Follow The Steps In Reverse Sense And Order
May 15, 2007 Posted by ROI_GuyYears ago I used to believe you could learn almost anything from a book. I bought a used Carter AFB carburetor … bigger than the whole engine in many cars of today … and guaranteed to make any old wreck “go fast” … or so I had read. Well I installed the marvelous Carter and, of course it leaked from half a dozen places … maybe that’s why the guy I bought it from sold in so cheap, ya think?
No problem, though. I bought a rebuild kit and an official Carter overhaul manual from West Hudson Auto Parts (the very same building, by the way, that serves as Satrielle’s Pork Store, the headquarters of the Tony Soprano crew on TV) … gives you a little idea of what my neighborhood was like. I had never had one of those carbs apart before, but how difficult could it be with the factory manual in front of me?
After getting all the pieces apart and soaking them in a tub of Carter-approved carb cleaner I laid them all out carefully on a clean cloth and turned the page in the manual to the reassembly section. Know what it said? “Follow the disassembly steps in reverse sense and order.” That was it. Sum total. Kinda would have been nice had I known beforehand to make note of exactly how each little spring, linkage and screw had come apart before I was sitting in front of a pile of solvent-smelling parts … but life is like that.
The Internet is kind of like that carburetor at times. Most of us have been following Tyler in his current affiliate sales journey, a large part of which is learning to effectively use Google AdWords. Many of us also have Google AdSense accounts. I’ve been an AdSense publisher for more than two years now … small-time to be sure … but the monthly direct deposits are nice, no matter what their size. Some time ago I started an AdWords account also, thinking I would dabble with Google arbitrage … buying Google AdWords to send people to sites loaded with Google AdSense. never really kicked it off, but the AdWords account sat there in the whole pile of services Google has with my name on it … GMail, iGoogle, Google Reader, etc. All of them are in the name of my GMail account, except my AdSense which I used a non-Google email for years ago when I opened it.
Logged into AdSense a week ago and got a message that said, “Resistance is futile, change your login email to a Google Account.” OK, fine, they sign the checks so I followed all the on-screen steps to link my GMail account to AdSense and “bang” … up comes the error message, “Sorry, someone is already using that account.” Uhhh, yeah, someone is using that account, me. After 4 days and several emails in each direction, here’s the official Carter carburetor Google explanation. “If you had started your AdSense account with your GMail log-in then you could start an AdWords account with the same log-in, no problem. But since you opened the AdWords account with GMail first, you now can’t use GMail to log into AdSense. You should have done it in the reverse order.”
So, after days wasted here I am, a GMail user who can’t use GMail to access the rest of the Borg’s Google’s services. I have no idea why Google wants to play games like this but I can give you tip … if you are thinking about using AdSense and AdWords … make darn sure you open the AdSense account first … another silly thing I did so you guys don’t have to.
I hate stuff like that. I have a couple Gmail accounts. The one that I would like to be my main account is not, of course.
It amazes me that they will take the time to respond, but they won’t just go in and fix the problem. Oh well…what can you do?
There’s something weird about the whole thing. I got the same message a couple of weeks ago as well. What made it even weirder in my case, was that I was in fact already using my Gmail account to log into AdSense (as well as AdWords and everything else Google). When I tried to confirm it however, I was just told that someone were already using that email (no kidding, Google-geniuses?).
In the end I had no choice but to use another, 3rd party email instead. So now after the Google change that was supposed to make me use the login for all Google services, I now have a different, non-gmail one for AdSense instead of using my Gmail account for everything like I did before the change Google imposed.
Exactly … it is mystifying as all get-out. Since I wrote this post I have several more emails that basically say the same thing … we (Google) ain’t gonna do nothing for you, Dave. If they cancel my AdWords account as I first thought would be the easiest way, I lose my primary GMail account too … can not believe Google is being this weird … but I sure am thinking of “fixing” the whole problem by doing away with AdSense … Google has definitely let me know that their motto is “The Customer Is Always Wrong”
I suppose I was lucky, I needed to make money with adsense before I used adwords and opened accounts in that order.
It’s actually not an issue now since people have to sign up with a Google account (so it doesn’t matter what order you do it in).
But it does seem a little ridiculous that they can’t just incorporate your Adsense account into your Google account. I’d try to push a little higher up the food chain, someone’s got to have that authority (or have the authority to make a programmer make it possible). It’s not like you’re the only one with this issue.
My thoughts exactly, Brian. Up until now I have never had abad word to say about Google. You would thin they would _want_ the AdWords and AdSense under the same Google Account.
As far as pushing it up the chain, I have asked politely, but definitely in emails to both AdSense and AdWords (neither entity talks to each other apparently) to elevate the issue to their superiors … and both ignore the request. I’m thinking now along the lines of putting an email together and firing it off to all the top AdSense-earning bloggers …. not because I think Google reads the blogs or gives a a care, but one of the big guns who has his/her own assigned AdSense account rep might know a person to bring the issue to.
Anyone here know anyone influential at Google?
Update on 22 May. After 7 plus days of some of the most un-cooperative emails I have ever seen, someone higher up the chain in AdSense woke someone in AdWords up, and they sent me a curt email that said my account had been cancelled … and that I need not bother to ask to have it re-opened. At this point in time th chances of that are slightly less than me getting a PR 9, so thank you very much, big “G”. I can now login to my AdSense, my Analytics, my GMial and my Google Reader without continually being bounced out and told to re-login.
An interesting thing about Google … I read through their many pages on their executive staff site. The fellow who put together and still runs AdWords … by Google’s own words the money “engine” that drives all of Google, is about 20 people down from the top. Those who actually make the money for a big company like that are seldom up at the top of the pyramid … I’ll make a guess he’s a lot like me, a techy who isn’t so easy to get along with.
If you are trying for a big career with an industry giant? Don’t worry about learning the techy stuff, learn to smooze and your office too will be four floors above the “grunts” who actually rake in all that cash.
Anyway, thus ends this tale of woe, semi-happily.
Situations like this resemble the bank teller that won’t cash a check because she finds a smudge that should have been initialed off by the check writer, or the school counselor that wouldn’t let you move down a level of math until you are failing by MORE than 10 points (you have a 62) ..
It always feels like they have a lot more power (and at the press of a button) than what they are displaying. Frustrating!
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