Whatever you do, don’t click my ads!

22 March 2006 | By Ian in Google, PHP, Site Features, The Emerald City

If you are an adsense user, you may have seen this email:

Google AdSense Policy Enforcement
Hello,

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as http://isnoop.net/gmail/

Publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on Google ads or bring excessive attention to ad units. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as “click the ads,” “support our sponsors,” “visit these recommended links,” or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site. Publishers may not use arrows or other symbols to direct attention to the ads on their sites, and publishers may not label the Google ads with text other than “sponsored links” or “advertisements.”

Please make any necessary changes to your web pages in the next 72 hours. (truncated…)

It’s nice of them not to bring the hammer down on me for having text that said “Please patronize our fine sponsors,” but it’s even more interesting to see where different ad companies draw the line.

The previous text was officially approved for use on my site when I was serving up AdBrite ads. In fact, AdBrite called me on the phone one morning to ask me to change it from the original text which read something like “Please support this service by visiting the sites below.” I assumed that sort of direct phrasing was frowned upon, but I wasn’t sure and ignorance is bliss.

I assume that Google would disapprove of me posting “Whatever you do, don’t click my ads!” above my AdSense, so that’s why I’m not going to do it. Instead I’ll just publish this blurb about making nice for the kind folks who might just pay me a few dollars towards the costs of running this dedicated server.

Whatever you do, don’t click my ads.

12 Comments on “Whatever you do, don’t click my ads!”

  1. It’s nice to see Google sending out warnings now, rather than just killing accounts straight away…

     

  2. Still better than Yahoo:
    http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2864

     

  3. Everyone, click the ads, he cant say it, but i can, clik ads, make money

     

  4. i clicked the ads , FIGHT THE POWER

    jasonbirring.blogspot.com

    DONT CLICK MY ADS, MANY MANY TIMES

    :) i love teh internetz

     

  5. [...] Google ad units are OK, but not “Favorite Sites“. It’s a good thing this guy received a warning before they disabled his [...]

     

  6. That’s stupid, if people want to look at your advises they can’t if they already clik on the others before, but sometimes, i use the advises like a schearch engine, because when you are on a website that you are looking for the informations they give, if the ads all give more informations, i will go clik on all of them to see all the differents informations i can get. And that’s mean that the webmaster could have problems because i used his website like a schearch engine !

    Again, that’s stupid !

    By the way i have some ads too, so what can i do if someone decide to clik on my ads like i do on others website, if they are really interested ?

    I don’t know if i explained very well …

     

  7. I don’t use Adsense anymore. I like Adbrite more. Please visit my website.

     

  8. Hey! i clicked them all! cause im great haha.
    Click mine! siopebook.com, ill click yours if you contact me!

     

  9. Whatever you do, don’t click on the ads on laurina.ca !

     

  10. I’m reporting you all to google. Stoopids trying to take advantage of adsense, scum of the earth.

     

  11. I actually kind of enjoy some of the ads that show up on my site thanks to google!

    I think people click them on their own because they are pretty much on topic with what I’m trying to do.

    So yeah, click fraud is bad if you are paying for advertising.

     

  12. dont click my ads! ;)

    funnytechweb.blogspot.com

     

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