dylanwinter
Well-Known Member
Tis is the last time I will start a thread on this subject
but just to fill you people in with the end of the story.
Over the past year most of my income has come in the form of a Google check for my Adsense revenue. The money comes from the 17 million hits on this youtube space
http://www.youtube.com/user/dylanwinter1
It gets around 1.5 million hits a month which earns me around £1200 a month.
It was this money that has fed and clothed my family and has helped to me to support my children in college.
In effect I have been earning a living making films for Google.
The films on www.keepturningleft.co.uk – of my slow journey in an old boat around the 20,000 miles long British coast are a - loss making indulgence.
On Monday morning I opened my inbox to see this email from a Google computer
Hello,
After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to
invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense account.
Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will both be
fully refunded to the affected advertisers.
Yours sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
This was a bit of a blow as the account has all of November in it and half of December – about £2,000. Christmas on youtube is always excellent. Between Chjristmas and new years web traffic soars. It was my only income for those six weeks apart from KTL subsciptions - about £300.
There is a place on the Google website where you can appeal against whatever it is I had done wrong.
This is a hard thing to do because the computer would not tell me what I had done wrong – and it would only give me a postage stamp sized box in which to write – Orwell and Kafka must be smiling wryly in their graves at my situation.
Clearly I had broken one of the rules in the long contract I had clicked on 18 months before.
Of course I had not read it. Just as many of you have not read the contract you signed in order to be on this forum.
Needless to say I was not allowed to talk to a human being at Google.
I had a tough old Monday and Tuesday - I walked the dog a lot of miles and tried to think through the implications of what was happening.
On Wednesday I got this email from a Google computer.
Hello,
Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate the additional information you've provided, as well as your continued interest in the AdSense programme.
However, after thoroughly re-reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we're unable to reinstate your AdSense account.
As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about your
account, the actions we've taken or invalid activity in general, you
can find more information by visiting
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
By this time I had read the rules.
It was clear I was breaking lots of them.
The advert boxes were too close to the navigation.
I am not allowed to share website data with the people who had paid to go on the website.
It is Googles data not mine.
There was no google approved privacy statement on the website.
www.keepturningleft.co.uk was getting a click through rate of 6 per cent over the snowy North American weekend. This is outside the level permitted by a Google algorithm.
I did not know – and still do not know if a human has looked at the figures. The click through rate on my main earner – the truck space on you tube was rock steady at about one percent.
Six per cent seemed high to the computer – but that is six clicks per 100 pages – each page has a film on it that lasts an average of 12 minutes – that is one click per 150 minutes on the website – it does not seem high to me.
What else are you supposed to do when a film is buffering.
In the Google world clicking on an advert and not buying is regarded as being suspicious activity. Think about that a second. Looking at an advert without intending to buy is suspicious.
Imagine if it was illegal to look at a car advert on the TV if you did not intend to buy the car. Or you looked at a Beneteau advert and did not intend to buy the boat.
It seems that during the snowstorm over the weekend some mid west KTL subscribers were clicking on adverts and not buying stuff.
In web parlance this is “demon clicking” . The assumption is that they were doing it to support the making of the films and had no intention of ever buying the things they were looking at.
KTL subscribers are nice people – law abiding citizens - salt of the Earth – some of them went to church on Sunday before coming home to do some demonic clicking. God is probably not angry with them. The Google Alorithm certainly was.
If these fine Christain Americans really were “demon clicking” on a Sunday just to support the site that seems like a very nice thing to do and testament to the way they value my work. I am immensely flattered.
Even if they were just clicking to help me to make films about sailing – is that a bad thing?
Clearly it is for the Google computer.
The advertisers were getting a chance to sell their wares. They failed to make a sale. Is that my fault or the fault of the demon clickers?
Blimey lads this is one crazy World created by Google.
But it gets weirder and worse.
It seems that I am held responsible for what these amiable, free thinking, snow bound, god fearing sailors were doing on the website I was providing them with.
Imagine if the providers of baseball bats were held responsible when people committed crimes with them or if the makers of matches were held responsible for any arson attacks started with their matches.
The World of Google is indeed one step separated from the rest of us.
I have been a freelance for 30 years and have had many horses shot away from under me.
Usually I am let go face to face, sometimes on the phone, sometimes by letter, once through the window of the bosses passing car, several times by fax, email and even text.
But it has always been done by a human not a computer algorithm.
I think it was a bit rude to do it two weeks before Christmas and to take away money that I thought was going to arrive in time for buying some festive cheer.
I am sure a Google computer cannot be rude or uncaring because the Google motto is “don’t be evil”.
I walked the dog some more on Wednesday – a lot more – even as I write she is comatose in front of the fire.
When I have lost jobs in the past it has been a bit of a lonely experience. Not this time. There are 650 KTL subscribers.
They have been wonderful although they are obviously bad people in the eyes of Google because of their suspicious demon clicking but lots of suggestions have poured into my inbox. Many are good ones–some illegal and some dangerous – some are just plain barmy.
Many of them are looking at Google in an entirely new way.
Please don’t go joining KTL out of some misplaced sympathy. That would be a horrible insult to my film making.
No one in my house is terminally ill, no-one will go hungry. I have one tired out but happy labrador - that is all.
http://www.youtube.com/user/raisingmaggie
If it had happend to me fifteen years ago when I had two small children, a big mortgage and Jill was a full time teacher then this would have been a disaster.
Now all it means is that Christmas in our house will be a bit sparse. Less alcohol will be a good thing.
I have a £5,000 contingency fund – every freelance should have one –but that money will burn away pretty fast so I have a lot of hard graft ahead of me.
I have learned a lot over the past few days. I broke the first rule of being a freelance – and that is not to become too dependent upon one client. I also learned that I should look at the contracts carefully before clicking that box. But I still won't read the darned things.
I thought I would be alright making films for Google. I was wrong.
One other thing. Amazingly Google are still running adverts on my 50,000 daily truck hits on youtube.
One would like to think that they are giving that advertising revenue to charity as they are not giving it to me. One would at least hope that they have given all the £2,000 they confiscated back to the advertisers rather than trouser some of it themselves.
That would be the moral thing to do. But perhaps the Google computer has not been fitted with a moral button.
Yet.
The Google motto is "don't be evil".
I am a wiser man than I was on Monday before I opened that email.
If you fancy passing this onto anyone feel free. Maybe it will stop other poeple from getting over-committed to Google. Maybe a human will eventually send me an email saying it was all a terrible mistake.
Maybe they won't.
My self indulgent journey around Britain might have to be put on hold for a bit is all.
It matters not a jot.
Dylan
but just to fill you people in with the end of the story.
Over the past year most of my income has come in the form of a Google check for my Adsense revenue. The money comes from the 17 million hits on this youtube space
http://www.youtube.com/user/dylanwinter1
It gets around 1.5 million hits a month which earns me around £1200 a month.
It was this money that has fed and clothed my family and has helped to me to support my children in college.
In effect I have been earning a living making films for Google.
The films on www.keepturningleft.co.uk – of my slow journey in an old boat around the 20,000 miles long British coast are a - loss making indulgence.
On Monday morning I opened my inbox to see this email from a Google computer
Hello,
After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to
invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense account.
Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will both be
fully refunded to the affected advertisers.
Yours sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
This was a bit of a blow as the account has all of November in it and half of December – about £2,000. Christmas on youtube is always excellent. Between Chjristmas and new years web traffic soars. It was my only income for those six weeks apart from KTL subsciptions - about £300.
There is a place on the Google website where you can appeal against whatever it is I had done wrong.
This is a hard thing to do because the computer would not tell me what I had done wrong – and it would only give me a postage stamp sized box in which to write – Orwell and Kafka must be smiling wryly in their graves at my situation.
Clearly I had broken one of the rules in the long contract I had clicked on 18 months before.
Of course I had not read it. Just as many of you have not read the contract you signed in order to be on this forum.
Needless to say I was not allowed to talk to a human being at Google.
I had a tough old Monday and Tuesday - I walked the dog a lot of miles and tried to think through the implications of what was happening.
On Wednesday I got this email from a Google computer.
Hello,
Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate the additional information you've provided, as well as your continued interest in the AdSense programme.
However, after thoroughly re-reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we're unable to reinstate your AdSense account.
As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about your
account, the actions we've taken or invalid activity in general, you
can find more information by visiting
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
By this time I had read the rules.
It was clear I was breaking lots of them.
The advert boxes were too close to the navigation.
I am not allowed to share website data with the people who had paid to go on the website.
It is Googles data not mine.
There was no google approved privacy statement on the website.
www.keepturningleft.co.uk was getting a click through rate of 6 per cent over the snowy North American weekend. This is outside the level permitted by a Google algorithm.
I did not know – and still do not know if a human has looked at the figures. The click through rate on my main earner – the truck space on you tube was rock steady at about one percent.
Six per cent seemed high to the computer – but that is six clicks per 100 pages – each page has a film on it that lasts an average of 12 minutes – that is one click per 150 minutes on the website – it does not seem high to me.
What else are you supposed to do when a film is buffering.
In the Google world clicking on an advert and not buying is regarded as being suspicious activity. Think about that a second. Looking at an advert without intending to buy is suspicious.
Imagine if it was illegal to look at a car advert on the TV if you did not intend to buy the car. Or you looked at a Beneteau advert and did not intend to buy the boat.
It seems that during the snowstorm over the weekend some mid west KTL subscribers were clicking on adverts and not buying stuff.
In web parlance this is “demon clicking” . The assumption is that they were doing it to support the making of the films and had no intention of ever buying the things they were looking at.
KTL subscribers are nice people – law abiding citizens - salt of the Earth – some of them went to church on Sunday before coming home to do some demonic clicking. God is probably not angry with them. The Google Alorithm certainly was.
If these fine Christain Americans really were “demon clicking” on a Sunday just to support the site that seems like a very nice thing to do and testament to the way they value my work. I am immensely flattered.
Even if they were just clicking to help me to make films about sailing – is that a bad thing?
Clearly it is for the Google computer.
The advertisers were getting a chance to sell their wares. They failed to make a sale. Is that my fault or the fault of the demon clickers?
Blimey lads this is one crazy World created by Google.
But it gets weirder and worse.
It seems that I am held responsible for what these amiable, free thinking, snow bound, god fearing sailors were doing on the website I was providing them with.
Imagine if the providers of baseball bats were held responsible when people committed crimes with them or if the makers of matches were held responsible for any arson attacks started with their matches.
The World of Google is indeed one step separated from the rest of us.
I have been a freelance for 30 years and have had many horses shot away from under me.
Usually I am let go face to face, sometimes on the phone, sometimes by letter, once through the window of the bosses passing car, several times by fax, email and even text.
But it has always been done by a human not a computer algorithm.
I think it was a bit rude to do it two weeks before Christmas and to take away money that I thought was going to arrive in time for buying some festive cheer.
I am sure a Google computer cannot be rude or uncaring because the Google motto is “don’t be evil”.
I walked the dog some more on Wednesday – a lot more – even as I write she is comatose in front of the fire.
When I have lost jobs in the past it has been a bit of a lonely experience. Not this time. There are 650 KTL subscribers.
They have been wonderful although they are obviously bad people in the eyes of Google because of their suspicious demon clicking but lots of suggestions have poured into my inbox. Many are good ones–some illegal and some dangerous – some are just plain barmy.
Many of them are looking at Google in an entirely new way.
Please don’t go joining KTL out of some misplaced sympathy. That would be a horrible insult to my film making.
No one in my house is terminally ill, no-one will go hungry. I have one tired out but happy labrador - that is all.
http://www.youtube.com/user/raisingmaggie
If it had happend to me fifteen years ago when I had two small children, a big mortgage and Jill was a full time teacher then this would have been a disaster.
Now all it means is that Christmas in our house will be a bit sparse. Less alcohol will be a good thing.
I have a £5,000 contingency fund – every freelance should have one –but that money will burn away pretty fast so I have a lot of hard graft ahead of me.
I have learned a lot over the past few days. I broke the first rule of being a freelance – and that is not to become too dependent upon one client. I also learned that I should look at the contracts carefully before clicking that box. But I still won't read the darned things.
I thought I would be alright making films for Google. I was wrong.
One other thing. Amazingly Google are still running adverts on my 50,000 daily truck hits on youtube.
One would like to think that they are giving that advertising revenue to charity as they are not giving it to me. One would at least hope that they have given all the £2,000 they confiscated back to the advertisers rather than trouser some of it themselves.
That would be the moral thing to do. But perhaps the Google computer has not been fitted with a moral button.
Yet.
The Google motto is "don't be evil".
I am a wiser man than I was on Monday before I opened that email.
If you fancy passing this onto anyone feel free. Maybe it will stop other poeple from getting over-committed to Google. Maybe a human will eventually send me an email saying it was all a terrible mistake.
Maybe they won't.
My self indulgent journey around Britain might have to be put on hold for a bit is all.
It matters not a jot.
Dylan
Last edited:
