Google Moderator says that it is.. " Publishers should not bring excessive attention to ad units (e.g. arrows or placing 3 ad units above the fold) or use phrases such as "click the ads," "support our sponsors," "visit these recommended links," or other similar language that could refer to the Google ads on your site. " But I must admit I have a hard time believing it, because several other answers to specific question have been answered like Google Moderator was a newbie on drugs, as I have shown here: http://www.best-reviewer.com/google-moderator-giving-strange-answers-adsense-questions-7283.htm So what's your take on this? I have never read that rule, that having 3 ad units (G Moderator doesn't even talk about the size of those ad units) above the page fold was against AdSense TOS.. So what's up really? I'm asking you, because who else can I ask? Google moderator? To get an off-topic answer or a copy&paste text, I don't think so! So just to know what you would do yourself after reading this? Because I have sites with 3 ad units above the fold, even big 300x250 ones, and I have never receive any warning emails about that, I have this situation on sites as old as 2005. Also I have never read that anywhere, and now I read it from an official answer, hosted on google.com and not on google forums..
That's concerning - makes me wonder about some of the "adsense themes"... it appears that they still distinguish ad units from link units. So maybe things like the bluesense theme would still be kosher. Interestingly on one of my sites I've been receiving emails letting me know that I only have 2 ad units on the page and could add a third. (Of course, they don't suggest where...)
Yes, and in another posts I've read that now gogole search team will try to analyse automatically what users can see above page fold and will determine amount of content versus ads there is in order to make their rankings.. But yes, this issue of 3 ad units being above page fold falling into the "not bringing excessive attention to ad units" rule should be made clear in adsense's tos, please someone tells them not to make up new rules as they go along.. ..or if they do, to update the adsense tos.. how hard is that!?!
Yeah, not very forgiving, but about what? This "information" is buried along with several other non-sense answers from google moderator.. I haven't read this from adsense team anywhere else, is it really an information?
Yes, if you have doubts it is not even worth it to try. Above the fold ads are now also receiving some scrutiny from the Google engine as well in relation to page rank. It is almost impossible to keep up with it. Use caution when you can because it is better than the ban. But, I do agree with you that varying opinions are always going to throw you off one way or another.
Yes, especially since this information was amongst really suprisingly amateurish answers, even if it was hosted on official google pages.. It's puzzling, I never tried to contact adsense directly about it, because I have no hope for a personal answer and I don't wish *that* google moderator to answer my email