Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Here's what he says about my site:
"Some porn elements and ads placed prominently to trick you into thinking they are part of the content."
First, there's no porn in my site. I do post some bawdy humor, and some of it gets racy, but by no means could it be classified as porn. Google originally rejected my site because of this, but months later THEY contacted ME and said I was approved. Apparently, my content meets their approval.
As for prominent ads. Well, my ads are placed "above the fold", as Google suggests. I took the advice of someone on WW and made the ads contrast greatly from the content to distinguish them. There's no way they can be confused with the content (if anyone wants to see my site, please send me a sticky, asn I'll give you the url).
What's more, on his first post he says:
"Advertisers: If you see your ad anywhere on the sites listed, you're paying for fraudulent clicks."
This is slander! I can't believe he's saying this about me.
I'm averaging 500 hits a day. I check my click rates often, and yesterday at bedtime I had a whopping ZERO clicks (I got a few overnight). On a good day, I'll get a dozen clicks. My site is a magnet for low-paying keywords. I can have a dozen clicks that total $0.80!
It could be months before I get my first check from Google, and now I'm being called a scammer! If I were a scammer, I'd make money!
Is there anything I can do to stop this guy? I tried posting a comment on the blog, but it must be disabled. There's no contact information on the blog.
1. Is this critic using AdSense him/herself?
2. Is anything the critic is doing a violation of AdSense, AdWords or Google's policies? Such as discussing the AdSense related conduct of other sites (versus simply 'reporting' them)?
I would like to think that the AdSense TOS have embedded (or should have embedded?) in them a paragrpah saying something like "No AdSense publisher shall comment, on their website or anyone else's website, about a specifically identifiable AdSense publisher's AdSense practices but, instead, shall refer all such comments, critiques or observations directly to the AdSense team."
In other words, if - in your humble opinion - an AdSense publisher is violating or trampling on the AdSense or AdWords TOS - report it to Google, not to the world, because 1) you may be wrongheaded in your interpretation; 2) etc. and so on.
As concerns your observations of your critic I'm not asking for an answer here and by all means do not post 'your answer'. Figure it out: Read the applicable TOS and, if there's a violation, then act responsibly per the TOS and their reporting guidelines.
Of course we all know the loophole: A competitor will simply have a friend post criticisms on a non-AdSense site.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
I've got to regain my focus on the good in the world. Working on it.
Who knows? Maybe somebody will come to your defense. (A pompous nitwit with an axe to grind once posted a negative review of my site on Alexa, and a stranger responded with: "I think other reviewers may have a personal problem, but this site is great.")
If you aren't doing anything sleazy, you don't have anything to worry about.
Why would you care if you were making a few cents a day anyway?
Surely your time would be better spent creating new content and making your site more popular?
W.
The site makes enough money to pay hosting bills, and then some. This is my first attempt at making a profit from a website. I've been up for a year, with no ads of any kind until last month, and the site has only cost money -- never made any. Just being revenue-neutral is a big improvement. This is something I love to do -- profit or no.
I'm developing another site now. It's related to my profession, not humor. I've been inspired by the webmasters on this forum, and I'm hoping that it will turn more of a profit. Since the new site uses the same AdSense account as the humor site, I can't sit by and let someone slander me, and risk losing the Adsense revenue altogether.
Plus he's European so he may have a better appreciation for the consequences of war ;-)
Either let it be or respond, not directly (you'll never convince a fool he's a fool) but in a very measured way such as I outlined above.
IF he's running AdSense then I think the best approach is for the good people at AdSense to take a stand on the issue of one AdSense site publicly criticizing the AdSense practices of a specifically identified site of another publisher. I think that such practices are destined to create more problems then they solve and should be banned.
For my insight: Is this other site actually an AdSense or AdWords operator?
Plus he's European so he may have a better appreciation for the consequences of war ;-)
I wouldn't worry about too many advertisers or even your visitors seeing that blog though. Any drop in revenue you've experienced (especially from such a small 'normal' amount) is probably more to do with the whims of the Adsense program rather than his actions.
Someone posted a comment after mine. He said he loves my site, and is determined to find out who the offending blogger is, and expose him.
Later he posted another comment saying he had tracked the blogger, and that the guy has posted statements in support of Michael Jackson, and against MJ's victims.
I'm a Child Protection worker by profession, so I had to join the fun!
As Galtego said, It's publicity, and could possibly benefit me.
See, directly from the google optimization tips page :
QUOTE :
Try using custom color combinations for your ad units. This allows you to ensure that the text, background, and border colors of your ads complement your website. You can choose from a wide variety of colors to create your own custom color palettes, or select from over 20 pre-defined combinations. When using color palettes, we recommend making:
The background color of the ad the same as or similar to the background color of your page.
The border of the ad a color that is prominent on your page.
The title of the ad a color that is similar to the text on your page.
The URL of the ad a color similar to other link colors on your page.
END QUOTE
get it now?
Basically they are telling you go and blend the adsense with your content.
Please, correct me if I'm wrong...
He posted a retraction, and is keeping my link on his page. Here's the post:
[b] Off the list - [***********.com...]
Webmaster of [***********.com...] showed up here and made a valid point. This blog is a collective work (of art - ha!), and after some discussion it was 2 against 1. The guy who did not think *********** was a scam is actually working for Google (not ads, but engineering), so he got an upper hand in this. We'll keep a link to him (he should get million hits from us by the year 3050), but he's not violating anything.
