Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Then we joked, if Google adsense gets popular enough to be on 50-75% of all websites, then everyone will be an adsense publisher and everyone will fear clicking on ads and our natural responses go against the google ad revenue model.
:)
(I'm sure Jen will have something to add.)
I'm often interested in the ads, or rather, I want to see that particular website, but I know I'm not going to buy. In this case I always just leave the mouse over the ad and then type in the URL directly.
If google doesn't have better things to do with their resources than track my IP number across the web...oh well:)
Nothing in the contract I signed says can't be a regular web surfer also.
Ditto, but I do tend to shy away if I know I'm researching and not in a buying mood. (Toolbar in place, too. Nothing to hide.)
I guess I am just paranoid about my ip clicking any adverts, even if they arent on my site.
Mack.
I didn't think anyone else did this apart from me.
I'm with WebWalla and Mack - I'd rather type in the URL by hand. Google currently seems to be making examples of webmasters who appear to have broken the TOS (even in borderline cases)... probably to give themselves a no-nonsense reputation and save themselves trouble in future.
I don't think you have to be paranoid to believe that the IP address you most often use when you log into your AdSense stats has been logged and is being tracked by Google, whenever you click on an adsense panel.
That's not to say you'll be penalised for clicking on AdSense panels, but the point where you draw the line between normal and suspicious click behaviour may not be where Google draws the line - and it may not be where Google's AI draws the line.
We have here OP saying that he refrains himself from clicking on ads of OTHER websites out of habit (and fear of Google TOS).
We have always heard about the fear of webmasters "sabotaging" another website by clicking repeatedly on an ad in the hope to raise Google's red flag -- in the hope of kicking that webmaster from the program.
So I am presenting the possibility of another type of surfer: one who will not click on an ad because they don't want to give you the Adsense revenue. They are not out there to sabatage your site by clicking fraudently on your ad, but they are there to avoid you from earning from the program, whether the click would be $0.10 or $10.
Of course, I hope that I would never see any of these types on my web site :o)
Huh? Why the heck should Google mind anybody clicking ads as long it's not their own site?
I sure agree with you heini. The logic of this thread is beyond belief. Google is not going to care about any of us doing that which they want all Internet users to do -- click and buy from advertisers. If you want to discuss the clicking of ads at your own site or mulishly clicking ads at another site, you have a valid concern about what Google’s reaction will be.
I too am now conditioned to have a reluctance to click on AdSense ads, strictly from the context of accidentally self clicking my own ad.
This goes to show you how sloppy the brain is at managing multiple contexts, which is something I've noticed many times in my own behavior. Even though clicking on someone else's ad isn't the forbidden context of "self-clicking", it's the context of clicking on someone else's ad which is legal, the mistaken context still exerts a psychological deterrence.
Remember that next time you kick the dog after your wife (husband) yells at you. :)
thx
If I click on someone else's AdWords, I fear Google may think I'm trying to get that site in trouble. You never know what kind of hair trigger their algorithms for catching cheaters might have, or what form of data collection they may be using. 50 PhD's can probably outsmart me.
Just my 2 Cents.
thx
Since you are an AdSense publisher, you are not allowed to perform beneficial actions for other publishers, even if your activities are considered normal web-surfing activity and you have no relation or vested interest in the site(s) which received the clicks."
I wonder how Google would actually word a termination email if we weren't allowed to click on a 3rd party site's ads.
The above is what popped into my head and it seem kinda silly to even ponder the notion, given that, as someone said, we didn't give up our right to interact with the rest of the web when we signed on with AdSense.
Granted, if a click ring or something equally nefarious was discovered, publishers would get busted. But I imagine the sites' getting in trouble for such an activity would be the ones Google decided were receiving the clicks/revenue (seems unfair, but I think that's already happened here a few times).
heh, that same click makes somebody money...it's called ecomomy :)
Since you are an AdSense publisher, you are not allowed to perform beneficial actions for other publishers, even if your activities are considered normal web-surfing activity and you have no relation or vested interest in the site(s) which received the clicks."
Ahanshami's hypothetical letter raises a good point about 'beneficial actions for other publishers'.
Let's say ten publishers who all use adsense on their site form a discreet mailing list - every so often somebody new is invited to 'the club' and the mailing list grows from ten to thirty to... a hundred.
As a club member, all you have to do is visit each of the other member sites once per day and click on one AdSense panel once (thus guaranteeing 99 clicks on your own site if everyone does their thing). If the clicking IP addresses are _not_ being monitored, this is, I suspect, not suspicious enough to trigger alarms... however it wrecks the system as far as the advertisers are concerned: these clicks are unlikely to lead to conversions, they are purely for the benefit of the publishers in 'the club'.
Given that I've just had this idea and that no idea on the internet is original, I'm almost certain that this sort of scam is already taking place.
Does anyone think Google won't be watching for this kind of thing?
Well, that's when I was just learning that untargeted traffic was totally worthless and even though I got lots of complementary e-mails from members, I abandoned it because of maintenance hassles and some abuse.
Now setting this up wasn't rocket science so if I were Google I would be on the lookout for click farms.
heh, that same click makes somebody money...it's called ecomomy :)
I'm a legitimate surfer that has seen an ad of interest. The advertiser has placed this ad to attract quality visitors. He is getting what he paid for.
If the website I am visiting has provided quality content, then it deserves the revenue for providing that ad. (However, if I'm at a website that has used questionable means to get me to their site, I will not support their efforts by clicking on a revenue generating ad.)
Google has provided the advertiser with a qualified visitor. Google deserves to be paid.
The result is a Win-Win-Win-Win situation for the visitor, the advertiser, the AdSense website, and Google.
B.F. Skinner, famous for the "Pavlog's Dog" conditioning experiments
They were Pavlov's dogs because the conditioning experiments were done by Dr. Ivan Pavlov, a professor of physiology, not B. F. Skinner.
The work of Dr. Pavlov did form the foundation of Skinner's work, who studied and refined Pavlov's theories and in the process founded the field of behavioral psychology.
