Forum Moderators: martinibuster
YAY
In my excitement I told my son about adsense and about how they let our site make money...
After about a week I had made a GREAT ammount of money from adsense. Much Much more than I had ever thought possible. Too good to be true?
Yes, my son had been trying to be helpful and had actually been clicking my ads from our house! EEEEEKKKK!
When I found out I explain calming and with humor that it was wrong and he shouldnt do it again. After he left the room I allowed myself to FREAK OUT and email google right away telling them about my problem and offered to have all earning I had made to be erased.
The next day I got a reply stating they thanked me for informing them aboout the clicks and they had "noted your information" (anyone know what that means?)
Also they stated how to get the URL for the ad without clicking it (right click and copy).
That was all they said. Currently my earning are still in my account and havent been touched, I have NO idea what "noted your information" means, and am only semi-scared now.
Anyone have any insight into this?
noted your information
I think the phrase "has been noted" has some deep meaning amongst legal types.
When I was buying my flat, everything I said to my solicitor resulted in a response saying that it had been noted.
I also had reason to contact the local council about a temporary change in my personal circumstances (regarding council tax), and this also received a reply along the lines of "thank you for your letter, the contents of which we note."
What it actually means you'll have to ask a lawyer type.
[edited by: dmorison at 8:49 pm (utc) on Nov. 3, 2003]
Granted he was inadvertently using his powers incorrectly, but he has an innate business sense that needs to be nurtured.
Best of luck with your young entrepreneur.
Tell him to do it from school next time.....
Please think about that statement, which encourages fraudulent clicks, and is a violation of the AdSense TOS.
6. Prohibited Uses. You shall not, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to: (i) generate fraudulent impressions of or fraudulent clicks on any Ad(s),
Reporting it to Google pre-emptively reminds me of parents turning in their kids to the local police (or visa versa) when they find them with drugs, thinking very naively that "it's the right thing to do" or "this will fix things". When they get hauled off without an ounce of compassion or cure it's always a "surprise" to them.
Reading this makes me wonder if Google might have some kind of resposibility to put above all ads "clicking on these constitutes a business agreement and you are subject to certain rules and regulations". Think of all the stupid warnings you have seen just because of lawsuits (coffee cup: warning contents may be hot) - this is a far lesser obvious mistake - I mean if an ignorant minor is doing it and you are still responsible, that sounds like a rule of law to me and needs warnings. But of course payouts would drop near zero and so would Google's profits, so we will never see such a thing.
I still am wondering as to the status of my account and half expect the dreadded adsense removal email every time i check my mail.
I think you did the right thing, yes sometimes there is human error which is done by each one of us.When you are willing to send an email with all honesty, it's wonderfull to note.
Congrats for the mail.
I would suggest you explain your son the whole thing about fradulent clicks as well.Coz he seems to have Business Sense :)
Aravind
Or proxy servers. 100 proxies a day and a click bot could pay for his college graduation.
Seriously, it is interesting to use some proxies in alternative countries to see what is really being shown on YOUR site for ads.
Don't let anyone tell you how to use YOUR site.
I think at a min you should click on ads once a day to make sure the thing is even working and keep your ad service honest. If they can't filter off your ip - that's their problem, not yours.
I think at a min you should click on ads once a day to make sure the thing is even working and keep your ad service honest.
From the AdSense FAQ:
Please be assured that there is no need for test clicks in order to verify the validity of the ads. Our AdWords specialists review ads to verify that the destination URLs of the ads are working and lead to a valid website.
From Brett Tabke:
If they can't filter off your ip - that's their problem, not yours.
When Google terminates an AdSense publisher for invalid clicks and refuses to provide any documentation of the source of those clicks, I don't think you'll find a single terminated publisher who will agree with you on that one, Brett. The loss of one publisher means absolutely nothing to Google. It can be the primary source of income for the publisher, though. That's a huge "problem" for the publisher.
Blue_Fin, Brett has shown quite often on here that he has reservations (to put it politely) about the Adsense program
Hmm, I noticed. I always wondered why :-)
Livenomadic, that was a close shave. I think you'll be OK now. Just keep that kid away from the internet! :-)
Brett has shown quite often on here that he has reservations (to put it politely) about the Adsense program
We are all entitled to our opinions, even though some of us are not allowed to express them here, but to make a mockery of a program by condoning a TOS violation or suggesting that click fraud isn't a problem the publisher (who this forum is geared to) isn't faced with everyday, is ill-conceived, especially by someone who has nothing to lose from such behavior. Intentionally clicking on an AdSense ad with no interest in the product or service (before clicking) is theft by fraud.
In Livenomadic's case it was a genuine mistake. Fortunately, Livenomadic - of his accord - realised that and contacted Google. That action may have saved his Adsense account from being terminated.
There was a thread on here about how someone sent Google the IP number they normally logged in with and requested that Google ignore any inadvertent clicks from that IP. Google replied, but whether they follow such requests may be another matter.
(Which hopefully brings this thread back on track and possibly prevents it from getting deleted :-))
[edited by: Macro at 9:20 pm (utc) on Nov. 4, 2003]
i was especially lucky since my site hopes to get the vast majority of its revenue through google adsense
I would suggest have some back up plans. It's never good to rely that much on a single source of ad revenue.
CJ, LinkShare, etc.. etc.. all are commission based which means to get money i would have to actively promote the products I get commision from. I do this a little but not really that much since my site is more about information not about products.
Advertmarket.com allows me to sell adspace which is probably my best backup however since my site is new i really dont have the visitors nessessary to make any type of cash. THIS however could be my best bet for site revenue when i bring in more visitors.
My site is only about a week or so old so perhaps these other services will work in a year or so when I have more content and more namebuilding and my site is actually listed on google, but until then google adsense seems to be the only way for me to make any ammount of money, however small from my site
google adsense seems to be the only way for me to make any ammount of money, however small from my site
In terms of sheer earning power it is the best for most webmasters... by a mile. It's just that it can go as quickly as it came. Perhaps it's pessimism, perhaps it's realism but I believe there are no guarantees with Adsense. Just be prepared :-)
And good luck with your new site.
Although I would like to boast of the little tikes business mastermind, he probably got bored and went back to playing "zap the aliens" after 1-2 clicks.
Right now the only way i can get advertisiers is $4-5 CPM or $20 a month.
A very close friend of mine has made an amazing site, im sure you have all heard of it (but i dont say its name) and he can charge 35-45 CPM.
In my vertical market a website like mine is great for the organizations and companies in that market, but currently my site is too unknown and too small to warrent large CPMs. Year or two down the road I when i have established a name for myself i can get up to a good ammount and get off my dependency of adsense.
I would suggest have some back up plans. It's never good to rely that much on a single source of ad revenue
Yep. And second If they can't filter off your ip - that's their problem, not yours.. This should really be minimum requirement for any decent adbroker service.
They have enough on their hands with the pros, running clickbots.
I just can see the story on TV: Small time publisher ruined by Google, because his little son clicked on the ads.
Very funny.
There was one thread here not too long ago where someone almost divorced his wife because she clicked ads on his site.... or so the story goes :-)
