Adsense and other text adverts on a page

Their T&C do not make it clear

[simonuk]

Hi all,

I have a site where people can download free desktops. Adsense is bringing me in some money which is good. The problem is I have other sites that use commission junction and I would like to place text links on the page from CJ. The links only give the domain name. I wanted to put links to sites like argos, tesco's barclay card etc but the T&C is not clear....

"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."

1. Are they saying don't place ads on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing "Their" ads?

2. Can I put CJ text links on a page and not be breaking this rule?

I would really like some expert guidence on what this exactly means.

Simon.

[KenB]

You might want to ask Google directly. With that said, I think what the TOS means is that you can not use another text based ad program that is content sensitive (e.g. a Google AdSense knockoff like Oveture) on the same page a Google AdSense banner is placed. Thus if your other ad program uses text based ads, but they aren't chosen by an automated process that determines ads based on page content, then you should be okay.

Like I said, however, to be safe ask Google directly using the link from the AdSense control panel. They will answer in a timely manner.

[Blue_Fin]

The AdSense rules specifically state that affiliate links are allowed. If the only content on the page is affiliate links or other advertisements, however, the AdSense code cannot be placed on the page.

[simonuk]

Ok, I was paranoid about this so did ask google the question. This is an exact copy of the reply with the email addresses only removed....

<paraphrased as per the TOS [webmasterworld.com]> To maintain integrity of Adwords, we limit the other types of ads that AdSense publishers display along with our ads.

We do not permit AdWords ads to be published on web
pages that also contain what could be considered competing ads, including all content-targeted ads as well as text-based ads. We do permit affiliate
or limited-text links, as long as the text-based ads do not either
directly mimic or attempt to be associated with AdWords ads.

</paraphrased>

My site has a lot of local content <snip> and the ads reflect this by having pretty much all hotels in my ads. I think I can safely assume now that having cj links to tesco, barclaycard etc are ok :)

If my bandwidth cost wasn't rising so sharply I wouldn't be risking it but I need all the support I can get :)

[edited by: Jenstar at 12:23 am (utc) on Dec. 12, 2003]
[edit reason] No direct email quotes as per TOS, I have paraphrased them; no specifics [/edit]