Over a decade ago I joined Google Adsense with a grand vision of capitalizing on the traffic to my various sites. Before that, there were other providers that promised to turn traffic into cash, but my level of success had always fallen short of the pictures painted by the advertisement providers. Google requires a minimum balance of $100 USD before paying out, and in over ten years I never, ever got close to it. As it turns out, the only real way to convert traffic into money is to have other-worldly amounts of visitors and clicks.
Fast forward to half a year ago when I received a notice from Google describing that my Adsense earnings had been sent to the government for “safe keeping” (insert skepticism here). This is called escheatment. Evidently Google considered my account inactive under the claim that I had not accessed it in quite some time. That may be true, but they could have easily inquired as to whether I was still using the account (I was). After convincing myself that the ensuing fight would be worth the payout, I decided to attempt to get my ten years of earnings back.
Another month went by before I found my earnings listed as unclaimed property. As with so many things in the United States, each state opts to handle the process differently. Many states and jurisdictions contribute to the database at MissingMoney.com and by searching this I found unclaimed property for both myself and multiple other family members.
I went through the process to reclaim my lost funds and began to wait. I waited so long I forgot about it. Then, while furiously sorting through a stack of mail after returning from a long trip I saw it - my lost funds had come. The journey was over four months after it began, and I held in my hand the earnings of over ten years of visits to my various sites. The total was $28.79, or about $3 a year. I probably shouldn’t quit my day job.
My spoils.