2 weeks ago, I was taking a rest in the billiards room. I checked my email on the phone as usual,  and suddenly, I found a shocking email from Google that my Google Adsense account has been disabled!

Holy SHIIIIIIIIT! All my $2700 dollars in the account are gone.

Here is how the email looks like:

I’ve joined Google Adsense publisher program since 2006 and never got a problem with it for 5 years until now.

My problem was neither invalid clicks nor encouraging clicks like most Adsense publishers are facing.

I can’t believe that Google disabled my Adsense account because I didn’t  follow the Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines!

They banned me simply because I didn’t provide “original content” and “good navigation” on my sites, as they stated in the email. And they even didn’t give me the exact sites or pages that violated their policies. The truth is, I pay qualified writers to research and compose original content for my sites, and I use premium templates to build my sites.

One of my friends implied that “a $3000/mo Adsense income is too much for individual Adsense publishers”, especially for China-based publishers.

I also heard that if your account is disabled because of violation of their Webmaster Guidelines, it could be some Google Adsense employees looking for a kickback to boost their part time income.

While click fraud can be detected by measuring the conversions, for compliance with their “Webmaster Guidelines”, it is entirely at the discretion of the Google employee.  If anyone wants to get your Google Adsense account disabled, they only have to complain about a website repeatedly and  if they receive the same complaint a number of times, the account is disabled by the Adsense algorithm, even though there is no problem with the website.

Here is what you should do if your Adsense account is also disabled by Google:

1. Submit Appeal Form to Adsense Team

As far as I know that very few lucky people reinstated their Adsense account by appealing to Google, however, this is still the very first step to do when your account is disabled.

Don’t be panic, write your appeal in polite and professional way. Dig as much information as you can to prove that you are innocent and willing to make changes to your sites.

Depending on which situation you are in…

If your account has been disabled due to Invalid Activity, fill and submit the invalid clicks appeal form.

And if your account is blocked because of Policy Violation reasons, you can submit this policy violation  appeal form.

Although Google claims that a second appeal is useless, it did work for some people.  So give the appeal process at least 3 solid tries before giving up.

2. Open another Adsense account under a business entity.

You can set up a business entity and sign up a new Adsense account.

That’s what I’m gonna do in Hong Kong this year. You will need to open a business account in the local bank. And a substantial minimum deposit may be necessary depending on your bank.

In my opinion,  using an Adsense business publisher account is much safer than individual account.

3. Try Some Google Adsense Alternatives

When you tried all these and still couldn’t get an active Adsense account, you can try some Adsense alternatives. Some of the popular and genuine alternatives are:

Text-link-ads: Sell links on your site. I think it’s hard to get your sites approved if they are not PR4+.

Infolinks: A new in-text advertising network. Similar to Kontera but a lot easier to get approved. And it also has better payout than Kontera.

Maxbounty: My favorite CPA network.

Ourfreestuff: This one has a lot of CPA offers for international traffic. They also have a function for you to generate Adsense-style text ads.

CBTagClouds: Create tag-style Clickbank ads. I’m testing it out on some of my sites.

Chitika: The new hot Adsense alternative. (Thanks Blake and David 🙂

What I learn from this lost is that you should NEVER put all your eggs in one basket.

You should build your business on various income sources and business models. You can’t depend only on Adsense to make money online.

What’s your experience with Google Adsense? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Tags: adsense, Adsense Alternatives, adsense disabled