20 replies to this topic

[onebillionviews]

This one might be just for newbies, but you should read it!

I didn't know this until recently, but you have to be really careful with your adsense features.

DO NOT click on your own adwords, and DO NOT user your own google search feature!

Google catches up and youre banned for life

Cheers

That Aussie Bloke

[qwerty]

DO NOT click on your own adwords, and DO NOT user your own google search feature!

There's no harm in running searches on your own site. You just shouldn't click the ads there.

[ewc21]

Apart from IP address, how does Google know if you are deliberately clicking your own ads to generate income?

[mal4mac]

Google can't spot you clicking on ads through the IP address, you could be using someone else's computer. My guess is that Google would spot you clicking on your own ads through patterns of activity. For instance, if 20 clicks come from the same IP address in 10 seconds there's something strange going on. But how could this be distinguished from a malicious attack on the competition? To stop both possibilities Google could decide that such activity just gets ignored. Note I'm just guessing - I have no idea if they take this approach and am not going to experiment .

[Scottie]

Have the Google toolbar installed? Do you have advanced features turned on so that you can check the PR of pages?

Pretty easy to find out people clicking on their own ads, if you ask me...

[torka]

Yeah, Google is like the Santa Claus of the Web.

"He sees you when you're sleeping;
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good,
so be good, for goodness' sake!"

Otherwise, you may wake up on morning to find nothing but a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking...

--Torka

[Jill]

OFFTOPIC:

Otherwise, you may wake up on morning to find nothing but a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking... mf_rudolph.gif ahh...so that's why!

[onebillionviews]

Google might for example associate your IP address (even a proxied/cloaked one) with the IP address you use to login into your admin account)

I guess you can pretend to be smart and uncloak when logging in... but who knows what else google does... Spy flies checking up behind your back.......

That Aussie Bloke

[mal4mac]

Pretty easy to find out people clicking on their own ads, if you ask me...

Is it really that easy? I could go round to friends houses/ libraries/ internet cafes and click on my ads. How would Google know it was me?

CRT rates vary from 0 to 100%, from what I see on my site, and I'd make money if I clicked my low traffic/high CTR pages up to 100% CTR.

Google guys note: I try my best to be so I'd never click on my ads.

I guess Google might have a system for detecting high CTR rates for ads that don't usually have high CTR on other sites. Then they could, say, slow down ad delivery.

But you couldn't get banned, as it might be your worst enemy going round his friends/cafe/library and clicking on your ads to get you banned.

[Scottie]

Yes, you can make a habit of going to odd places to click on your ads.

Considering you probably make .05-.25 on each click, I imagine you will spend more on gas than you make from Adsense.

You could, however, get a job as a pizza delivery guy. Then, at each house you deliver to, ask if you can check something on their computer really quickly, and go click a bunch of your ads. That way, you'd be earning your pizza money AND making tons with Adsense! Google would never catch on.

[torka]

Even better... start a pizza parlor, and hire a bunch of other people to also work as delivery people and instruct all of them to click on your ads on the computer at every house they deliver to. So you get a tax deduction on all your pizza-delivery expenses and the AdSense revenue

But why stop there? Put a discount coupon on each pizza box offering 10% off on their next order if the customer can demonstrate that they've clicked on some minimum number of your ads (they could print out a copy of each of your landing pages to serve as proof). Woo-hoo!

Whew. Maybe I should go lie down for awhile. I feel a bit giddy...

--Torka

[mal4mac]

I used to be in University computer support. I'm glad I'm not there now. I have visions of my boss ordering me to patrol the labs to make sure they aren't clicking on each others ads .

ClickFraud is a real problem, quote from CNET:

"A growing alternative employs low-cost workers who are hired in China, India and other countries to click on text links and other ads."

Edited by mal4mac, 28 November 2005 - 04:54 PM.

[Scottie]

Click fraud is a huge, huge issue. We're joking about it, but there are people who spend days thinking up different ways to defraud advertisers.

Bottom line- if you want to keep your Adsense account, don't click on your own ads!

[SearchRank]

An effort spent making one's site a quality site is far better than an effort spent clicking on ads anyway. The beauty of AdSense is that when you build a quality site that generates lots of traffic, you then automatically earn money off AdSense whether you are awake or asleep.

[BobetteKyle]

An effort spent making one's site a quality site is far better than an effort spent clicking on ads anyway. The beauty of AdSense is that when you build a quality site that generates lots of traffic, you then automatically earn money off AdSense whether you are awake or asleep.

Amen to that. When you spend your energies on developing a reputable site/business (which would include seeing Google as a partner, not an enemy to be tricked into giving you short-term money), the rewards keep on coming from mulitple directions. Better yet, no need to worry about that lump of coal in the stocking.