The old adage about AdSense sites is true.

Don't tell your friends/family about it

[Andrew Bassett]

OK, so my site is a week old and I get about 20 unique visitors a day. I looked at my stats and I got my first click in a few days; it was a $1.69 click. Stunned, I go tell my family about it. Then my brother walks in, overhears the conversation, and says this...

"You get $1.69 for every click? I can totally tell everyone I know to go click on your site!"

So I got into a fight with him and told him off, how stupid an idea that was, etc. But I'm not comfortable yet. Would it be a good or bad idea to turn off displaying the ads for our IP and the IPs of the geographic area?

[miedmark]

Try and explain things to your brother - it doesn't work this way and you will get banned.

As for IPs of the geographic area - would you know how to block by geographic area?

[Andrew Bassett]

Well, most of the area around here (where presumably my brother's friends would be) start with the IP addresses 142 and 216. I've already coded a PHP function that will return true/false for a match of the visitor's IP address.

My "market" isn't in my local geographic area anyway. I think it's a good idea to black out ads from the local area, but I want be make sure that's kosher.

I did explain it to my brother as you said, and he did say that he understood, but he's a very volatile and immature person. His last words were "Well, if don't respect me then maybe I will screw it up for you!"

[brianng]

I think you better turn off the ads for your IP since you said that your brother is an immature person. Beside that, turning off the ads could save you but won't harm you.

[bts111]

I would take the ads of the site and run something else for some time.

[incrediBILL]

Have you considered being an only child?

[Mr_Fern]

When I discussed how I was making money online with my family in May, most of my family considered that same concept of "clicking to help out". This includes my brother-in-law who's a lawyer, heh. I explained to them, their idea would do more harm than good.

[Andrew Bassett]

I think you better turn off the ads for your IP since you said that your brother is an immature person. Beside that, turning off the ads could save you but won't harm you.

OK, done.

Have you considered being an only child?

Many times! I don't want to cause it, though. Too many potential years in prison.

Oh, and $1.69 for a click = :D

[mackan]

just a theoretical question, my family lives in another country than me (on the other side of the globe, to be exact), could this still hurt my adSense or is this only true if somebody in the same geographical area as myself "support clicks"?

[Andrew Bassett]

Try to avoid these things:

1) Clicks from your IP address or near your house.
2) Too many clicks from the same IP or precise geographic area
3) A concentration of clicks in a short period of time.

In other words, block your family and friends if you can (using PHP or some dynamic website).

[jetteroheller]

I've already coded a PHP function that will return true/false for a match of the visitor's IP address

Show Amazon ads for this IP addresses instead.

Looks like ads, but nobody get banned for clicks on an Amazon ad.

[jomaxx]

mackan, trust me, you do not want people giving you extra clicks just to help out no matter where they are located.

As I've said before, Google are smarter than you and smarter than me and they've been dealing with this issue for years. Plus after that $90 million click fraud settlement, I think it's fair to assume they will be redoubling their efforts to identify non-genuine click patterns.

[gregbo]

Would it be a good or bad idea to turn off displaying the ads for our IP and the IPs of the geographic area?

Why would you want to limit your market? Maybe it's not in your geographic area now, but in the future ...

IPs change as businesses change hands, etc., so you wouldn't want to exclude potential business.

Your brother could use IPs unknown to you to screw you over. Basically, you're at your brother's (or anyone else who knows you are concerned about this) mercy.

Best thing you can do is watch your traffic carefully, alert G immediately if you see something anomalous, and hope they don't drop you.

[Andrew Bassett]

Why would you want to limit your market? Maybe it's not in your geographic area now, but in the future ...

Possibly, but turning on the ads again takes literally 30 seconds. So what?

IPs change as businesses change hands, etc., so you wouldn't want to exclude potential business.

If they account for .01% of the business, and are at a much higher risk of click fraud, wouldn't it be smart business to give them "premium" ad-free access?

Your brother could use IPs unknown to you to screw you over. Basically, you're at your brother's (or anyone else who knows you are concerned about this) mercy.

Hell no. My brother is stupid; he has his C drive shared with full read/write access.

Best thing you can do is watch your traffic carefully, alert G immediately if you see something anomalous, and hope they don't drop you.

Good idea, but surely I can do more than that.

[jomaxx]

I'm not sure why you originally asked the question, since you clearly feel that you should be blocking the little bugger from your site. You don't need our permission, just figure out where he would normally be dialling in from and block those specific IP blocks.

I think you need something more specific than blocking addresses starting with 142 or 216, though. That seems a little heavy-handed. Maybe get on to his computer and access page "aaaaaa.html" on your site; that should be easy to find in your logs and it'll give you his IP address and browser user agent.

Also implementing a click tracking script wouldn't hurt.

[FrostyMug]

I've only told my family and 2 close friends - and even their reaction often scares me. these days, i just don't tell anyone. I may show the site, but say NOTHING about the ads or even draw attention to them.

I'm still at odds about writing some kind of a manual or something in the event of 'what if' and putting it in a safety deposit box. there was a thread discussing this a while back.

[gregbo]

Possibly, but turning on the ads again takes literally 30 seconds. So what?

How will you know how much business you lost because people didn't see the ads? How often will you have to check to see whether/when the IPs change hands?

If they account for .01% of the business, and are at a much higher risk of click fraud, wouldn't it be smart business to give them "premium" ad-free access?

Maybe ...

Hell no. My brother is stupid; he has his C drive shared with full read/write access.

Then he could click on your ads using IPs unknown to both you and him.

BTW, how did you determine the "IPs in your neighborhood?" Did you include all of the wireless providers, national networks, etc.?

[saraah]

well trust me - family and friends are the last ppl u shud ever tell about ur website. No matter how close u are - its still not worth it.

Today you are good friends with that person - tomorrow u may not be. And trust me ppl do get jealous of the fact that ur making money just by having ppl click of ur site. In their minds - they think we are making "Easy Money" - they dont realize how much time and effort we put into it.

Like all my friends know that I work part time on my website and that i do make money of AS. But none of them know my website. I'm always like i'm still working on it - i will let you know when i'm done - which is probably never :)

[jenkers]

you'd have to test this - but if you have access to his pc you could alter the user agent string for his internet explorer to something like:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; annoying little brother).

Then you can direct / ban him pretty successfully with a user agent check without stopping anyone else from seeing your ads.

[humblebeginnings]

Only my wife knows I do Adsense.
And after 20 years of marriage she knows better ways to ruin my life besides clicking ads;-)

But for serious; my parents, brother, sister, friends, when it comes to Adsense, they are all a potential danger to my Adsense earnings. So I tell no one about my websites and Adsense.

[jetteroheller]

So I tell no one about my websites and Adsense

Fascinating!

When I accredit as a jounralist on a fair, they print usual out a card to attach on my clothes.

On this card is printed my name and my web site in big letters and I run with this all the day around the fair to make my reportage.

Have You ever tried to make an appointment for an interview as:

"I am an anonymous journalist and I will not tell You where I will publish"

[humblebeginnings]

>"Have You ever tried to make an appointment for an >interview as:
>
>"I am an anonymous journalist and I will not tell >You where I will publish"

Jettero,

I have never made an appointment for an interview anyway. We're all operating the Adsense game from different angles. I don't need to talk to people to write my content...

[humblebeginnings]

To be more specific:

One of my websites is a travel guide (architecture/culture/sight-seeing) about a very popular European region. I travel to that region very often (it's only a couple of hours driving). I stay for a few days, take many pictures, make notes, pick up some brochures, etcetera. At home I modify this to about 10 to 20 pages of new content. So I don't go to fairs and don't need to do interviews.

The best part is having a good time in the most beautiful places of Europe knowing it will result in earnings!

[jetteroheller]

I stay for a few days, take many pictures

I do the same in vacation. But my travel stories do not perform as good as my fair reports.

Sometimes, I can combine both. Fair report and interesting parts of the city where it takes place.

[danimal]

>>>"I am an anonymous journalist and I will not tell You where I will publish" <<<

the idea is to avoid telling family and personal friends what you do for a living... obviously you are going to publicize the heck out of your site.

awhile back my 73 year old mother accidently clicked on an ad, she just simply didn't know any better, but she was looking at my sites because i was talking to her about 'em.

i told adsense support about it because her click wasn't a qualified sales lead, quite a different situation from you promoting your site to strangers as a journalist.

[jetteroheller]

quite a different situation from you promoting your site to strangers as a journalist

I do not promote to strangers as a jornalist,
I behave only like the others on a fair.

It's expected to wear the cards special printed out for accredited journalists.

[danimal]

that is promotion, whether you understand it or not... you should be glad for the opportunity to put your site out there like that.

i assume that you also have your site listed on the business cards that you hand out at the fair? same thing.