On Saturday last (30/04/11) i clicked the AdSense icon in my bookmarks toolbar as i do most days to see how my ads were performing (Don’t you find checking your blogs stats and AdSense addictive?).This time however instead of going to my AdSense homepage or dashboard i was presented with a strange update or apply to AdSense type page.I say update / apply page because i couldn’t really figure out what the page was or what information it was looking for. This started a chain of events which seen my account vanish, all my ads vanish and possibly all my unpaid earnings vanish.
I guess in this post i want to look at the steps i took, the frustration in dealing with any Google service when it comes to customer service and the patience you need in this type of situation.
So on Saturday when i land on a page starting “..Please update your account information below and click ‘Resubmit’ to continue. If your application was not accepted due to issues with your website, please make sure that you have resolved them before resubmitting..” i think it could simply be AdSense looking for me to update my account information, but it looks more like an apply to AdSense or re-apply form.This is of course worrying and i immediately go to my Email to check if i got any mail from AdSense that i may have missed.When in a situation like this check all your email folders including spam and trash in case you deleted something by accident, I found nothing in any folder.
The thing with AdSense is there are a lot of rules or TOS, we know ‘Don’t Click Your Ads’ or get others to click them and the other basics but there is much more we don’t know. So it was not inconceivable that i could have been doing something wrong and just hadn’t realised.
Contact AdSense
I know there is no point in trying to contact AdSense as it is easier to get a Phone Call through to Barrack in the White House. So the AdSense help forum is the first step, were i post 4 questions about my issue and the page i was landing on but all with no reply. I found this strange as i am a level 8 moderator in the Blogger help forum and usually if you post a question a few times it will get a reply.
So back to the page i was getting when i tried to get into my AdSense account, i think maybe the form is simply to update my information and i should go ahead and fill it, which i did.Upon clicking submit i got the page i didn’t want to see ‘We have received your application…‘ yep it was like i was just applying for an AdSense account, there was no sign of my almost 3 year old account.This is were you need to be patient and going back into the forum writing in all caps with exclamation Marks wont help :
WTF WERE IS MY ACCOUNT !!! HELP NOW URGENT !!!
The moderators in the forum are not Google employees or Paid in any way they are just fellow users that have a knowledge on the subject and want to help.
I posted another question in the forum telling how i had filled the form and the result, i also decided it was time to try send an Email to AdSense.
The question in the forum got no reply and the reply to my Email looked automated.The automated Email confirmed ‘“…We can not find any AdSense account connected to your Email…”‘.So the account was gone and no one could shed any light on it.This is were it can get very frustrating but once again you need to be patient.My plan was simple and is the same as i tell many people who contact me with blogger issues.
Post your question in the forum with as much information as passable, leave it for 4 to 5 hours if there is no reply post it again and keep doing this until there is a reply…simple and there is not much more you can do.
Six times i posted the question in the forum over the course of two days before i got a reply.
Just getting someone to notice the situation was a relief and although i knew the moderator (wasaweb) couldn’t directly fix it he could draw attention to it.
The Fix
The day after the reply from wasa web i asked was there any update, i had received a booklet from AdSense in the post in which they had obviously looked at my account to give some tips on maximizing my earnings. This was of course sent before my account had vanished but i though it was somewhat ironic.
That night however i got the message i was waiting for from Chris a Google Employee.
My account was back ! It took 6 days and although i don’t know why it happened and i was loosing earnings for 6 days i was just happy to know that it was an error.Thanks to Moderator and Top Contributor wasaweb and Chris from Google for their help.
The Point
The point behind this post is this, over the six days i looked at a lot of content that had been written about AdSense and endless other treads in the forum about banned accounts.Most of the content written was by disgruntled people that had been banned and I’m afraid most of the treads in the forum did not have happy endings.In this post i show what i did, be patient, be respectful in the forum, give all the information you can and post your question every few hours, eventually it will get noticed.
Google do not take phone calls and getting an actual Google employees set of eyes on an Email is next to imposable.So if your AdSense, Blogger or other Google service experiences problems take a deep breath and know it might take a little time to sort it out.I can see why Google don’t have open phone lines and easy email contact, they would need a help center the size of Ireland to work it.But they defiantly do need to provide better than is currently available, without my knowledge of how the Google forums work it could be another month getting this sorted out.
I’m a very laid back guy and to be honest if I had not got my account back i guess my attitude would be ‘so what’ just focus more on direct ad sales through BuySellAds and other ways of monetizing my blogs. This helped me stay patient but i know for many of you AdSense is the only way of making money from your blog.
What experiences if any have you had with AdSense ?
Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.
