Do you have nightmares about clicking on your own ads?

I think people can get a little too paranoid of this. Of course you shouldn't click your own ads or tell other people to click them but Google does a very good job at filtering IPs that are also used to login to the AdSense account. If they see a continual pattern they may do something but it must be statistically significant for their systems to pick it up.

With so many accounts, they rely on their filters and analytics first and manual checks second. Google has often been criticized for not cracking down on click fraud more, especially when the company has some of the most powerful analytic engines ever built. They can't even catch a lot of blatant click frauders. Or maybe I shouldn't say the "can't" but do they really want to?

Google's business model is sometimes in conflict with ethical business practices. It is a fine line between making their quarterly earnings and maintaining the respect from the advertising community. Most advertisers don't even know that they are being defrauded, which is really sad.

Even with the class action lawsuit filed against Google for click fraud, it made headlines for maybe a week, then people began to undermine the credibility of the company filing the lawsuit (saying they were doing it for publicity). It is unfortunate because I think Google really does have a problem that they need to get under control.

But it also isn't a really easy thing to solve. A balance must be reached since duplicate IPs are not always a sign of fraud. A big company may have the same IP used by all of their employees, or some geographical areas using dialup or wireless connections can often rotate the same IPs. There is going to be an even larger problem when Wi-Fi covers the entire nation.

They are just going to have to check for blatant clickers that are statistically relevant and outside of the standard deviation of error. One or two accidental clicks shouldn't be a problem. The people who are consistently clicking all day long will be caught. The people who have 90% of their clicks coming from outside the US will probably be looked at. The people who have very high CTRs that do not appear to be statistically "normal" will be looked at.

Google has their work cut out for them, but if they can get the big frauders under control they'll probably have to let the 1-2 clickers a day slide. I know it is unfortunate that they can't catch everyone but that may just be the cost of advertising online.

 

Redirecting AdSense in your hosts file, redirects all AdSense ads. It is a simple ad-blocker technique.

If you cannot program people to not click, you need to program your site to not display "live" AdSense ads when you or your family are visiting.

This is easiest if your pages are PHP. And, it works best if your IP address does not change very often. You would provide the script with your IP address and have it block or rewrite the account info on the AdSense block. Perhaps something like:

<?php
$AdSenseTest =    "pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
$AdSenseAccount = "pub-1234567891234567";
$callingIP = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
$myIP = "127.0.0.1";

if(ereg( $myIP, $callingIP)) { $AdSenseAccount = $AdSenseTest; }
?>

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "<?php echo $AdSenseAccount; ?>";

Code (markup):

If you are windows, you can retrieve your IP at any time by entering "ipconfig" at a DOS prompt. If you are behind a router, you will need to access the router's interface to obtain the IP address assigned to it.

This assumes you are on DSL or Cable, where your IP address, while dynamic, does not change a lot. If you are on dial up and your IP changes all the time, it might be easier to train everyone.

 

Find your hosts file. In window XP it's in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Under the line: 127.0.0.1 localhost add
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
and save file.

This will block the ads. If you ever want to see the ads Just add '# '(2 spaces) if front of the line. IE: # 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
and save.

To block the adds again, just delete the '# ".

Note: evertime you make a change you will to close and restart your browser for the changes to kick in.

 

Never, ever, ever, ever tell your friends and family about your Adsense ads. If they ask how you make money on the net, just tell them you just do and leave it at that. They won't care enough to ask again.

 

Ive accidently clicked on my own ads before.

Immediately emailed google to let them know.

Got a standard responce about not doing it again and checking tos etc.

Didnt get banned though.

Will have to look into some of those scripts, because last thing I want is to click on my own ads.

Brad

 

I came out here one fine Sunday to find my SO clicking every single ad on one of my sites, page by page. This after he had been instructed not to click any ads - he thought I meant for his site only. Panicked email to google.....

I don't leave windows open with the kid around either, even though I now use the hosts file to block ads. What a relief it is! I've clicked my own ads by accident - my mouse has a mind of it's own, each time with an email to google.

Yes I do have nightmares about clicking my own ads. But then again, when I waitressed, I used to dream about serving food to people butt naked, or not being able to find the table, or..... it's always something!

 

Ellen, it's also what roman1 has just explained. You can add that line with a text editor like Notepad (the "hosts" file is a text file).

Well, about step-by-step, for example with Windows XP:

1. Open the text editor at Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad
2. From Notepad, open the "hosts" file at File -> Open -> My Computer -> C: -> WINDOWS -> system32 -> drivers -> etc -> (Files of type: All Files) -> hosts
3. Add (copy and paste) the line:
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
4. Save the "hosts" file.
5. Close Notepad.
6. Close the browser.
7. Open the browser.

That's all, no more ads and accidental clicks on that computer.

As also said, if later you need to see the ads, comment (disable) that line with "#":
# 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

Hope this helps.

 

I'm sure one click won't do too much damage, nothing to go nuts over.

 

This is a perfect example of the problem I have nightmares about ... below is an email I received from my aunt's 15 year old son this morning, whom I am doing a site for ...

The stuff that fills my nightmares ... but these nightmares have lead me to an idea. I wonder if some genius programmer out there could program the following ...

What if I sent an email to all my family and friends asking them to visit this page and had that page set a cookie of some kind. Then if the cookie is present I don't show ads ... does this make sense? Of course I guess it would only work for a single url ... is there a way to set this so that it would work with many urls?

Just some early morning ramblings ... forgive me ...

 

I have accidentally clicked on ads on my sites several times. They always show up as clicks, but with no revenue. That's easy to check when it's a new site with no traffic. It looks like Google is pretty good at filtering your own clicks.

They probably capture your IP address whenever you log in to AdSense and block all clicks using that address.

It can be pretty hard to NOT occassionally accidentally click on ads while testing a new site.

 

I know this is off topic (but can still get you account ban). I am a photographer that sells my stock photos on istockphoto.com. The images that you are using with the Istockphoto.com watermark, is against there content license agreement, which means that you are also violate Google’s TOS. If you have rights to use the photos I recommend that you use the once without the watermark. The only reason I am saying this is because if some came across this and contact Google you account mite be banned. Google has a way of doing this without asking questions.

 

lol, I spent a few hours last night putting google ads on my soon-to be launched new site, and then after going to sleep I literally had a dream that I kept accidentally clicking my own ads, and was realising I'd get banned, but I just couldn't stop myself I thought of this thread as soon as I woke up!

I've got ads on my blog & have managed not to actually click any of them myself yet, but it hadn't occurred to me that well-meaning friends & family might decide to "boost" my Adsense account on my behalf - I must make sure they know not to!

 

i don't realy ever dream of my adds . I think about them allot though.
you need help

 

wow i hope i never have nightmares about stuff like this lol . i never even worry about clicking my own ads... if it has happened on accident it must have been once or twice for all my publisher time. :X

 

Yes, I was thinking about this great site I had found a few days before and was thinking about signing up with it and then I was thinking about how I found it and realized I had clicked my own ad to get to it :| I didn't even realize till a few days after.. I almost had a heart attack thinking I was too late. I emailed google and they said it was ok haha.

 

I use joomla on my sites, and i am glad that joomla has an adsense module
that helps u block upto 5 ips.
I am glad i chose Joomla...

 

I think so sometimes

I should have more breaks from doing web stuff, but it's such fun!

 

I see that most webmasters here use firefox, just add an extension called adblock, and they won't show. (right-click "disable adblock" in order to see them)

-RonMo

 

I clicked on my adsense ad once. When it was first setup on my website. Nothing came of it thankfully.

 

<?php

if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] != 'YOUR IP ADDRESS') {

  echo "

<script type='text/javascript'><!--
google_ad_client = 'PUBLISHER-ID';
google_alternate_color = 'FFFFFF';
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = '468x60_as';
google_ad_type = 'text';
google_ad_channel ='6843708962';
google_color_border = 'FFFFFF';
google_color_bg = 'FFFFFF';
google_color_link = '00205B';
google_color_url = '333333';
google_color_text = '333333';
//--></script>
<script type='text/javascript'
  src='http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js'>
</script>

";
}

?>

Code (markup):

That will show ads to everyone except your IP.


NOTES:

1. Use your IP address where is says YourIP
2. Replace with your google adsense code.
3. Make sure you use Single Quotes in your ad code like shown above, NOT double quotes like adsense default.