Absolutely, but if you don't frequent these types of venues you may not know about the preview tool. When I first started with AdSense, I had no idea that a tool was available to view them.
thanks guys for your comments. however, what i read: 1. there is no way google can differentiate between you clicking you own ads and someone else who's clicking on the ads without your knowledge 2. however, in the long run, trust google to know whom to ban and whom not to ban hmm... 1 and 2 does not jive...
I'm not sure it's a matter of trusting or not trusting. People don't use AdSense out of pure good-natured human kindness. They use it to make money. Google runs AdSense. Google determines the rules. If you are an AdSense affiliate, you agree to those rules when you sign on. If Google determines their rules have been broken, they cancel your affiliate account. Is this any different than any other affilate or franchise?
Yes there is. Some affiliates let you see the IP addresses and logs of your visitors thats clicking your ads. From these point you can prevent abuse as soon as possible and saving your account being banned. What adsense lacks is transparency. But ofcoz just by accepting google terms publishers have no choice.
Well, of course, if you don't like the TOS no one is twisting your arm to sign up. I did because i like the way the targetted ads work and a couple of others I tried a few years ago that tried to do similar things pretty much sucked.
Yes I agree. Your IN if you have adsense on your site although Im trying to take away big percent of earning from adsense by concentrating in affiliate programs.
Speaking about fraud clicks: Yesterday, I was reading about websites for sale on one websites brokerage site. I noticed one site with steady income, bla, bla, I visited it, and my surprise they are selling software for generating fraud clicks, and they are very open about it. So, everyone who buy 'clicks' from someone, should be careful, you might get this 'clicks'. Cheers
1. Yes they can... sort of. If you login from your house, and your IP is logged and then you click your ads from the same IP, those clicks will be disqualified and eventually you will get banned. If you are doing it from someone else's 'house' say, they will eventually not count those hits either. 2. Trust is the wrong word. Deal with someone and their guidelines and TOS, who is allowing you to earn some additional income, or find another way to earn some additional income. If Google banned me for a right or wrong reason, I would either deal with it (if I was in the wrong) or I would contact them and find a resolution or else an alternative. As for the 2 not jiving... they really do not have to. It is like M$ putting out a buggy and incomplete product. You either deal with it or find someone else.
I'm not so sure of this. On the adwords side of things, Google tends to charge you for a click from the same person on the same computer every single day. It is far from perfect.
I guess this is all a part of advertising.. This is not much more different than say a competitor getting a newspaper that has your add. Not everyone that you advertise to is going to be a qualified buyer. HOWEVER... Let's say your competitor went around and grabbed bup the news papers from the stores and peoples lawns. Hmm.. It starts to sound like there is an issue. In any event the SE's and other advertising outlets should have methods in place to combat this fraud. They cannot do it completley, but they sure could make a dent. I would think if the level of abuse is consistent and constant, an from the same IP and or netblock, it is not hard to find a pattern. I look at all the intelligence that Google has built into their search and other tools and cannot seem to rationalize that they would not have measures in place to combat fraudulent clicks. They sure can find it with AdSense, so would it not stand to reason they could do it with AdWords?