Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So I was surprised that Google AdSense felt that my ads were unwanted on Craigslist. They stopped me from displaying their AdSense.
The explaination was <paraphrase>Publishers may not place misleading ads on third party websites</paraphrase>
Since my ads are not misleading, I am assuming that Google feels my ads are unwanted by Craigslist.
Of course, to confuse things even more Google also attributed a second site to me which wasn't online when I looked for that site. I wrote Google but they never replied.
Since AdSense only pays a pitance I have replaced it with better preforming CJ cpa ads.
Craigslist by the way, flags all your ads and stops showing them when even only one ad is unwanted. So I don't understand Google's actions.
So the moral of the story is; stay away from Craigslist if you value your AdSense income.
[edited by: martinibuster at 3:11 am (utc) on July 13, 2009]
[edit reason] SEE TOS - No email quotes. [/edit]
It took about a month of trial and error to get a format that was acceptable to Craigslist.
I was careful to respect the TOS and not mention my site but forgot about the need to paraphase and not directly quote. So thanks to martinibuster too.
The issue is not about misleading ads but about the ads being unwanted by Craigslist.
Commercial ads need to be written just so on Craigslist to avoid problems with their TOS. But just exactly what is okay is not defined anywhere and Craigslist monitors have widely different opinions. So trial and error seems to be the only way I know to be successful.
BTW, google seems to be the same way. As far as I can tell, nowhere does it say that they will monitor the source of my visitors and make a judgement on the traffic. I think it is reasonable for google to monitor traffic to stop click-fraud but making judgements about whether Craigslist wants my ads is beyond their TOS.
I think it is both reasonable and natural for a job board to advertise its job on the largest classifieds on the web. Each ad is for a specific position that is available at an employer.
wyweb i am assuming that post was in jest. A minute or two if not.
What is most likely happening here is that Google is telling you, they don't think your business model is a good match for them. They generally don't like sites with Adsense on them which rely on "artificial" means to garner traffic to the site, as you are doing by promoting your site on Craig's List.
What Google prefers, I believe, is sites that get their traffic "naturally", ie., by word of mouth and/or by voluntary links in and user searches by visitors who are generally interested in the content you are presenting and sought you out for it.
I feel I have not violated their TOS as written but have run into an individual at Google wanting to expand the TOS.
What is natural? I feel that anyone looking for a job goes to the classifieds. To me that is natural. In the classified he seeks out both employers that have posted directly and job boards and agencies that are advertising for an employer.
Don't you agree that this is the 'natural' thing to do? Craiglist, Oodle, Kijiji and Backpage are the leading classifieds in the US. When Google singled out Craigslist, I knew them meant my ads on all 4 of the classified sites. Craigslist has more visitors than the other three combined so it was the one mentioned.
My site also gets traffic from opt-in emails and my followers on twitter, direct paid advertising and even word of mouth.
A job requirement has a very short lifespan. It is filled most of the time long before it makes it into a search engine. So no one is looking on Google for a Legal Secretary in New York City. They go to either the online classifieds or one of the job boards.
My average visitor finds the job board through advertisements the first time but then returns several times because he was interested. On average, a user click AdSense 1 time for every 1000 pages visited. For me it was a way to monetise my exit traffic and not an important revenue stream.
fredw, I think Google could do a better job of explaining what kind of traffic they want on a site using AdSense but thanks for taking the time to reply.
Again.
The only explaination they gave for taking me down was Craigslist as the source of my ads.
Google has never responded to any of my emails.
There were plenty of ads on my site. Job boards partner with each other so that we can have enough ads. My site has about 5 million ads in the database and iwhich s the sixth largest database of jobs in the US,
There were plenty of ads on my site. Job boards partner with each other so that we can have enough ads. My site has about 5 million ads in the database and iwhich s the sixth largest database of jobs in the US,
Actually I was referring to Google's inventory rather than yours. It's possible that when inventory goes low they start looking for reasons. It seems odd however that they would target a high volume site.
On top of that, while Craigslist has changed quite a bit during recent years but I imagine there are still quite a few TOS policies out there that still treat them like the haven for spammers and get-rich-quick schemes. Craigslist still has that stigma so I agree that might be a reason they targetted your site.
