Affiliate Links

Okay with AdSense?

[ember]

I think this has been discussed, but I can't seem to find the thread. Is it okay to have affiliate links on the same page as AdSense? Or ads from individual advertisers? We sold advertising before AdSense kicked in and I still have some of those folks on my site. Now I am worried that their being there is violating AdSense TOS, even though neither they nor the affiliate links resemble AdSense ads at all. It's this sentence in the TOS that concerns me:

"If You have elected to receive content or Site-based Ads, You further agree not to display on any Serviced Page any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s)."

Is Google really saying that they are the only advertiser you can have per page?

[dutch_dude]

From the Adsense Program Policies:

We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.

Context triggered advertising or ads that look like Google's are not allowed. See the Competitive Ads and Services part here: [google.com ]

[Sobriquet]

The problem I faced in this was that I had to remove affiliates which were advertising with Google also.

I wrote to google specifically about them and removed them.

Any affiliate link, to a site whose ad appears on your page is not allowed.

In one of my sites, i used to get ads of a particular site, to whom i had signed up as affiliate also, and this is ojectionable to google.

[spaceylacie]

At a recent conference, a Google representative talked about thin affiliate pages. While they are not a direct TOS violation(I don't think), it's not a good idea.

[ember]

I heard back from Google and they said that affiliate links are fine and so are ads from individual advertisers. They just don't want ads that are "based on the content of your page as determined in an automated
manner" competing with AdSense ads.

So all is well.

[europeforvisitors]

At a recent conference, a Google representative talked about thin affiliate pages. While they are not a direct TOS violation(I don't think), it's not a good idea.

Probably for search reasons. The Google search team appears to be making an effort to weed out duplicate content and pseudo-content these days.