It would have been so easy to click

Never serve ads to yourself during the holidays

[BigDave]

I never serve ads to myself, except for those rare occasions that I am changing a layout and double checking how they look. I then immediately block my own IP address again.

I just moved a site about one of my passions to a new server, and I had forgotten to move the blockfile. So I bring my site up to check it out and what pops up? A whole mess of incredibly clickable ads for stuff that I desperately need that I never knew existed! Oh what a wonderful Christmas I could give myself.

I wasn't even noticing the site, and was moving my mouse pointer over the first link before I realized what I was doing. That's how close I came to losing the ability to claim that I never clicked my own ads.

How can anyone run a site about one of their hobbies or passions without blocking the ads? I wouldn't be able to do it.

[chocorol]

Phew!, that was close. I've been as close as you were from clicking my own ads, I remember once my computer crashed and I was desperately killing processes with the task manager when I realized that I clicked everywhere on my homepage but somehow I avoided the ads. I was lucky. I'd really love to move to linux permanently to avoid all those windows crashes. If only there were more good design tools in linux...

Also I remember that once I really wanted to visit a site advertising on my site so I checked the url in the preview tool and voila! There are some secure ways to visit the sites advertising on your sites.

chocorol

[MThiessen]

Also there is your computer's host file.

google "hostman" thats a good tool to manage hosts.

I insist on it on all the computers in my home. Put all the google addresses in it (just search, not hard to find a list) and your adsense ads will never show.

Hey, once you are a publisher you can't click those ads. Bummer yes, but that's the rules...

[BigDave]

I don't like the hosts file option, because it blocks the ads from other sites. One of the reasons that I decided to try AdSense is that I tend to find the ads useful instead of annoying.

[plumsauce]

to avoid all those windows crashes

that would either be your applications software, virii, or the *way* you have set up windows.

it is not windows in and of itself.

[Pengi]

I try to avoid even looking at my pages any more than is absolutely necessary.

I've just caught myself in time on one occasion - having been genuinely attracted by an Ad.
Of course, had I clicked it, it should have been acceptable morally - it may even have converted for the advertiser - but I don't expect G would have seen it that way.

[netmeg]

You can always try the AdSense preview tool, and if they show up there you can click on them from there without it looking as though you were clicking on your own ads.

[Pengi]

Thanks, but that wasn't the point - I nearly clicked spontaneaously.

I was scanning my site, an Ad caught my eye and I though Ooo - that looks interesting ... and I nearly clicked the same way I might have done had I been surfing.

The Ad worked well! It would have been a genuine click. Had I thought, as I later did, I would know how to follow it up.

BTW
I don't believe the preview tool shows every ad on my site necessarily - just a sample of those that may be available.

[OptiRex]

Heck, use Firefox or Opera and with one click disable the javascript when looking at your own sites.

Works for me:-)

[swa66]

Actually keepining javascript disabled for your own sites is smart for other reasons beyond loosing good standing with adsense: at least you make sure the site works without javascript.

For firefox the easiest way to achieve this for me is to use the "NoScript" add-on.

[barns101]

And remember that serving ads to yourself also dilutes your CTR! ;)

[Genuine1]

On occasions many people have clicked in error. Me included. Twice in a few mins on one occasion! After that I turned that damned "tapping" option off on my laptop!

Still google expect the odd mistake. They dont expect multiple or repeated ones!

[chocorol]

to avoid all those windows crashes

that would either be your applications software, virii, or the *way* you have set up windows.

it is not windows in and of itself.

Actually, I think it's due to the low RAM I have. I've had this computer for almost 6 years now, and it has 128 MB, pretty slow. When I open Dreamweaver, Word, Firefox, and Photoshop at the same time... it's a nightmare. I dunno but it seems to me that Windows waste lots of system resources, many people out there with 2GB in ram may not notice that but poeople with less than 256MB sure had.

I think its time to consider buying a new laptop.

[fredw]

I filter ads from my co-workers and selected friends and family, but I cannot bring myself to filter ads from my own workstations. My concern to confirm the ads I am serving are appropriate overrides my fear that I might click on one by accident.

[Leosghost]

Actually, I think it's due to the low RAM I have. I've had this computer for almost 6 years now, and it has 128 MB, pretty slow. When I open Dreamweaver, Word, Firefox, and Photoshop at the same time... it's a nightmare. I dunno but it seems to me that Windows waste lots of system resources, many people out there with 2GB in ram may not notice that but poeople with less than 256MB sure had.

trying to open that lot on 128 megs of RAM is like trying to take six adult elephants to market in a ruk tuk in a headwind ..