I'm adding adsense to my wordpress blog through the use of sidebar widgets. I've given the adsense ads the title Similar Links. Is that permissable or would that be deemed drawing attention?
You cannot label your AdSense units, that is a violation of the terms of service. You can only use some of the below examples. 1. Advertisers 2. Advertisements 3. Sponsors 4. Sponsor Links https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=48182
Since I'm using the links in my sidebar widget and every other widget has a title, it would look odd if I didn't label the adsense ads with a title. It's to bad the rules are so stringent. I can see issues links titled click here, but to have a generic name such as related links or similar links, I just can't see a problem. Anyways, I think I'll just relabel as Sponsors, track the clicks and see what kind of CTR I get.
I'm think sponsors would probably be acceptable by Google's TOS. Personally, I wouldn't label the ads at all. They already say, "Ads by google" in the corner. People who see "sponsors" just think, "Oh...don't click that because its an ad."
It's to protect Advertisers, they are the ones shelling out the money don't forget. If you label ads however you wanted it could be abused very easily, I respect these restrictions.