I'm about to lose my Google AdSense account. And I'm actually very bitter about it. Why? Well, I'll give you the text of the email I received from them to explain why:

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks or impressions have
been generated on the Google ads on your site(s) through users of
third-party programs paid or provided with other incentives to visit
your site. Such programs may include, but are not limited to auto-surf,
pay-to-surf, pay-to-read, or pay-to-click sites.

As a reminder, any method of generating invalid clicks or impressions
is strictly prohibited by our Terms & Conditions and program policies:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US

If we continue to detect invalid clicks or impressions from these
services on your ads, we may disable your account to protect our
advertisers.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

The thing is, I know where the "invalid clicks" are coming from. They're coming from blog exchange sites, something just about every other blogger uses to draw traffic to their sites. This means that every single "hit" I have received through BlogClicker, BlogExplosion, etc., is invalid.

What I want to know, though, is, why me? I'm not the biggest, or the highest profile blogger out there. According to technorati, I hover somewhere in the lower echelon of the top MILLION blogs. And many blogs with MUCH greater traffic are using the same techniques to generate traffic...and the same Google AdSense ads.

Furthermore, why do the even PROMOTE the ads for bloggers, if the chief means for generating traffic are against their policies? Is it to increase their traffic numbers for advertisers, only to yank "earned" revenue away from users in a clever bait and switch once they start earning revenue? I'm disappointed, and finding the "myth" of the professional blogger to be just that, a myth, unless you have substantial money to set up a website as a blog and to generate traffic on your own.

I'll hold on to my google adsense account until they pull it, then I'll strip all the ads off my site. I just discovered the hard way that adsense is just another in a long line of scams for too many of us who will never receive the rewards.

And, for Brad's sake, I'll take this site off of the blog exchange sites so Brad doesn't lose revenue based on the same "invalid clicks".