Recently, we've had a few unsatisfied blog owners, with blogs deleted for TOS violation.
When able to research cached content, we see various posts with large, mysterious spreadsheets - and flashy ads with affiliate links.
When we look closer at the content, we see the spreadsheets appear to provide betting odds - and the ads link to various online betting services. The blogs in question are providing gambling services or bookmaking. Some blog owners prefer to call this "sports betting".
There are several problems with blogs which focus on gambling activity.- Gambling is illegal, in many areas of the world.
- Even where legal, it is a regulated activity - and Blogger has forbidden it, as content in their hosted blogs.
- Blogs which focus on gambling tend to provide odds, in large mysterious spreadsheets. The search engines may see this as empty / static content.
- Blogs which focus on gambling tend to have links to other similar blogs, generally using referer links. This is called affiliate marketing.
Even if gambling is legal where a blog owner resides, Blogger blogs are viewed all over the world. Regulated activity, such as gambling, is not legal, in every world region.
Even if gambling is a legal activity in the region of the blog owner, it may not be so in that entire country. Even the well known Blogger feature of country code alias redirection is useless here. Gambling is a regionally accepted activity - and country code alias redirection is not active, for all countries of the world.
Blogger has forbidden blogs which focus on gambling, and other regulated activity.Regulated Goods and Services: Do not use Blogger to sell or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services, such as alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.
Blogs with empty / static content have been a problem, for a while. We see blogs with no content / random low quality content, classified as spam hosts, frequently. The odds spreadsheets do not provide usable content, for search engine indexing.
Blogs with affiliate links have similarly been a problem. Affiliate marketing has been a classification category, for many years. Many ads - such as those with affiliate links, and / or pictures of enticing content - are not acceptable, in Blogger.
If you wish to provide or advertise gambling activity, in online content, please don't use Blogger blogs to host your content.
One of the most easily overlooked details, about Blogger blog content, is that GPT / PTC / PTS Content is not suitable, for Blogger blogs.
Blogger Content Policy has a section which describes GPT / PTC / PTS Content, in passing.Spam: Spam takes several forms in Blogger, all of which can result in deletion of your account or blog. Some examples include creating blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings, posting comments on other people's blogs just to promote your site or product, and scraping existing content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains.
Unfortunately, spammers have been imaginatively subtle, in their description of various make money fast programmes - and not so many blog owners think it necessary to contact a lawyer, to interpret the Content Policy document, when planning their new blog.
Too many blog owners, asking the frequently seen question in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, get answers they are not prepared to see.
Why was my blog deleted? I need the money from the blog, to feed my family!
And they are told, simply
GPT / PTC / PTS / PTV content is not welcome, in Blogger.
This response generally does not please them.
Maybe, education can reduce the popularity of GPT activity, in Blogger.
"GPT" is a collection of fraudulent and illegal activities.
"GPT" (aka "Get Paid To") is a collection of various activities.
- PTC, aka "Pay To Click" involves people clicking on ads, to earn the blog / website owner money.
- PTS, aka "Pay To Surf" involves people clicking on links, to access the blog, and to earn the blog / website owner money.
- PTV, aka "Pay To Verify" involves people solving CAPTCHAS, so spammers can publish spam, as Blogger blogs and comments, and in our email, using high volume publishing scripts.
These various activities have been carefully packaged, as useful "make money fast" techniques, by the more successful spammers, who called themselves "marketing consultants".
Ads are placed on peoples blogs, so the readers of the blogs will view the ads and buy the merchandise. People who sit in front of their computers, clicking away, are not looking at the ads, or planning to buy the merchandise.
GPT (PTC / PTS / PTV) is a type of fraud. Any blog which provides advice on using GPT - or uses GPT techniques to increase blog activity - encourages the fraud, with clever ads, and shiny payment programmes. Ask yourself how the various GPT "Services" make the money, that they pay to the blog owners, for hosting their ads.
If "GPT" was really lucrative, would the expert waste time selling it?
If the blog owner, who shows you the GPT programme, really had a way to get rich, would he waste effort, telling you how to get rich? No, he would be busy getting rich, without you. Blogs, with ads telling you how to get rich, are not showing you how to get rich - they are helping the blog owner to get rich - and you are paying for his success.
Who pays you to sit at your computer, and solve CAPTCHAs, all day? The people who sell the commercial scripts, that enable spammers to setup accounts and publish spam - like spam Blogger accounts, spam Blogger blogs, and spam Blogger comments. You are just a minimum wage employee, who makes the CAPTCHA solution section of the script run, and produce the spam accounts, blogs, and comments.
Abuse detection, like highway traffic enforcement, doesn't take place in every spot on the globe, on a 7 x 24 x 3600 basis. Some people get caught (blogs get detected), other people (blogs) go un detected - from day to day.
To put and end to "GPT" and other fraud, we go one blog, at a time.
For abuse classification to produce results, each blog must be classified, on its own, as detected. Other illegal blogs will be classified, later.
If you start a blog, fill it with GPT content, and publicise it using GPT technique, you'll be one more blog owner lamenting, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.
Why was my blog deleted? I worked hard for 1 year, spent much money advertising!
Start a new blog, with legitimate, interesting, unique, and useful content, based on a subject that interests you. Don't become one more victim, of advice from the older spammers.
We continue to see signs of innovative publishing technique, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about deleted / suspended Blogger accounts, and deleted blogs.My Blogger account was just deleted! I have gotten a few DMCA complaints, in the past - but I always deleted the offending posts! Why were all of my blogs just deleted?
This blog owner does not understand that multiple offenses must be resolved, to avoid abuse classification - and eventual account deletion.
Young children are always testing the limits, to see what behaviour they can get away with, before penalties are imposed, by their parents.
Spammers, like children, like to test the limits.
Spammers like to test the limits, in Blogger. They will publish multiple blogs, simultaneously, each with different innovative content / technique (aka borderline spam) - then wait to see what blogs get deleted. This is also known as "mapping the boundaries".
Mapping the boundaries, in Blogger, can have unpleasant consequences. Like any parent, Blogger / Google has some patience - but their patience has limits.
Blogger / Google describe what the limits are based on - but not where they are.
Blogger / Google define the limits, in their Google: Terms Of Service, and Blogger: Blogger Content Policy references. Blogger blog owners are advised to stay well within the limits.
Like any legal policy, "terms are subject to change", without warning. And, they are subject to interpretation, by Blogger Policy Enforcement, and by Google Legal. If you repeatedly test the limits, expect to be treated appropriately.
Consequences, for exceeding the limits, may not be pleasant.
The consequences, for blog owners exceeding the limits, are gradual - but finite. The intermediate and long term effects may not be pleasant.
When the final limit is exceeded, and penalties are imposed, the blog owner may have to start over, with a new account and new blogs.
The best advice is to stay well within the stated limits.
Don't test the limits, if you want to publish a Blogger blog, with any real future. Publish good original content, that informs and interests your readers. And, publish regularly. That is how you get traffic, to your blog.
We see various complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about perceived poor response, in removing offensive blogs.I've reported this blog, repeatedly, for impersonating me - and it's still online!
orThat other blog was removed from service after only a couple of days! Why is this blog still online??
These bloggers do not understand that complaint volume, against different blogs, can affect how promptly Blogger Policy / Google Legal can take action, and remove problem blogs.
Various details affect how many complaints are placed, against any blog.
- Offensiveness. A blatantly offensive blog will offend more people - and will be reported by more people, than a mildly offensive blog.
- Traffic. An offensive blog that gets hundreds of hits daily will be seen by more people, than a blog that gets a few hits daily - and will be reported by more people.
- Victims. An offensive blog that attacks hundreds of people will get reported more than a blog that is only personally offensive, to a few people.
Each of these minor details will cause some blogs to attract more complaints - and to be examined sooner, by Blogger and by Google staff.
Blogger Policy Review and Google Legal prioritise blog investigation, based on complaint report volume.
Blogs which get hundreds of complaints will receive attention sooner than blogs which only get a few complaints. In some cases, the complaint volume may even be used as a major factor, in the final decision to terminate the blog. This is simple business practice, and one more principle of Risk Management.
Knowing that complaint volume affects resolution speed, do not make unnecessary multiple complaints - maybe under multiple accounts or names. Google Security uses sophisticated traffic analysis techniques in dealing with denial of service attacks - such as referer spam, and brute force password guessing. They can apply similar techniques to determine that multiple abuse complaints, against specific blogs, are coming from one person.
Don't subject your computer, or Google account, to placement in a "Denial Of Service" complaint offender database, from detected multiple attempts to have a mildly offensive (or personally offensive) blog deleted, for odd reasons - such as you need to delete your blog, but forgot the password.
Don't misuse the abuse reporting system. Remember that the other blog owners have rights.
Report an offensive blog once - then, be patient. And let Google Legal objectively evaluate the content of the blog in question.
