I’ve been a loyal employer of Google Adense for over ten years (where’s my t-shirt?) and most of those years, including this one 2013, have been great. But as of today, and starting this year, Google AdSense has been good only for my YouTube videos, and not my Zennie62 blog.
After years of not having a problem with my content, Google AdSense has been adjusted, and its staff trained, to be neurotic about any blog post that contains the words Kate Upton, Sydney Leathers, sex, or porn, or any Kate Upton photo that also happened to be on the cover of GQ or Vanity Fair, like the one you see of Kate Upton covering her boobs with her hands that went viral for GQ Magazine.
Google AdSense’s attack on my content started this year with Sydney Leathers. She’s the woman who took sexting to a new level with her exchanges with former U.S. Congressman and now-because-of-her-former New York Mayor’s Race Candidate Anthony Weiner. I wrote a number of posts and made a number of videos about Sydney Leathers. And while many of the videos were just fine with Google AdSense on YouTube, like this one:
When it comes to Google AdSense on Zennie62, suddenly there was a problem. For example, Google AdSense sees this blog post you’re about to see with the link as a “policy violation:” https://www.zennie62blog.com/2013/08/05/sidney-leathers-makes-vivid-film-lies-about-it-to-wls-80114/
Seriously.
And that was after I thought I’d cleaned it up by removing the photo you see here, and one that was first used by The New York Post in an article about Sydney Leathers. Note, Google AdSense has a problem with my Zennie62 blog post after, after I fixed it, and where there’s no photo of any kind.
In response to my complaint to Google AdSense, I received the email you’re about to read from “Stephanie.” Now, the exchange was a nice one, but the fact remains that all of the links she points to are to blog posts that don’t have what you’d expect to see if you’re looking for “adult content,” moreover check the dates in the URLs and note that the posts go back to 2010 and as far back as 2008, and guess what? I was using Google AdSense as for my blog during that time period through today. That means Google’s got a new, draconian content policy, and one that would seem to take money out of Google’s pocket.
Here’s Stephanie’s email to me:
Hi Zennie,
Thanks for contacting us. We take the health of our advertiser ecosystem very seriously and our specialists manually review hundreds of thousands of sites for compliance. It’s not unusual for content posted at any time to be flagged by our sensors and eventually brought to our policy specialists’ attention.
I can see that adult content still exists on your site, which is why your appeals have been denied. Ultimately it is the publisher’s responsibility to maintain the compliance of their websites, but I’m happy to help offer some examples pages of where violations still exist:
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2012/06/21/kate-upton-in-gq-magazine-tops-google-trends-again-81428/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2010/05/11/megan-avalon-pamela-sue-anderson-and-female-bodybuilder-in-one/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2013/08/05/sidney-leathers-makes-vivid-porn-film-lies-about-it-to-wls-80114/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2012/11/21/naked-guys-piss-sf-supes-approve-nudity-ban-73123/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2010/04/12/playboy-looking-for-girls-of-the-pac-10-at-cal-berkeley-and-stanford/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2008/12/05/cheerleader-coach-victoria-schattauer-uncensored-photo-online-tittle-tattle-blue%E2%84%A2-the-post-chronicle/
https://www.zennie62blog.com/2008/04/26/laure-manaudou-failed-to-qualify-for-200-metres-freestyle-for-beijing/I recommend that you review our content policies again and then thoroughly review all sections of your site before submitting another appeal.
Best,
Stephanie
The Google AdSense Team
Google AdSense Hates Kate Upton
Did you click on the links? Undoutedly the one about Kate Upton caught your eye, and that led you to my blog post with the cool photo that first appeared on the cover of and in GQ. But you want to know how I came to blog about the photo? It popped up as a Google Trend, and the very photo that Google AdSense has taken issue with was distributed by Google News and found its way to Google Trends!
How’ that for the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing?
This is but one more example of how uncoordinated Google management is. It’s one thing to run a bunch of experiments, as Google claims it does, but another to have a system in place so those experiments and changes don’t hamper the normal operation of the business. Right now, Google AdSense is threatening to impact the very bottom line of Google.
Google AdSense and Google AdWords have formed the backbone of Google’s revenue generation system, and still do to this day. But while Google AdWords is well developed, and Google AdSense is brilliant on Google, Google AdSense has no program to attract or to work with bloggers. Indeed, today’s Google AdSense seems bent on warring against the very content that gives blogging its edge and has not just become mainstream, but forced traditional media like Vanity Fair and The New York Daily news to follow suit.
Look, many have told me that Google AdSense is not the best solution for generating revenue from my blog content. I was holding out hope the minders of Google AdSense would get a clue and go after blog business. But after today, I give up. Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt have to step in and change this bad state of affairs before its too late.
I love Google AdSense and will certainly maintain my account as a YouTube Partner, and continue to use it for my other blogs (unless this period of neurotic behavior gets worse), but I have to seek, and I’ll find, a better system for my Zennie62 blog. Some have said I should do the selling myself, and I may. But it’s wrong for Google AdSense to not follow the market and allow me to make competitive pop-culture content.
Stay tuned.