I never really understood the whole idea behind AdBlock and using it mercilessly against all ads (I can understand HEY YOU WINNER! LOLZ 5050105025 and flash crap, mind you) -- lots of sites actually need the ad revenue for funding.
(at least exclude Googleads: they're non-intrusive, text-only, and fit in well enough)
Because I can. Because I want to. I hate any advertising of any kind and form. I am a selfish bastard, and I feel fine about it.
I am looking for signal in my internet travels, not noise. Relevant noise, but still noise.
This is how I can be in control. I dream of a world with no advertising. I cannot change the world. But I can change my perception of it. So I do.
If you can't see the google ads, you probably have it blocked in your c:\windows\HOSTS file. Look for these entries, and add the # sign to enable the ads.
#127.0.0.1 adwords.google.com
#127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
#127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
#127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
#127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
I fully agree on using Google Ads on this site. They are almost unnoticable and doesn't disturb anything at all but still give worthful money this site will surely need.
Good choice IMO.
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Classic television ads are impression based. You can't click on anything on your television, you only see it and it makes you think about the item.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Google's at least aren't - that's why I think it's better to go with Google ads even when they pay per click rather than per impression. :) The problem with being paid for ad impressions is that the ads'll REALLY want to make an impression...
Looks like I won't be receiving anything after all. Google reported that they have received "invalid click activity" and proceeded to close my account.
[Edit: I originally posted this part in a different thread at Sunday April 2nd:]
At April 1st, I received this e-mail from Google, sent at Friday 31th.
Google AdSense wrote:
Hello Joel Yliluoma,
It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on
the Google ads on your site(s). We have therefore disabled your Google
AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an
effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.
A publisher's site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including
but not limited to clicks generated by:
- a publisher on his own web pages
- a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
- automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software
- a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the
layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason
Practices such as these are in violation of the Google AdSense Terms
and Conditions and program polices, which can be viewed at:
https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_UShttps://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US
Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further
participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment. The
earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected
advertisers.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
I had Google Ads on my site for 6 days, collecting about $21 of virtual money. Apparently, I won't be seeing a cent of it.
As soon as I read the e-mail, I sent a query to Google asking for details regarding this incident. Because it is still the week-end, I do not know yet what is happening.
Worst-case scenario is that they ignore me, and I remain banned from Google AdSense without exactly clue why, without receiving anything from them.
The best-case scenario is that they notice some misinterpretation in their results and fix things, and don't reset my statistics.
Nevertheless, at least this weekend didn't gain a cent.
Possible reasons:
- Someone has roboted the ad links and they noticed it. Ergo, I suffer.
- They got annoyed when I did a "wget <address>" once to observe the source code. Ergo, I suffer. (I explained this in the e-mail I sent to them)
- They got annoyed of the "Google Ads - Yay or Nay" poll, interpreting it as attempting to influence the click ratios. Ergo, I suffer.
Looks like I won't be receiving anything after all. Google reported that they have received "invalid click activity" and proceeded to close my account.
...
They didn't say who was providing this 'invalid click activity', did they?
Perhaps you could re-apply, or request more information sothat the offender could be punished? =|
I am requesting more information.
Edit: And the message says that one whose account has been closed by Google, can not reapply.
[Edit April 7th: This was the reply I sent:]Bisqwit wrote:
Hello, Google AdSense. Excuse me.
I am honestly baffled this message I received, and I want
to know details of this violation that you have found.
I swear that I have not clicked the advertisements placed on
my site [1], nor have I encouraged anybody to click on the ads.
I have not used automatic clicking programs or deceptive software.
I have altered the colour codes of the javascript code, but
this was actually encouraged by the generator on adsense pages,
as I recall.
I have a "Google Ads - Yay or Nay" poll on the discussion
forums [2] of my site, asking for people's opinions regarding
my decision to place Google Ads on my site, but never in that
thread do I encourage people to click on the ads.
Therefore, I want an explanation.
[1]: http://tasvideos.org/
[2]: http://tasvideos.org/forum/t/3564
Soon thereafter, I sent another message:
Bisqwit wrote:
On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Joel Yliluoma wrote:
> I have not used automatic clicking programs or deceptive software.
Appendix:
I did do a "wget http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"
yesterday, followed by a "lynx -source" as I received a HTTP 403 error.
I did this, because I noticed that when the Google script loads,
the page rendering stalls, and I wanted to see the show_ads source
code to see if there's a way to make it activate after the rest of
the page has loaded, so that it doesn't stall the browser mid-way
during the page loading.
I apologize for this, but I swear that this was not done in any
attempt to inflate the advertisement click numbers.
However, in the case you do understand what I am talking about,
and you do return the account into active state, can you answer
the question -- whether show_ads can be made load last so that
the page rendering doesn't stall while it's loading?
--
Joel Yliluoma
http://tasvideos.org/
Prohibited Clicks and Impressions
Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include but are not limited to: repeated manual clicks or impressions, incentives to click or to generate impressions, using robots, automated click and impression generating tools, or other deceptive software. Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is prohibited, to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs.
Find an interesting ad? Get someone else to follow it! Arghgh...
I think Yahoo! has a similar service. Perhaps they wouldn't be so trigger-happy?
It sounds to me like google could be just trying to weasel their way out of paying you. If this is the case, they probably do it to lots of other people too, I'll try to find out more.
---
ah couldn't find anything, all the stuff is about fraud claimed by the sites that are destination of the ads.
Monday morning USA time (which was evening at Finland), I received a reply from Google.
[Edit: Before receiving it, I sent this message:]Bisqwit wrote:
Ps: Because it was a weekend and it's a monday and all, I am
reminding that I am expecting an answer to my query.
I'm also worried about the earnings on the account, because the
longer I must wait for your query, the more likely it grows that
your trigger-happy misinterpretation will actually lose the
earnings I had on my account. Also, I did not accumulate any
earnings during this week-end.
So the message I received:
Google wrote:
Hello,
As you know, Google treats instances of invalid clicks very seriously. By
disabling your account, we feel that we have taken the necessary measures
to ensure that invalid clicks will not continue to occur on your site. Due
to the proprietary nature of our monitoring system, we're not able to
disclose any specific details of these clicks.
Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further
participation in Google AdSense. However, if you can maintain in good
faith that the invalid clicks we detected on your ads were not due to your
actions or negligence, or the actions or negligence of others working for
you, you may appeal the closing of your account.
Google reserves sole discretion in considering whether to take any action
on an appeal.
In order to appeal the disabling of your account, please email us at
<address removed by Bisqwit> with the details requested below.
Please compose a new email and do not reply to this message. We're unable
to consider appeals that do not contain all of this information:
- Your name
- Your company's name (if applicable)
- Your publisher ID number (located in the AdSense code on your website
with the format, pub-################)
- Your website's URL
- Date your account was disabled
- Your website's audience
- The source of your website's content
- Frequency of content updates
- The primary sources of your website's traffic
- The number of people involved with the administration of the site
- Any relevant information that you believe would explain the invalid
click activity we detected
If Google decides to evaluate your appeal, we will do our best to inform
you quickly and will proceed with appropriate action as necessary. If we
have reached a decision on your appeal, subsequent or duplicate appeals
may not be considered.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Apparently, I had to write them a formal appeal, which, they can choose to completely ignore on their discretion.
So I sent one.
Here is the "relevant information" part of my appeal:
Bisqwit wrote:
Any relevant information possibly explaining the invalid click activity:
I have came up with three (3) theories explaining why you could
possibly have detected "invalid click activity".
1. Some of the audience may have clicked the ad links manually
multiple times, or even roboted them. As I'm certain that you
are aware that I can not possibly prevent that happening, I find
this theory the least plausible explanation for you disabling the
account immediately.
2. Some of the Google personnel may have observed that I have a poll
on my forums, asking on people's opinions regarding my choice to
include Google Ads on the website. Never in that poll do I encourage
anybody to click on the links -- I stay completely factual in that
discussion, but you may have interpreted it as if I do.
The poll in question is located here:
http://tasvideos.org/forum/t/3564
3. Earlier at the same day, before the account was disabled, I attempted
to download the javascript file, show_ads.js, from the Google webserver
using a commandline downloader program, Wget.
When I attempted it, I received a 403 reply (HTTP forbidden), and
thus, I tried some other program, the text-mode web browser Lynx.
It succeeded. You may have interpreted this as attempting to robot
the advertisement links. This is not the case.
Let me explain: Using the Firefox web browser, I had observed that
when the Google script loads, the page rendering stalls for a moment.
Being versed in Javascript programming, I wanted to see the show_ads
source code to see if there's a way to make AdSense activate _after_
the rest of the page has loaded, so that it doesn't stall the browser
mid-way during the page loading.
This is why I tried to download the show_ads.js file, but you may
have interpreted it as attempting to robot the actual advertisements.
My hostname, as it would have appeared in your access log,
is bisqwit.iki.fi. This is my home address. Every normal
web activity I do from home, appears coming from this address.
The server is located at my home.
I would appreciate if you can have a technical person at your
company analyze the 3rd theory in this message.
So it's time to wait their decision. Again.
(For those who missed the message they sent me in the first place, read it at my Traffic Statistics monthly post.)
Hello Joel,
Thank you for your appeal.
After receiving your response, we re-reviewed your account data
thoroughly. We have reconfirmed that invalid clicks were generated on the
ads on your site in violation of our Terms and Conditions and program
policies.
https://www.google.com/adsense/termshttps://www.google.com/adsense/policies
We have these policies in place to help ensure the effectiveness of Google
ads for our publishers as well as our advertisers. According to our policy
on this matter, we are unable to reinstate you into the program.
Please bear in mind that subsequent or duplicate appeals may not be
considered and you may not receive any further communication from us. We
appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Original Message Follows: <Left unquoted by Bisqwit (see the previous post)>
Translation: Good bye, do not participate in AdSense again.
I don't know
- whether they have read my explanations at all [Edit: According to access logs, they never visited the URLs in my e-mails]
- whether they understood those explanations at all
- what actually was the "invalid click activity" they detected
- and whether I could have done anything to help that
I do know
- that I will not receive a dime from Google
- and never will, at least not through AdSense.
Removing the poll from this topic, because it is pointless now.
Contrary to my earlier opinions, I no longer will recommend AdSense to anyone who plans on gaining money from publishing advertisements. This also applies at the company where I work at.