Hello all, I've seen a lot of threads on this forum of the type "will I get banned for this?" or "is this adsense usage legal?" For a while I'd been experimenting with certain techniques such as images next to ads, and I was worried that Google could ban me. So, in the end I decided to email the AdSense team and ask if what I was doing was ok. My reasoning was that if it was a problem, they'd suddenly ban me unexpectedly, so I might as well find out for myself. To explain further, my page is about penguins, and I had pictures of penguins next to the ads, separated by a thin grey line. The penguins are drawn by hand, sort of cartoons. I wasn't sure if a penguin picture next to an advert for "Penguin World" was ok. I wrote a very friendly letter to them, explaining that I value AdSense a lot, and I am serious about using it, and would like to ask them if my usage was within their TOS. They wrote back in two days and said everything was ok! So, my conclusion is to check things with Google, as they are pretty friendly if you speak to them nicely, and it will save trouble in the long-run. Plus, any problems in the future and I'll have that email as evidence that things are ok.
For reference, here is the reply I got: ----------------------------------------------------- Thank you for your email. As you correctly mentioned, publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on Google ads or bring excessive attention to ad units. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as "click the ads", "support our sponsors", "visit these recommended links" or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site. Publishers may not use arrows or other symbols, including images, to direct attention to the ads on their sites and publishers may not label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements". I have reviewed you site and can confirm that the border around your images is sufficient to distinguish between the images and the ads. However, you should note that we constantly monitor all of the web pages displaying Google ads or an AdSense for search box. If we find that one of your web pages violates our policies, we will notify you and ask you to remove the Google code from that page. I hope this clarifies the issue for you. However, if you have any additional questions please feel free to reply to this email. ------------------------------------------------------
G support is very good. They always answer politely and you get your answer (most of the time anyway). p.l.u.r.
A lot of peopel think by sending a message to Google they will make their accounts constantly watched by them.
I agree, Google support is great. Fast and with concrete data. I recommend it to everyone with a clear and real problem. Just ask them.
Another +1 for talking to Google support. I've never had any bad experiences. They've always been fairly fast and always courteous.
It is always the same ... If in doubt, give G a shout. Only by having clarification from them can you be sure that you are in adherance to their TOS. There are many times people try thingsout before seeking confirmation from Google and wonder why they get banned or receive a warning email etc. If people have to ask whether or not something is within tos, they would best be sending an email to Google themselves to get the answer. None of us are qualified adsense advisors, and none of us can speak with Google authority behind our words... so in essence we can advise on our opinions, but inevitably the final word will still by with Google.
Maybe if they answered more quickly, I couldn't sleep well the past 2 days, come on google answer me back.
The fact they dont reply straight away is they get an enormous amount of emails, and if your query is not specific enough for them to check into and review the site, you would get a generic reply. The more information you provide, the more accurate the reply. The extra time taken can only be a good thing if they are manually reviewing it, since then it should get a more personal and accurate answer. It is not always the case though.
I just need some assurance that I am in good standing, I have 3 new sites ready to launch but have no desire to anymore