Local clicks.is AdSense not for me?

[Appleby]

I am in the process of re-building my personal website/blog which includes a large photo gallery of my photos. Currently I get vistors from all over simply because they know me from msg. boards, found a link to my site etc. However, since it is a small blog type website a very large percentage of my vistors are family, friends, etc that live in the same area as I do.

I signed up for AdSense and was getting ready to incorporate the ads in my site when I started reading some posts on here saying that local clicks can get you booted from AdSense. Understandable on the surface, since they are trying to prevent fraud, BUT what about my next door neighbor who read my blog and clicked on the ad because he was genuinley interested in the ad for a poker table etc?

Sorry to ramble but my real question is, if I know that much or even most of my clicks will come from IP's in my general area, should I just go ahead and ditch the AdSense idea? I have no intentions of telling anyone about the ads or to click on them inentionally but if I they CAN'T click them, then AdSense is a waste of my time.

Any thoughts on the subject? Thanks for the help.

[Appleby]

Ok, I just realized something else that is an even bigger issue. I have a section on Texas Hold'em poker and a message board with a poker forum. I had no idea that would nix me from the AdSense program. I did know I couldn't have a "gambing website" but after reading some posts on here, just the mere fact that I'm going to have a page on poker is enough to get me banned from AdSense.

Now I don't know what to do. Since this is my personal website about the things I enjoy, I hate to have to not include something as trivial as a poker section just so I can possibly make a few dollars off of some ads. Ugh, decisions, decisions.

[CaWebSites]

Believe it or not, this forum is not the ultimate authority on AdSense, even though there are some intersting topics discussed here.

Familiarize yourself with the Terms and Conditions (TOS) of your AdSense agreement, as it is what you need to abide by. I have never read in the TOS against "local clicks."

You are confusing what is said on here regarding friends and family "doing you a favor" and clicking on your ads, and getting you bounced from AdSense because there are alot of clicks from a single person.

[Appleby]

Thanks for the info. I just got thru reading the TOS and didn't see anything about "local clicks" or anything even remotely close to that.

[Andrew Bassett]

And I think the TOS states that you can't have a gambling site. I don't think that a page about poker (or one with a game like "Dogs Playing Poker") is against the rules.

[jomaxx]

Well, obviously poker is gambling.

Site may not include...
* Gambling or casino-related content

I would also be wary of putting ads on a site frequented mainly by family and friends. Seems like the rewards would be marginal at best and the risk would be outside of my personal comfort zone.

[Andrew Bassett]

Well, obviously poker is gambling.

How do you figure that? It's only gambling if the visitors can risk money.

That's like saying "Well, obviously a swimsuit website is pornographic."

[StuntasticAudi]

I have a website that shows you how to build poker tables and google said no to ads there. I told them it has nothing to do with gambling, all it has is guides and step by step instructions on how to build a poker table and google still said no.

[Andrew Bassett]

Well, that's strange. I guess they don't want to be held responsible for anyone becoming a gambling addict.

[jomaxx]

The clause has always seemed clear as crystal to me, but I guess you could actually parse it 3 different ways:

1. No gambling, and no casino-related content
2. No gambling content, and no casino-related content
3. No gambling-related content, and no casino-related content
(actually this would need to be written "Gambling- or casino-related content", but whatever)

#2 and #3 are basically the same thing, and based on their track record of decisions this is pretty much what Google are trying to say. Andrew may be reading it as #1, but IMO this is probably wrong because the number of actual gambling sites online is extremely small anyway, and because it seems to treat casino gambling in a different (and more restrictive) way than non-casino gambling.

Does anyone get what I'm taking about? I don't like to belabor the syntax in these contracts, but in this case it seems like the wording needs some tightening up.