Following up this and subsequent post re the Preview tool I've had some emails from Google Support. Email #1 assured me that there would be no erroneous impressions/clicks recorded once I right click the preview tool. However, when I asked what happened if you hit the x to exit the ad menu that pops up so that you can see your own page-- the support person said, that this would indeed disengate the preview tool and that you need to right click each time you go to a different page -- This leaves the tool useless at least for anyone like me who's interested strictly in being able to freely navigate her own pages -- you can't read what you can't see and there is no way to grab that menu by the border to reduce it-- besides, the only thing that clicks while you've got it on is the ads in the menu-- if you've got a link to a sub-page you want to activate-- no dice! So unless you're interested in tracking advertisers instead of concentrating on proofing and working your page, this seems useless. This is easy enough to download and install but I'm not clear just how it works-- presumably, when you go to one of your pages and right click the preference tool to bring up the related advertisers, your viewing the page, or even clicking any ads will not be charged to the advertisers. However, since you have to first click on the page, doesn't that automatically make an impression before that preference tool is right clicked? Also, to be able to read and work with your own page, you have to exit the menu that pops up and I'm not sure if that then disengages the preference tool??? Since the tool only works in IE, there's still no way to disengage the ad click/impression count in firefox-- and the suggestion to put a special no ad code posted elsewhere is cumbersome and time consuming as it involves page reloads.
Why not try this http://www.thebizbank.com/adsense-preview.php to see what adds appear for your keywords much simpler
I'm less interested in being able to check out what ads are being placed (for my purposes this is a supplemental thing and I'm willing to trust the placement of ads to Goofle) to see to it that thi than to be able to navigate my own pages for purposes of proofreading -- the assumption is that with the preview tool activated, you're not making invalid impressions-- but since you have to exit that ad menu to properly read your own pages, I'm not sure that this keeps the preview tool active as a way for Google to know NOT to count impressions made as I jump around my various pages to test for accuracy.
Google support has tried to be very helpful to my questions about being unable to really make use of the preview tool -- e.g., being unable to click on anything, while the preview tool menu is open, not being able to reduce that preview menu window and thus unable to even read my own page pertaining to those ads. They say that they are constantly working on improving this tool and the google write suggested: If you open your pages in separate windows and use the preview tool on one of those pages, you should still be able to access your other windows. You may also find the Alt+Tab hotkey useful in navigating through your open windows. However, it's not that easy to open up multiple windows and what happens when you go that alt+tab routine remains a puzzlement to me. It would be really helpful and interesting if someone reading this could post a step-by-step on how they work with this tool -- other than to just look at what ads are being placed but to avoid increasing the impression count unnecessarily (which, the google support person said would not be affected by anyone looking at their own pages, as long as they don't click ads -- which is somewhat different from other postings on this topic).
Guys: OK, so what does it mean then if you type in a URL into one of these tools, and it comes up with NO ad results (especially when just the day before, there were plenty)?? See, I'm working on a horror movie blog I want to launch (want working, targeted ads in place BEFORE I 'open' it officially and start spreading the word to people), and am having all kinds of trouble with the Adsense unit on it (which works just fine on my other blogs)--the dreaded PSA's keep showing up exclusivley on this blog! I'm starting to think now that since it's a "horror movie" related site, the words and terms I'm using are unintentionally triggering it to be flagged by Google as something objectionable I guess, even though it actually isn't (not graphic, just spooky, really). But it's frustrating because, there's no way to do a horror movie site WITHOUT saying buzzwords like horror, dead, living dead, monsters, zombie, blood, graveyard, terror, etc, etc, etc...! In addition, plenty of other folks are somehow doing it and getting horror movie targeted ads from Google--I frequent lots of horror film related blogs daily, and their Adsense works and is being served up fine. How are they doing it? Strangely, mine goes good for a day, then suddenly the PSA's take root. Only way to "fix" it and get real ads back, is to delete most of the posts I have there (save 'em as drafts actually), then it kind of resets after a few hours and regular ads return again. And they stay--until I start posting again. Seems like pretty much anything I say, though, if it has to do with monsters and horror movies, gets it flagged in a matter of hours, and then all I'll get are the danged PSA's again...till I remove all the posts and repeat the cycle over again. Getting very frustrating now. I mean, if I leave NO posts there, I get ads indefinitely. But if I post (about the horror genre, which is what the site is all about), I get PSA's. Oh, and once I notice PSA's return exculsively, I then go type the URL into these Adsense checker tools, and they all show "no ads available" suddenly--when the address was giving me plenty before I started posting and before the PSA's had returned. So basically, it's fine if I don't post (Adsense tools will show ads available to that URL), but then when PSA's pop up again, the URL seems to die and freeze up (Adsense-wise) and the tools show no ads available again. Confusing to me at first, but I've now figured out the routine and have tested it numerous times. Wondering, if I e-mail Google and tell them what the site is all about, can they (will they) un-flag it if they see it isn't nasty and offensive (which it isn't) and against the TOS? Or, will the PSA's eventually go away after a day or two more if I just leave the posts up and Google figures out finally that it's simply about monster movies and nothing more? I'd appreciate any thoughts on this, as I really wanted to get this puppy launched by now (with ads not PSA's)! Thanks guys! Loving this forum and all the great experts we have here! Sincerely, Keith
So then, anyone have any advice or insight into the issues I'm having that I mentioned in the last post above? I'd really appreciate some thoughts from you guys on how to solve this or as to what's going on. I'd really like to launch that site ASAP (with Adsense working correctly), but am not sure what to do now. Thanks! Keith
i think, that it's the word "horror" that's preventing the ads from displaying. "horror movie" has ads for it, "blood" has ads about blood donations. i don't know, maybe you can try typing "horror movie" instead of horror. see what comes out. in other words, try to reduce the density for "horror" or, for a possible violation of TOS, misspell the word horror. but i wouldn't do that if i were you.