Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Am I stupid for doing this? Will Google ban me for self clicking in the beginning?
(bangs head on wall)
Also, I'm using a dial-up which will give me a different IP each time I log onto the internet. How do I block ads from appearing on my screen in this case?
Will Google ban me for self clicking in the beginning?
Hopefully.
Am I Stupid?
Yes
However to answer your question I would assume that disabling your browsers javascript ability might do the trick. Maybe someone can correct me here
PowerUp - there's a section called Terms and Conditions:
[google.com...]
Try reading these before you make yourself look any more stupid than you already have admitted to being.
How do I block ads from appearing on my screen in this case?
I have honestly never understood why people block the ads from appearing on their own computer. The impressions count for nothing, and unless you have some sort of hand-deficiency which makes you click involuntarily, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you would click on one of your own adverts, it just isn't plausible....
Enlighten us. Did you read the TOS before you signed up?
Even before I had signed up, common sense dictated that self clicking would amount to theft. So I was not at all suprised to find a rule against this in the TOS. I'm sure that would have been the case with most advertisers who have managed to keep their accounts.
I signed up from the Blogspot. Didn't bother to read the TOS until I actually see the $0.10 in my Adsense account. Anyway, if I do get banned, can I register a new Adsense account with the same name different email, different residential mailing address?
I'm hoping G will just erase my earlier earnings and leave me with $8.00 earnings from valid clicks.
can I register a new Adsense account with the same name different email, different residential mailing address?
Nope.
[edited by: Scurramunga at 1:23 pm (utc) on April 30, 2006]
It's not a cleaver idea to brake the rules to get the hang of something you don't understand..
It's of course better to either read about it on google.com or come here to ask someone who knows...
Your excuse is bad, and I don't think google will accept it.
Your excuse is bad, and I don't think google will accept it
Very true. People have been banned for far less than what has happened here.
Let's look at this from a more mature angle.
Firstly, what you did was wrong, and you know it. Sowhat do you do?....the right thing, and report it.
So, you didn't read the TOS on signing up. You probably thought you'd take a look when you had a minute. Nice one, as how many of the critics on here read Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, or any other Terms every time they should do so. I doubt a single one can put up his hand and say he does.
What if Google bans you? It's not the end of the world, as there are many, many other other advertisers you can use.
So many people are ready to jump down your throat, rather than give you words that will make you feel better. We all make mistakes, and we all learn from them.... or is this Forum full of martyrs?
I doubt a single one can put up his hand and say he does.
I'm going to and I bet a fair few others will too! Before I signed up nearly 3 years ago I checked every single T&C vagary of AdSense to ensure I wanted to be "On Board".
Maybe that's the difference?
Back then it was not known as a money-earner since very few had experience of the programme therefore we ensured that we knew just what we were getting ourselves involved in.
These days people have heard of it and just want "a piece of the action" before they move onto the next "big thing".
Or put in simpler terms....every time you make a purchase, book a flight, or whatever, you go through the Terms with a fine toothcomb?
We all learn the Highway Code, or its comaprative reading, to learn to drive, but it doesn't mean we always adhere to the rules, and keep to the speed limit!
[edited by: Eazygoin at 2:08 pm (utc) on April 30, 2006]
Yes, I have clicked on my own ads on three occasions, all by accident. On each occasion I emailed Google and they were fine about it.
And easygoin, what you initially seem to have implied with your comment was "how many webmaster's read the GOOGLE tos before implementing ads" - you can't now change that comment to mean "how many of us read every single website you visits TOS". Play the game good buddy ;)
I got your point, but I just get riled when people can't see that we aren't all perfect! Maybe some here are, but I'm not one of them....lol!
Yep, I try to drink in moderation and break the speed limit when I reckon I can get away with it...neither of them 100% successful:-)
One of my self clicks was due to having a menu that expanded over the ads so that I clicked inadvertantly when the menu slipped away unexpectedly. TWO tos violations for the price of one :( Another was when I'd had a little too much to drink, and couldn't quite focus on the screen properly :(
As I said in the last post, the program policies document is very well written and concise. It's meant to be so that people really don't have an excuse for not reading it. It doesn't take very long to scan it to get the gist of it, and look at specific no-no's. In the time most people here take to compose a post on WW, they could have read the program policies document three times over! That's what tends to get up regulars noses at times. It's pure laziness to not even bother to scan the document.
This is a business and I am a grown up. I understand that I have a responsibility to act in accordance with the TOS (and yes it isn't really that long or difficult to read.)
I cannot imagine engaging in anything that could harm my livelihood (or my reputation) without scrutinizing every aspect.
I am appalled at the number of posters in the past few days that have clicked on their own ads and/or haven't read the TOS and think that it's okay, that somehow it's just a misunderstanding.
If you had been reading this forum for a while, you would have known what you have done ;)
Hmmm... posts in webmasterworld.com saying what happens if you 'click own ads' are hard to find - according to Google there are only 53,400 pages of them :-).
The OP's scenario sounds to me like taking a car from a rental company without asking, when he/she didn't really need the car in the first place, and then going back a couple of weeks later asking if they can pay the rental money retrospectively. Or taking money from a shop till and then returning it a few weeks later saying it had been "borrowed".
The difficulty I have is imagining anyone committing such a crime for bona fide reasons. Surely if they were honest they wouldn't do it in the first place? In Google's shoes I'd regard the story as made up after the realisation that one can't get away with it.
What I guess I am trying to say is that there are senarios whereby clicking an ad can be a last resort.
Let's take an 18y/o with his first website, and he adds AdSense. A week later, he sees no clicks, so thinks ' I'm gonna click on an ad to see if it works' He is so excited at the prospect of getting his first clicks, and the overwhelming urge to check it out means he breaks the TOS! Now Google isn't a dictatorship, and I am sure they would not ban him for this, as long as he explains himself to them.
Don't misunderstand me, as I don't condone click fraud. It is wrong and it is naughty, but it is a fact of life under certain circumstances.
I guess when I scoop a live fly off the pool, to save its life, I am doing the right thing, but others would say I am saving a parasite!
If you only clicked a few times, then I think Google will see this as normal behaviour. No matter what the lynch mobs says ;)
Wow, am I asleep or is this thread for real?
It's this or live World Snooker Final...and for those that don't know what snooker is, Google does:-)
The reason we have been given for these self-clicks is to analyse the relationship between CPM, CTR and earnings, supposedly in the knowledge that billing is done retrospectively at the end of the month.
This doesn't sound like to me like an over-enthusiastic 18 year old, ignorant of the ways of the world, who has made a mistake, but someone with the sophistication and knowledge to realise that clicking your own ads is fraudulent. It smacks more to me of someone coming to realise they couldn't get away with it and then constructing a retrospective story to cover their tracks, or just good old plain trolling.
I think there is a difference between mistakes made with bona fide intent but ignorance (eg putting ads on thank you pages) and making a mistake which common sense tells you is wrong (eg deliberately clicking on your own ads, which results in you taking money from someone else). I also think there is something discomfiting about this particular story, as it requires the OP to be both ignorant and knowledgable at the same time.
