Forum Moderators: martinibuster
From the email....
A publisher's site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including
but not limited to clicks generated by:
- a publisher on his own web pages
- a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
- automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software
- a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the
layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.
I've done NONE of the above.
The only thing I can think of is I did change the color of the ad layout to blend in with the color of my site, but I know that MANY others have done the same, and I did that three months ago.
Please comment!
Sigh - Is that it? I used the tools but couldn't get the color exactly right, so I inserted the color I wanted into the code.
So I guess that's it. Good grief!
I know a couple people have said as much, but I want to confirm that using your own colors and not the AdSense color picker is perfectly fine when you are choosing ad layout colors.
Plus WW is near the top of the SERPs for "banned from adsense". Webmaster receives the bad news and two minutes later they're here proclaiming their innocence and/or venting their spleen.
Then again, there may be established Webmaster World members who don't want their peers to know they've been dumped from AdSense for fraud or other TOS violations.
It's probably a bit of both: unhappy newbies who show up to complain, and old-timers who want to cover their tracks.
I know a couple people have said as much, but I want to confirm that using your own colors and not the AdSense color picker is perfectly fine when you are choosing ad layout colors.
Thanks for confirming this, I didn't think it could be, but just in case I was already in my code trying to choose near matching colors to those that I had.
I'm going to leave it so.
Then again, there may be established Webmaster World members who don't want their peers to know they've been dumped from AdSense for fraud or other TOS violations.
That certainly hasn't been the case with the latest few that have posted here. In each case they left clues as to where their websites were which allowed us to quickly figure out what the problem was.
I might add in most cases it had nothing to do with the original post.
I joined WW in the middle of June, the same time I started with adsense. I was well aware, before the ads went live, that clicking your own ads was THE big no no.
I have never done so. Repeat, NEVER!
I'm finding that there's a lot of interesting info on the web about this particular subject.
Site may not include:
Pop-ups, pop-unders or exit windows that interfere with site navigation, obscure Google ads, change user preferences, or are for downloads. Other types of pop-ups, pop-unders, or exit windows may be allowed, provided that they do not exceed a combined total of 5 per user session
I know a couple people have said as much, but I want to confirm that using your own colors and not the AdSense color picker is perfectly fine when you are choosing ad layout colors.
Does this include changing the actual adsense code to insert your own colors, or does this only include changing the hex code from within the Adsense interface and copying and pasting the unmodified adsense code from the website.
That seems like 2 different things. One of them could cause you to break the TOS by modifying the code, one seems within the TOS.
Does this include changing the actual adsense code to insert your own colors, or does this only include changing the hex code from within the Adsense interface and copying and pasting the unmodified adsense code from the website.
Since the color is a hex code, I don't see how Google would know which method you had used to change it. I have changed the color code by doing a find-and-replace across my site, and I'm sure that others have done similar things. Why would Google object? And how would they know?
lol
Since the color is a hex code, I don't see how Google would know which method you had used to change it. I have changed the color code by doing a find-and-replace across my site, and I'm sure that others have done similar things. Why would Google object? And how would they know?
That's like asking, if a tree falls in a forest and noone is there to hear it, does it make a sound :)
Does it matter how they will know (or if they will catch you) even if it is against the TOS to do so?
I guess the "how would they know" answer might only come about when someone makes a mistake in their "hand editing". If they added an extra character or space that made the adsense code display incorrectly on the website, it could trigger some sort of flag for the Adsense review team.
It's like how will the police know if you are speeding if you are on a remote country road. They probably won't until you make a mistake.
It doesn't seem like it should be a big deal to do a find and replace or to hand edit the hex code in a text editor, but I've just never seen it clarified, and when ASA has posted, there seems to be a recurring theme of not editing the code by hand.
P.S.
We're never had anyone claim that they were dropped from Adsense due to following Brett's advise to click all your ads at least one a day.
There SHOULD be no difference between doing it via the interface and simply inserting the color code yourself, but as others have said it's safer to use the code they produce so that you don't introduce some kind of error.
I'm still PO'd about this, but ya gotta move on.
