Do you Google? Don't!

Hello Tucson Rifle Club,

Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. After reviewing your application, our program specialists have found that the website currently associated with your account does not comply with our policies. Therefore, we're unable to accept you into Google AdSense at this time.

We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below. If you are able to resolve these issues, please feel free to reply to this email for reconsideration when you have made the changes.

Issues:

- Unacceptable site content

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Further detail:

Unacceptable site content: Your website contains content that we do not allow at this time. Please review our policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for a complete list of site content not allowed on web pages.

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For a complete list of AdSense criteria, please visit: https://www.google.com/adsense/policies https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

If you would like to submit another website for consideration, simply reply to this email and provide us with the URL. If this new website complies with our program policies, we will help you start delivering AdWords ads in minutes.

Please contact us at adsense-support@google.com if you have any questions.

Regards,

I have reviewed your policies page once again and find nothing stated therein that pertains to our website, "www.tucsonrifleclub.org". Our organization is a State sanctioned body (Arizona Department of Game & Fish) that provides shooting range facilities to thousands of residents in the Southern Arizona region. We have been doing so since 1895.

We also provide significant support to the local law enforcement community as well.

Would you please be specific as to which of the following of your posted site content rules you consider our site in violation of:

"Site may not include:

Excessive profanity
Hate, violence, racial intolerance, or advocate against any individual, group, or organization
Hacking/cracking content
Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
Pornography, adult, or mature content
Gambling or casino-related content
Excessive advertising
Pop-ups that interfere with site navigation or are for downloads"

Regards,

Hello John,

Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. Our program specialists review all websites for a variety of criteria. These include, but are not limited to, site content, clear navigation, and the site's potential value to the AdSense program and the user experience.

During our review of your site, we have found content that strictly deals with firearms and ammunition and many of the ads that would appear on your site would not be relevant to your site's content. As the ads would not provide a valuable experience for your site's users or our advertisers, we feel that your site isn't a good fit for the AdSense program at this time.

Please feel free to reply to this email with any further questions. If you manage or own another site on which you'd like to display AdWords ads, you may reply to this email and include the URL in the message. We will then reconsider your application. If the new site complies with our program policies and is a fit for the AdSense program, we'll approve your application and allow you to run ads on that specific site.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Thank you for your prompt response. I am beginning to understand your decision making process a bit better.

As I view the process, you would seem to have two sets of rejection criteria: one published and one internal. In this case, your internal rejection criteria is for sites dealing in "firearms and ammunition", or perhaps better stated, "firearms" since there is no reference to "ammunition" that I can find on our site pages.

You further state that, "many of the ads that would appear on your site would not be relevant to your site's content." What has this to with advertising to potential customers? We are not looking to your service to augment the firearm related content of our site, but as a service to our viewers.

There are over 80 million firearm owners in the United States of America.
Firearm owners live in every state and community in this nation. We drive cars, shop in grocery stores, eat at restaurants. You have no advertisers currently subscribed in these areas?

Like it or not, we are your neighbors.

But perhaps you are looking for an advertising edge. A specificity in your subscriber base to promote to potential advertisers? Then you are allowing you biases to deprive yourself of an excellent marketing opportunity. Tucson Rifle Club members compose a disproportionate share of Southern Arizona's campers, hikers, hunters, and outdoorsmen of all types. Surely large companies specializing in sporting goods and clothing (e.g., Cabela's, LL Bean, Eddie Bauer) would look favorably upon reaching such an audience?

What first led me to your AdSense service was an advertising strip of yours on a car hobbyist website. Although several of the ad's you listed there referred to the specific model car this site promotes, many did not. Indeed, they advertised "brake Jobs", "mufflers", "oil filters" and the like. We may be located in the West, but I can assure you, we stopped riding horses to the range some time ago. Are ad's for car accessories, especially those pertaining to OHV's, also not relevant to our site viewers?

I ask you to reconsider your prohibition against "firearm" related websites (and I assume advertisers) in light of what it is, simple prejudice. Your policy is short-sighted, exclusionary, and when it becomes known to the general public will prove ultimately detrimental to your business goals.

Respectfully,

Hello John,

Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web. Our search results are unbiased by our relationships with paying advertisers and publishers. We have certain policies in place that we believe will help ensure the effectiveness of the AdSense program for our publishers as well as for our advertisers.
These policies are in no way intended to control or influence web content.

The purpose behind our content policy (which covers a wide range of topics beside firearms), is to protect our advertisers who might object to having their ads placed on sites with certain content. Currently the AdSense system does not have the flexibility to allow advertisers to opt to be shown on websites with mature content, so for the time being only websites with family safe content are being accepted.

The AdSense program is based upon Content Targeted Advertising technology that interprets the information on the pages where our ads are displayed to determine which are most likely to interest visitors to that page. It is unlikely that we will allow website publishers to submit information that would influence which ads are served.

If you manage or own another site on which you'd like to display AdWords ads, you may reply to this email and include the URL in the message. We will then reconsider your application. If the new site complies with our program policies, we'll approve your application and allow you to run ads on that specific site.

Sincerely,