Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Am I stupid for doing this? Will Google ban me for self clicking in the beginning?
You could well be right. All I was trying to do, was to say that the commandment 'thou shall not' cannot be applied to all situations - hence the example.
The OP's opening title 'Am I Stupid'is somewhat overdone, in as much as he seemed to know what he was doing, and what would be the end result. He isn't stupid, but may be inconsiderate towards advertisers.
But I guess we all make mistakes, and deserve a second chance :-)
It's this or live World Snooker Final...
The latter will be so slow it's almost a guaranteed soporific ;)
This thread reminds me of people who try and cheat with cheap train tickets - the ones where for example, you can travel from London to Newcastle for ten quid, but must travel on a pre-specified train - and they decide to "just catch a later one", look (mock) bemused when the guard tells them they need to pay full fare of £120, and say to him "oh, I didn't know".
Moral of the story: They should know. It's quite clear from the train company's T&Cs what can and can't be done with the ticket, as it is also quite clear from the terms applied to Adsense what you can and can't do with your ads. Read the TOS.
This has to be one of the funniest comments I have read in this forum thus far.
That's what tends to get up regulars noses at times. It's pure laziness to not even bother to scan the document.
Also, how difficult can it be to grasp the concept that advertisers are paying for a publisher's 'test clicks'? Even without reading the terms and conditions, it should be obvious that intentionally clicking one's own ads is wrong and could result in termination.
I just looked at the sign-up process and now you have, amongst other things, to 'declare' you don't click your own ads.
There's a complete list of 'don't do this or that' in the sign-up form.
So even without reading the TOS you are well aware of the things you shouldn't do.
BTW. Yes, I did click on my ads on two occasions due to a very sensitive touch pad.
Also, I'm using a dial-up which will give me a different IP each time I log onto the internet. How do I block ads from appearing on my screen in this case?
Your smart enough to read the procedures and the legalese.
Trying to be crafty and click your own ads.
Trying to be crafty and pool the WW brain trust for the ins and outs, pros and cons of doing so.
Trying to be crafty on gathering info how to respond if the other shoe drops.
Am I stupid? = Bait
Hey the title of the thread changed?
Is that all the $ we're talking about? I'd be surprised if Google does anything at all.
Yeah, he's sweating 8 bucks.
I am as anxious as you are....I'll have to wait till the weekend is over before I get any response from Google.
By the way, how do I quote posts from other members instead of me copying and pasting?
By the way, how do I quote posts from other members instead of me copying and pasting?
You mean like this? ;)
When you've finished reading the Adsense TOS, read the "style codes" section which you'll find on the left when you hit "reply to this topic". :)
You mean like this? ;)
testing
testing
muaha! now it gets really funny :)
he just has to test everything in real life scenario. now we have it: you're a test addict! test clicks, test quotes, test everything..
ok, i'm off - dancing into may. cheers!
We all learn the Highway Code, or its comaprative reading, to learn to drive, but it doesn't mean we always adhere to the rules, and keep to the speed limit!
Yet if we are handed a traffic violation ticket, we can't make excuses that we didn't read the rules (and expect to be forgiven).
At the very least, I think you need to understand the seriousness of the click fraud problem, and why G may very well crack down on you for clicking on your own ads.
Let's take an 18y/o with his first website, and he adds AdSense. A week later, he sees no clicks, so thinks ' I'm gonna click on an ad to see if it works' He is so excited at the prospect of getting his first clicks, and the overwhelming urge to check it out means he breaks the TOS! Now Google isn't a dictatorship, and I am sure they would not ban him for this, as long as he explains himself to them.
Maybe the 18y/o should first contact G, explain his problem, say he wants to set up some type of test, and get G's approval before clicking on his own ads.
I guess what it boils down to is - you know it was wrong; or you wouldn't have posted here. You didn't think you'd get found out; and now you realise you probably will.
Consequences are a fact of life, and for a good reason - if there weren't consequences to our actions, anything would go. In reality, you performed the equivalent of stealing penny sweets (I'm from the UK, where we have pennies :-)). At the end of the day, it's still theft. I don't know many cops that would put away a kid for pinching a cherry drop, but Google isn't the law, and they can dispense justice or not at their leisure. You may lose you're account - you certainly deserve to, and if you do, you won't get it back. You may not. Life isn't always fair.
Or just do like the rest of us did, and just wait till real data came in before doing any statistical analysis.
Fair enough. I have heard of people setting up test accounts with G, not necessarily to allow them to click on their own ads, but to see how actual ads would perform under certain conditions.
Hi, I started activating my Adsense ads in mid April 2006. When I was setting up my website with Adsense, I made some self clicks to understand the relationship between CPM, CTR and $$. It lasted for about a week. After that no more self clicks. Yesterday, I emailed to Adsense Support to inform them of my actions and requested them to erase all my earnings during that 1 week period.
Am I stupid for doing this? Will Google ban me for self clicking in the beginning?
Even though I am hardcore proponent of Google loosening up Adsense rules, but what you did is not just a gross violation of TOS. If I were Google, I would ban you (sorry for honesty, but you grossly violated TOS).
[edited by: jatar_k at 5:25 pm (utc) on May 1, 2006]
I have honestly never understood why people block the ads from appearing on their own computer. The impressions count for nothing, and unless you have some sort of hand-deficiency which makes you click involuntarily, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you would click on one of your own adverts, it just isn't plausible....
you are absolutely right. I've been with adsense for over a year now, and guess what? I never blocked my ads from my computer, I updated my websites god knows how many times, and I never, absolutely never, clicked on my own ads.
Let's look at this from a more mature angle.Firstly, what you did was wrong, and you know it. Sowhat do you do?....the right thing, and report it.
So, you didn't read the TOS on signing up. You probably thought you'd take a look when you had a minute.
Eazygoin, Your "mature" outlook is open minded enough to accept the possibility that PowerUp would have eventualy found time to read the TOS at some stage. Probably because in this imperfect world, busy and mature people do not have time to read and condsider their most basic obligations under conditions agreed to. Fair enough
PowerUp asked us in his title if we considered him/her to be stupid. A retorical question perhaps? I for one do not normally respond to the "I have been banned" threads. In most cases though when I read through the threads where webmasters deny any wrong doing I do take a sympathetic point of view and can understand why members provide advice, if the poster claims to be genuine and needs support by being given the benefit of the doubt.
We all learn the Highway Code, or its comaprative reading, to learn to drive, but it doesn't mean we always adhere to the rules, and keep to the speed limit!
No, but even though we don't read every piece of legislation that governs speeding we all know that there are rules governing speed and for that matter rules regarding drink driving, respecting other road users etc etc etc. All without reading anything at all.
