Final Answer: Google tells me to pound sand

In my third and apparently final communication from Google regarding the matter, I received an e-mail yesterday that if I would be willing to remove the BUSH = LIAR sticker (the so-called "offensive content") from my web site, they'd be willing to take my money and run my ads. I've sold maybe five of them...I almost thought, what the hell, is it worth this for the four dollars I've made off that sticker?

HELL YES!

Several of the stickers on my site I sell NONE of, but they are there more for the message than their retailability. Some I'd think would be far more offensive than the LIAR one, so what would stop Google from next month telling me to remove some other sticker or shirt?

So, any hi-traffic bloggers out there willing to offer me a good deal on some advertising space? Maybe I can design a custom header or cartoon for your site or blog. The beauty of Google was the ability to control the costs and advertise cheaply. I've had virtually NO sales in five days now...most people were finding my site from Google.

The biggest irony of all? MOST PEOPLE FIND MY SITE BY SEARCHING FOR THE TERM 1ST AMENDMENT.

Second rank search? 1st Amendment cartoons.

In fact, of the top ten search terms leading to my site, 6 are variation on 1st Amendment.

So...anyone else want to accept ads for Anti-Bush gear? And some new Anti-Google gear?

what kind of anti-Kerry material they are allowing?

If they're applying the same standards to all political items, I guess it sucks but at least their policy is consistent.

But if they're allowing a lot more anti-Kerry crap, you should get a lawyer.

I don't get a huge amount of traffic, but it will sort of get you into google through the back door.

and I'll put it on our Headlines today.....F*ck Google.....we'll get you some traffic!

I'll throw together a couple of button images. In the meantime, the political cartoons are at www.NotBannedYet.US and the stickers are at www.cafeshops.com/rmcg_artware/107041

Thanks to all! Send me an e-mail, or leave a post on my message board or here, and I'll be sure to post reciprical links and a story about this on my next update!

I'll stick these links on my site now

Just for Fun section of the Liberals and Conservatives page.

Just wish I got more traffic so that I could pass it on to you. :)

on my main Headlines. You should be getting some good traffic to it!

the one to cafeshops isn't working.

Google is determining that political statements and content are "offensive"?

So here's a question for Google: aren't "pro" Kerry stickers equally offensive to the same group of people? Well, for one thing, "pro" Bush merchandise is deeply personally offensive to me. So does Jesus-Loves-You paraphernalia. What a bunch of crap. I say we form a posse and get them. Why don't we see if any other merchants suffer from the same problems. I would love to hear 60 Minutes say, "Google did not return our phone calls" in an expose on their selective "moral" policing.

Can we find some examples of websites that sell anti-Kerry merchandise? Even worse, pro-Nader merchandise?

any more than pro-Kerry stuff, really.

Edited to clarify: unless your point is that there should be equal time for political sites that don't fall under the heading of hate speech? In which case, yeah, it would seem off if Nader sites were allowed but not Kerry ones.

correct me if i am wrong. but this is not the search engine we are talking about here, but the "sponsored link" ads.

It's true - you won't find sexually explicit or hate speech sites popping up in Ad Words, (go ahead, give it a try with some poo poo words), but having the paid google monkey who checks these for "offensive material" defining political merchandise as hate speech is seriously overstepping the intent of Google's policy.

I paid Google to have my ad come up when you search for "Political Bumper Stickers," among several other similar terms.

i went through the same thing.

by Google for their AdSense placement on our site. We're anti-Bush and they denied us for "Sensitive Content" on our site. I'm beginning to believe they only allow pro-W sites.

I may file a complaint to the FEC if this keeps up.

please drop me a note if you decide to pursue legal action.

mopinko - I posted a link to your button on my site. That really cracked me up! :-)

Hope it's okay!

link away. links is all i got, since i can't buy google ads.

I thought you were giving free advertising for someone. I used your link and ordered a few things a couple of weeks ago. Great site, great products and great service. The No W = Peace sticker went on my car right away! Keep up the great work and fuck google!

Thanks!!

:hi:

Your one-stop shop for blog advertising. Better than Google because you can target your audience.

http://www.blogads.com/

Never knew it existed!

because a friend of mine uses them to get ads on his blog. He only gets a couple thousand visitors a week, but then again, I think his rate is something like $10/week. His blog is edcone.com, if you're interested.

google only charges by the clickthru, and its only a few cents.

The rate for Instapundit works out to about $0.0006 per page view. (Or about 6 cents per 100 page views)

maybe it's just me. cuz i make so little money to begin with. i had 1000 visitors this month, and 4 orders, totalling about $40. so...
my experience with the adwords, where i was up for about a week before they "caught" me, out of 100 views, you get a few clickthroughs. most of those people were actually looking for buttons, not just lefties looking for something to read.
moral of story? it's hard to get rich $1 at a time. or even to pay the bills.

That's why I was so stunned. I ran four different ad programs. Google was by far the most cost-effective. It pulled in usually about 4 orders a day, sometimes more. I had a "strong" CTR of nearly 8%. I figure my site passed muster until a Bushy complained. Why else did they give me two months before deciding I was "offensive?"

the "funny" part was that i had a crappy ctr, so i used their fine tuning tool. it was my choice of things like anti-bush, etc that seemed to turn the light on for them. go figure.