Where to Find Google Product Help

One of the things that frequently occurs in the AdSense Help Forum are posts from people looking for help for other products that Google Supplies. I expect a lot of this might be due to the fact that the AdSense forum is first on the list of help forums on the Google Support Forums listing page. I imagine lots of other help forums run into this problem too because the AdSense forum gets lots of posts moved into it from other forums.

I'm not sure why this is such an issue - the the support forums listing has direct links to most of the help forums for Google products, but there are several related forums that currently don't have their own help forum (AdMob doesn't have an active help forum; Google Accounts doesn't have a help forum), and I guess when people just want to complain about anything related to Google they'll post on the first forum they find ... fairly often it's AdSense.

So, to that end ... here's a list of forums and what help they offer.  A lot of these products also offer the ability to use Adsense with the product itself, so it's understandable if someone posts in AdSense instead of the product help forum. It's hard to know which place you need to post for help.

In some cases, like YouTube or Blogger, if it's a technical issue that relates to the actual function of the product (like a channel, or video, or blog or blog post), you'd need to ask for help at that product forum, rather than Adsense. If it's an issue that is specifically Adsense (ie: your payments, earnings, or AdSense account, or creating ad codes, etc.) then you'd ask at the AdSense forum.

Google Analytics Forum:
-referral and event spam discussions/help
-implementing GA code, tracking issues
-GA account issues, help with reports and data
-features and discussion
-bug reports
-feedback or suggestions

Webmaster Tools Forum:
-crawling, indexing, and search ranking
-security, malware, help with hacked websites
-image and video content indexing
-Webmaster Tools search console help
-website verification
-removing content from search
-internationalization
-help with sitemaps
-help for structured data and rich snippets
-app indexing

Gmail Help Forum:
-gmail problems
-tips for using gmail effectively
-peer discussion group
-feedback on gmail
-account access, security, safety
-composing or sending messages
-reading/receiving messages
-how to manage settings in gmail
-contacts and syncing

YouTube Monetization Forums:
-learning and understanding video monetization
-help with videos not showing any ads after monetizing
-disabled monetization
-issues related to youtube-adsense linking and earnings
-payment questions (bonus, pre-adsense monetizing)

YouTube General Forums:
-problems with playing and watching videos
-uploading, managing and handling your videos
-setting up your account, sign-in information and troubleshooting
-the homepage/channels, socializing and subscriptions on youtube
-using YouTube Live
-information on YouTube for non-profits

DFP Help Forums:
-help with setting up and getting started with DFP
-account administration
-creatives
-inventory management
-tagging, reporting & traffic forums

Google Custom Search Help Forum:
-creating, editing, and implementing your search bar
-indexing and results from your search bar
-troubleshooting and bug reports
-suggestions

Google Chrome Browser:
-reporting issues with the browser
-troubleshooting help
-providing feedback on Chrome

Google Play Forums:
-help for apps and games
-help for google books
-help with movies, tv, music (radio?)
-Google Newsstand section
-other Google Play contents
-provides tips for product uses; help to fix an issue or problem, share feedback and suggest new features, and discussion forum

Google Business Listing Help Forum:
-help with incorrect business information on the business page
-verification help
-technical issues
-announcements relating to Google Business
-advice from the community

Google Chromebook:
-report and get troubleshooting help with chromebook
-discussion forum

Chromecast Help Forum:

-how to questions and answers

-technical issues

-discussion and feedback

-chromecast set up

-casting from apps

Google News Help Forum:
-help for google news users
-help for google news publishers
-discussion forum

There are still several other products that have their own help forums (see the link in the first paragraph for the rest) but most of the time, the ones above are the ones we see questions for in the AdSense help forum.

As with any form of help, if you ask for help in the right place, you get better help, faster. When you go from forum to forum looking for the right place you can become very frustrated about being bounced around.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

AdSense 30 Day Suspensions - How to Fix

A recent change in how AdSense deals with invalid clicks has publishers wondering how to deal with it, and naturally, all of them want to "fix" it, and everyone wants to appeal it.

The 30-day suspension period isn't fixable.  This is a decision AdSense has made in order to give the publisher time to try and correct the violations that caused the suspension.

"We may temporarily suspend if our policies are repeatedly or egregiously violated. This will provide you with a final opportunity to review all of your sites and take the necessary corrective actions so that your account is not disabled.

Please note that we’ll continue monitoring your account for compliance. If additional violations are accrued then we may need to disable your entire account. If this occurs then we may withhold earnings for a period of 60 days prior to the date that we disable your account.

We encourage publishers to use this 30 day suspension period to review all of their content, remove existing violations, and put safeguards in place to avoid future policy issues. When reviewing your sites for compliance, we recommend paying close attention to our content and ad placement policies."

For further help and links to steps to take see the help page in the AdSense Help Center.

"An account suspension provides the publisher with 30 days to make the relevant changes to their sites. If you have been suspended, you'll still be able to log into your AdSense account. However, no ads will be shown for 30 days, and you'll notice a payment hold automatically added to your account.

At the end of this suspension period, we'll automatically re-enable ad serving, remove the payment hold, and monitor your account to ensure compliance. Please be aware that if additional issues with policy violations or invalid activity persist following an account's suspension period, we may permanently disable the account.Note that account suspensions are unappealable."

Additional information on this page in AdSense. 

And before you start complaining about this 30 day period, consider the alternative. In the past, Adsense would simply have disabled the AdSense account, and most of the time, that disabled account is permanent. It means no more Adsense. If you received a 30-day suspension, you have a chance to fix the problems.

What Problems?

Most of the time the suspension is related to invalid clicks, invalid activity, or traffic problems. We've discussed invalid clicks and invalid activity in the past - this doesn't necessarily mean that you've clicked your own ads or asked others to do so (but if you have, then stop it. NOW.) Invalid clicks/activity/ can come from lots of other activities. Just a few of the things that might cause problems:

- people using the same IP as you
- clicks from small groups of people, like forum members, or from schools, or internet cafes, etc.
- on a website or blog, even improper ad placement can cause invalid clicks
- improper ad placement on mobile devices (ads are too large or cover too much of the screen)
- using links exchanges
- using sub4sub
- improper promotion of your property (website/blog/channel/app)
- traffic coming from bad backlinks
- advertising improperly using social media or ads on social media (there's a right way, and wrong way)

Before suspending your Account, AdSense has thoroughly examined your account, your account history, your traffic patterns and the properties you are monetizing. They haven't done this "automatically"; it hasn't been suspended by bot; it hasn't been flagged by some visitor; it hasn't been done without an investigation. And that's probably one of the reasons it cannot be appealed.

AdSense has 2 choices: they can suspend your account for 30 days, or they just disable your account totally.  This 30 days suspension can be looked at as a warning that something isn't right with your account/site/traffic, and should be a "wake-up" call.

Why the Suspension?

Really? The answer may not be what you think. It's not to punish you.  Given Adsense's history of disabling publishers for non-compliance, you might think this is just another way to make your life miserable.

Well, it isn't.

AdSense wants to help you keep your account; to become better publishers and to gain a better understanding of the right way to do things. They want to give you a chance to be better - to do better!

What to Do During the 30 Days

The first thing is "what not to do" ... don't just sit around for 30 days waiting for the suspension to be lifted. Although the problem may not have been caused by you, the is a change that it might have been caused by you unknowingly.  This is particularly true if you haven't reviewed the policies recently (they do change from time-to-time, so it's important to keep on top of this). This means it important for you to figure out what the problem(s) might be, otherwise you won't know how or what to fix.

What you need to do is launch your own investigation.

- check your traffic sources (ie: referrals, where traffic is coming from)
- if using unauthorized traffic, get it stopped asap
- make sure you haven't used poor or non-allowed methods of generating traffic
- make sure your traffic is organic
- check your ad placements/locations and sizes
- thoroughly review the policies with respect to ad allowances per page/sizes allowed where
- make sure you take steps to protect your properties as well as possible
- if you did/are clicking your own ads ... shame on you. Stop it. Don't do it again. Ever.

Take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that there are no further problems: do this BEFORE the 30 days are up. Show AdSense that you are taking pro-active steps to try and correct whatever the issue is.

No, they aren't likely to tell you "exactly" what is wrong. Whatever wording is in the email you received is about the only wording you'll get from AdSense directly. If you've taken time to investigate and still aren't sure what the problem is, or if you've fixed the problem then ask for help in the AdSense forum. The forum questions are mostly answered by your peers - others who may have already had to deal with a suspension, or others who might understand the best way to figure out the possible issues. Discussion is a good way to double check what you've already fixed and make sure you didn't miss something.

Be pro-active and reactive. Don't loaf!




Oh yeah, one last thing ...   

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

Why Doesn't My Blog Qualify for Adsense?

Yep, you got it. That's another often asked question that echoes through the Adsense forum lately. Some are posted in AdSense, and some are moved to the AdSense forum from the Blogger forum. But all of them nearly always have the same answer, BUT, there are several situations that apply here.

Situation #1 - Applying for a new AdSense Account

When you create a new blog on Blogger and want to apply for AdSense with it, you will probably find the "Earnings Tab" is not active, and you can't submit an application.

This is because the blog is either too new, or has too little content to be able to qualify for AdSense, so the ability to apply is on hold (by the Earnings Tab being temporarily disabled) until such time as the maturity of the blog (it's age) and the amount of contents on the blog deem it as being fit to apply with.

When the earnings tab is enabled, you'll be able to apply with your blog. This, however, does not mean your blog is approved yet, it just means that you can apply with it. Whether or not the blog is approved will not be decided until it goes through a 2-step approval process.

The first step allows you to login to an AdSense account and to place the code on your blog. Once you've placed the code on your blog, the second step will begin.

The second step is where AdSense will review your blog and all of it's contents to see if it's something suitable for them to monetize. During this time, you won't see any ads on your blog. You won't see any ads unless AdSense approves it during this second step. Once the review is complete (this review can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks) AdSense will send you another email, but you may notice ads showing before you actually get the email.

So, when does it become enabled?

Well, that's open for discussion really. Nobody knows because there is no information posted about what will cause it to become enabled. Having spent enough time in the AdSense forum you come to the conclusion that it can take several months before that happens. If one thinks about it logically, in a couple of months, how much content would you post? The average blogger probably posts twice a week at least, so two posts a week times 8 weeks equals about 16 posts, but most of the time, what we're seeing is the blogs need more than that in terms of content amounts, unless the posts are very long, so shoot for somewhere around 20 to 30 posts. The more content in each post, the more likely you'd be accepted with a lower number of posts. (Don't add words just for the sake of adding words. The posts have to be useful.)

If your blog is almost a few months old, or is a few months old and you have at least that much content, you should be getting pretty close to seeing your Earnings Tab enabled.  Unless ... well there is another requirement that Adsense has for just about all of the Asian countries, and that is the fact that sites should be six months old, so some of you may have to wait longer than a couple of months.

Situation #2 - Adding a Blogger Blog to a Fully Approved AdSense Account

This occurs when you already have an AdSense account that's approved to display ads on your own websites, or already approved to display ads on Blogger URLs (blogspot URL).

Even though your AdSense account is already approved for another blog, your new blog still has to qualify to display ads on it, so ... the earnings tab is disabled, the same as if you were applying for a new blog.

This makes sense because no advertiser wants their ads displaying on sites with one post, that's a few hours old. The idea is pretty much the same as in Situation #1 - when your blog is suitable (in terms of age and content amount) the Earnings tab will become active and you can link your blog to your already approved AdSense account.

You will not have to go through another review at that time. Your account is already approved, so the ads will begin to show once you can link it to your AdSense account.

Situation #3 - Your Blog uses a Custom Domain

In some cases, the Earnings tab may not be available when you want to apply because your blog is already using a Custom Domain. In this case, if your site is old enough, and has enough content you can apply at the AdSense homepage with your domain instead. Be aware that if your site is really new and hasn't much content, it's likely to be rejected, even if you can apply.

Your account will go through the same 2-step process as noted above in Situation #1. If it's approved and the ads begin displaying, the Earnings Tab should eventually become enabled, but even without the earnings tab, the ads will still work fine and still accrue earnings.

Situation #4 - You Already have an AdSense Account approved through YouTube or AdMob

You can't place AdSense ads on a blogspot URL if your account was approved through YouTube or AdMob. Not without upgrading that Host Account.  And to upgrade that Host account, you can't use a blogspot URL. Please see "Applying for a Host AdSense Account Upgrade" on this page for instructions on how to upgrade.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

Time for AdSense, Blogger and YouTube Updates

In the last several months there have been quite a few changes for Adsense users. Over the next few months I'll be trying to explain some of the changes and give you my own thoughts on them or if I can, offer some answers. The Help Center has been updated with a new look and navigation system, and the dashboard in your AdSense account has been updated as well.

Recent additions include the Scorecard, which for some people seems to have created a small panic. The Scorecard really is just a way to see where you might be able to improve your site(s), and your AdSense earnings or traffic. Suggestions made in the Scorecard are just suggestions.

Just as an example, if your "Revenue Optimization" on the Scorecard shows less than 5 blue dots, you can find out why by clicking the little down arrow next to "Revenue Optimization". The sections listed are "Recommended Ad Formats" (are you using all the most recommended ad sizes and formats?); "Text and image ads enabled" (have you enabled all your ads for text and image?); and "Crawler Errors". All of these subsections will have a green checkmark, a yellow exclamation point (recommends changes) or a red exclamation point (needs work). The small arrow next to each section opens up to display their recommendations.

In this screenshot, the recommendation is that switching to recommended ad formats can help increase revenue, with a "learn more" link next to that. If you click the "learn more" link, it will take you to a page like this one:  Most successful ad sizes. 

So what do you do? The first thing you do after reading the information is really take a look at your own site - you know it better than anyone else. Consider why you are currently using the ad sizes/styles/formats that you are using right now. You chose them for a reason. What was that reason? Was it the same when you chose them as it would be now if you were putting new ads on your site?

Recommendations aren't always right, so it's up to you as the site owner and publisher to think about what works best for your site and for your visitors. Don't arbitrarily make changes to ad sizes just because Adsense says you might earn more. If your site's size (in terms of screen width) can't support larger ad units, don't use them just because Adsense automatic suggestions think you should.

Most site owners who have an interest in providing a good experience to their users will first consider how the larger ad units might affect that user experience, and whether or not larger ad units actually fit well into the ad space provided. If your site appears to have too much space taken up by advertising, then using larger ad units is probably not a good choice to make.

Don't blindly make changes that Adsense suggests to your site - keep in mind that these suggested changes are basically "auto initiated", so nobody physically has gone to look at your site. That much is apparent when it's been suggested I use a 970 pixel wide leaderboard on a website that is only 800 pixels in width - it seems rather obvious to me that an ad that large simply won't fit across the width of my site so I'm certainly not going to institute that change.

The same can be said for all the suggestions made in the Scorecard - you should fix things that actually require fixing (crawler errors), and you should review their recommendations and suggestions, but don't panic about instituting those changes if you are happy with your site layout and/or can't make all the changes they expect.

In my Scorecard under "Site Health" (Page Speed Performance) there is always a yellow exclamation point. Why? The pages they list for recommended change include a website that includes articles as well as a lot of free images and textures, they expect me to reduce the image weight so the images will not slow down the page load time, but ... well, it would be pointless to optimize the images to the point where they look crappy. I'm a photographer, I don't want my images looking bad so they load super fast. All of my images are already optimized for web, and they're optimized to a level I can live with. I'm not going to optimize them any further just because Adsense thinks I should. They're not the one whose reputation is on the line, I am. So I'm the one who has to decide that, not Adsense.

The other page they list as a slow loading page (it isn't slow, actually so I have issues with that but ...) is a blog hosted on blogger. All of things they say cause the slower load are (a) blogger coding and (b) adsense ads (only 2 on each page, and no other ads). I guess they want me to fix the Google issues?

So having taken the time to review their recommendations I decided against taking them, and left my pages as they were. None load so slowly that it's an issue, and making whopping changes to get a page to load a few nano-seconds faster isn't really worth the time, nor the issues that would be created by making those recommended changes.

Having five blue dots on the Scorecard isn't my goal. My goal is to provide useful information and products to my visitors, and I believe I'm doing that reasonably well on my monetized sites.

In the end, it's really up to you - the site owner - to decide which changes make sense for you, and which do not. Your decisions should never be based on the fact that "you are losing revenue", because you may not be losing any revenue at all. In fact, sometimes making the recommended changes may cause you to see lower revenues than you previously had.

Approach any changes to your site with thought and consideration before running off and making major changes.

Help Articles for the Scorecard

About Your Scorecard: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3006004?hl=en&ref_topic=3131279

Changes to Your Scorecard: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3131280?hl=en&ref_topic=3131279

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Coming in the next round of Update Articles - Signing Up from Blogger and YouTube, Resubmitting Applications with a new URL, and ASense Accounts from an AdMob Upgrade.

A Phone Conversation with Google?

So yesterday around the supper hour I received a long distance phone call from an area code I didn't recognize. Generally, spam calls (ie: unsolicited sales calls from telemarketers) don't show an area code or telephone number on our call display, they simply show as "private". Normally, I tend not to answer calls if I don't recognize the number, but we're in a bit of a family situation right now where we might receive calls from health professionals and we might not recognize the number, so I answered the phone.

 What exactly does this have to do with Adsense? It doesn't really relate "directly" to Adsense, but if you read on, you'll see that it might have an indirect affect on a site carrying AdSense ads. In my case, it probably wouldn't have affected my Adsense account since the site this call related to doesn't have Adsense on it, but yours might.

The caller on the other end of the line began by telling me they wanted to update my Google Business listing. Right away, I was hesitant about the call. I couldn't imagine Google calling me for a simple thing like updating my Google Places listing. If they wanted to do that, they'd more likely send me an email than make a phone call. The next thing he asked was my name, which I also found strange. Considering the fact that updating a Google Places business listing involves the business owner whose name is attached and listed along with the business information, Google would already know my name, so they'd either ask for me directly or ask if I was that person. They probably wouldn't ask what my name was. So far, two sentences into the conversation and I'm pretty sure I was not talking to anyone from Google Places.

Next the caller asked if I knew where my business site ranked when someone did a Google search for the type of services I provide. I indicated that I did in fact know, and since I am semi-retired and live in a small community and my site comes up fairly high in serps, it's placement was fine with me. Next he wondered if I knew where my site ranked on Bing and Yahoo, and other search engines and "bingo" ... I knew this was nobody from any Google services.

Right from the beginning I was suspicious since I know Google isn't going to "cold call" me for a tiny business like mine unless they're wanting to sell me a useful service like Google Engage, or Apps for Business (which I already had), and anyone calling from Google always identifies themselves and the programs they work with. So I asked this guy why Google would even care where my site ranked on Bing or Yahoo and there was silence on the other end of the line, and the silence got even deeper when I finally told him that Google wouldn't bother cold-calling me to update my business listing either, and I was a suspicious of his relationship with Google.

He asked me if I wanted to be removed from his call list since he didn't think he could help me. (Ha!) I asked directly what his position in Google was, and he finally admitted he didn't work for Google, but (yeah, there is always a but isn't there?) they were "partners" with Google. Oh really?

My final words to the caller: Do NOT call me again. 

So some of you might still be wondering how all this could possibly have any affect on your Adsense account. If you haven't figured out why this guy was calling me, I'll explain it.

With all his discussion of where my site ranked in all the search engine SERPs it was painfully obvious to me that they would have tried to sell me some sort of "SEO" help ... possibly okay services, but generally if they cold-call you, they're probably desperate for customers (and their money) and might just use methods way outside of anything that's acceptable for a site carrying Adsense.

 A word of caution - if you get a call from "Google", you better make sure they really are from Google BEFORE you give them any information at all - and I do mean "any".  Don't even give them your full name. And never buy any SEO services from a cold-caller without checking out their company and services before entering into any contract. This sort of thing is how scammers get your money, and how inexperienced AdSense publishers may have lost their accounts for generating invalid traffic or unauthorized methods of site promotion. Never let any SEO company promote your site unless you do your homework first, and know the methods they'll use are compatible with Adsense policies. Always be involved in the decision-making process; a good SEO company will involve you in everything they do for you, and won't charge an outrageous price for things you can learn yourself; they won't use automated methods for generating traffic; they won't spam forums, blogs or email with your site; they won't submit your site to link farms or link exchanges etc.

On a personal level - my opinion on this is simple. If they (SEO companies) can learn how to promote sites using only approved methods (no tricks, no blackhat), then so can I; and, so can you. Visit Webmaster Central to get help free - that's why the forum exists. Between Webmaster Tools help center and the Webmaster Central help forum, you can learn what you need to know to make good decisions for promotion of your own sites.

Adsense, Blogger and the DMCA Notice

With the recent push by Adsense to ensure the quality of publisher websites, it has become even more important that Adsense publishers are vigilant about protecting their copyrights.

I've already written about some of the ways you can protect your contents on this post back in 2009 about duplicate contents.

There is a new one also out there called "EmbedAnything". Personally, I would not use this, and not having used it, I don't really have any recommendations for it.

My personal opinion is that Embed Anything might be fine for those who wish to share their contents, but it not an option for those who do not. I also don't believe it would provide much in the way of actual protection.

Anyone can copy from your website, even if you disabled the right click function (which is totally annoying to most visitors as the right click context menu contains many functions that people use while viewing a website, not just the copy function) people can still copy your content. A couple of ways. Firstly, Firefox will show a notice that the right-click function has been disabled on that website, however, Firefox will still let you highlight and copy the text, rendering the "no right click" codes entirely useless.

And if someone really wants to copy your text, they can simply view the source code for your page, and highlight the text block they want, then copy it. Disabling the right-click functionality doesn't work in source code view, so pretty much any browser can still allow people to copy your work.

What's left then?

Besides the free registry places I listed in my old article (which still apply), you need to file DMCA notices to get your copied works removed from the sites that copied them. Keep in mind though - if you had previously given someone approval to re-post your content, you should not file a DMCA notice. You've given them permission and that means it is not a DMCA issue - they posted with your authorization.

The other thing you need to be clear about when filing a DMCA claim is that you actually own the content. If you've copied a bunch of images off someone else's website...you don't own those, and you may not file a DMCA claim for things you don't own.

Lastly, in filing a DMCA claim, you need to file it with the correct agency. If the person who copied your content has a website and paid webhosting, you will want to find out who their webhost is (do a "whois" search for that) because that's who you want to file the claim with. If they are also using Adsense, you can file a DMCA claim with Adsense. If they are using Blogger, you'll need to file a DMCA claim with Blogger.

You need to complete the forms fully and correctly, and from some of the DMCA notices I've seen on Chilling Effects...some people don't understand how to fill out the forms. Below are copies of the DMCA notices for Adsense and Blogger, with instructions on how to complete them correctly (click the image to get a larger view).

Adsense DMCA Notice - Online Form

Sample

Blogger DMCA Notice - Online Form

Sample

Please remember - do not complete a form unless you are the original owner of the contents.

Adsense, Blogger, Gmail and Google - Disabled Accounts

In recent months we've seen a couple of round of wholesale account removals by Google. Their automatic spam procedures have nuked hundreds (possibly thousands) of accounts; some rightfully so, and some in error.

How it works isn't something I'm going to go through in-depth, but if you really want to understand how this happens, read this article by one of Blogger's most prolific Top Contributors. He explains how the spam detection system works, and why some ordinary blogs and/or accounts get caught in the filter. He also explains how to get your account back, but - the final review is...the final review. If your account is still deemed as spam and not restored, it will be because humans have reviewed it manually and still found it meets the qualifications for spam.

When you login to your Google, Gmail or Blogger account and see this:"Your account has been disabled" you need to click on the "contact us" link provided. That should take you to a page explaining that your Google account has been disabled. Read the information on the page, and follow the instructions - follow the instructions precisely. In other words, review the Terms of Service and be absolutely certain your account(s) follow those terms before you submit any other form. There is a contact form at the end of the page - if your account meets the terms, use the contact form.

If you were caught in the spam filter accidentally, there's a pretty good chance you will have your account restored.

On the other hand, if your blog contained any of the things Blogger considers outside of their policy, or is seen as spam, you won't get your blog(s) back, and you probably won't get your Google account back either.

Some of the things considered to fall outside of the terms of use on Blogger/Google are also some of things Adsense considers to be unsuitable for displaying ads, so if you use Blogger and Adsense, then you need to pay attention to this. If your blog contains the following type of content - you may be caught in the next round of Google nukes.

• Affiliate marketing.
• Content created with scripts and programs, rather than by hand
• Auto-generated contents
• Content or links referencing GPT, PTC, PTS, 'Make money from home', 'Make money fast', or other referral-based activities
• Link Farms
• Content scraped from other sources, duplicate contents
• Copyright Infringement
• Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.
• Links to Illegal Downloads / Streaming / Torrents.

An explanation of Blogger's Content Policy is found here: Blogger Content Policy

If your blog contains these types of content, you better start cleaning them up now. Sooner or later, Blogger or Adsense, or even Google will remove your accounts if you don't.

WHY LOSING YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT CAUSES BIGGER PROBLEMS

Losing a Blogger account usually means...well, you lose your blog. Losing an Adsense account means you can't monetize with Adsense any longer, but you might still have your blog or other Google Services. Losing your Google Account is a much larger problem.

A Google Account is like a giant umbrella over all of your other services provided by Google. The Google Account login allows you to login to any Google service you've signed up for - it's much like the key to the filing cabinet. Without it, you can't get any of the filing drawers to open.

If you lose your blogger account, and only your blogger account, you may still have access to your other Google services.

If you lose your Google Account, you literally lose access to any other services you had under that umbrella. This is important - so pay attention. This is not just "when Google disables your account". The same thing occurs if YOU delete your own Google account.

We see this frequently in the Adsense forums. Someone decides they want a new Google Account (for whatever reason) - to use a different name, or to only use some of the products, or just to organize their accounts a little better.

The first thing they do is go "delete" their Google Account.

Then they wonder why they can't access any of their other Google services. They can't, because by deleting the Google Account, they've just thrown away the key to the cabinet. Without the Google account, you now have no access to anything else under that umbrella.

If you plan to move your blogs, or gmail or adsense account (or any other Google service) to a new account, you need to request help in the appropriate help forum BEFORE you delete your old Google Account.

• Adsense Help Forum
• Blogger Help Forum
• Gmail Help Forum
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AdSense Stole My Money!

Wow, I bet that got your attention!

No, AdSense didn't steal my money, but we are in fact seeing a lot of posts like this in the AdSense forums. And there is a reason for it. Since about April of this year (2010) there have been some display issues with some of the reports pages within your AdSense accounts. Those of you who get cheques every month and don't actually check your stats all that often may not have noticed these issues at all, but they are probably there, in  your accounts. In the past month or so a second display issue has cropped up, also relating to earnings, but on a different page.

The first issue (the one from April) is on your Payments History Page. When you open that page it displays the "default" view, which is usually for the past three months. The earnings displaying at the end of the previous month (right now since it's Sept. that would be earnings for Aug. 31) are probably wrong - some are off by only a little bit, while others are off by a larger amount.

What we're finding in the forum is that people are looking at the default view, and seeing earnings over the payment threshold (that's $100 US) but aren't getting their cheques or payments...and of course wondering why. In order to see your actual earnings (ie: the correct earnings) on the Payments History Page you'll need to reset the view method from the default 3 months to "all time". To do that, select "all time" from the drop-down box at the top of the Payments History Page and let it load. Now check your earnings for the end of August (or the last month earnings are recorded for). There's a good chance that it is under the $100 threshold - in some cases it might only be a few cents or a few dollars under, but being under at all means you won't get your payment until those earnings are at least $100 or more.

The second more recent issue appears on the Reports Overview Page. That's the page you land on when you enter your AdSense account. If you are noticing the earnings in the "Since Last Payment" option disappearing and re-appearing and fluctuating wildly from hour to hour or day to day, then you are probably being affected by the display issues for this report. And it is a display issue - when your earnings are validated at the end of the month and posted to your Payments History Page, they will be the actual earnings. Unfortunately, at the moment, you really can't hang your hat on the "since last payment" report on the Reports Overview Page.

These issues can be found, with their work-arounds, on the "Known Issues" page for AdSense. Publisher's should bookmark this page, or add it to their Google Reader and check it regularly - particularly if you are seeing anything unusual in your AdSense account. If other publisher's are experiencing the same issues you are, you may find the answer on the Known Issues Page in the AdSense Help Center. Even though the issue might still be inconvenient, you'll probably be relieved to find you are not the only one experiencing it...and that AdSense is aware of it and working on it.

The two display issues mentioned above are being worked on by the techs and engineers. It's probably pretty easy to think the one that began back in April should be fixed by now, but the AdSense systems are fairly complicated and getting the same thing to work the same way for everyone probably isn't as easy as we think it should be. The "Known Issues" page will also tell you when these issues are corrected, so don't forget to check it.

Copied Content Syndrome (Or Why I Got Disabled/Rejected for Adsense)

In the last few weeks we've seen an increasing number of AdSense publishers in the forums with disabled accounts. While we see disabled publishers pretty often, the number of publishers being disabled for having blogs with no original content is increasing.

AdSense has been cracking down on the copied content issue - or so it seems. So why is copied content an issue?

COPYRIGHT

There is of course the obvious reason; content copied from other authors and bloggers is copyright content. If the blogger or author has not given permission, and has not licensed their article using the Creative Commons designation, then the author has every right to expect exclusive rights to their work. That means you can't just borrow or re-use, re-purpose or redistribute the work that someone else has done. Authors discovering their work on someone else's blog will find it necessary to file a DMCA complaint, and this entails work for the author as well as investigation on the part of AdSense (or Blogger) staff. It's time that shouldn't have to be spent when bloggers and webmasters respect each other's creative work. For the author who writes their own original work, it means that they may be subject to having their AdSense account disabled because of duplicated work - in other words, even though they've written their own articles if others have copied their article to hundreds of different places, they may face disablement due to someone else's behaviour. Generally, if an author can prove their work was original they'll have a decent chance of retaining their account, but it causes a great deal of trouble for the authors of original work to have their work copied.

From the AdSense Program Policies (which all publishers must adhere to) we have this excerpt:

AdSense publishers may not display Google ads on webpages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content. Please see our DMCA policy for more information.

PLAGIARISM

When  you use someone else's work without giving that author credit for the work, that's considered plagiarism. Although you may not directly place your own copyright or name name on the work, omitting the credit for the original author is seen as taking credit for the work yourself.

Not only does this put you and your AdSense account at risk, it gives you no credibility at all in terms of knowledge or experience. If you have a blog full of articles about marketing, then you need to have marketing skills and experience to write about it. If you don't, and you are simply copying what someone else has written, how do you know the information you are providing to your readers is even correct?  As an example, I have seen many blogs written by AdSense publishers - some of those have little experience with AdSense, or are new to AdSense and some of the "advice" they offer is not only wrong, it can get a publisher disabled.

ADSENSE POLICY

Regardless of the foregoing, AdSense sets the rules for the type of content they want to see in a publishers blog. By that, I don't mean they'll tell you what you can write about - that's up to you, but they do get to choose based on content whether or not a publsiher even gets approval for an AdSense account.

AdSense expects it's publishers to work for their income - nobody gets money for nothing in today's world. They look for original work - whether it's articles, artwork, photos or other types of information, they want their publisher's to add something original to the internet, rather than just regurgitating someone else's work. They want your own unique thoughts and articles - and most likely, so will your readers and visitors appreciate a thoughtful article you've written yourself over some canned article from an article catalog.

One of the items in the AdSense Program Policies is a link to the Webmaster Guidelines - publishers must also adhere to these, and AdSense expects publishers to read them, and follow their suggestions.

An excerpt from those guidelines:

Scraped content: Some webmasters make use of content taken from other, more reputable sites on the assumption that increasing the volume of web pages with random, irrelevant content is a good long-term strategy. Purely scraped content, even from high-quality sources, may not provide any added value to your users without additional useful services or content provided by your site. It's worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart. This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide useful search results.

 This doesn't mean that you can't use an article, or a part of an article as a reference in your own written work (as I've done here by quoting the guidelines directly), it means you can't simply "scrape" the content from other sites and expect AdSense to accept that. Using a paragraph from someone else's article (with references & authorization) is an acceptable method of including content you'd like to highlight or discuss from other sites. Just don't make your entire blog from non-original work.

REJECTIONS FOR CONTENT

Besides the active publishers being disabled for copied content, we are seeing more and more rejections from AdSense for sites that appear to have no original work. For those of us who write original articles, we can only see this as a good thing. It means that AdSense is beginning to value originality...or more likely that the AdWords advertisers (they pay the bills, so they do have a say) are beginning to demand their ads not appear on sites will a lot of copied stuff.

But whatever the reason, AdSense is rejecting applications more frequently for sites whose contents are nothing more than articles copied from other sites. If you are having a problem getting an AdSense application accepted and you are submitting a site that you've filled up with work that you didn't create then you might try writing a blog full of your own articles, and submitting that instead.

References:

Webmaster Guidelines
AdSense Program Policies

Phishing for AdSense - or How Not to Get Hacked

In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in spam email coming into my mail accounts. In particular, these emails are purported to be from:

AdSense
AdWords
Blogger
Google

To date, none of them have actually been from any of those places, except the most recent one. They have been from spammers and scammers who hope someone will click a link in the email. Once clicked, the link will take a person to a page that is most likely set up to resemble a real page from any of those places, however, any sign in information you enter will be captured and used by the scammer.

How Will a Spammer/Scammer/Phisher Use My Information

If you use AdSense, they'll have the information to login to your AdSense account and redirect your earnings to themselves, or the information close out your account, or to do anything you can do in your AdSense account.

If you use Blogger, they'll have access to all your blogs. This means they can edit or change them, including putting their own adsense codes on your blog and removing yours. Most likely they are hoping your blogger login information is the same as your AdSense login. And it probably is.

With the Google account they can login to any service you use under Google.

What To Do When You Get An Email From any Google Source

The first thing you should do - don't panic. These guys often send emails saying your AdSense account has been disabled, and telling you to click the link to have it restored. The same sort of email is also used for Blogger accounts. Whatever you do, don't click any links in an email, even if you think it's from AdSense. Find out first who it's really from.

AdSense may indeed send you an email that your account is disabled, if it really is. And they do contain links, but usually the link leads only to a page on the AdSense Help Center.

The next thing you should do is check the header information. If you use gmail for your login you can show the header information by opening the email.

If you use the newer version of gmail, there is a link near the top and off to the right a little that says "show details".

When you click that, gmail will display the information in the email headers.


Check the information in the "From" and "Reply To" fields, as well as the "mailed by" and "signed-by" fields.

If you are still not certain, go the help forum and ask for help deciphering whether or not it's "really" from AdSense or Google or Blogger. Be sure to use the appropriate forum - if the email says it's from Blogger, use the Blogger help forum, if it says it's from AdSense, use the AdSense help forum.

When you are unsure - under no circumstances should you click any link in the email.

You can check the link by using the google safe browsing diagnostic page for the link. You do that by typing this string in the search bar and appending it with the page named in the link below - the link below is using the url for the blog you are reading now:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://helpfulinformationfornewbies.blogspot.com/

Change the part in red to the page url in the email link.

The linked page in the email used in the example above can be seen below:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http//:www.google.com/adplanner

This tool will tell you whether or not the site is hosting any malware or has been seen in the past to hold any malware.

Other things you can do are to copy the link from your email and enter it into your browser search bar. This will take you to the page that the link goes to, where you can see the information on the page.

Look at the page carefully and note it's location displayed in the browser. In the case of the email I used as an example, the browser displays the following URL ("x" replaces the real information to protect the innocent):

You can see that this URL goes to a secure google accounts login page for the Google Ad Planner.

If you are still uncomfortable about clicking anything on this page, then leave the page and navigate on your own to your Google Accounts page the way you normally would. Click on the service link from your own Google Accounts page (for wherever the email is from - Blogger or AdSense) and login from there.

Take Charge of Your Own Security

Never click links in an email without first ensuring it's security.
Use safe browsing ad-ons or plug-ins to avoid phishing or malware sites.
Use pop-up blockers to prevent scam ads from showing.
Read and investigate things before you sign up or click any links.


Places You can Find Help with Security Issues

"What The Tech Forums" - trustworthy and helpful with useful free software listings

"Safer Networking Forums" - also trustworthy will some excellent free software on site

"Google Search Help" - helpful information in their Help Center for safe surfing & browsing.

AdSense and India

Today's post is directed at prospective publishers from India. I have debated with myself for some time now whether or not to address this issue in my blog, mainly because picking out any one group of people might give the wrong impression. Hopefully, I don't offend anyone with this.

I chose to write this post because we have been seeing some questions in the AdSense Help forums lately that should be addressed.

Please keep in mind, I don't work for AdSense (or Google) and I do not represent them, so these answers are not to be considered "official", but are based on what we've seen, or read in the official AdSense Help Center or the Inside AdSense blog.

The first question of concern is this one:

"Is It True That AdSense is No Longer Accepting Applications from India?"

As far as we can tell, this is not true. AdSense is still accepting applications from publishers in India.

Like any propsective publisher who fills out an application, publishers from India must meet all the qualifications in order for their application to be accepted.

Whoever is telling people that Indian publishers are not being accepted anymore at AdSense because they are from India, is wrong.

The next "most asked" question is this:

"Is it true we can't use a blogspot address and must get a domain name if we are from India?"

The answer again, is no - this is not true.

Any publisher may apply for an AdSense account using a blogspot address. There is no requirement to purchase a domain or webhosting to get started, so don't let anyone talk you into buying a domain name before you are ready, or before you can afford it.

Blogspot addresses are perfectly acceptable to AdSense, providing the blog you use to apply for AdSense with meets all the policy requirements.

The last big question is:

"Why does a publisher from India have to wait 6 months?"

This one is harder to answer. It's one that we can only guess at, based on some of what we've experienced in helping Indian publishers.

The official statement in the AdSense help center says "In some locations, including China and India, we require publishers to have owned their sites for 6 months. We've taken this step to ensure the quality of our advertising network and protect the interests of our advertisers and existing publishers." (notation: quoted directly from the AdSense pages linked above.)

This means that the six month stipulation is not just in India and China, but it does include India and China. To my knowledge, there is no "official" list for the countries, so "in some countries" could mean any country AdSense chooses to include. For the most part, we are noticing this seems to be applied to many Asian countries, not just India.

My own observations seem to show that there are enormous numbers of people from India trying to get AdSense accounts, and trying to do so before they understand what is required of them in order to get approval.

I'm not sure why this is, though in some cases it might be differences in language and how well a person understands what they have read when they signed up for AdSense. (This is not, of course, limited to Indian publishers but to a lot of publishers for whom English is not the native tongue.)

Another thing I have noted with publishers from countries outside of the USA (keep in mind that I am not in the USA either) is that many of them do not understand or even are aware of the differences in legal requirements between their own countries and the USA.

In the USA, copyright infringements can cause all sorts of problems, and many non-US publishers don't seem to understand why they can't use copyrighted items, or why they can't give away things like illegal software.

There are many websites I have reviewed for publishers (many from India as well as other areas) that contain illegal software, movies, music and wallpapers, and this will be one of the reasons for not getting your application approved.

And it's one of the reasons you can have your account disabled too - no matter where you live.

If you read the Terms of Service for AdSense, down near the very end it says that AdSense is bound by the Laws of California and the USA and since they must operate under those laws, any publisher must also conform to those laws. This is an important bit of information that a lot of publishers miss seeing.

Webmaster Guidelines

One other thing that many new or applying publishers miss is the Webmaster Guidelines. These go hand-in-hand with the AdSense Program Policies, and all publishers are required to adhere to both of these.

Webmaster Guidelines indicate that a publisher must have "substantial original content". I suppose "substantial" will mean different things since it's a little subjective, but it really means you must have "enough" content to be accepted for AdSense. So what is "enough"? Since they don't actually give us any stiplulations about what "enough" is for AdSense, we have to guess at it. My own opinion is that you should have at least 10 lengthy posts (175 to 200 words or more per post) in your blog before you apply for AdSense. 20 would be better. And they should really be written works of your own, not articles you've copied from someone else, or from somewhere else.


Other Important Considerations

Other things of importance you need to consider when applying for AdSense.

You MUST use your own identity - your own name and address and country, and personal details. Otherwise, when it comes time to get paid, you won't be able to.

Publishers in many countries may not change their payee name, nor their country. AdSense simply does not allow this.

This means you would be required to cancel your approved AdSense account, and then apply for a new one all over again, using the correct information, so make sure your application for AdSense has the correct name and the correct country. This is very important if you want to get your payments, so don't try to get quicker approval by using a different country. You can't change it later.

If you have any questions about your application before you submit it to AdSense, post a question in the AdSense help forum - don't be afraid to ask for help. If it's a question we can answer in the forum, we will do our best to help you.

If you want to ask a question here, please feel free to leave a comment, and we'll address your question as well as we can. We aren't perfect, and we aren't AdSense, but we are certainly willing to help you have a successful AdSense application.

One final note: there seems to be quite a lot of rejection emails (for everyone, from just about anywhere) for "Domain Ownership not Evident" when people apply with a Blogger blog.

That's because blogspot URLs are considered "subdomains". In order to have adsense approve that blogspot URL, you MUST submit an application to Adsense using the "Monetize" link on your blog's dashboard.

That lets adsense crawlers know that your blog is a blogspot blog, and not just a regular subdomain.

The Wrong Way to Get Adsense

There are a lot of wrong ways to get an AdSense account - any time you are asked to pay for anything related to an AdSense account approval, think twice before you do.

Why? Because AdSense is free to those whose websites fall within the appropriate guidelines. If you try to buy your way into AdSense, then in the end, you will find your account disabled because your website wasn't compliant with AdSense policies. Buying yourself an adsense account will do nothing except part you from your money, and you probably won't have the account long enough to collect any earnings from it.

Sites like this one will do you no good at all, and simply cost you money. ADSENSE DOES NOT HAVE ANY AUTHORIZED "resellers or redistributors" for AdSense. So if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. I'll say it again 'ADSENSE IS FREE TO THOSE WHO QUALIFY' and useless if you can't maintain a website that qualifies, so buying an account is not going to help at all.

Recently on the AdSense forums we've seen a number of complaints from publisher's about low earnings from clicks. In many cases earnings are based on so many factors that's it is difficult for us to know why - sometimes the advertisers are paying less, sometimes the person's site is in a niche that just doesn't pay high click rates, sometimes the quality of the site is lacking or has a lot of copied content, and sometimes the visitor rates are so low that a low CTR and ePCM might have a hand it in. There's a lot of factors for low click rates. NOBODY likes getting paid 1 cent for a click, but there isn't always an easy way to change that.

Beware of people asking for money in order to help you. If you decide to contact a reputable online company for help with SEO to get your websites in better shape, that's up to you. If someone approaches you first with an email that reads something like the one below - think twice, and maybe three times before you part with your very hard earned money. Promising a specific number of clicks per day just smacks of fraud - such as those found in "click-rings" (adsense bans accounts involved in click-rings or paid for clicks), and nobody can guarantee you a specific amount of earnings in a day. Not with adsense.

Nobody can guarantee you approval at adsense either - only AdSense has the right to issue AdSense accounts, so here's a big warning - DO NOT PAY FOR ANY.

Tell your friends to avoid suspect behaviour like the ones seen in the email below. You'll be doing yourself and your friends a favour by keeping your account in good standing and avoiding any sign of suspicious or fraudulent activity.

Hi friend,

I am (XXXX) from (XXXX), an online marketing and revenue generation professional
working on development and marketing to a lot of websites and blogs.

as you see today in the adsense forum there are too many questions like
"why my earnings are getting reduced suddenly"
"the number of visits and the clicks are same but revenue is very less, why?"
"the e CPM of my page was around 0.80, but now it has gone below 0.20, why?"
"i am literally seeing clicks and pagevisits, but no revenue generated? why?"
etc.etc.

people are finding it very difficult to understand the reasons and a few blame
google for their loss in revenue generation. But if you are able to concentrate
a bit and do certain things that are very well acceptable by google's policies,
and follow certain important instructions, you can ofcourse increase your
traffic and ofcourse i can guarantee you of clicks and revenue not less than
a eCPM of 0.90 per click and atleast a revenue of $40 to50 per day.

I assure you of the following
1. 75 to 100 clicks per day

2. Increasing the eCPM to 0.90 (i shall give you a small training on what to do
to increase the click though rates, that is the revenue you generate per click
will be 0.80 to 0.90 cents instead of just 0.02 or 0.03 per click)

3. Assured earnings of $45 to $50 per day.

Apart from the above package, you can also write to me for any customised
needs and requests and i am ready to help you out.

I do take a minimum charge for the above service. You can also contact me
to get a new adsense account approval also. This can be done within a week
and all the services are 100% safe as per google adsense policies and rules.

thanks

How Much Money Can I Make With AdSense?

Now that is a question that everyone would like a solid answer to. The problem is, there really is no standard answer. You can make a few cents a month to a few thousand dollars a month, but there's a whole lot of difference between the two, and how to get from one to the other is a long, hard job. At least if you do it honestly.

There are very few "ordinary folks" making thousands of dollars a month, and almost nobody who is new to AdSense will make this kind of money. Forget what you've read all over the internet - especially in those blogs that are all about making "easy" money.

Ordinary people (like me, and like you) can and do make a few thousand dollars a month (I don't), but not by sticking some ads on a couple of half-finished or just started blogs. THAT kind of money takes work, and usually multiple websites (of the dot com kind, seldom blogs), as well as long hours of hard-earned knowledge on the correct way to optimize for search and get real, organic, non-paid traffic.

There are organizations (such as large media sites, for instance) that do make thousands of dollars on their advertising, but many of these have been invited to be a "premium publisher" due to the sheer volume of daily visitors. That's a hard thing to come by, so while you might set your goals toward becoming a premium publisher, it isn't something you should count on early in your AdSense career. Work towards that goal, but in the meantime, don't forget to be realistic about your earnings.

The average blogger who writes their own articles (not copying work from elsewhere) once or twice a week (every week, regularly) can earn some pretty nice pocket money - anywhere from $100 to $500+ a month. But ONLY WITH WORK AND TIME invested in the project at hand. You can't open a dozen blogs with two or three posts on each one and expect to earn much more than a few cents a month.

Part of the reason people don't earn much (or in some cases almost nothing at all) is the advertiser's and what they are willing to pay. If you don't have much of an interest in your blog/website, the advertisers probably aren't going to be willing to put their ads on your site. Those that do may be some of the lowest paying advertisers, and of course, with very little content to interest visitors, you won't get much traffic and without traffic you aren't going to have much chance of getting anyone whose interested in any of the ads.

Getting started the right way can help you build up to a better income. The right way is not to create a blog just to earn money from. That might work for a month or two months, but there are so many "made for AdSense" blogs (blogs/websites designed around nothing but the advertising or earning fast cash) that sooner or later the traffic peters off to very little. Why? Because there are thousands of blogs out there doing the very same thing. The ones that are successful are the ones that really are making their income the right way, and have learned the best and most honest ways of keeping that income. All the rest who are riding along on the coat tails of those types of sites usually fail after a while. Partly because the author's of the blog aren't actually making much money and partly because they copy articles from other more successful blogs.

Copying articles from someone whose work is successful doesn't guarantee you the same success. After all, the original writer is already getting all the traffic you are hoping for, and that isn't likely to change.

You need to provide something other people aren't, or at least provide something fewer people are doing.

So when we see questions like "how much am I going to make on average" in the forum, the answer is essentially "nobody knows". How much you might make depends on how much work and time you are willing to put into it.

If you aren't willing to work for your money, you aren't going to keep getting it for long. There is no free money, and very little easy money. Nobody is willing to pay money for no work these days, not even AdSense.

How to win? Stay on the right side of the AdSense policies and terms and conditions, work hard, produce original content and articles, research SEO techniques, stay away from paid links, and work hard. (Yes, I know...I said that twice to make a point.)