The Ban Hammer

I got asked the other day why there are no more advertisements on my blog anymore.

In the interest of full disclosure, I just want to tell you want happened to them.

With Google ads, when I first signed up, I didn't really read the terms of service. Like all males, I just put up the blog and wrote and did anything I want. I had posted in every article "click and check out my sponsors." And I even wrote on my Facebook click and check out my sponsors. Well unfortunately someone did....too many times. I got an email telling me that my site was a danger to Google's clients due to suspicious activity and I got banned. I had install Google analytics on this site and they were right. There was an unusual high spike in activity when I didn't put up any new content. Then I went and read the terms of service and it was in plain as day, you cannot say anything like "click on my sponsors, or check out my sponsors." I know this is a bit counter intuitive since in most things in real life, if you get a sponsor you would want people to go support your sponsors. Well in the Internet, the rules are a bit different. Yes you want people to go to your sponsors, but no, you cannot say it. I actually had other sponsors look at my site with those "check out my sponsor" messages and they were okay with them, so I didn't think anything of it. Google had every right to ban me. I broke the terms of service, plain and simple. I had to scour all my old post to remove any of the offending messages. I even appeal my ban, but didn't get a response. I have no illusions that my ban will be reversed.

I love Google, I think everything they do is a great benefit and use many of their products. Infact, this very blog is hosted by Google for free. They provide the tech and back in support for free as well. You cannot ask anymore of Google. I was just glad they didn't ban my site or gmail.

I did not get ban by Widget Bucks. It was simply that this blog did not generate the type of traffic on a consistent basis for them, so they were just going to suspend my account. I do get the occasion spike in traffic on something I write but those are few and far in between. Well, I felt if they are going the suspend my account why would I give them free hits then. So I decided to remove all their advertisement from this site. There were other sponsors I signed up with and I toyed with them a bit. But some of their ads were too big and took too much time to load. Others were just plain annoying. Some played background music, or open annoying pop ups. I was not happy with most I tried.

I know this was a bummer of a topic, but there is a bright side. Atleast, for those loyal readers, and I know there are, because I have Google analytics, this blog will be ad free and less clutter. So cheer up and go eat something!