Why Were My Ads Disabled?

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   radiantwritingposted 11 years ago

   I have a hub about Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge that was published in 2009 and has been read more than 71,000 times and another on the status of the Golden Gate Suicide Barrier that was published in 2011. Ads on both of these hubs were just disabled today (05-19-13), can anyone tell me why? And will I not earn any money for these any longer?

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You will find a warning on each individual Hub explaining why ads were disabled (the gist: suicide is not typically an ad safe subject).
      
      You can find more information here: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/rest … d_22757266

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      radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      HERE'S THE ANSWER:
      We recently began reviewing all of the content on the site for ad-safety.
      
      
      
      
      The ads were disabled based on keywords.
      
      We personally reviewed both of those Hub and determined one was okay for ads (https://hubpages.com/hub/What-Happened- … ate-Bridge).
      
      
      This Hub, http://radiantwriting.hubpages.com/hub/ … te-Bridge, includes content about suicide. This content is considered too sensitive for advertisers.
      
      We want hubs that are well-written and important to remain published, even if they cover topics that are too sensitive to be advertiser-friendly.
      
      Your hub will remain published, your HubScore will not be impacted, and you may use Amazon capsules. Let us know if you have any questions.
      
      For more information, please see: http://hubpages.com/faq/#adsdisabled
      
      ONE WAS OK AND ADS WERE TURNED BACK ON - THE OTHER IS OK, BUT TOO SENSATIVE TO RUN ADS - STILL PUBLISHED BUT NO ADS

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         radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         BUT, I RECEIVED THIS ON THE OTHER SUICIDE HUB:
         A link to your Hub: http://radiantwriting.hubpages.com/hub/ … ate-Bridge
         
         Dear radiantwriting,
         
         As you are part of the HubPages community, we want you to succeed, so we want to let you know that your Hub is at a disadvantage because it contains watermarked or pixelated images. Watermarks or pixelated images detract from the aesthetic appeal of a Hub and may damage your credibility as an online content creator. Images with conspicuous watermarks (even if they are your own) are also not permitted.  Please remove or replace all images and videos that are pixelated or contain conspicuous watermarks.
         
         We recommend checking out these three Learning Center guides:
         
         http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Mode … ow-Quality
         - to see some examples of watermarks and pixelated images.
         
         http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/legal-image-use
         - to learn about legal image use and how to properly attribute photos that are not your own.
         
         http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Taking-Great-Photos
         - for detailed tips on how to take great photos.
         
         Your Hub remains published, giving you the chance to address this violation. However, your Hub will be reviewed by moderators again in about a week, and may be unpublished if it has not been improved.
         
         Thank you for taking the time to update and improve your work. We want to see this Hub become a hit!
         
         Cheering you on,
         The HubPages Team

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      Georgie Loweryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have a Hub that talks about hate groups - who they are and how they're classified. When it was first published, ads were disabled by HubPages. Then they were enabled and now, within the last couple of days, they've been disabled again. I don't know, maybe they re-ran a filter or something.

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   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   Some suicide topics are permitted and others are not.  So hubpages may have cut the ads on a precautionary basis.

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   radiantwritingposted 11 years ago

   Thank you for your replys - why was it ok for 5 years and ads were just now cut? Did someone complain? Will I no longer make $ on these hubs? Should I just delete them? Does this affect my standing with HubPages?

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      LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I would leave the articles as they can at least bring in views which may translate to views of other hubs that do feature ads. Will deleting them affect your standing at HP?, probably not

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         radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Luis

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4. 61

   yupperclubposted 11 years ago

   I am thinking that maybe the subject of suicide is not something advertisers would want to endorse.  Google is coming out with new requirements and life evolves.  Suicide is (or was, at least) AGAINST THE LAW.  Maybe new things are starting to happen.

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      Carola Finchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Writing about suicide does not mean we are endorsing or promoting it. It is a terrible reality we must face and deal with. I am all for articles that help prevent suicide from happening, which is what I had tried to do with my writing.

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         radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I completely agree

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   Carola Finchposted 11 years ago

   I wrote a hub on overcoming suicial thoughts and my ads were disabled too. I chose to disable the ads myself and let the article stand in the hope that it would help people rather than delete it. It has been fine ever since.  I decided to accept the revenue loss (though I suppose that the number of views will still count).   From what I have read, certain subjects trigger the automatic filter.   Advertisers are what gives us the amazing  opportunity to write here, so we need to accept their restrictions.

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      radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks again for the replys - this is very helpful to understand

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   mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

   Yep, my article on 'Do You Really Want to Commit Suicide' has just had ads disabled. Bonkers when you consider it is written to tell people why they shouldn't commit suicide and has been published for several years without issue. This article used to get so many comments that eventually I had to disable comments on this article because it was dragging me down, and because I was becoming an agony aunt to suicidal people on a daily basis. I still feel disabling ads on this is going 'too far' so am going to look into moving the article to somewhere else like Wizzley etc and see if they react as strongly to what is a helpful article (and one that got many many views every day).

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      radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree - One of my favorite writers was blocked from HubPages, because his Hubs were too opinionated. Awhile ago I had a Hub that was censored and ads blocked because it was about how doctors prescribe certain prescription drugs because of kick-backs from manufacturers. My Suicide Hub is about prevention - even quoting the Suicide Prevention Hotline phone number several times. Three mothers who lost their children to this horrible thing on the Golden Gate Bridge have befriended me on Facebook and even invited me to a get together in their sons name in his memory. I look at http://hubpages.com/success/ - it seems the most popular hubs and most encouraged hubs are how to, travel and food and cooking - nothing to in depth and absolutley nothing controversial. Thanks for the comment

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      yupperclubposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I feel strongly about not committing suicide, too.  Shame you became the "victim" of suicide seekers.  You can maybe also try using another ad company.  Adhitz is one that does not pay much but they will permit almost anything and is worldwide.  Try adhitz.  I used to use them all the time when I had trouble with Google or in case I did not want to risk my Google account.  If you get a lot of readers, you may be able to make some good money with them.  Best of luck.

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         radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Yupperclub

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            yupperclubposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            any time radiant writing!

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Trouble is that on HP you can't pick and choose the ad companies you use, we have either the HP Ad program, Adsense, Amazon or Ebay. The only way I can use anything else is either to set up a website devoted to one article (in this case my suicide one), or find another site that is a content farm that allow you select alternative advertisers on an article by article basis (and right now I don't think I know of any such site).

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   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   The thing we all have to remember is that Adsense robots cannot read.   All they can do is look for prohibited subjects.
   
   That means it doesn't matter whether you're writing for or against a prohibited topic - if you're writing about it, you're breaking Adsense rules, and you're therefore putting your Adsense account at risk if it's noticed.
   
   Just because something has been published on HP for a long time doesn't mean it's OK - it just means that HP's filters have missed it for one reason or another.  Now that older Hubs are being put through QAP, it's likely more "non-compliant" Hubs will be picked up. 
   
   I do agree it's important to discuss these issues, but I'd appreciate it if you disable ads on those Hubs.   Bear in mind that Wizzley lost all its Adsense for several weeks because one member broke the rules - if you want to risk your Adsense account on your own blog, that's fine, but it's not very responsible to take risks on a site where you could affect other people's income too.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thing is, I wasn't aware that 'suicide' was a prohibited subject, and I also wonder why if such articles are a problem, how come after several years neither myself or HP experienced any problems from Adsense/Google regarding these articles? We all know that often HP do take the guidelines a bit too far and penalise things that it is unlikely Google would have a problem with in reality (this has been said before by many vintage Hubbers).

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   Carola Finchposted 11 years ago

   My article had its ads disabled by an automated filter and not HubPages.  The article went through the quality check and was published a few days earlier.  I could appeal to the HubPage editors who already approved it, but there is not much point if the automated filters keep flagging it.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Actually I think there is every point. Automated filters are not infallible, and on occasion they make mistakes. Sometimes asking the 'team' to take a manual look results in them overriding the automatic filter and allowing your article to have adverts. The 'quality check' was done by 'MTurkers' not HP staff, these people do not always get it right and have to rush their checks in order to earn their money (pittance for most). Far better to query this and get a real member of staff to review your Hub.

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         MelissaBarrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         It is not the job of an MTurk worker to check for TOS violations.  QAP has nothing to do with it.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Fair enough

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   lovebuglenaposted 11 years ago

   Go to edit your hub and check the setting there to make sure it is not set to turn off ads. You might have accidentally switched it to off. Maybe ads were disabled though because of the content of the hub. If the hub is about suicide I wouldn't think it'd be a great idea to have ads on it. What kinda of ads would there be? They surely have to be related to the content.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Because of the way Google Adsense works it tends to show adverts related to people's recent online searches, e.g. a while back I looked into the 'No No Hair Remover' for my sister, and for weeks afterwards whatever type of article I was reading was always showing 'No No Hair Remover' adverts, so what you see is no longer necessarily related to the topic of the article it is on. Any relevant adverts that were shown seemed to be mostly self help books, counselling services etc, not products that would help people to kill themselves.
      
      In my case the adverts were definitely turned off by an automatic filter as it said so on the hub. When I asked for a manual review I was told the content was too adult in nature so the ads could not be reinstated. This article has been published for 3 or 4 years now without it having caused any problems either for HP or to Adsense. I would have thought any issues Adsense might have had with it would have come up by now if there were any.

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I don't think there will ever be issues with adsense and your hub - as long as ads are turned off.  Turning them back on, however, could cause major problems for the entire site as adsense will then "see" the hub and take notice.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I didn't turn the ads off, HP did, so there is no way I could turn them back on even if I were daft enough to blatantly defy HP's decision. My feelings are that as my article had adverts on it for several years without Adsense complaining or doing anything about it, the odds are they didn't have a problem with the article.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I'm not sure that's a safe assumption to make.  I was amazed when Wizzley lost its advertising recently - in spite of all the threats made by Adsense, it's the first time I've seen a big site penalized, and it made me wonder if they had decided to tighten up.  Google's search engine doesn't stand still, so we can't be sure Adsense will stand still either.

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                  mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I went online tonight and checked out Google's publishing/content rules, and didn't see any reference to suicide being a prohibited topic. On top of this I just did a general Google search for 'suicide' and every page of search results had Google Ads at the top and to the side, all relating to counselling/support groups etc. I even found Google Ads on the Mayo Clinic website on their page relating to suicide, I also found Google ads on another site in the results (the remaining sites were mostly organisations or support groups who don't use any advertising of this type). It is confusing when even search results show Google ads.

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                     radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Misty,
                     these are the type of ads my hub used to have on it. I did see somewhere that Self Harm is questionable. But as I said, it ran for 4 years and over 71,000 reads and am only now having an issue. I posted Hubpages reply above. Thanks for your help

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               PaulaHenry1posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I so agree with you...It's not Adsense that has a problem here...I am in the same situation.

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      radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      thanks, lovebug - makes sense - i will check it

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10. 76

    psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

    I think it is grossly unfair to say every hub mentioning suicide promotes suicide.  being able to talk about it openly might even help with prevention.

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    psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

    The rules change all the time.  It is probably more and more important to avoid offending Adsense.

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    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    I think any well-written article on self-harm should remain published, complete with advertising because there are plenty of advertisers willing to use those keywords for their services.
    
    The subject itself is of extreme value to a high proportion of internet searchers.
    
    But I do also understand that Google sees itself as the global moral police.
    
    Well. in keeping with their stance, they should apologise forthwith to the government of the UK and agree to pay back all the millions of pounds their tax avoidance measures have saved them.
    
    And they should teach their employees that 'honesty is the best policy', especially when hauled before a parliamentary committee.

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       sallybeaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       On a lighter note, I had ads disabled on a Hub - 'How to wet felt a pair of baby booties' - which resulted in my having to change the title to 'Baby Boots' before ads would be accepted on it. .  I wrote to Hubpages to request that I be allowed to use the correct words 'baby booties'  but i had no response to my request.  Perhaps those Robots know something I don't know!

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    prettydarkhorseposted 11 years ago

    I think HP is doing this to be on the safe side (same with broken links - unnatural links) as G will unleash a big update in the coming months. It is sad that many subject matter are a no no for advertisers and G does not like it in general. Well, I am not sure about it because things can change for the main reason that G algorithm is in constant change.
    
    I have a hub about domestic violence and it was part of a topic which hubbers wrote under "HubMob" some two years ago and the ads were disabled because of the topic. I changed the keyword "domestic violence" to "spousal maltreatment".

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    Anonymous00posted 11 years ago

    #Speechless

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    radiantwritingposted 11 years ago

    Thank you everyone for all the feedback - you have helped so much in understanding this and the fact that "Things are obviously changing" - where do you go to publish blogs without sensorship? And make a little $???

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Doubt such a place exists unless it is your own site or blog, and then the risk to your Adsense account is all your own (but you might get away with more there than content sites who tend to air very much on the side of caution, often to an unfathomable degree!)

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          radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks, Misty! Totally agree

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    PaulaHenry1posted 11 years ago

    All I know is that I came here tonight to add another HUb and found out that I have Hubs now blocked that have been up for years. This is absolutely absurd. I think I will continue not posting...

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       radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I just deleted several of mine - including the one that has been read 71,000 times, since 2009. I am going to find somewhere else to write more in depth ads - maybe blogger? and write passively for HubPages - they have been great, but things have somewhat changed and I can see I am not the only one seeing it!!!

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       radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I just googled my Hub about Suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge and found that someone had backlinked it their Hub - Censorship is necessary in some instances - but this makes me sad
       http://dlhpowell.wordpress.com/

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       Anonymous00posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with your position. Why not try to get a Blogger account and port those articles to Blogger. You end up with ALOT more control via Blogger. More control over themes, preferences, and layout. More control over content as well. Blogger's tied in with Adsense also.  It might be worth looking into.

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    DigbyAdamsposted 11 years ago

    I lost a fair amount of income when Wizzley lost its adsense account. So I do hope that HubPages is very conservative in its judgement on this matter. I have websites where I put content that is not Adsense appropriate. I'm very careful not to use my Adsense account on those sites. I also don't link to them. If you read the Adense TOS, you'll find that you aren't supposed to link to them as well. There are advertisers that I can use to monetize them.
    
    If you write things that aren't suitable for Adsense and you want to make money from your writing, they you have to figure out what other ways there are.

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       radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       thanks, digby - good info - makes sense

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          radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          and that is why I delted the blog in question

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             radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             oops - deleted

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    portablesposted 11 years ago

    I wonder if the automated systems are linking it to self-harm?

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       radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Here's what HubPages sent me:
       HERE'S THE ANSWER:
       We recently began reviewing all of the content on the site for ad-safety.
       
       
       
       
       The ads were disabled based on keywords.

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    paiva25posted 11 years ago

    I got my adsense account approved just yesterday through Youtube.
    How can I check which hubs have adsense enabled on them?

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       prettydarkhorseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Were you able to connect your account here at HP with adsense? Check this HP blog about this :
       
       http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/signup-AdSense
       
       I already have a Google AdSense Publisher ID
       
       If you already have a Google AdSense Publisher ID, adding it to HubPages is easy.
       
       While signed-in to HubPages, go to My Account > Earnings > Settings
       Click the "get started" button next to Google AdSense
       Check the "yes" radio button after the question: "Do you already have a Google AdSense Account?"
       Click "Next". You will be asked to sign in to or select the Google Account that is associated with your existing Google AdSense account. Then you will be asked for your permission for HubPages to access your Google Adsense account information.

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          paiva25posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I've done that. It shows as active.
          What I wanted to know is that how can you tell whether adsense has been disabled on a particular hub..
          And thanks for taking the time off to write down all the steps

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             prettydarkhorseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Look at the appearance of the adsense and HP ads here - http://hubpages.com/faq/#hpads-appearance
             Did you opt for adsense only?
             And yes yupperclub is right, go to your account, under Statistics Page and check the status of each of your hub. Check the bottom part for the symbol and their meaning. Usually when ad is disabled, the HP staff will email you.

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    yupperclubposted 11 years ago

    I would try just going to your account and clicking on the hub you are curious about.  If adsense is abled, the ads will appear.  Otherwise they won't.

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       radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       if the ads are disabled, there will be an icon next to the title with a $ sign witn a / through it. you will see this when you look at the "my account" area showing all your hubs

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          paiva25posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks alot all of you..had totally forgotten about the $ sign..

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             radiantwritingposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             your welcome - just watch that page and any alerts such as broken link or ads disabled will pop up next to the title

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