Forum Moderators: martinibuster
2. Do not check your stats on any machine or IP used by others.
3. Be proactive with Google, if you see a spike in stats, report it immediately to show you are playing clean.
4. Never tell ANYONE about how you make money on adsense, too many people "click to help".
5. Do not put adsense on a low traffic site, Google will be much quicker to ban you.
Any others?
Here are some of my thoughts on a couple of them.
2. Do not check your stats on any machine or IP used by others.
I don't think this is a given. But rather, be proactive by not logging in on someone else's machine when there is the possibility that someone there could have clicked on your ad. Many people logged into AdSense while at the various WebmasterWorld conferences from the same IP, and it didn't result in anyone receiving a warning or suspension, at least that I am aware of.
FWIW, yes, I do log into AdSense from various IPs when I travel, and am not overly concerned about it. However, I wouldn't check my stats on a public machine such as a net cafe or library.
5. Do not put adsense on a low traffic site, Google will be much quicker to ban you.
Again, I think you should wait until you have traffic when applying for AdSense for the first time, but I do not think there is a significant risk in placing AdSense on a lower traffic site. However, they do seem to be paying closer attention to sites in their first month of AdSense - and handing out warnings or suspensions if neccessary - regardless of whether they are small or large.
Google really managed to make webmasters that fearful of Adsense?
I think it is the possibility of the loss of income that makes some publishers paranoid of somehow getting their account suspended. When the income can range from double digits to $10,000+ a month, it can make some a little wary about losing it.
There are quite a few that don't worry about being suspended at all, or only consider the possibility when reading about someone else being suspended.
This may be off topic, but have Google really managed to make webmasters that fearful of Adsense?
Fearful no, apprehensive yes. I certainly don't lose any sleep over the prospect of having my account closed, but the income is SO good I'd sure be disappointed. Therefore, there is a certain level of apprehension any time I change something, my CTR jumps, or I see an email from Google.
I wouldn't check my stats on a public machine such as a net cafe or library
I'd avoid this from fear of a keystroke sniffer grabbing my password, and someone later logging on to my account and changing my address, or something like that. All kinds of spyware and trojans can end up on library computers.
I am sure some webmasters take chances with many of the TOS not trying to cheat just to get the best from the programme
If you value the income!
Think twice when taking chances big G does not allow second chances and they appear heavy handed ( but it's Google's ball and their Playing Field ) so I suppose they can ( AND DO )
steve
5. Do not put adsense on a low traffic site, Google will be much quicker to ban you.
I am new to this and I don't understand this. I have a decent traffic site that was not allowed because of "sensitive content." So I asked for another site - a small (much) lower traffic one - to play with Adsense for a few months on a few selected pages, and got the account. Is this a wrong move? Why will Google ban me?
One more question: Is this possible to request and get account for a subsection (subdirectory) of a site?
[edited by: IITian at 1:59 am (utc) on May 27, 2004]
I am not sure I agree with that stance but I can understand why it might happen.
You won't be banned unless you do something wrong.
Like from the movie "the dish":
Australian Prime Minister: "We have a saying in politics... Don't **** up... that's it"
In fact, the only DO is being proactive - "Hey, Google can I have another form email?"
As far as the fear of losing a valuable income stream, yeah that freaks me out. What I do is that everytime I do something that increases my AdSense revenue, I work on multiple projects that bring in revenue from other sources.
Figment's DO : Work to make AdSense less important by building alternative revenue streams.
Google flat out strong arms all of us.
Google's terms are ridiculous, anyone who says any different either doesnt understand them, or flat out just doesnt care.
Not caring is ok in some aspects, but I will be blatantly honest when I say I would rather have a company like Ad-Sonar who calls you, works directly with you and pays less than a company like google who makes you live in fear.
Fear and aprehension are the same thing. You can slap a big word out there like aprehension but the fact is, it's fear.
Google booted one of my sites that was making over 495 but less than 505 a day on average... why did they boot it... well because it made too much. That seriously was the reason. The traffic was legit, the clicks were legit and never was that a complaint from google, their EXCUSE was, the site wasn't necessarily a good fit anymore.
Whatever, it doesnt matter, it was nice to see the fedex man a few times before they booted it. All I am saying is I have replaced that site's advertisements with Ad-Sonar and I am so much happier. I spent a few hours on the phone with them my first day and the account rep even said, we do not ban accounts for accidently clicking your own ads... we unlike other companies prefer to treat our publishers fairly.
**** is NOT a great fit for a lot of sites, they havent launched a lot of vertical markets but keep in mind **** is what powers Overture (sp?). We all know Overture is good stuff and probably most likely the best competition to AdSense.
Lets be honest and not beat around the bush.
Google is great, but they are doing a LOT of things wrong. I hope google snaps out of it and becomes more publisher friendly in the future. They have this ideal, everyone is a cheat, but not everyone is... I still run AdSense, and probably will continue to do so until I get strong armed out completely because monetarily it makes sense.
If as you suggest, they removed your site because it was performing too well, that is ridiculous. It seems to go against the whole idea of running a business.
5. Do not put adsense on a low traffic site, Google will be much quicker to ban you.
I don't agree with that at all. I have had AdSense on a very very small traffic site (0-5 clicks per week) for ages with no problems at all.
A DO should be to experiment with the size, position and colour of ads to get them performing best for your site.
if there is even a sniff of a problem with two accounts, one which gets 4-8 clicks a day, and the other that gets 1000-1200 clicks a day, I know which one G wouldn't waste a second deleting.
THAT is the point. When the going is smooth, everyone is happy....it's when the you know what hits the you know what!
A DO should be to experiment with the size, position and colour of ads to get them performing best for your site.
This can't be said enough. I made a small change in this regard and increased CTR by 120%
Most of what they do is fine - things run smoothly etc - I do feel a lot of people on this forum can get nitpicking. However Google don't have a forum for their Adsense publishers to exchange tips on layout, colours etc.....
My experience is well.... more trusting than many here.
Google have done well creating their brand. Now they are a multinational they have to be all things to all people. They suffer in many ways the problems that some political parties do - they have a philosophy and some will agree with that - some won't...
It's a choice to choose Google as your advertiser.... remember to always have alternate options so that you do have a choice. In my field the money earned from Google has always been in the three figures a month - so I'm neither too large to get noticed or too small to drop - and I pointed out how their Javascript wasn't valid months ago (before I joined - and they changed it! ;) ). *grins* - so they can change - but they have to want to.... they suffer from many of the communication problems that any large bureaucracy does - change can occur from the bottom up - or the top down.... anyway - enough this is getting a little off topic...
Google booted one of my sites that was making over 495 but less than 505 a day on average... why did they boot it... well because it made too much. That seriously was the reason. The traffic was legit, the clicks were legit and never was that a complaint from google, their EXCUSE was, the site wasn't necessarily a good fit anymore.
The traffic probably wasn't converting. That's the most likely explanation.
How is conversion the publisher's responsibility? Unless it's fake traffic or indians in a sweat shop, clicks should convert.. and anyhow conversion is the advertisers responsibility. Fix the add wording. Chose different keywords. Google should also target better.
Google may be waking up to the fact that targeting by keyword is only half the battle. A successful direct-response ad also has to reach the right audience. That's where conversion tracking comes in: If the same ads are converting at a rate of 1% or better on the average site but only .01% on mydomain.com, there's good reason to believe that the problem isn't with the ads, it's with the audience that mydomain.com is reaching. And if mydomain.com is sucking up click payments at the rate of $500 or $1,000 per day, advertisers may be noticing the impact on their ROI.
Let's look at two hypothetical examples:
Site A is a travel-planning site, go-see-antarctica.com. If readers see ads for "McMurdo Sound Adventure Tours" on a page about McMurdo sound, there's at least a reasonable chance that they'll buy a tour or request more information.
Site B is a travel-narrative site, antarctica-armchair-traveler.com. If readers see ads for "McMurdo Sound Adventure Tours," they may click out of curiosity or to enrich their fantasy lives, but very few of them will book a tour.
Now, if Site B gets 10 times the traffic as Site A, the advertiser--McMurdo Sound Adventure Tours--will get mostly low-quality referrals and will quickly give up on AdSense.
To some extent, "smart pricing" may be able to compensate for conversion differences between these sites and their audiences. But even at a discount, traffic from Site B may not be welcome and may sour the advertiser on the value of AdSense as an advertising medium.
Now, you could argue that Google needs to do a better job of targeting by displaying ads for "McMurdo Sound Adventure Tours" on Site A but not on Site B. But how can Google do that? Until or unless Google has the technology to discern the nature of a site's audience, targeting will be based on keywords--and success will be measured by conversions for whatever ads Google is running.
They're gathering a lot of stats on individuals conversion rates, click habits, etc in the googleplex at the moment... wouldn't be surprised if the individual and the page and the CTR of an ad started to factor into the algorithm. Big brother is watching you and he has a cute logo.
Google booted one of my sites that was making over 495 but less than 505 a day on average... why did they boot it... well because it made too much. That seriously was the reason. The traffic was legit, the clicks were legit and never was that a complaint from google, their EXCUSE was, the site wasn't necessarily a good fit anymore.
It is the case that we can withdraw at any time without giving Google a reason. It is then not fair to allow Google to do the same. I read about how unfair they are (in some previous posts above), and how they twist people's arms, and how they are the big bullies. Why then do we expect a partnership where we can withdraw at any time... but the other partner can't?
Fortunately, they don't really care how much fraudulent traffic you might send because their advertisers don't pay on a per click basis.
I wonder if they'll have AdSense type technology or if you'll have to select the advertisers your self..
The traffic probably wasn't converting. That's the most likely explanation.
The problem with this line of reasoning is a lot but certainly not all the sites that use Adwords can’t in my humble opinion sell jack.
The publishers role is to send qualified traffic. The advertisers role is to convert. The publishers only control on this is to block junk domains which I do on a regular basis.
Could be so easily fixed with advertisers given the ability to block by domain.
Google booted one of my sites that was making over 495 but less than 505 a day on average
their EXCUSE was, the site wasn't necessarily a good fit anymore…
It is the classic example of management choices between “hard minds & Soft hearts”. I seriously believe that they got a good mixture going, but I also know that the one person that cares about my particular widget site is me.
Google flat out strong arms all of us.
P.S: Sorry to hear about your site. Now that you got into the other program a-d-s-o-n-a-r see if you can talk them into expanding their program for the little guy. As much as I like Adsense, it is to our benefit to have a similar program.
Could be so easily fixed with advertisers given the ability to block by domain.
That would certainly help. Some of us have been advocating that (and other advertiser controls) since the middle of last year.
wouldn't be surprised if the individual and the page and the CTR of an ad started to factor into the algorithm
I've seen the same ad on the same site on the same day - but from different pages - earn 10x per click on one page versus the other.
Could be so easily fixed with advertisers given the ability to block by domain.
That would, of course, be far more effective if an advertiser could track conversion by domain, but that's probably too much to ask.
MQ
I've seen the same ad on the same site on the same day - but from different pages - earn 10x per click on one page versus the other.
And how, pray, do you know the value of the click?
