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Clicked my own adsense by mistake!

Discussion in 'Guidelines / Compliance' started by imagerage, Jul 24, 2005.

  1. Shoemoney

    Shoemoney $

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    #21
    Do you also call the police and tell them if you went over the speed limit? just curious
     
    Shoemoney, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  2. nriweb

    nriweb Well-Known Member

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    #22
    I dont think one or two clicks once in a while should cause any problem. First of all google will not count that as a valid click. And if have been using adsense for quite a few months I dont think you should worry at all. One or two clicks wont be regarded as click fraud . Having said that, avoid clicking on ur ads :)
     
    nriweb, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  3. exam

    exam Peon

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    #23
    Good point, although it's not completely analogous.

    Maybe it's more like there's a cop every 100 yards and one has already pulled you over, but you just keep arguing with him, he's going to find something else to give you a second ticket. Ok.... so my analogy is really screwed up, but my contention is that Google *already* knows, before you email them.
     
    exam, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  4. Josh

    Josh Peon

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    #24
    Exactly.. Google knows already. I'd probably email them if I accidently clicked on my ad/s.. but I doubt they will think much of one click, as it happens to a lot of webmasters and they have autmatic filters to filter it out, so you're not getting credit or anything.

    Josh
     
    Josh, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  5. dvduval

    dvduval Notable Member

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    #25
    Yes, I have emailed them in the past to let them know that I clicked on ads by mistake. I just got a standardized reply. Most important is that you are being very careful not to click on your ads. If you spend as much time working on your sites as I do, I think it is virtually impossible not to click on your own ads on occasion. For me, we're talking maybe a few cents every couple of months. I do believe you can alter the host file on your machine to ban the adsense server if you keep screwing up. That's what I would do if I accidentally clicked more than once or twice in one week.
     
    dvduval, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  6. Josh

    Josh Peon

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    #26
    Only problem with that is, you wont be able to edit placement and colors and stuff if you can't load it :)

    This gave me an idea though, write a FF extension to make Google ads viewable but non clickable. I'm not sure how I'd do it though..

    Josh
     
    Josh, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  7. Talkfreelance

    Talkfreelance Peon

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    #27
    Actually, I tested to see if google really do pick you up for fradulant clicks, clicked mine about 10-20 times and nothing happened.
     
    Talkfreelance, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  8. Shoemoney

    Shoemoney $

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    #28
    OHHHHHHHHHHH NO U DIDNT :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
     
    Shoemoney, Jul 24, 2005 IP
    Crazy_Rob likes this.
  9. Josh

    Josh Peon

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    #29
    If you login to your adsense account, go to your site, click your ads maybe 5 times. repeat for a week or so, then you'll see that yes, Google does pick you up :)



    Josh
     
    Josh, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  10. Juan G

    Juan G Peon

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    #30
    Kim Malone, the Director of Operations for AdSense, said recently about this topic:

    Of course, accounts with self-clicks are automatically flagged. No matter if one click means just a few cents. They are extremely strict about that.

    Possibly they are forgiving about that click or clicks, maybe not (there are different stories about this), but if you don't write them asking to deduct the cost of the clicks for the advertiser (which they do anyway) then it seems the flag is kept on your account, and you are in greater risk in the case of future accidental clicks.

    I think you should write Google immediately, like many people have done, to be in the safe side and have the flag removed.
     
    Juan G, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  11. Shoemoney

    Shoemoney $

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    #31
    sorry i have to unsubscribe from this thread just cant stand it anymore....
     
    Shoemoney, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  12. fryman

    fryman Kiss my rep

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    #32
    lol... well, some people just love running around in circles...
     
    fryman, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  13. Juan G

    Juan G Peon

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    #33
    It can seem indeed unreasonable that many publishers -small and not so small- are terminated for just a few self-clicks, but it does happen constantly, as we see week after week at the WebmasterWorld forums (maybe because of the high traffic of those forums).

    I'm quite new to Digital Point but it's true that, for some reason, here we see less of those cases, apart from just a recent one (not self-clicks), who seems to progress well with alternatives to AdSense. Very quiet around here... ;)
     
    Juan G, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  14. use_your_equity

    use_your_equity Peon

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    #34
    This is posted a million and one times. If you click your own ad just once on accident and report it to G...they will not care! Just dont do it more than once.
     
    use_your_equity, Jul 24, 2005 IP
  15. maverick

    maverick Peon

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    #35
    SIMPLE words:
    1) Dont click on ur own ads again if U did it by mistake. (If you did it purposely, go ahead and get urself banned ;) later)
    2) Google does not count the clicks for revenue, which are generated from the same IP where the user logs in. Google tracks the IPs from where we created the account and from where we access the account. If these are two different machines, never click from these IPs (purposely for testing or mistakenly too)
    3) Let google know about your FIRST mistake, (I guess if u let them know about ur second mistake, then they might not take it as mistake :D), they will appreciate you.

    I guess this is enough for newbies to adsense or newbies to own clicks rather.. Ha!
     
    maverick, Jul 25, 2005 IP
  16. Juan G

    Juan G Peon

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    #36
    From many cases posted on forums, blogs, etc., there is a wide variety of different situations, but it seems clear that those who contact Google in advance in a cooperative way (giving, not asking for information) are in most cases safer -not always though- than those who wait for the popularly called dreaded email and just ask for information, receiving the well-known second email: "Due to the proprietary nature of our monitoring system, we cannot disclose any specific details of these clicks", etc.

    After being banned, they post things like this (quoting a random post; on the other hand he didn't mention those wrong clicks in the emails to Google, big mistake):

    There is no need for this, we have the AdSense Preview Tool to check ads safely. Many accounts have been cancelled for just "a few clicks", or for not clicks at all apart from those by a "helpful" friend, an so on.

    Indeed any monitoring system, in one or other way, will flag wrong or suspicious activity, however nobody apart from Google knows how their system decides which accounts must be flagged, or what criteria they follow to unflag accounts, reviewed as honest. All of us on this and other threads, we are only giving our opinion after so many different cases appearing on forums, etc. From those cases, the best bet is being, not secretive, but completely honest, open and cooperative. Just an opinion.
     
    Juan G, Jul 25, 2005 IP
  17. aeiouy

    aeiouy Peon

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    #37
    Yeah only problem with the preview tool is it can be fairly worthless for ad links, and I have to filter out certain content providers who place ads on one of my sites because of the nature of their services.

    I don't think anyone is getting banned for a mistaken click or two. I think the biggest problem is we see people getting banned getting the same form letter, and we have know way of knowing what percentage of people are being 100% truthful, completely untruthful or partially truthful. I don't want to really see the fear mongering inhibited, because I think it is important that people take the no clicking thing seriously. It is especially easy as someone new to program to not understand the importance of not doing it.

    So while it is unlikely you are going to get banned for a single mistaken click, there is no need to be clicking on your ads. If you did it by mistake, be more careful, is a good rule of thumb, I would think.

    If you have a legitimate site with legitimate content and are completely within the TOS, I would hazard to guess your chances of getting banned for clicking on your own ad one time to be virtually non-existant.

    That being said, being banned can be a very harsh penalty, so it is not worth the risk.
     
    aeiouy, Jul 25, 2005 IP
  18. TooHappy

    TooHappy Guest

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    #38
    Don't notify for one or two clicks. This is bound to happen and it's a load of crap that you have a flag set forever; perhaps a month or two max!
     
    TooHappy, Jul 25, 2005 IP
  19. bryanong

    bryanong Peon

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    #39
    I did the same too...but nothing happens to me...but of course i only did it once..
     
    bryanong, Jul 25, 2005 IP
  20. imagerage

    imagerage Peon

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    #40
    I am trying to block Google ads now so I can't click them.
     
    imagerage, Jul 25, 2005 IP