Google Adsense Horror Stories

As a relative newbie to monetizing my online activity... I'm learning a lot... and reading stories about people who had been earning thou$ands per month via Adsense only to have their account banned shocked me awake.

I've since read blog posts about the Adsense Terms & Conditions as well as their Program Policies and have cleaned up my act... I wasn't doing much wrong... but I was making a couple of mistakes... and I even chronicled them here... like sharing my effective CPM... trying out competitive ad companies... and labeling the top of my Ad sections with phrases like "support our advertisers" (which might be OK... but I'm not taking chances that this might be too directive and get my account banned).

So... what are the key policies you need to look out for if you want to avoid your own Google Adsense horror story... this is a partial list... of what stands out to me... so PLEASE do NOT rely solely on my list... you MUST read both the T&C's and the Program Policies at the Google Adsense site:

1. they reserve the right to ban your account at any time... AND they may change their policies at any time. In other words... they are in control, and you had better stay up to date

2. an obvious one is NEVER to click on your own ads... that's fraud. a not so obvious one that I've seen many so-called "experts" actually recommend is to join "traffic exchanges" where you promise to visit other peoples sites and in exchange they'll visit yours. This is "artificial" traffic - and you will get banned if they find out.

3. you can't "encourage clicks" - not by a phrase you write above or next to the ad like "please click on your advertisers" or even "favorite sites". Nor can you add graphics that make the ads appear more attractive or covert. "support us" is illegal too... so I'd even suggest not saying anything. It's obvious to most people that ads on a site support the site... and the ads are already labeled "Ads by Google" so just leave it alone.

4. watch your content... drugs, gambling, guns, tobacco, sex, alcohol, profanity, and even hacking tips... basically if it's a vice or it's illegal.... DON'T write about it

5. don't manipulate the ads... don't change the code - period. Any "clever" idea to get more clicks will almost certainly get you banned... that includes turning them into pop ups and more.

6. the # of ads is confusing to me... it starts by saying "up to three ad units" per page and then follows with three other maximums... "a maximum of two Google Adsense search boxes", then "up to three link units" and finally "up to three referral units". So... can that be 11 total Google items... or can you only mix and match for 3 total items???? I don't know the answer to this question... but I've often felt that 3 was my personal max anyway so as not to overwhelm my sites with ads. If anyone knows the answer to this.... please let me know!!!

7. Competitive ads are OK... but competitive ads like AccessoryAds.com are NOT!!!! They look like Google's ads.... so they are banned. Besides... I tried AccessoryAds and they produced next to nothing... so don't get yourself banned from Adsense because the alternatives seem pretty poor. But again... you can have other advertising on your site... as long as it can't be confused with Google's ads.

The above are the key points I pulled out of the "Program Policies" document... but there is more in the Terms & Conditions. Much of it is legalese... and I am NOT a lawyer, so don't base any decision about your web site on ANY of my interpretations or information... but one big thing did jump out at me:

1. you can not share the click through rates or any other performance statistic for how your Adsense program is working. You can say how much you've made... but you can't share impressions, clicks etc that will help people gauge how Adsense performs.

Now... I'll repeat again... the above list is NOT all-inclusive and should not be solely relied upon. For example... I read on another blog that you are not allowed to have videos or MP3 recordings on any site that has Adsense ads... however, I could not find anything in the TOS, T&C's or PP's that mentioned this. You can't violate copyright laws.... but if you create a video tutorial for how to make a paper airplane... it would appear to me to be OK, but another blogger said it's not. So... please read Google's terms and policies if you're concerned.