Friend's clicks

[chapran]

I opened an account with Google about 10 days ago. I'm lazy to read long Agreements. And when I did it I told about it to some of my friends. I made about 10 clicks myself (I have several web sites and wanted just to test AdSense links). Within 2 days some of my friends played with my AdSense and brought about $120 to my account. After those 2 days I realized that this is prohibited. I asked my friends to stop clicking.
What do I need to do in order to avoid any penalization from Google?

Regards,
Vlad

[TheRookie]

E-mail them immediately, apologizing and tell them what you did wrong. You'll be lucky if you keep your account.

That "laziness" can cost you a lot of money in the long run.

[jouwpagina]

I think you're in a hopeless situation.

[The Contractor]

Option 1: Pray they don't catch you and don't do it again, because your little game was stealing from another person.

Option 2: Contact them and tell them to reset your account to "0" as some "friends" made a mistake that will not be repeated.

[photo200]

Just contact and explain.
But probably you are dead already.

;)

[winglian]

$120 just "playng around" with your account between you and 2 friends? Those are some mighty pricey ads or you are all doing alot of clicking! I'm lucky if I can bring in that total in 2-3 days with legitimate users!

[jetteroheller]

I opened an account with Google about 10 days ago. I'm lazy to read long Agreements. And when I did it I told about it to some of my friends. I made about 10 clicks myself (I have several web sites and wanted just to test AdSense links). Within 2 days some of my friends played with my AdSense and brought about $120 to my account. After those 2 days I realized that this is prohibited. I asked my friends to stop clicking.
What do I need to do in order to avoid any penalization from Google?

Some month ago, somebody worte in a German AdSense forum about a 235% CTR problem caused by his friesds...

I talled him to report this to Google

He answered some days later, that AdSense wrote him, that he will only be paid for valid clicks.

So just write them, before they write You

[david_uk]

I'm lazy to read long Agreements.

It 'aint THAT long! I just copied it into Word, and it takes up less than three pages, only 1,287 words and the relevant bit is not quite half way down page 2 AND there is a fair amount of white space there.

Email them and explain, but I think you might have cooked your own goose by racking up $120 in prohibited clicks in 2 days.

[chapran]

I sent an email to Google with all my apologies and explanations right after I found out that there is a violation, but so far no response from Google. My account is still active if I may judge by accessing it through control panel. There were not too many clicks on the same pages. I placed AdSense on 7 of my sites and on different pages with different format. Each click in average was about $0.50. So if for instance I knew the way to switch off payment for those "friend's" clicks then they could make those 240 clicks altogether (5 friends on 7 sites). Not too many for each of friends.

Thank you

[trillianjedi]

I would imagine there is not a lot you can do except stop what you're doing and cross your fingers. Google love automation.

Reading contractual terms is important when you enter into a business relationship, and I would suggest that's probably the best thing you can learn from this experience.

TJ

[ncw164x]

There were not too many clicks on the same pages

That really does not matter, google now has yours and all 5 of your friends IP number's including the details of each PC, if you are lucky enough to get away with this then you should thank you lucky stars and never let any of your friends or yourself click another adsense ad, thats IF your account is not terminated in the next few days

Don't forget to report back and let us know either way on what happens to your account

[shoreline]

This will be interesting to watch! Only until you read the TOS did you think this was wrong; this should send a loud message to Google that you can’t make these judgments on your own and penalize you by preventing adsense from running on any site that contained your adsense code.

If they do forgive you for generating fraudulent clicks, your account will likely have some type of flag attached to it, perhaps lower value per click, increased auditing, etc.

[createErrorMsg]

The foolishness of not reading the TOS aside, common sense should tell anyone earning money through Adsense that clicking those ads is costing someone else money. That's how it works. It's not like Google is minting new cash to hand out to publishers. The money has to come from somewhere, and those somewheres are probably just as loath as anyone else to paying something for nothing.

If so many people are incapable of understanding this basic principle (which the frequency of this sort of thread suggests), perhaps Google needs to make an IQ test part of the Adsense application process.

cEM

[bumpski]

Kids!

[cornwall]

Vlad

having read your CV, you don't look like a man that is lazy!

But if you do not want Google to know who you are, you need to hide your identity a bit better. :(

[Fryman]

I just hope they kick you out the program.

[woodrow222]

He's just following Tabke's recommendations. LMAO

[Skeleton]

You are making $120 in 2 days with some type of high-paying keywords and you are saying that you don't know the click fraud is forbidden. c'mon mate, you deserve booting from the program.

[ve3cnu]

You were lazy?

C'mon, you can do a lot better than that!

I hope you are banned for life.

[Vlad]

Thats a shame Vlad, if they kick you out, there is no second chance.

[tebrino]

Actually you don't need to read Adsense TOS to realise that stealing from other people is wrong.

[woodrow222]

Perhaps he just read Tabke's many posts encouraging people to click their own ads?

[chapran]

All of you are absolutely right guys.
I cannot say anything except I was not going to steal from anybody. I just did not think enough before I did that. I did not ask my friends to click on adds. I just told them that I signed for this program and that I placed codes on my pages.
It doesn't make me not guilty of course.

I don't think that everybody who said about me bad words never did any mistakes in their life.

Sorry.

Vlad

[spaceylacie]

I can kind of see how someone who doesn't know anything about the Adsense program, or anything about Adwords, could not realize that this would be wrong or be stealing.

If they don't know anything about it, they don't realize that people are actually bidding on those ads. Especially someone who is used to doing other types of advertising, like affiliate ads, where clicks, even your own and your friends, are welcome.

[spaceylacie]

P.S. I told all my friends when I joined Adsense and started making good money from it right away, but they didn't go to my site and click any ads. I just had one 9 year old niece that clicked one ad and later told me that she made 5 cents for me. I had told her that I made that much for each click, although I realized later that this fluctuates. I never reported the click to Google.

[walkman]

"I'm lazy to read long Agreements"

No offense, but it's common sense that that is illegal /not allowed. Come on now...

[spaceylacie]

Well, yeah, yeah, you are right. No excuses! Send him straight to jail!

[Roadkill]

Chapran... just do as advised, send mail to google, talk to your friends and fix that, spend a little time reading previous posts and the TOS and run a clean ship from this point forward.

I wish you the best of luck, good luck.

[TonysDesigns]

That really does not matter, google now has yours and all 5 of your friends IP number's including the details of each PC

What the heck are you talking about "details of each PC"?

[walkman]

The browsers give away more details than just the IP...
"What the heck are you talking about "details of each PC"? "