the dreaded email

[josh]

Just when I was starting to make some serious money, I got the gruesome news-my adsense account was shut down. Basically, it was for having too many duplicate pages I had built when doing adsense arbitrage several months ago.

I didn't realize there was any danger of getting shut down for this. I had long since stopped using those sites, and virtually 100% of my income was coming from sites that did not have duplicate pages that I have built since. However, what's done is done.

My question is, my mom has a separate adsenes account, and i'm wondering if I should just transfer the 5 domains that were earning 80% of the income (the 80/20 rule) to her account, and if there is any chance of Google shutting her account down as well if I do this? As I said, these 5 domains that were making all the money were not the reason my acount was shut down.

If I just added her code to my sites, and set up tracking channels in her account, assuming the sites are in compliance with adsense rules, there shouldn't be any problems of Google recognizing them from my account and shutting her down, right?

Of course, I could also monetize them with affiliate products and other pay per click search engines, but I don't want to give up on adsense just yet. Any feedback is much appreciated.

Best,

Josh

[Sydney]

Josh, I remember when you did that arbitrage. Too bad it's come back to haunt you again. I honestly don't know what to say about what happened, since we've never had a problem with Google. I have written and asked them questions, though, and they've always been very responsive. Why don't you reply and ask them if you can fix this, before you do anything else?

If that doesn't work, I'll ask around for you and see if anyone else has had this problem.

Let us know what happens.

[Techie]

I agree with Sydney on first simply asking if you take down those sites that violated the TOS and agree not to do that anymore would they reinstate your account. You have a good chance of them doing so.

If they say no I would personally get a PMB box, DBA and new EIN then open a new adsense account and apply for it using a newly created website. Once accepted I would change the code to the new account on the old sites.

Since the other sites weren't the violaters I wouldn't worry about Google getting upset at them. However as stated at first I would simply ask Google if you can unfreeze your account by deleting and abandoning those old violating sites.

[josh]

Thanks Sydney and Jeremy for the feedback. I actually did ask Google to reinstate the account, but I never got a response, so I take it the answer's no. I will use Jeremy's suggestion about applying for a new account, that sounds like my best bet.

Best,

Josh

[josh]

Jeremy,

I tried applying for a new EIN number, but they said as long as it was a sole proprietorship (like my last business name) I would just keep the old number, and couldn't get a new one. Also, Google doesn't even ask for this in the adsense application form, so is this necessary? If so, how do I go about getting a new one?

Best,

Josh

[Techie]

Hello Josh,

Yeah that creates a problem if your last business was a sole prop as the IRS doesn't hand out endless amounts of EINs. Unfortunately now your only bet is to use your own SSN or create a corporation (INC or LLC).

When applying for a new Google Adsense account you will be asked for your EIN/SSN/TIN at some point.