Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So don't try anything.
As I was looking into joining, I ran into more then a handful of stories on people who've lost their account for what turns out to be anything but their fault. One that stood out more then the others was that of a local Chicago web forum where the users/staff from a rival site clicked on enough ads to get the account closed.
Now, I know things like that are rare (at least I hope so), but that still brings up the question of exactly what it takes for your account to be closed?
You cannot allow for the actions of others if they do as you say and click on your ads.
We've had cases here of people complaining they did nothing wrong. They were usually new members and it usually turned out that they had done something wrong but hadn't realised it. Almost every single time. The one or two occasions that are "in the balance" are where we didn't know the poster's URL and couldn't see what was possibly wrong with his site.
Read the TOS, read the TOS, and read diamondgrl's post again. Making your account valuable to Adsense [webmasterworld.com] may help.
You cannot allow for the actions of others if they do as you say and click on your ads.
I guess I should phrase my question better. Does the AdSence program offer any way to report traffic that would look like fraud? Say, I normally get a single click a day then, out of the blue, I'm getting 100.
Making your account valuable to Adsense may help.
When I first got into adsense, I explained the thing to several people (naive excitement over the concept). The first person said to me "wow, i have a bunch of friends and I can get them to click on your ads". I recoiled in horror when I heard that". Then, two people at work said the same da#$ thing to me. This made me hyperventilate and nearly throw up. As fast as you can spit, I blocked my employer's entire IP range from accessing my site.
These days...I don't say jack to anyone I know. If they say, "how do you make money on your website?", all they hear from me is the sound of crickets.
If you have to ask what fraud is, then don't be surprised if your methods may be included. Just mho.
If you have a site with a thousand+ pages, you probably want to know what the potential risks are before you update your entire site with ad code. Sounds reasonable.
BTW, does anyone still really have thousands of static pages to update? :)
If you have a site with a thousand+ pages, you probably want to know what the potential risks are before you update your entire site with ad code.
Sounds like a good reason to update those static pages with server-side includes (SSI) for borders and navigation bars. (I use FrontPage shared borders, which do the same thing, and I can change the ad code for whole sections of my site in one fell swoop.)
My personal experence with a closed account comes from one of the many open source projects I work with. The admin had set up the account for the site, added the code to the site's engine and set it so it like we do with the other ads so they won't show to the staff (him, my girlfriend and myself..so only 3 IPs). Now, I can't say 100% that the admin didn't do anything, but in the 6 years I've been working with him, I've not known this Mormon kid to lie. So the account is closed with about $200 under lockdown until Google "investigates" (whatever this semblance of courtesy entails).
So yes, I'm a little leery about the whole thing. I signed up because I understand that these events are few and far between and I do have much faith in the way Google is running the show. However, as someone who's income currently depends on what his sites can bring down, I have a legitimate concern as to the seemingly arbitrary nature of some of these closings.
Oh, and for reference, the site this account is targeted for has been up for about 3 years, generates around 4 million hits from thousands of uniques a month and is currently paying for itself with inhouse advertising. I'm trying to use the AdSense program to offset a recent change in my bandwidth costs so I can keep my normal ad rates at reasonable levels.
The bulk of the concern I have is towards the over zealous members of my 32,000+ member community. I fear they may take it upon themselves to over click in a misguided attempt to help the site. As I scan over the AdSense ToS, I can't help but be worried as it seems I'm powerless and unable to say "Please don't click everything you see."
So what's there to be afraid of?
1. I ain't done nothing wrong.
2. It was completely without warning
3. Oh! - you mean I can't do that
4. Well yes perhaps I did some of that
5. Never posts again
You don't have any AdSense now, so you're currently not earning anything from them. The worst thing that could happen (barring a criminal investigation if you perpetrate some kind of massive, obvious fraud) is that you lose the income you currently don't have anyway.So what's there to be afraid of?
Exactly. That's why I signed up and I'm working in the code right now (trying to rearange the page so the Google ad isn't near any of the actual sponsors). I just don't want to get too complacent and start to rely on them, only to hear "Hey, guess what?"..lol
