Would I get away with this?

I am making a gaming site, that covers all kinds of games. The site will run AdSense, and some of the content will feature "hot" games.
Will I get away with running pictures no stronger than this: next to AdSense ads?

Thanks

 

You're fine as long as there is no nudity.

 

yes, you can get away with it. and it will increase your CTR a lot also!

 

Thanks AWA and ebrawl, but would it not constitute as bringing undue attention to the Ad's?

I'm double checking everything, as I cannot afford to get banned!

 

no, you can have images by the ads. They just say you need a visible border in between

 

If your really worried I would just email Google and see what they say.

 

Btw, nice pic.

 

it`s ok, if it`s not porn

 

Emailing them is the best way!

 

I asked this very question a couple of days ago and got this response this morning:

Those pics look fine to me!

 

Thanks for all your help guys!
I'm going to chance it, hope it works!

 

Hi Brian123,

Not a good idea in my opinion. I looked at your site and the graphics, and according to my understanding your graphics are deceptive and misleading compared to the ads which is violating the tos.

You are attributing "undue attention" to the ads if the images next to ads are misleading. Drawing undue attention to ads is in violation of adsense program policies.

So- My opinion is do not chance it- You could be very unlucky, get reported and get a review from a grumpy google employee.

Honestly-Appropriate (and approved) images will do just as well at improving your ctr, without resorting to "tricks" like this.

 

One other thought. Where the hell is old welsh guy, good old jack burton, and tyler (who hits every thread right before me) on this post?

(not to disrespect numerous other frequent posters)

Come on guys, help this guy out! Check his sig sites- and reply- We have a bunch of low post people (I know I have low posts too) giving bad advise here.

 

It looks alright, but it sure is fugly, and not a very respectable website, if one cares about such things.

I'm more curious about where he gets his traffic, as there's nothing there but two Adsense blocks and a list of games and a picture of a console. You can optimize and have Jenna Jameson pointing to your ads, but if you're not getting any traffic except from DP people clicking on it out of curiosity, you'll never make any decent money. I would worry less about tricking the visitor to click and concentrate more on building decent sites that will last.

But maybe that's just me...

 

If you are using images next to ads, then they must be separated by a border. I read the emails from G to mean the ads must have a border.

 

First problem: http://www.finance12.com/
Your ad unit and thumbnails are overlapping some of your text.

Second: Why do you have two Wii sites which are exact replicas of each other?

On to your use of thumbnails and ads...

First of all, Jack is right. Not only are the thumbnails ugly, your sites need a lot of work. It looks like you've spent a lot more time trying to trick your visitors instead of creating content and giving your visitors a reason to return.

As far as whether it violates TOS or not, I'm going to have to say yes, it does.

"To be specific, we ask that publishers do not place misleading images near Google ads or use images that appear to be directly associated with the advertisers and their offerings. Such images may draw undue attention to the ads and prompt unintentional user clicks, thereby artificially inflating advertiser costs. As you may know, drawing undue attention to ads is in violation of our programme policies, so we are unable to approve the placement of all images next to Google ads."

When you're placing pictures of girls on Wii and Finance web sites, there is no way to justify that you are not placing the image there in order to mislead your visitors. If you changed the images to something like Nintendo icons for your Wii web sites or money images for your Finance web site, then I don't see a problem (there are dozens of arcade sites which do exactly that). If you had a site relating to dating or men's interest, your pictures would probably fly, but they do not mesh with your content.

Normally, if a topic is this debated, you should definitely ask the highest authority, which is Google. Send them an email and then post their response here

 

While normal images are alright (within your niche)...scantily clad women next to Nintendo ads? That's quite a stretch there.

Just for good measure -- If you have to refer to it as "Get away with this"...It means you don't think you should be doing it, and if that's the case -- don't .

Edit: Tyler is a smart cookie and beat me by one minute

 

Sometimes I don't agree with Jack's seemingly "rude" manner, but in this case I do. Your sites look like no more than three more MFA BS sites that create white noise that only serves to drown out real, relevant websites.

Create compelling, original content for your sites. And for God's sake, if you're going to use photos next to your Adsense ads at least take the time to ensure they render correctly and aren't "squished."

 

Thanks once again to you all for your comments, I have temp taken down wiigame.co.uk and minwii.com. Can you please take another look at www.Finance12.com and firstly see if it loads up okay, and secondly tell me how to improve it, and maybe "make" a little money from it.
I would also be grateful for any other suggestions on what to do with the other two domains.

I'll be back here about 9PM GMT.

Thanks.

 

this looks like it was made with some simple WYSIWYG editor. If you dont like manually coding, try an advanced program such as DreamWeaver.