Dangers of Adsense to a Forum

think it's possible for someone to sabotage?

[creepychris]

I just added adsense to the forum section of a site. The site is doing really well in adsense without any ads on the forums. The forums do attract a lot traffic however and I'd like to increase my adsense earnings. So far so good in terms of targeting.

I am not worried about a TOS violation on my part as I have made sure the ads will only show up on the actual forums and topics.

However, I am worried that someone will come along and maliciously post a ¡®click the ads¡¯ and then report it in. I moderate the forum heavily, but not on a 24-7 basis.

My question: Do you think this is a reasonable worry? Has anybody ever had a problem like this before and been booted? I would hate to lose my adsense account because of it.

[whizkiddo]

if i did wanna sabatoge ur account, couldnt I do the same thing by clicking on ads on your website? or passing the word around to frnds around the globe to do the same. G would think u had asked your frnds / relatives to click and after a couple of days would see booting you out as the easiest way.

On the other hand, the do have some fault protection systems which many think are useless and fine the webmaster when they have no hand in clicking of ads. You may have noticed a few disgruntled webmasters here.

Solution: Update Site, keep adsense in front of viewers, keep fingers crossed and follow TOS / conditions of G. Supposedly good things happen to good people and bad things to bad. ;)

Unfortunately G has so far ignored webmasters wishes to simply discount such "clicks" rather than booting them out of the program totally. Perhaps the competition , once it gets strong will make G value webmasters more.

[roddy]

I've been running Adsense on a forum for months now. Results have been ok, but not great - it's a hobby site though, so that's fine.

I don't think you are at any more risk of malicious clicks than you are putting then on the rest of your site. The problem comes when visitors notice your ads and mention them in posts - 'Hey, look, we've got ads for . . . '

Roddy

[Brett_Tabke]

Depends on how competitive your area is. I've heard several people brag about getting competitors booted for much much less. Click bots are running in the wild.

[stargeek]

"Clickbots are in the wild"
wow that's a scary thought, and people bragging about TOS'ing competitors?! This reminds me of the early days of any large, well used service, AOL comes to mind first. After a while Google will, they may already be working on it, get the kinks worked out in detecting fraudulent clicks.

[Kinitz]

Depends on how competitive your area is. I've heard several people brag about getting competitors booted for much much less. Click bots are running in the wild.

Well, everybody has competition, but until you are not terminated by Google, you don't click on the AdSense of the competition. But if Google would terminate you, then you have nothing to lose and in this way a vicious circle comes to existence. Google: better eliminate termination of accounts or face mass scale click robots that will destroy the program due to above mentioned psychological vicious circle! It is serious matter that can bring down whole AdSense if Google will not stop terminating AdSense accounts (for whatever the reason).

[europeforvisitors]

It is serious matter that can bring down whole AdSense if Google will not stop terminating AdSense accounts (for whatever the reason).

A more important concern for Google is making sure that advertisers feel safe and comfortable with AdSense. An advertising network is useless if advertisers won't buy ads.

[jomaxx]

Kinitz, you phrased that like a threat, but if it's meant to be a prediction I don't think it stands up to logical analysis. Webmasters DO have something to lose and obviously Google are not going to stop terminating the accounts of people they believe have cheated the system.