google!) give them a call and ask to speak to the AdSense team. Write letters offer to meet them in person.

If you’ve been banned from AdSense and it was your fault the above technique won’t work. There is however a common sense of getting back in to the scheme that has worked in the past for people caught cheating. That’s another article though.