Adlinks Trick for the Day

[vabtz]

Common sense really but I'll post it just the same.

At the bottom of my articles I always have a related links list. Directly after the related links I put my adlinks unit, blended in to the list.

[dutch_dude]

Yup I have something similar, although not blended in very much it works really wel :) When visitors have read an article they check out the links probably.

On a different site I am going to try out horizontal adlinks blended in with the navigation.

[driris]

i tried the horizontal for few days but then removed them because the verticle ads show more keywords then horizontal which i found more useful than general terms...

[uk_webber]

Is this not tricking your visitors into clicking ads and therefore going against the TOS

[Eltiti]

Is this not tricking your visitors into clicking ads

I don't think it is. First, Google does not seem to have a problem with ads that have been "blended in", i.e., they don't seem to think it is a form of "trickery".

Second, perhaps more importantly, if visitors click on the Adlinks, they haven't clicked on an ad yet --they will be taken to a page with ads, and if they don't like what they see, they're still free to "leave" without clicking...

[Paris]

Whether or not this falls on the dark side of TOS probably depends on the related links. If it's just article links and then the AdLinks ads -- with no promotional text on top -- it should be okay.

However, if they are prefaced with a "Related Links" or "Links of Interest" or "Other articles" etc. -- even if it's on top of the related articles -- it's one case where a "blend" could be interpreted as tricking/encouraging readers to click on the ads.

That would be a pretty clear violation and a quick way to get banned (or at least warned).

[vabtz]

Here's how I do it.

Related Links
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
Ads by Google
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah

[vabtz]

I just reread the TOS and I don't see how it would be in violation at all. If you disagree please let me know where in the TOS or in a google document your referencing.

[sunnydiv]

definately a really good one, if this works out to be "allowed" it wont be trick of the day, rather of the week :D

[dutch_dude]

I would not put any text over it like you do vabtz. Too risky for me :) If you make the links look the same and then put text over the real "related links" one could argue the text is about the google links too.

Besides, I doubt it makes a real difference compared to just blending the links in.

[vabtz]

How do you present yours then dutch? you said you did something similiar.

[fromholland]

I think he didn't understand it very well.

Why not puting the Adlinks above the related links.

I think it's a good idea but I don't know how to implement it to my site :-)

[dutch_dude]

Well i do have links under my articles together with the adlinks but I do not have a text over them with something like "related links".

That might me a bit risky although I dont think they would ban you for it.

[vabtz]

Since I add my adsense via templates in a CMS system it would be hard for me to do that. I have thought of modifying the CMS to allow me to do that by having a related links block associated with the article block then I could plop it where ever I wanted.