Lessons Learned

I'm truly amazed how many bloggers think that Google is personally out to get them. Here's how the story goes. You've been blogging and have 6 readers according to your FeedBurner stats (Technorati, Feedster, Mom, Dad, PubSub and IceRocket). You decide to throw up some ads and make a little money. Unfortunately, you find out that with 6 readers that you're not getting any clicks. So, you start clicking yourself, several times per day. Google sends you an email telling you that you've been cut-off of Google Adsense for invalid clicks. You then turn your blog into an anti-Google campaign.

from The Google Consipiracy.

I’m quoting this because the Google link above points to my last post, thereby including me in those who turned their blogs into an anti-Google campaign. I found this post through my StatCounter logs, which recorded that a visitor (a few more, later) came to my site through the link in that post. While I appreciate the exposure, I feel misunderstood and stereotyped by this author. I only wrote that I was banned from AdSense, confessed that I clicked on my own ads and knew some of my friends helped me click them, and I did the same for them, at times. I didn’t protest Google’s decision, or dissuade people from participating in AdSense. I hoped writing about it would remind me of my mistake, and provide an example for those who wonder whether abusers do get caught. After thinking about advertisers who pay for clicks on their ads, I feel even more guilty for my abuse (even though Google says it returned all my earnings to the respective advertisers), and I admit my action deserves to be ridiculed. However, the post didn’t criticize my abuse, but focused on, apparently, the fact that I wrote about it. And the author seems to have misunderstood most of the other linked posts too—some writers also admitted their mistakes without complaints; some others complained about getting banned without doing anything wrong.

Oh well, I’m not in the position to tell others what to write about my posts in their blogs, and the shameful link does make me think more about my mistake. I will add to my lessons learned: make sure I really others’ words before I judge them. And, I hope I did when I wrote this post.

Tags:

• Google AdSense
• abuse
• trackback