On the 9th of September 2021, I received a surprising email from AdSense saying “Your Google Publisher Account has been disabled” upon further investigation, it seemed that my AdSense account was banned due to “invalid click activity” and I had no idea what this even meant or how it could have happened.

So I did some digging…

And this is what I found out…

Google, YouTube, & AdSense do not care about individual creators!

In the Spring of 2021, just when everything in life seemed to be going back to normal after the lockdowns, I decided that I wanted to pursue an interest in a college project based on creating a website. So I spent the Summer break building up this website that was based on providing art resources to students for free, sharing other students' articles with them, and also providing free portfolio storage (I was taking an extended diploma in Art & Design, and had also spent the last 3–4 years creating content for my YouTube channel, which was all based around my own art but had never been monetised due to not reaching the threshold of requirements).

So, after I set up my website, I decided to show my teachers and classmates… and to my absolute shock, it took off!

Everyone in the art department was using my site, and I was getting traffic and content uploaded to it like I’d never even thought about.

Now, I was 18 when I created this website, and I was doing it pretty much as a project for college, and I didn't even know what an IP address was. I was an artist that had an idea to make a few people's lives easier in the art world.

A few days after my website started getting loads of traction, a friend of mine suggested that I put ads onto it to see if I could earn some money, and I thought it was a great idea, so I looked into the best monetisation platforms to use, and like many people, I decided to go with AdSense (I had also built my site with Wix, and they only really support AdSense ad implementation).

A only put on 3–4 ads on the site as I wanted people to focus on the content, not the ads, and then a few days later, I was earning some really nice income, and then a week or so after that, I got the email saying my account had been deactivated, and that I was not allowed to make a new account using a different email or anything, and so I filled out an appeal form then very same day as receiving threat devastating email, as in my mind, I had done nothing wrong, and I was sure I would get my account back in a few hours.

I couldn't have been more wrong!

AdSense sent back an email saying that they had reviewed my case, and that they were not going to reinstate my AdSense account.

I was so confused by all this, so I started asking around my college and classmates about it all, and I found out that all the computers at the college use the same IP address, and also that a whole group of my classmates loved my website and wanted to support me so they decided to click on the ads a whole bunch of times over a period of time (which is an action that I would never condone) and then I realised that this must be the reason my account got banned.

So, I filled out another appeal form, so hopeful that Google would listen to me and that it was an honest misunderstanding. I wrote out every little detail about what had happened, and explained my story, hoping that they would understand and I would get my account back.

I was so so wrong!

Once again they came back with the most mundane email, and at this point I was starting to panic and become rather upset about the whole situation.

So I decided to try and fool the so-called ‘God of the internet named Google’ by creating a new AdSense account under my main email address, thinking that I’ve had the account forever, and they may see that I’ve always been a loyal Google user so I might be able to get a new account for AdSense up and running.

I signed up and everything and then within a day of being accepted into the programme, I was told my account was related to a blocked account and that this one was also now closed down permanently.

So I decided to sidetrack my website, and focused solely on my YouTube channel, as being a content creator/artist is really all I’ve dreamt of, and I honestly can’t imagine a better scenario where I get to make videos of my art and teach people on YouTube about how to draw and paint.

A few months went by, and all of a sudden, one of my videos became really popular, and I was finally about to reach the threshold of becoming monetised on YouTube and my dreams were finally coming true… I was in college, watching my laptop on the YouTube analytics, and boom, I had reached the requirements, 4 years of content creation and finally I was able to start earning something back from my efforts. My thought process as this point was that if I could start earning something… anything off of my YouTube efforts, I could help support myself slightly through university, and I was over the moon with happiness I had reached this point…

(Now at this point I didn’t actually know YouTube ran solely off of AdSense or anything like that, I thought it was a completely separate way of earning to be quite honest… I know, stupid right!)

I hit the apply button, and within minutes, I was told I can’t monetise my videos because my account is linked to a closed AdSense account, and I honestly felt my entire embodiment just sink with sadness.

I filled out 3 more appeal forms, before reaching this point where, I realised I needed to get my account and sort this whole mishap out… so I got on the phone to try and ring Google and speak to someone, literally anyone who I could try explaining my story too, that failed and no one answered at all, so I tried calling the London based office, also no answer, then I tried social media, forums, every single Google or AdSense account or contact I could find, and I found that AdSense has absolutely no contact form, email, or any form of support… I was basically being told that my account was banned for life and I wouldn’t even get the chance to explain my situation. So I went on LinkedIn, and found the AdSense account page, and contacted everyone I could find who worked there but to no avail. AdSense just did not care, and I am 90% sure that they don’t even have a single person who actually works in the department at all.

So… after all that, I fell into a really deep depression. I won’t lie, I was at the borderline of just giving up everything, and quitting completely in life. I didn’t even know it was possible to feel that down and depressed about anything at all… but I decided to keep filling out an appeal form every single month, and try to explain my story and just pray someone will listen to it, and I’m still filling out those monthly forms to try and get somewhere with it.