Since the launch of the new site, I’ve been happy to tout all the free stuff that the site gives you: free archives, free e-mail delivery, free RSS feeds, and lots of free, little extras. But since something has to pay to keep the lights on at “Sheldon”, I do rely on a few revenue streams. Among these streams is Google Adsense text ads.
For those that don’t know, Adsense ads are the text-based ads that match the content of the site itself, potentially offering you ads you’d actually be interested in. And up until this evening, they were working exceptionally well on the site.
In large part, that was due to the fact that Sheldon readers have ploughed through 6 million pageviews since the new site’s launch on Nov. 6th. This voluminous traffic, when coupled with Google site-matched ads (thanks to transcribed comic strips), was going well, and I was very thankful for the extra income that Google Adsense would provide.
But alas, tonight Google informs me that my account has been completely disabled, and all monies returned, due to “invalid clicks”. What caused that to happen, I’m not sure. (I have a cartoonist’s insight, after all, not a programmer’s).
I have asked them to take another review of the account, and my fingers are crossed that it was just a huge jump in traffic that triggered their fraud algorithms. But in the meantime, all I can do is wait to hear back from them.
-Dave
PS: I will ask this, though: if you’re a Sheldon reader, and you work for Google, please drop me a line. I’d appreciate any help I can get in clearing this up.
PPS: Don’t think the irony is lost on me that Google has a Sheldon original hanging in their lobby. *Sigh*