Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I just read, and re-read their TOS, policies, and FAQ, (specifically, the section on click spamming (https://www.google.com/adsense/faq#basics9), and am positive that I don't do any of those things....
EXCEPT, one time I was checking out my message board and clicked on a link to a health food site because I was interested in buying health food-related products. The last sentence in the second paragraph says "Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is also prohibited because this has the potential to inflate advertiser costs". Would they really disable my account automatically because I was legitimately interested in an advertisers product and clicked on their link, just because I own my site?
I just don't know what else the problem could be. :(
This has been a very good month for me because my site is related to a baseball team that is in the playoffs, and the majority of AdSense ads that showed up were for ticket brokers. There are even threads on my message board by users discussing what great deals they got through these brokers because of the Google ads.
I'm really bummed, because for the first time ever my site was actually beginning to turn a profit. They wouldn't disable my account just because I had a good month, would they?
Reading threads here, other people seem to have gotten notices or warnings; mine was automatically disabled. I'm just really frustrated because I thought I was just running the ads and being a good citizen doing so.
Has anyone ever heard of this before?
Accounts should never be deactivated for fraudulent clicks. It is simply impossible for a webmaster to prevent this.
True, but to Google, the issue probably isn't whether the Webmaster is guilty or innocent (or who the real culprit might be). It's more likely to be a simple question of economics: Is the Web site profitable for Google or not? If the site doesn't generate significant revenue, the answer is probably "no," and it may be more cost-effective to disable the account than to do a thorough investigation.
I'm reminded of when I sold tickets at a foodball game in high school and my till came up $10 short one night. I didn't take the money, and maybe no one did. Maybe the teacher who did the bookkeeping had miscounted the change in the cash drawer before the game. No matter: It was simpler for the teacher to take me off ticket-selling duties than to determine whether I was innocent or guilty. I was pretty upset at the time, but in looking back, I suppose the teacher was just using good business judgment. (Too bad he didn't explain his reasoning, though--just as it's too bad Google doesn't make it clear that detecting invalid clicks on a site's ads doesn't necessarily mean the publisher is considered guilty of fraud.)
So you mean Google will PROBABLY tolerate some fraudulent clicks if the site is 'profitable.'
By coincidence, I received the letter the day after I hit a "milestone" amount of revenue. Perhaps they have an automatic trigger that says if publisher makes more than X dollars in a day, ATTACK!
And no, it was not that much of a jump from the previous days' totals.
So you mean Google will PROBABLY tolerate some fraudulent clicks if the site is 'profitable.'
PatrickDeese's reply is on target, IMHO. It isn't a question of whether Google will "tolerate" fraudulent clicks; it's whether Google can justify the expense of a more thorough investigation (or even a lengthy e-mail correspondence) if a site produces minimal revenue.
Also, any organization that lets algorithms churn out automated e-mails is going to make mistakes now and then. That's why it never hurts to answer an "invalid clicks" e-mail with a calm, reasonable, and polite statement of the facts (as the publisher sees them) and an offer to help with a more detailed investigation.
Most likely, you were flagged at the month end audit of your earnings.
I think, google uses the month end audit to do a serious analysis of clicks during the month. Atleast most of the ban threads seem to spring up at the end of the month here.
Might be that google bans people below a certain traffic threshold when fradulent clicks are detected?
If the site doesn't generate significant revenue, the answer is probably "no,"
Not truth - if you take 100,000 sites that each generates 500 USD then you get decent money. The problem is that that Google doesn't have good anti-fraud algorithm, so that nobody could be again accused of these illegal clicks. The no "analysts" are needed to investigate, etc., etc.
I think that is the point EFV is making. Each of these hypothetical sites would turn over $500, of which Google makes (say) $250. Cost out their techies time in investigating at $100 an hour, and its more cost effective for them to ban the site than investigate in depth.
On your hypothetical example of 100,000 such sites the number of "suspect" sites would be quite small, say 1000 or 2000. You can see the point EFV is making on a cost benefit analysis from Google's point of view.
It may not be good PR though!
Not truth - if you take 100,000 sites that each generates 500 USD then you get decent money.
But as Cornwall points out, isn't likely that all 100,000 sites are showing invalid clicks. If only 1% or 2% of the sites are having problems, Google won't lose that much by dumping them.
Remember, too, that a lot of sites aren't generating anywhere near $500 a month. Also, the critical number isn't how much revenue the the sites are generating, but how much profit they're generating (i.e., how much money Google receives after the revenue split and after account overhead, which includes investigating questionable clicks).
Again, I'm not saying that Google should let a site's revenues influence its decisions on whether to keep or close the account; I'm simply saying that it would be surprising if the economic factor weren't involved.
I have been in AdSense since mid-July... haven't qualified for a payment yet.
I would guess I am not lowest earner in the program.
I have a lot of Spanish language content that got Adsense less than 2 hours after I found out the G opened the program to other languages (thanks guys).
I can tell you judging from the first couple of days - I will be qualifying for a check every month, but still no where near "$500" per month.
Just out of curiosity, how do they know when it's you clicking? This question is mainly about the first post in this thread.
Hold the rear of the mouse and slowly move towards to google ad, watch the link appear in the bottom corner of the browser window at then slowly move it away
DO not click on the link
there that was easy - now you know where the URL goes to and that's all you need to know
If you want to use the URL from your site then right click, copy and paste into a new browser window and remove any of the google code leaving just the URL press return and the site appears
This way no gets upset and you have got what you wanted
Just do what I do
Hold the rear of the mouse and slowly move towards to google ad, watch the link appear in the bottom corner of the browser window at then slowly move it away
No no..... ah...... too late. You KNOW if he gets THAT close, he's gonna click.... he's a click addict! I think there is professional help for that in a forum here somewhere, "Webmasters Who Can't Stop Clicking" or something like that....
--Kenn (lol - ...I'm off to find that forum for 'Webmasters Who Can't Be Funny'....)
I hope the google guys dont find out what I am doing or they may add this to the TOS
It does make it easier if you have the google TOS open at the same time and scroll down to where it says
"Do not click on the link"
It may not be much fun, but it sure saves getting the dreaded email terminating your adsense.
Let's start with you clicking on your adsense ad. If you don't get booted, then it'll be my turn.
As far as I am concerned with my communities, I didn't even know there were ads on the page or how they got there.
