Adsense on forum pages?

[CPCretirement]

The T&C states that you cannot put adwords code on "newsgroup" pages. Does this include forum software that I run on my server?

[Jenstar]

Many people are running them on forums. Be aware that you cannot run AdSense on search pages, and that includes forum search pages as well.

[CPCretirement]

Are there any issues with dynamically served forum pages? a url like: [url.com...]

There are not any session IDs or anything like that in the url.

[edited by: CPCretirement at 4:18 am (utc) on Sep. 5, 2003]

[CPCretirement]

I just want to be sure that it is ok with Google before I do it.

[Jenstar]

Dynamic URLs are a whole different animal. If you are working like static URLs, AdSense will work fine. But true dynamic URLs will not work properly with AdSense because they are constantly changing. It is hard to tell from just one example whether your forums would fall into this category. Would 100 people viewing the same thread all have the identical URL? If so, you should be fine with AdSense.

Many people have changed their forums to serve static URLs just for this reason. If you go to the support forums of your type of forum software, you should find some information on this. Otherwise, AdSense will only ever serve PSAs (public service ads) because it is unable to get properly target for the dynamic URLs.

From the Tech FAQ:

Form-loaded content, dynamic content, flash movies, and images cannot be used to target ads to your pages.

If you are unsure, you can try, and then remove it if all you get are PSA ads.

[CPCretirement]

Thanks Jenstar.

On one of my sites the users all view the same url even though it has the php? in it. On the others sites they are truly dynamic with a sesion ID included in the url. I guess it should work on the one that doesn't have the session IDs. I wasn't sure if it would work with the "php?" in the url. Sounds like it might.

How quickly do you think they will spider a new thread? I get about 10,000 posts per day. The thread content changes quickly. Last time I looked there were about 900 - 1000 new threads per day. They are viewed the most when they are pretty fresh.

I guess I'll just give it a try and see how it works. :)

[richmondsteve]

CPCretirement, AdSense does work on pages with query strings in the URL (the strings after the "?").

[Clark]

I asked google about this because they accepted my dynamic site and their TOS spoke against dynamic content. They emailed me their approval. So you may just want to check with them.

[whizkiddo]

i dont think they have any thing against dynamic content in fact it would be against their own purposes. a true adsense profitable site would have tons of data , best served in dynamic form otehrwise it becomes a hassle to update these sites. i have seen several ,in fact can name abt 5 rite now which r dynamic and have been accepted for adsense. it works great too , xtremely relevant ads. the TOS does say it might not work well , but i think its just a warning. In about 95% of the cases no probs. the rest 5% i think were more due to no advertisers in that case rather then spidering problems.

[jranes]

I just am not convinced that putting the ads on the forums is the best thing for my users. I am doing well without them there for now. Has anyone that has put them on forums seen an impact on the number of posts / return visitors to their forum. I have gone to a lot of effort just to get the level of posting and community in my forum that I have now. I would'nt give it up for 10 bucks a day.

[abbeyvet]

I can see your point jranes, but that has not been my experience in what is a relatively new forum which has taken quite a bit of work to make lively.

I think, and this is just perception, that people exit using ads only when they have finished what they were doing anyway. Since they all exit in the end anyway it is nice to sometimes get a little money from them as they go.

[CPCretirement]

I looked into this a bit more from the technical side. I found quite a few publishers discussing this on the vb site (bb software that I use on a few sites). There are many who are running the adsense ads in forums. They have had to modify the vb code to get rid of the sessionID in the url. The latest version (still in beta) gets rid of the sessionID.

So, it looks like it is ok with Google. Looks like it can be done technically. Now it's time to generate some more revenue! :)

[Blue_Fin]

Riva, I think posting links to your sites is a violation of the WebmasterWorld TOS.

[Riva Indodigest]

Woops, really sorry. I've just been a member to this world for three days now. Sorry again and thanks

[401khelp]

We checked with Google before we added Adsense to our forum. They said that it didn't violate the TOS and they had no problem with it.

[Riva Indodigest]

I think what the Blue_Fin meant is he WebmasterWorld TOS and NOT the Adsense TOS, don't you Blue?

[Blue_Fin]

Yes, Riva, that is what I meant. 401khelp was responding to the topic of this discussion though.