AdSense is Nonsense

Just a quick little blog this morning as I am running out of the house soon, but need to express my annoyance and frustration. 

Since I am only working outside the home part-time these days, I spend my free time working at my writing both on this blog and with a children’s book.  It is my hope to soon be able to earn money doing what I love, writing.  I was excited when I recently learned that my blog could be monetized.  An application called AdSense was only a click away! Through Adsense, advertisements would appear on my blog and when someone clicked the ad, I would receive a very small amount of money.  From where I sit, any income is good income, and so I allowed the ads to appear.

The fact that you are reading this article means you are obviously someone who follows AWomansRoom.blogspot.com.  I thank you and sincerely hope you enjoy visiting and reading my stories.  You will note that on this site I NEVER instructed anyone to click on the ads, never told anyone here that I could earn money through the clicks…in other words, I in no way encouraged fraudulent ad clicking.

The ads were obvious and some of my friends called to ask me why they suddenly appeared.  I did not lie to them, I told them the story, but I also told them there were security measures in place and to only click ads that interested them. That was the end of any discussions on that topic.

Google AdSense made it clear that clicking for the purpose of increasing income would not be tolerated.  They stated that the decisions regarding what qualified as improper clicking rested solely under their discretion and they had absolutely no responsibility to elaborate on their choice once a decision was made. Google Adsense  went on to instruct that no money would be paid until the blog reached the $100.00 threshold. 

I reached that threshold on Saturday and was promptly informed, on Saturday afternoon that my blog was disqualified for receiving funds due to invalid clicking.

This is bogus.

At first I was truly disappointed and took the decision personally although I knew, for certain, that I had not encouraged indiscriminate clicking by anyone.  I wondered why there was never a note expressing some type of warning as to any improper clicking PRIOR to their decision NOT to pay.  Perhaps they could have emailed me when I reached the $30 or $40 mark, in which case I could have looked into the matter…

After mulling it over in my head for a chunk of Saturday afternoon, I did a quick search on the Internet to see if anyone else encountered my situation.  It didn’t take long to find many articles by bloggers like myself.  A Wikipedia article clearly illustrated I was not alone; that most bloggers who take advantage of Adsense quickly learn their blog is disqualified once they reach the $100 mark.  So, advertisers get their ads viewed, Google must make money from them even if they do not make money per click, only the blogger is left out in the cold.

For the most part, I have tried to make this blog a positive place, but the actions taken by Google Adsense have prompted me to expose their tactics.  If they close this blog, if they are opposed to free speech, I will send notifications on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn on where to find me.

I thoroughly enjoy writing my blog and have received wonderful feedback.  It would have been nice to earn a few extra dollars doing something I loved, but I will continue to write with or without the added income.  The money involved was not enough to worry about; which makes me wonder even more why Google would be so quick to take such actions. 

I hope you all enjoy a very rewarding day.  Thanks again for reading AWomansRoom.blogspot.com!