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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

Also lucky that he was only fighting for $131. For those hitting more than that each day, having the account dropped without an option for a reasonable appeal is ridiculous and Google should absolutely be doing more in this situation.

One of my employees has a very honest and decent content site (not MFA-style). He ran AdSense on there for a time before they shut down his account and ignored the appeal. He suspected a friend of his clicked a few ads to help him out, without instruction or without letting him know. Completely out of his hands. It would be trivial for people to do this to their competitors.

I suspect that sites generating more income for Google can get away with a lot. The smallfry just aren't worth the hassle to investigate.

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This is the concern I have for one of my planned sites I will launch soon that will have ad-content. I am searching for viable alternatives to integrate into the page with AdSense (or have ready for quick addition or on secondary pages), because I worry that I could easily be cut-off from AdSense and have no recourse.

To be frank, Adsense is the best ad network in terms of EPM (earnings per click) . Even my 50 visitors-per-day sites generate a modest income. But, other large CPC networks like chitika pay in pennies for that same traffic. That sucks.

If you rely too much on Adsense, then you are doomed when your account is banned. Better to go for paid advertising on your website itself.

"Better to go for paid advertising on your website itself."

Usually need a minimum of six months of steady visitors, or growing from a healthy base with no sustained dips, before most paid advertisers will even consider advertising for a reasonable/worthwhile fee.

Starting out AdSense seems to be the best option. Its when AdSense toasts you that the scramble begins and not something I'm looking forward to.

Wondering if I should send reminder email to parents and friends not to click any ads. hahaa

I have a variety of sites that make a not-inconsiderable amount from AdSense and one strategy I considered was to set up two accounts (e.g., one in wife's name, at an address outside of our home) and split my sites between the accounts. Avoid having all the eggs in one basket.

Of course, Google have been known to shut down accounts where two are run from the same address so who knows what they might take issue with if they somehow discovered a transgression.

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