Automated site generation company informs customers that its Adsense account is canceled.
Domain Embarking, one of several companies that creates auto-generated sites for domain names, informed its customers that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) canceled its Google Adsense account.
In an e-mail to customers, Domain Embarking wrote:
On May 15th, 2008, DE received notice from Google AdSense that our publisher account had been deactivated. NO specific reason was given in this notice, or to our appeals over the following weeks. We’re simply in the dark.
In lieu of this uncharted stop, we took the initiative to completely overhaul our infrastructure so as to continue our dream of providing a “Net Friendly” parking solution to the domaining industry. In hindsight, we’re now thankful for this dilemma, as we believe our efforts have produced a HUGE IMPROVEMENT towards fulfilling our goals, and those of our domaining members. Namely, our members can now insert THEIR OWN AD CODES AND KEEP ALL THEIR PROFITS!
Sites by services such as Domain Embarking are sometimes referred to as “Made for Adsense” or MFA sites by the internet community. In this case, I suspect some of the problem is Domain Embarking’s system shared Adsense profits amongst its members. So if I used the system, I may have benefited from clicking on another clients’ web ads.
Google isn’t paying for Domain Embarking’s previous earnings, so customers may not see payments again for a couple months. Domain Embarking wrote:
1. As a result of being deactivated by Google AdSense: ALL MONIES earned, (and not yet paid) are cancelled. In our case, this meant DE was not paid for the entire month of April and the first 15 days of May. Poof! All Gone. Going forward with some good news: Even though we will NOT receive payment from Google, we have decided to honor all AdSense monies earned, (Through Click-shares) by our members up to the date we got cancelled!
2. Member payments have been suspended until no later than September 1, 2008. In order to continue offering our services at 100% free of charge, we must recoup the earnings voided by AdSense and the subsequent 6 weeks it took us to rebuild the DE program. (Not to mention the 45-60 days it will take to begin receiving payments from all our new advertising partners.)
3. The new DE program NO LONGER tracks, records or pays “Click-Shares”. All members that had qualified for payment will be cashed out in total when payments resume. For all members that have NOT yet met the minimum $25.00 earnings, it will be necessary to transfer or register at least one domain name through our New Net Profits Inc’s Go Daddy powered registrar in order to have Click-share monies applied to your new Premium Share earnings account, as this is now the ONLY way earnings are accrued and paid by DE.
There was controversy several months ago when several WhyPark customers reported having their Adsense accounts canceled. It was unclear if this was due to using the WhyPark system. However, many WhyPark customers are still able to use Google Adsense on their domains, and WhyPark is adding a new ad feed. Another competitor, EvoLanding, switched from Adsense to Yahoo Publisher Network before nixing that in favor of a private label ad feed.
A month later they announced it ? ouch
Yeah, it looks like they wanted to get their “new version” up before announcing it.
I have a ton of sites with Domain Embarking and I was apprised of the situation. It was one of those situations with Google where things can turn around in 48 hours.. meanwhile they hold you hostage as you wait for their explanation.
My sites that were networked and had my own Google adsense codes weren’t affected- just the ones on my house account. It’s nice to see a company looking out for their clients for a change. Meanwhile they have revamped their offerings with the opportunity to choose your own affiliates and target your ads specifically to your site’s content.
They just raised the bar as far as I’m concerned. Watch for Google to pull more of their shenanigans at their whim…
Very cool….
@ Kelly – how much advanced notice did they give you?
It must have been the week it happened that they ran a banner across our member’s log-in screen notifying us that all earnings and stats would cease while they made some changes to the site – so it wasn’t a secret that changes were in the air.
Plus, I kept reading stories on other blogs about nonsense Google pulls occasionally..
I still think that they will probably sort it all out, but meanwhile they immediately went to work building something even better for the members which is alot more than I can say for some of the parking companies that I have tried.
As far as transparency, DE has been by far the best company to work with. Maybe even more importantly, for me, with technical expertise that is in the range of 0-negative, they actually give you a phone number to call and speak to support if you are ever in a tech vortex….
That is worth it’s weight in gold!
Kelly, that’s good that they informed you (at least on the web site). I guess not everyone logs into the web site frequently.
I guess the bigger story here is that Google canceled the account. Either it didn’t like the quality of the content or it didn’t like the quality of the traffic.
Our ad network at WhyPark has actually been live since March 2008 and is running well. We’ve never heard of AdSense accounts being canceled, but rather that some sites were no longer displaying AdSense ads while others were fine.
We’ve been constantly improving our ad feed by adding greater coverage, aggregating new ad networks and working daily to increase click-through rates and earnings. Having access to all of the data will also help us continue to improve and make the ad feed more effective for our customers.
Craig Rowe
http://www.WhyPark.com
@ Craig – thanks for the clarification about the Google adsense issue with WhyPark. I’ve read good things about your new direct ad feed, especially since you’re using Click Forensics to keep out click fraud.
This is not new news, DE lost their Google feed back in February – at which time (from memory) they switched to a YPN feed.
Google are not discriminative. With an AFD account you have multiple client IDs (read accounts) which are split between US/Worldwide and adult domains – you use them as you see fit! You have an accounts manager, you constantly discuss performance, template styles together with what you can (more like can’t) do.
ie a business relationship which they buy into.
With domainembarking, they were always on mission disaster – placing their own Google publisher account into the hands of any number of Chinese scammers (pretending to be from the US). Im surprised it took this long to get rebanned / they got it back to do all over again.
With whypark et al, they have no risk, its the publishers own account so risk is spread and considerably lowered.
@ Julia (who always has the inside scoop) – so they lost Adsense, added it again, and lost it again?
I cant be too sure on the dates, but same happened to evolanding.com – who were doing the same’ish thing till they got banned.
The “were not an MFA site” MFA sites are a little 2004 and Google will ban.
Publishers think that by cribbing some wikipedia text and adding it to a page emblazoned with the maximum of adsense links they somehow comply with the TOS. All untrue. Initially, Google were on the lookout for click fraud. Now they have that buttoned, they measure publishers like Yahoo on a TQ scoring mechanism. If your score falls foul to the mechanism you’re gone.
All about giving advertisers value for money. If a visitor clicks on an adsense link on your page by accident because you have it blended and so close to your “so called” content, yes, you will be awarded that click but then your TQ score will be negatively impacted upon. Do that too often and its goodbye.
I actually dont know why people even attempt to do these grey hat techniques anymore, for that boat sailed some while back.
Want money from Google? Do as they say! Build unique and compelling websites.
thanks Julia. I asked EVOlanding about Google when they switched and they ‘said’ it wasn’t canceled but they got the deal with Yahoo. Now they’ve ditched both and are on a private label feed.
So is whypark better than domain embarking?
@Floyd – have you just thawed from a cryogenic state?