I put the offer on the 2 bedroom condo in Port Coquitlam. Unfortunately there is another person interested in it as well, so now we have to sit and wait  for the vendor to decide which offer he likes better.  This is a 2 bedroom loft/ penthouse suite for $199,000. Over 1000 square feet with a sweet  patio up top that is awesome. I really love this place and I would have no problem moving in myself (If I was single). The loft has amazing vaulted cathedral ceilings that gives you a really open feeling.  Anyways I took a bunch of photos so if/when  we get the place I can list it on Craigslist right away for renting. It should rent for $1500 - $1600. You can see the photos of the condo below, looks pretty sweet right?

Putting all your eggs in one basket, something that many people seem to do when working online. It’s easy to when you find something that is working great why bother diversifying? There are numerous reasons to diversify your online income. If the big money maker you have been raking in $1000s from suddenly dies then you’re screwed.

If the niche you are promoting becomes over saturated by other affiliates then what? You need to think ahead and so do I. Years ago when I first started making money online, I created about 20 sites on different niches ranging from coffee machines, rc cars, cell phones, hdtv and others.  Back then I didn’t pay for traffic like I do now. Instead I used to write content that ranked high in the search engines and I received organic search traffic for me, pretty cool right? Actually it was nice while it lasted but then Google did one of there famous updates and all my organic traffic started to crumble, I still had Yahoo and MSN but eventually it all fizzled away.

I had to adapt or die and I did, this is part of the reason I got into PPC marketing. I needed to make money or what, find a  job? HELL NO!

I’m starting to feel the need to spread my eggs around in different baskets, and this is part of this weeks goal. I am going to start researching new niches, completely different from what I do now.

Logging into my account AdWords account this morning and I see that I have 0 impressions. I then do a quick search on Google.com for some of the keywords that I pay for, they are not there. I get a little worried but at the same time I think it might be one of Google’s little glitches. I then contact an adwords specialist via AdWords online chat.

I explain to the person on the chat what is going on and I wait a few minutes as they are “checking into the problem”. Unsure of the what the problem is, the person then “escalates” it to the “AdWords technical department”. I wait 2 day to get a response back (still no traffic) and I get this lovely email.

Google’s email

“Thank you for your patience. It has come to our attention that your
Google AdWords account does not comply with our terms of service and
advertising policies. You have repeatedly submitted ads that violated our
Affiliate URL policies in a related account. As a result, this account has
been suspended, and your ads will no longer run on Google.

As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to
terminate advertisements for any reason. To view our Terms and Conditions,
please visit  https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.

We appreciate your cooperation.”

I almost had a heart attack, after I read this seriously. I have a family to feed and Google just turned off the waterfall of money. I admit it was my fault, but it was unintentional really. I never meant to break their rules, it’s just that their rules are so vague, they are seriously hard to interpret. They could at least have some suggestions on how I could fix my landing page so I wouldn’t be violating their terms. Their only suggestion was that I direct link to the affiliate company, basically scrap my landing page all together. Is that a good idea, I don’t think since it limits my ability to control how the user interacts with the page. Basically my landing page was designed to convert with a big “click here” button, with some basic information about the site in bullet points,  something they don’t like as it is an “affiliate bridge page” in their eyes. It’s tough to make AdWords happy and at the same time have a profitable campaign going, that converts into buyers.

I emailed back stating I was truly sorry and it would never ever happen again.

This is their response

“As mentioned in our previous email, your Google AdWords accounts have been
suspended due to multiple policy disapprovals. We are unable to revoke
your account suspensions, and we will not accept advertisements from you
in the future.

Please note that our support team is unable to help you with this issue,
and we ask that you do not contact them about this matter. If you need
more information about our content policy guidelines, please visit
https://adwords.google.com/select/contentpolicy.html.”

I then called then and pleaded my case, still no go. The AdWords specialists decision is final… ( like a judgement from God). I cannot do anything, I am banned from Google for life, FOREVER. I explained that I was truly sorry and also explained I spend roughly $45,000 per month with them on advertising, no go. $45,000 x 12 months=$540,000 per year that they are saying goodbye to. I am truly in shock that they would let that amount of money disappear, for such silly “violations”.I got kicked to the curb, and I was completely shocked as you might imagine.

Google is my business without it I have nothing. This to me is like life and death, honestly. It’s how I support my family and how I planned on retiring.

So Now What?

Well I started researching online for “banned by AdWords”, “suspended by by AdWords”, “AdWords suspension” and so on. It seems like Google AdWords teams like to ban people very frequently and easily. For the time being I am relaxing and remaining calm. I am still in shock as to how they treated me, I wasn’t trying to advertise porn, it wasn’t gambling. I made the mistake of not designing my affiliate landing page properly (which they call a “bridge page”). I didn’t realize how to create the right design for an affiliate landing page so as to not break Google’s golden rules. I was wrong I admit it, but do they need to ban me forever for advertising for such small mistakes. Even criminals get second chances. We are human and we make mistakes, don’t you Google??? Have compassion for people, it would do you a world of good.

In any case it’s their company they can do whatever they like. I would love to know what amount of advertising income is derived from people like myself, affiliate marketers? They hate us, but how much money do we make Google AdWords? I would love to know………

I did find numerous posts from people wondering if they can create a new AdWords account. Apparently this is a difficult task to do, to say the least. In order to create a new Google AdWords account from what I have read you need to do the following:

1. New business name
2. New address
3. New name.
4. New credit card
5. New websites
6. New computer
7. New IP address

That is an insane amount to do for being banned from AdWords, to get back in. I guess it would be worth it to do, but seriously I’m too stressed to even bother. Maybe I’ll get my real estate liscense and forget AdWords and their Nazi attitude. It’s amazing how poorly they treat people., but what comes around goes around. No one can stay on top forever, especially if you bit the hand that feeds you…..

Ok, the title is dramatic, sue me, lol.I had a few minutes to spare before I head over to my parents place for Saturday night BBQ.

What has been going on with me the last few days?

1. I sold my 4plex in Winnipeg, so I celebrated last night by buying a bag of Doritos chips and a bag of that Smart food popcorn stuff  from 7-11, yah, yah, yah!
2. I planted grass seeds 15 days ago and they are growing and filling in the blank spots I had on my lawn, yah!
3. I have the SpiderMan 3 move as well as the Fantastic 4 movie downloaded and ready to be watched tonight, yah!

Next Weeks Agenda:

1. Start checking out investment condos in New Westminster next week for under $220,000 (Ozzie Jurock recommended New West condos as a good buy, I agree) Ozzie says, “We particularly favour New Westminster, but investors have to be careful. There is a lot happening in the Royal City and despite a “benchmark” price of a typical condominium at $304,000 in May, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, we had little trouble finding condos for $200,000 or just slightly above. Warning: you will see listings in New West for condos as low as the $150,000, but most of these are clustered in three leaky condo buildings. (Eg: low-rise 312 Carnarvon - $1.5-$2 million in repairs needed - realtor’s estimate) and two high-rises on Agnes St. (assessments to $100,000 per suite for repairs).” But there are renovated older New West condo buildings (watch for listings on Ginger Street) that offer good value in the $200,000 and less range, according to veteran area realtor Doris Gee of ReMax Central (604-432-7888). Example: 340 Ginger Ave. 830 sq. ft. 1 bedroom, no restrictions, strata fees $159 per month: Asking price $189,000.“
2. Increase sales on my pay per click campaigns, I will not be stopped! I want my 20 investment properties, 17 more to go. Big dream maybe, but even bigger reality.
3. Pray for more sun (Today is sunny, but will it remain???)

Random pictures I took while were downtown this morning:

Joe Fortes Car on Robson St & Thurlow St, Vancouver - June 14, 2008

Joe Fortes Car on Robson St & Thurlow St, Vancouver - June 14, 2008

city/sky shot on Hornby Street / Smithe Street, Vancouver - June 14, 2008

Moving my sites over to the new LiquidWeb hosting has been a pain, and I haven’t even tried to transfer this blog over yet. I have never transferred a blog over from one web host to another. I found a few tutorials that should make it pretty easy to move this blog with ease.

For the next week I have a few goals that I want to achieve:

1. I am going to implement the free pay per click tracking software called Prospero202, so I can cut wasted clicks that don’t convert into buyers. A penny saved is a penny earned, if I cut my pay per click costs that is money in my pocket. Why spend more than I need to, seems silly.
2. I plan to add to my daily pay per click budget to maximize the amount of clicks I am receiving from my current pay per click campaigns. If you are maxing out your daily budget my 12pm , then you are loosing money for no reason.
3. I will be expanding more into the niche that is making me the most money. I was trying a few other niches with some success, but it’s always smartest to expand into an area that you are already an expert in. There is less to learn if you already have experience in that market, and your chances of making more money in the same niche is quite high since you are already successful in it.
4. I will try to lower some bids on certain ad groups to get the best return for the money I spend.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Carrots in the produce section at Whole Foods in The West Vancouver Village