Hi all:

I recently came across a blog that claimed that Google were aggressively banning people from their Adsense program because their content sites violated Google Adsense TOS. Specifically, the blog claimed that a website with only content and Adsense will violate the TOS, as the website needs to have some other reason for existence other than just information and Adsense. The blog writer then claims that you can get around this by adding eBay or Amazon links or some other action the visitor can do besides clicking on Adsense.

What are your opinions on this?

Cheers,

John

Why on earth would you believe such a thing? I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound harsh, for that I apologize.

I just find it incredible that someone would suggest Google would rather have you put links to "sort of" competitors on your site or they would ban your site??

Think about it. If anything, Google would want eBay and/or Amazon to buy ads on Google via some of their programs -- rather than wanting a webmaster to put links to eBay and Amazon.

In reality, I doubt Google would ban anyone's Adsense account one way or the other based on having or not having eBay or Amazon or any other affiliate marketing links.

It seems to me that you found a blogger suffering from the old "Google is nearly like God so I'm going to be paranoid about my Adsense account" syndrome. (LOL!)

Thanks for the reply. Actually I don't believe it but on the off chance that someone could shed more light on this claim, I posted this query. I suspect that if such a site had been banned or Adsense account closed, there must be more to it than simply the 'no reason for existence other than content' excuse given. I suspect the sites in question are MFA sites rather than quality sites with lots of unique content. Anyway, this forum is where a lot of the most experienced webmasters hang out, so I thought that if there was anything to this rumor there would be some people here who would be aware of it or give details on why Google might close someone's Adsense account because of this.

Hi.

Google is not banning any adsense publisher for running a site/blog solely based on content unless ofcourse the content violates the T.O.S

Regarding that post you read i think its fake. Maybe someone trying to get some attention to his blog by another negative post regarding the Google AdSense program.

Within all lies there is some truth....If there was someone that did get banned there were probably a lot of other reasons.

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Lake County Santa Cruz Sonoma County

Guess it is better than getting Email Spam. Google is returning its results as the user generally is searching for something relevant, I don't believe ads to someplace else fits the bill. I side with them on the issue.

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Offering Custom Websites and Affordable Web Hosting For Small Business

The sky is falling!

Let's see, the site was only displaying content for the sole reason - to display ads. Sounds like a rewarding user experience. I'd ban it too.

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Children's Books - Streaming Movies

Seriously? I highly doubt this. Google would start a real sh*t storm by doing this. A lot of blogs are information, even though it is original content, Google wouldn't do this.

If they did it would simply force people to go to their competitors ad networks or result to some other revenue stream in which Google can't take a slice of the profits.

Link, please.

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The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

If the sole reason was to just display ads...I would also ban the site!

That, however, is precisely the opposite of what the OP said.

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The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

sorry - seems i can't post a link because I haven't made 10 posts........

I made the comment on the blog negating what the writer was saying, giving my own experience of 5+ years of having quality information sites that have just one or two Adsense blocks and never having a problem with Google. I think that it is easy to distinguish a site that has valuable content from one that obviously is set up to entice people to click on an ad, and I proposed that the banned accounts in question were of the latter variety. When Google hand reviews such sites, they just spend a minute to quickly make a determination.

However, the blog writer countered that even old sites with plenty of quality, original content were at risk......

That problem is easily circumvented by typing the URL in a non-qualified manner.

For example, rather than Penn State Ticket Man; Hound Dog Tours , type PennStateTicketMan DOT com.

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The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

still not letting me do it even if I type it like that but try this. profitocracy com should work

Yes; that does work.

I think that the writer at PROFIToCRACY: Common Sense Marketing Strategies — Learn to Make a Living From Home has been a bit too careless with his wording and/or his apparent conclusion.

The key issue is not whether or not the site in question provides anything beyond its own content, but whether or not the site stands on the merits of such content alone. I.e., does the site provide a sufficiently large amount of content, content that is of interest to a sufficiently large body of people, such that it has value of its own to offer. If so, it has no need of value vicariously gained by way of references to external content, and would be deemed to not exist solely for the purpose of displaying ads.

If, on the other hand, it offers content that is both shallow and of interest to exceedingly few, particularly if such content is static, it very well may run afoul of Google's ToS.

__________________
The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

Thanks for the detailed answer DeepSand! Yes, I agree with you that that must be the case. And my next thought was that even adding other links to other sites would not alleviate the situation. Interesting comment about the static content though.....I guess I should keep adding fresh content to my sites more often! Cheers.

but seriously folks...

Think about Google's business model. Why would they do this? How would it be in their best interests?

Google may have some mission goals other than profit but they are mostly about money.

it might be because of the best interests of the publishers...

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How might that be?

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The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

it may, just may, if the truth in the lie is true, have something to do with qualified over unqualified clicks.

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Join free dating sites and meet single people without paying a penny.

Here is an example:

I registered a site a few years ago, myclubpenguinformum. com and basically all I had on that one single home page was banners and adsense and links to the real club penguin forum and the main site as well...

so a little scenario which could have and probably has played out over the years was something like, a kid does a search for club penguin forum, arrives at my site and isn't quite sure what to do so he/she clicks on one of my g-ads offering club p t-shirts...

well that's isn't what they wanted...so in the end they click back and the publisher pays for that click which ended up being useless...

the site im talking about (of which I've completely deleted) did nothing at all but offer about 20 links to club p sites and display ads...

i can see how this would be against the adsense TOS...

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Join free dating sites and meet single people without paying a penny.

How is said ToS potentially in the "best interests of the publishers" of adSense ads?

Did you perhaps mean to say "best interests of the advertisers?"

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The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com

sorry yes...man...too much drink...hehe

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Join free dating sites and meet single people without paying a penny.

Sounds like a perfectly good excuse to me.

Now, would you please pass the Scotch?

__________________
The Penn State Ticket Man http://www.pennstateticketman.com
http://www.happyvalleytickets.com http://www.hounddogtours.com