Launching Revamped Website

What do I tell my reviewers?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Within the next couple of weeks I shall be launching a redesigned website. The original site was created almost four years ago and this will be its fourth incarnation. When I launch a new site I generally send the link to a circle of about 50 to 100 friends and associates and ask them to review the site and let me have their comments. This however, is the first time I have done this since introducing Adsense on the site and I am a bit wary about doing so.

I suppose that I could explain in the strongest possible terms that they should not click the links and tell them exactly why this would be wrong and potentially damaging to me. The problem with this is that people are people and some of them who are not familiar with the Adsense scheme may be curious and click the ads anyway. Who know? Perhaps some of them may even want to cause me grief.

The alternative as I see it is not to say anything and just let things happen naturally. Anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?

[MediaSpree]

I would not say anything. If they are genuinely interested in the ad being displayed why not let them click? Or if you are worried, jsut replace the ads with dummy ads for your review process then a few days later put up the real ads. Almost invariably if you tell someone "not" to do something they have it in their mind to do it because they "shouldn't." Its human nature!

[desi_curry]

Goodluck Mate. Just hope that all your friends are true friends. Else you can be in trouble.

[Eltiti]

If you can "afford" the foregone revenues, you might consider putting up "dummy" ads for a few weeks as your friends review the site. (By dummy ads I mean something that would maintain the look and feel of your site as much as possible, but that wouldn't endanger your AS account if people start clicking them like crazy...)

[added]Oops, that's pretty much what MediaSpree suggested; sorry 'bout that, I had not noticed it...[/added]

[Marcia]

I wouldn't send to 50 or 100 at one time, especially if it's the first time since putting AdSense on they might click out of curiosity. It's legit to want opinions, but I'd send out one or two or three a day and keep it spaced just so there's no abnormal spike, even though it is legitimate.

And I wouldn't say anything about the ads running, either; if they're looking to review or critique it'll be a more unbiased, fresh opinion if they discover them for themselves.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Thanks for the comments so far folks.

[Eltiti]

I wouldn't send to 50 or 100 at one time

Marcia: I think that is a brilliant suggestion --now why didn't I think of that!? ;-)

[dzcap]

Why don't you remove the adsense ads during the review period instead?

[Eltiti]

Why don't you remove the adsense ads

If you completely remove the ads (instead of replacing them by somthing that looks "similar"), you change the look and feel of the site; so the reviewers comment on something that is different from the actual site.

For example, they may praise you for not having any ads... whereas, in reality, they will be plastered all over the site! ;-) (Just kidding, but I hope you see the point.)