Google Drops The Banhammer On Bizopp Affiliates

I’ve been getting bombarded on MSN so I thought I’d address this with a single post.

If you haven’t already heard, Google has decided to bite back against bizopp affiliates. If you’re one of the guys who received this email over the last couple of days, you’re probably too busy scratching around for new traffic sources to be reading this post. I’ll paste it for everybody else.

It’s come to our attention that you have submitted ads that promote Google Money Tree or ads that promote a misrepresented affiliation with Google. Due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we’ve made the decision not to accept these ads.

This is a notification that your account has been suspended due to the submission of these ads and your ads will no longer run on Google. Please note that future accounts you open will also be suspended.

As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to terminate advertisements for any reason. To view our Terms and Conditions, please visit https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.

We appreciate your cooperation.

Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your AdWords product or account.

This has, quite understandably, caused a large number of Adwords-only affiliates to shit uncontrollable bricks over where the next pay cheque’s gonna come from. As I’ve said on a number of forums, you’d be a fool to believe that it’s impossible to get another account up and running on AdWords. But then, you’d be an even bigger fool to actually bother.

Time to face facts. If you’re looking to run ads that promote a Google bizopp on AdWords, you’re living on borrowed time. I’ve heard more than enough reason to believe that the hottest keywords in this niche are now auto-triggering a manual account review. When that review comes, you better have your ass wrapped up in some pretty shit hot cloaking to stand a chance of escaping the ban.

Guys, this isn’t the sort of ban that you get on a forum. You can’t just choose a new email address (and maybe a new IP), and then go re-registering. There’s much debate over how sophisticated Google is when it comes to tracking those who opt to game the system after a ban. I’ve heard opinions ranging from the quick fix of emptying cookies and using a pre-fill credit card. And at the other end of the spectrum, some think nothing less than buying a new PC, shaving your fucking head and going under the knife is going to be enough to dodge the Adwords Suspendo team.

If you’re really such a lovesick puppy dog that you can’t bare to make a dollar away from Adwords, you will definitely need to:

• Get a new credit card.
• Get a new address on the credit card.
• Find a new IP to access your Adwords account from.

Ironically enough, my Adwords account was registered to an old home address. I’ve since been given a new credit card and my new Internet was installed yesterday so I’ve automatically got a new IP. I could go and install a brand new sparkling Adwords account with no back history of bizopp abuse, but you know what? I really can’t be bothered to waste my time with them.

I’m sure many affiliates are actively hunting out new credit cards to get their Adwords accounts back up and running. But why? It really doesn’t matter if you were running a campaign that was making you a five figure sum of profit every day. If you didn’t immediately explore your traffic options after you established that profitable campaign, you’re a fucking retard and you deserve to fail.

I’ve said this to PPC guys and I’ve said it to SEO guys too. If your entire business is built around driving traffic from Google, it’s no more than a castle built on sand. Especially if you’re operating in the shady business of rebills where it’s quite obvious that changes are necessary to regulate the industry.

If you’re one of the affiliates who’s woken up to a suspended account and no other source of traffic, it’s time to consider whether you’re in this game for the short term riches or the long term success.

Adwords can be an incredibly profitable source of traffic. If you can find a way to keep campaigns ticking over by Google’s rule of thumb, you should feel entitled to enjoy those large cheques. But don’t expect anything less than a steep, harsh learning curve when Google changes it’s rulebook and leaves you staring in to the abyss.

Look at all the options available to you. Diversify your traffic, test new waters, and don’t be afraid to stop living as Google’s bitch. The same can be said for every major traffic source. Diversity and flexibility are the keys to establishing successful campaigns that last longer than it takes for an Adwords teaboy to press “Ban”.