Forum Moderators: martinibuster
On a not for profit website, under the adsense it says:
Please click on our sponsors - your clicks generate donations
Wondering if anyone has seen a more extreme violation.
But I don't do this anymore people just click it because theyre interested. Warez sites and such have a lot of clicking advertised on it.
I won't tolerate abuse of a system that pays me well and for which abuse can affect my future income.
Further, it's just not fair to those among us who've been contacted by Google for far less threatening infractions.
In other words, I now believe this site is not part of the normal AdSense distribution network but part of their partner network.
Maybe this site's specific contract allows them to encourage clicks.
Wondering if anyone has seen a more extreme violation.
I have seen double-serving - 2 AdSense banners on the same page. If only I could report it through some web page (not by email) I would do it.
Just click the "Ads by Google" link on the abusive page.
Just click the "Ads by Google" link on the abusive page.
I am scared to death to click those banners (not to be accused of the fraudulant clicks)! I will not do that!
Not at all. Many people just replaced old advertiser urls with Google urls. The old "click here to support this site" lines are out there everywhere. It is always good to ask your visitors to support your site.
This is a popular site, to use WW's favorite rating service they are Alexa sub-2500.
They are obviously benefitting hugely from this abuse as they are a popular site and show the ads on pages with travel and job topics.
They probably are earning 4 or 5 figures a month - I don't think laziness or ignorance are valid excuses.
The "link below" was, of course, an adsense advert, which had been modified quite a bit (to a square about 300 x 300).
I am sure that they pulled in several grand, assuming that all the budgets for everyone bidding for $widget didn't burn out.
The counter at the bottom of the page read ~4000 and that was when the thread only had about 100 comments, early on a Monday afternoon.
Really not fair to the advertisers. The /. effect is bad enough without paying per click for it.
I did not recollect an "Ads by Google" link. Went back and checked the page source and sure enough, their google_ad_client parameter does not begin with "pub-".
In other words, I now believe this site is not part of the normal AdSense distribution network but part of their partner network.
Is it possible that the ads are being served through FastClick, Tribal Fusion, or another ad network? For a while, several of the ad networks were serving Google banners, leaderboards, and/or skyscrapers. Maybe they still are. (If so, the AdSense TOS might not apply to the publisher, though a "Click on this ad" invitation might violate the third-party ad network's TOS.)
There is this page that displays "Sponsored links" title and below is the (almost the same) AdSense template but it does not have the 'Ads by google' however, when I right clicked in those ads I can read (http*##pagead2.googlesyndication.com#pagead#ads?client=ca-) (* ==> : # ===> /) in the properties for the URL. That is exactly the same URL I have in the script provided by Google except that at the end mine says "/show_ads.js" instead of "ads?client=ca-" but the content on the ads is the same that the ones displaying in my webpage. Another thing (I clicked one of theirs :( ) is that when you click one of those it opens in a new window and does not replace their page.
Is this some different kind of ads served by Google also? or is some kind of trick to hide the script from the googlebot and display the "Sponsored links"?
I'm kind of new in AdSense so it could be legal but I don't know.. any idea?
CS.
Is this some different kind of ads served by Google also? or is some kind of trick to hide the script from the googlebot and display the "Sponsored links"?
That are premium listings, and yes, they are permitted to open them in a new window. It is the type you most commonly see on major news sites.
There is more information on the premium service here:
[services.google.com...]
Thanks again
I am scared to death to click those banners (not to be accused of the fraudulant clicks)! I will not do that!
I can't believe our regulars are still posting comments like this. First of all, it's not your site! And second of all, clicking on the Ads by Google link is not clicking on the ad. Try it!
This is about site owners looking out for site owners.
1. It's not technically part of AdSense, but nonetheless it doesn't appear that the merchants are aware that they are saving the Earth with what they thought was their advertising budget.
2. If you look closely, the site doesn't appear to be truly "not for profit". It's a .com and is VC-backed.
Fig, if I'm talking about the wrong site please correct me, but it would be a pretty amazing coincidence.
You can also click on the ads by google link in the ads and get an anonymous form sent to them.
[google.com...]
"we have a new ad system in place..... Google's Adsense. We also have been using Comission Junction (it hasn't paid very well seems you guys like to look at pretty ads but not buy anything ). Anyway as you all know running a site costs money and well we need some to make some more improvements. You're probably thinking "Where do I fit in?" Well right now you can help by just clicking an ad. For Adsense we get paid by the click so by just clicking your helping and we say "Thank You!" ... Anyway more on that later but for now..... start clicking! "
Arghhhh!
I just had a look at that site (wasn't too hard to find) and to be honest, if they're actively getting people to click like that then it can only be a matter of time before Google kicks them from the program - and probably while they're sitting on a healthy cheque from Google. All it would take would be a few over zealous members, and that site would be flagged for attention. In fact, the wording of their encouragement would appeal nicely to over zealous members, IMO. I see they're in the same general market as your site, so I personally wouldn't worry about them encouraging clicks - as long as your site is clean you'll get the last laugh (in a fair world, that is).
2odd...
I suspect that if there were not incentive clicks and no fraud (click spam, etc), the conversion rate difference would be a lot smaller. How often does it happen that you browse some web site and click on an Adsense ad that doesn't interest you? Doesn't happen often to me, if at all.
I suspect that click fraud is actually pretty common with Adsense, especially considering that foreign publishers (such as myself) are gladly accepted in the program, and are probably harder to track/investigate/etc.
I'm using AdWords myself, and conversion rate for "content" ads is about 4 times smaller than for the "search" ads.
Others on this forum have reported that their "content ads" ROI has been equal to or higher than their ROI on search ads, so it's hard to draw any firm conclusions about AdSense's effectiveness or even about the prevalence of "curiosity clicks" and click fraud. (I will say, however, that some advertisers are obviously happy with AdSense, because they're still using content ads six months after the network launched.)
IMHO, unproductive clicks are more likely to occur with certain topics, content types, and audience/publisher demographics than with others. Until Google gives advertisers more control over where their ads do or don't appear, advertisers in fraud- or "happy clicks"-prone categories will spend their money elsewhere.
