My Google Sites got Banned

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   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   Do I look like a spammer?  Do I act like a cheat?  Do you think I would do anything that would bring down my Google Sites?
   
   I noticed this morning that I had had three whole searches to my Google Site in the last month - big news for me.  So I thought I'd tweak it a bit, add some more content - after all if I can get a searcher maybe I can get another one.
   
   Ten minutes editing and up pops a message saying my Account is Suspended.
   
   Yes - I have appealed.  What the f--- I am appealing for when I have done nothing wrong I don't know. And why on earth can't they even say what triggered it?
   
   Not very happy.  I hate the internet.

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      Karen Nposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry to hear that, seems a lot of us are having problems with Google these days.
      Google is a ________ fill in the blank.

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      andycoolposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You changed a lot since you joined HubPages! Your original gesture is no more visible... cheers!
      
      How is it possible to judge someone by reading some of their articles and forum posts?
      
      "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato

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         Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I like the quote, and I think it is very true / apt.
         
         But I am not sure how I have changed.  I like humor... and I like ranting. Sometimes at the same time.

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         1. 87

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I've never used Google sites (I'd never even heard of it!) but I went to your homepage Mark, and found it.
            
            Is that the site they said was banned? https://sites.google.com/site/gooderthangood/home
            
            How can it be banned when I can still read it? Or are you just not allowed to update it? Do you still get paid if someone clicks a Google ad there?

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            1. 81

               Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Hi Izzy, that site is a new one I started after the other five or six got taken down.  I guessed that something was wrong with my content or layout in the others, or that someone had reported me, or something.  So I set up a new little one just to see if that disappears as well.
               
               It hasn't yet but I don't know how long to wait before becoming confident it won't be.  Of the others that have been banned - five I cannot access at all and the other one is"suspended under review", but I don't hold out much hope.
               
               Content wise they were pretty much the same thing as I do on here.
               
               Apart from all that - I thought Google Sites was really neat.  Completely free, easy to set up.
               
               edit:  They had no dodgy SEO or backlinks on them.  No profane or questionable content - in my opinion.  No affiliate links.  No Amazon.  Adsense, but only to their guidelines.
               
               One, my first, was full of copied pictures from Google Images - I didn't know the rules when I set that up and had often thought about deleting it myself.
               
               One was a money dictionary - just popular terms and what they mean.
               
               An addiction site - few pages on coping.
               
               And my main site - the one under review - was just a mess of a spoof, about people trying to, er, set up a web site and make money. 
               
               Thinking about it, I reckon all of them had at least one unattributed Google image.  And that is the only thing I can think of that caused the problem.

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                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I cannot imagine your writing anything to get yourself banned!
                  
                  So, just in case, I will not be using Google sites. I like Blogger and have never been banned yet, so I'll just stick to that.
                  
                  Be very wary of any banning from Google though. I know someone who lost not only all their blogs, but their email and their adsense account too. They got them all back but not after a lot of tears and calls to Google.

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                     Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes thanks Izzy, that would be my main concern.  I will be good as gold from now on, hence my gooderthangood name.

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                        WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        ?

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                        1. 81

                           Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           What?

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               Debby Bruckposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Dear Mark. I read through your new website. My suggestion to think positively and not downplay your incredible writing ability, charisma, charm, humor and knowledge of the internet. That does not mean acting arrogant by any means. However, give credit where credit is due. You've had tremendous success on Hubpages, gained many fans and friends, written almost 2000 posts here and I don't know how many Hubpages - all in just 10 months. WHEW! That's an enviable position.
               
               Please keep us informed about your new works on Google. Be well, Debby

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               1. 81

                  Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Debbie, very nice of you!  For once, I wasn't trying to self promote, it was a genuine moan about being banned.
                  
                  2,000 posts?  Sheesh, I have been a bit busy as you say.  If they had been pages rather than posts I could have probably done another couple of hundred.
                  
                  And ten months.  Hurtling towards that One Year accolade. 
                  
                  Anyway, thanks again, much appreciated.

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      bgamallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Make ebooks. Then supplement with writing on the net. Put that writing in the ebooks. Write a topic per hub and put them on Amazon and Smashwords.
      
      And by the way, because of Panda, google is broken. Google can no longer guarantee original content it's due.

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 12 years ago

   Mr. Ewbie: where the sites at HubPages or somewhere else? 

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      Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      They were at...
      
      Google Sites.
      
      It's Google's free website offering.  Sign in, create a site, have fun.
      
      Then get banned.

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         thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Considering some of the trash I have put on Google sites I am genuinely surprised1

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         Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Google banning itself!

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3. 81

   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   There is an irony to it.  I am improving my website to make it useful for visitors, non spammy, 'quality' content, useful 'ish information about making pages look nice - basically trying to provide something that a searcher might like and find useful - all that Panda is supposedly about...
   
   and they ban me! 
   
   If Matt Cutts wants to know what a violation really feels like he can come round my house and bend over...

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      bgamallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Matt Cutts is ruining the internet. He is a thief and a pig. Sorry, didn't mean to offend pigs.

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   Fiction Tellerposted 12 years ago

   Bummer.  Is it Google Sites that banned you?  Or did AdSense disable ads to Google Sites?  Or something else?
   
   If it's GS, my guess is it's something to do with their fairly vague content policies.  One thing that might trigger something in GS is affiliate links.  For some inexplicable reason (since they have their own affiliate network and do allow AdSense on GS), they're not allowed on GS, but the rule is not very obvious.

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   softhardposted 12 years ago

   Google is very strict on these things. nobody knows when they do what? thats why i only stick to gmail,google analytics in regards of google proudcts.

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      zanaworldposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      one doesn't know why they have banned or what is wrong with contents?
      
      It is there I have too have stopped using Google's many of the services - using only when I really need it.  Currently using Adsense, Gmail...  I have started alternate email as well with one with Yahoo and another with Hotmail.
      
      Now I am using yahoo email more for everyday activities.  I using Gmail for the old contacts and friends.  For new one, I am providing only the yahoo email.
      
      I have stopped using Blogger for a long time ago.  It was difficulting understanding their policies and rules and conditions?

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         Debby Bruckposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Please explain why you are using so many different email accounts. How will using gmail email effect you?

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   jokeapptvposted 12 years ago

   i mite try the google sites for fun...........

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   Cheeky Girlposted 12 years ago

   Wow, so much for the advantage of Google indexing their sites more frequently than on other platforms or domains. Blogger seems sound enough and Wordpress is still king, as far as I know. I will stick with what I know works well...namely Weebly.

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8. 81

   Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

   Just to update this.
   
   I have four or five google site websites still disabled.  That means I can't even enter them and grab content or amend in any way.  I can't even delete them!
   
   I have one, that was my main one, under threat of disabling.  No reason stated just the vague terms of whatever.  Find me one of my 180 Hub pages that breaks any rules and I'll accept it as a fair cop.
   
   It's garbage in my opinion.
   
   And my latest one that I just popped up a couple of pages as a test is still apparently fine.  But then - why would I want to bother?
   
   I have mailed Google and... no response.  No reason, no explanation.
   
   Not interested in playing games or begging them - but I will say this.  I thought that Google Sites was an excellent free way to get into websites.
   
   Not any more.

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      bgamallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Write a hub on why people should not use Google free websites.

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9. 80

   sabrebIadeposted 12 years ago

   I have come to the conclusion that Google has no idea what it is doing.
   
   I get e-mails asking me why some of my blogs are not running AdSense and it's because Google pulled the AdSense themselves!
   Of course the e-mails are all no reply so I can't e-mail them back and tell them that.
   
   They send me an e-mail saying that they are getting new higher paying ads on Sexual Reproduction and Health and that I should focus on that, but when you do, they run PSAs because you are writing about Sexual Reproduction and Health.
   
   Scraper sites outrank original sites because of what THEY did ::cough::Panda::cough:: and they want YOU to find the sites now and tell them about it.
   
   They tell me I need to run bigger AdSense ads on my Hubs (like I control that) yet my Hubs have higher eCPM and CTR than the blogs that I am running the Google suggested sizes on. 
   
   Google has become some all-powerful entity with a cosmic shotgun and really, really bad aim.

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10. 87

    IzzyMposted 12 years ago

    I was going to suggest you go for your own dot com but when I checked out http://www.markewbie.com/ I see you have already bagged it!
    
    In YOUR case, this is an excellent move.
    
    You might not make money in the usual channels, Mark, but build up a following or strike lucky when a journalist realises your potential, and you will be up, up and away!
    
    You have a special talent! Probably best suited to the written word as read n books, but until you are up to writing your own, your online stuff will always win you fans

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