Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Why not break it out, as a separate part of AdSense? "The Official School for AdSense Publishers"? Maybe make attending the school a precondition of being admitted to the program?
Why not include 50 effective and 10 unacceptable page design examples? First example of unacceptable: Nothing but AdSense and some drab logo, a H1 and a pale navigation link.
Does design school for AdSense make sense?
Would there be value?
OBTW - I realize that WW AdSense forum is likely the best available design school, but if you were running the world's largest and most profitable advertising affiliate program would you do just a little bit more to educate your affiliates? Like set up an official training center? With lots of teaching examples?
Or am I just dumb to have such a thought? Don't answer that!
They could automate the process a bit based upon candidate's statement of what manner of website(s) they will be operating.
Also, many professions have a CLE requirement, so why not - say for other than very big or well established players - make school or class a requirement for continuing membership? Say, pass a test about the TOS. (Might also make a bit less likely that anyone could get away with saying - in their defense - "I didn't know that".)
Would Official AdSense School - as a precondition of membership - cut down on issues and problems?
It would seem to me that building the knowledge base for the school would be substantially the same process as building a knowledge base for AdSense publishers generally, so you kill 2 birds with one stone.
[edited by: Webwork at 4:26 pm (utc) on Aug. 27, 2005]
I think there is a business opportunity in that idea for an enterprising young person... :D
Ya, I had that thought but the problem is "it's not official" and that is exactly what I think is missing - and is much needed - at this time in the process.
This forum is as close to "official" as you will find, but we might be having entirely different conversations - or not - if attendance at AdSense School and passing the Official AdSense Publisher Exam were preconditions to being a member/publisher.
*Don't attract attention to the ads*
how simple is that to understand? it isn't rocket science..
people should know right from wrong. i think people are just looking for ways to earn more $$ (aren't we all) but some are looking to make it the easy way: by attracting attention to the ads. they think by adding flashing text next to the ads it will make people click.. they're wrong. that will only make people look the other way with annoyance.
you don't need to put a sign that says "CLICK ME!" next to the ad, even if it was allowed people would click less!
build something the viewers like and watch the CTR go up.
How about a multi-part test, that you must pass before being admitted?
1. What is a hotspot?
2. Why do hotspots matter?
3. Which of the following 5 (randomly assembled) pages violate the TOS? How? (One way of thwarting programmed answers.)
4. Etc.
Oh, I know. There will be cheaters, but maybe, if you design the test right (by varying questions a bit and seeing if someone uses patterned/cheatsheet answers, etc.) you can begin to filter out the cheaters even before they begin to exercise that same "aptitude" as a publisher?
*Don't attract attention to the ads*how simple is that to understand?
Pretty simple, but that's not quite what AdSense TOS requires. They require only that we not attract the wrong sort of attention to the ads, i.e. attention to the ads' clickability rather than to their content. The fact that I can legally place a fluorescent-orange AdSense block centered above the fold shows that not all attention-grabbing is wrong.
I don't think it's at all simple to determine where the line between acceptable and non-acceptable AdSense layout lies—I wonder if even Google and their AdWords advertisers would agree on its location. (As for me, I stay a mile-and-a-half away from that line.)
As Webwork suggests, the proposed AdSense Academy should offer guidance on how legally to draw attention to ads, with explicit examples of both extreme and borderline cases.
Why not break it out, as a separate part of AdSense? "The Official School for AdSense Publishers"? Maybe make attending the school a precondition of being admitted to the program?
Who do you envision paying for the school, Google or the publisher? I could see an AdSense School having a funnel (there would be less) effect if publishers had to pay. This would be good if we could at lease get ride of those ‘Is this allowed in the TOS’ post here! Seems to me maybe something better would be an AdSense professional type of exam like Microsoft.
I think there is a business opportunity in that idea for an enterprising young person... :D
How right you are!
[edited by: tedster at 7:35 pm (utc) on Aug. 27, 2005]
Survival of the fittest, in this case the literate and those that play by the rules.
People that do silly things that get themselves banned just and leaves more ad money in the pool for the rest of us.
It's actually getting old that it's the same questions week after week, they don't even bother reading this forum they're so lazy, just ask the same stuff over and over.
Every week it's something like this:
Q: Is this allowed?
A: What, you can't read the rules so we have to read them for you?
Q: Can I click my ads?
A: YES! Install a bot to click for you and avoid carpal tunnel
Q: Can I put ads in pop-ups?
A: Yes! Make 2 pop-ups, double the fun.
Q: Can I put graphics that point to ads?
A: OH YES! Change the adsense font to BLINK too...
Q: Can I use my own AdSense search?
A: ABSOLUTELY! Don't forget to click the ads.
I guess I'm getting more jaded these days.
I guess I'm getting more jaded these days.
You've also been fainting a lot more than usual this past week. Hope you've been eating.
[edited by: Jenstar at 3:35 am (utc) on Aug. 29, 2005]
Survival of the fittest, in this case the literate and those that play by the rules.
If true, then I think forum members (including you, incrediBILL) have been far too altruistic and generous with their advice. Time to winnow the herd!
LOL
Agreed.
But there would be a major downside for Google, too: Requiring certification or participation in a "design school" could lead to reduced market share, and it would give competitors a recruiting message to use against Google (namely, "Unlike Google, we don't require you to complete a course or pass a test.") Such a message could be compelling to people who don't like schools or training, who have poor English-language skills, or who just want to slap up the AdSense code and start making money.
There may be some legal issues involved, too. (Offering training to resellers and consultants who have outside clients is one thing; requiring training of publishers whose only "client" is Google might be trickier.)
In my opinion, a "design school" might work better if it were offered as an option for publishers who wanted to participate in a hand-vetted "AdSense Gold" or "AdSense Select" subset of the network. This would allow Google to keep its existing market share while offering an added-value product to advertisers who are leery of the current lowest-common-denominator network.
but following the concept of ebay, i think an adsense school has a limited market. ebay is easier to sell as a workshop or university topic. i imagine that a major % of participants to this type of "earn from adsense" school woul be folks who don't even have a website, and you'll have to cover wider topics as how to get traffic to your site
oppps ... we get those same questions on this forum too :)
far too altruistic and generous with their advice.
Helping people that are at least trying is one thing. We see a lot of well intentioned posts by people hung up on technicalities or bogged down in Google's legalese double speak and considering the shambles of the modern educational system I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt and post an answer.
However, when I know the answer sits right on the AdSense FAQ then I know someone is just coming here for cliff notes. Those are the very people that need the AdSense Design School but what are the odds that those who want someone else to read the FAQs for them would bother with any other educational pages?
It's right up there with those fliers "Can't Read? We can help!"
My thought on this a while back would be that it would be nice if Google produced a CMS (or a variant of an open source CMS) that was (a) search engine friendly (or at least Google friendly) and (b) had a variety of "optimized for AdSense" templates people could use for their content.
Sure, and maybe they could supply an RSS feed for scraper content, too. :-)
Sure, and maybe they could supply an RSS feed for scraper content, too. :-)
Seriously though, I'm just talking "Blogger on steroids".
