Is it OK to drive traffic fm Facebook & mailing list?

[vema123]

I'm just wondering if it is okay and not against Google AdSense policy if I drive traffic to my site from facebook? Suppose, I put a link to my site in the 'wall' or 'discussion board'? If it's considered spamming, so how does Google differ the traffic coming from:
1. The link I put on others' facebooks' walls or discussion boards; and
2. The link in others' facebooks' walls or disscussion boards as a result of mutual LINK EXCHANGE, which is regarded NOT spams? Or, the links which others put in their own facebook voluntarily?

Another thing, is it OK to drive traffic fm emails sent through yahoo mailing list? I don't ask the email recipients to click the link to my site, I just put it as an article source. I'm asking this question because of this one of Google AdSense's rules as follows:

"To ensure a positive experience for Internet users and Google advertisers, sites displaying Google ads may not:

* Use third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf and click-exchange programs.
* Be promoted through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites"

[dburk]

Hi vema123,

I don't believe that there is any policy that expressly prohibits traffic from Facebook, but asking your friends or relatives to click your ads is a serious violation. You will need to tread carefully on this one because the very nature of Facebook is all about friends and relatives. Some of these people will click your ads because they think they are helping you. Actually they are helping you get your account revoked.

I would advise you to never reveal your AdSense websites to friends and relatives unless you can tag their machine with a cookie and use scripting to turn off ad serving for their sessions.

The primary problem with a traffic source like Facebook is that Facebook pages are about a person and their friends and family. Except in the case of a celebrity or industry leader, this would be a very poor source of traffic and would likely jeopardize your AdSense account.

There is a new trend in the Facebook Network where businesses are setting up Facebook accounts for their company and this may be more suitable to feed traffic to AdSense publisher websites. However, using a link exchange for traffic would never be good for an AdSense publisher even on a business oriented site.

[vema123]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi vema123,

I don't believe that there is any policy that expressly prohibits traffic from Facebook, but asking your friends or relatives to click your ads is a serious violation. You will need to tread carefully on this one because the very nature of Facebook is all about friends and relatives. Some of these people will click your ads because they think they are helping you. Actually they are helping you get your account revoked.

I would advise you to never reveal your AdSense websites to friends and relatives unless you can tag their machine with a cookie and use scripting to turn off ad serving for their sessions.

The primary problem with a traffic source like Facebook is that Facebook pages are about a person and their friends and family. Except in the case of a celebrity or industry leader, this would be a very poor source of traffic and would likely jeopardize your AdSense account.

There is a new trend in the Facebook Network where businesses are setting up Facebook accounts for their company and this may be more suitable to feed traffic to AdSense publisher websites. However, using a link exchange for traffic would never be good for an AdSense publisher even on a business oriented site.

Hi dburk,
Thank you for answering my query. No, I never ask any of my friends or relatives to click on my AdSense Ads. And none of my friends nor relatives know about my facebook. I mean, I just make up my profile and identity. And I don't even know all people in my 'added friends'. So if that's the case, is it safe?

But what about yahoo mailing list? I'm wondering if this could be a good way of driving targeted traffic? But I'm afraid that this could violate Google's rules on the other hand. What do you think?

[dburk]

Hi vema123,

The bottom line is that you should never send traffic to an AdSense site that isn't extremely targeted towards your topic. If you have a source of traffic that is very likely to purchase the products that your advertisers are selling then it's probably a good source. Conversely, if you have source you believe will not likely make purchases from your advertisers, you should not send that traffic to and AdSense site.

The better the traffic is for your advertisers the more you, Google and the advertiser will all make. Any traffic that converts poorly will be putting your relationship with your advertisers in jeopardy.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that since a source of traffic isn't likely to make a purchase I will send it to an Adsense page and at least I will make some money from the clicks. Well that's the sort of thinking that will get your account shut down. Don't think about what you can get away with, instead think of how you can help you advertisers make a bundle selling to your highly targeted traffic. Be very particular about what type of traffic you seek!

[vema123]

If I drive really well targeted traffic which really benefits the advertisers, therefore it is completely OK to drive traffic from facebook and NOT against Google AdSense policy?

[2d0k]

i've tried using facebook to drive traffic to one of my sites by putting anchor texts in my profile pages.. i think this is just okay for google as long as you don't abuse its usage and you won't spam your entire facebook pages..

[dburk]

Originally Posted by vema123

If I drive really well targeted traffic which really benefits the advertisers, therefore it is completely OK to drive traffic from facebook and NOT against Google AdSense policy?

Hi vema123,

The typical Facebook page would generally be a poor source of traffic for an AdSense publisher, but it is conceivable that you could build a Facebook page in an atypical fashion that actually works well. It all depends on you devising a method that attracts topical traffic rather than personality based traffic.

Facebook pages are by design personal pages and not generally topic driven. They work best for celebrities where there is merchandising opportunities or perhaps a single attractive woman looking for dates could feed an AdSense page about dating services.

While there are ways to attract people to a Facebook page based on an interest in a common topic, most people use Facebook to stay in touch with real world friends and family.

[vema123]

Originally Posted by 2d0k

i've tried using facebook to drive traffic to one of my sites by putting anchor texts in my profile pages.. i think this is just okay for google as long as you don't abuse its usage and you won't spam your entire facebook pages..

Thank you for your answer. This really makes me relieved. By the way, how long have your anchor texts been in your facebook pages? 6 months, 1 yr, or..?

[vema123]

Yup, you're right. Most people use facebook for their personal purposes. But I'll see if I can also drive targeted traffic fm it. Thank you for your advice. It gives me a deeper insight about facebook. You know, I'm really new in facebook world:-) And I've got so much things to learn about what I should and should not do, especially how to avoid spamming without my realizing it.

[2d0k]

Originally Posted by vema123

Thank you for your answer. This really makes me relieved. By the way, how long have your anchor texts been in your facebook pages? 6 months, 1 yr, or..?

you're welcome..

they're about 2-4 months old.. but these links were reflected in google webmasterter tool after 1 and a half month after putting them..

[vema123]

Originally Posted by 2d0k

... but these links were reflected in google webmasterter tool after 1 and a half month after putting them..

I'm sorry if I don't understand this, but does it mean a good thing or a bad thing if those links were reflected in Google webmaster tool? And why?

Also, what about promoting our site or blog through yahoo mailing list (suppose in the form of anchor text as article source or signature)? Would Google consider it as against their rule? "...unsolicited mass emails..." as I quoted the AdSense rules above..

[2d0k]

google has a webmaster tool in www.google.com/webmasters/tools for webmasters site owners to monitor their keyword rankings, backlinks to their site, page errors.. etc.. it's a helpful tool, i suggest you use this..

[vagabondette]

Regarding the mails, I'm not sure what you mean by sending you yahoo emails but unless that person specifically said vema123, please send me information about your product then what you would be doing is sending unsolicited emails which would be against adsense policy. Now, if you just have it as a link in your signature in your regular correspondence I don't think it would be a big deal but again you'd run into the problem of people potentially clicking because they think they're helping.

Rather than trying dodgy methods and hoping they're ok, why not do some that you can be pretty sure aren't going to be a problem?

[vema123]

Originally Posted by vagabondette

Regarding the mails, I'm not sure what you mean by sending you yahoo emails but unless that person specifically said vema123, please send me information about your product then what you would be doing is sending unsolicited emails which would be against adsense policy. Now, if you just have it as a link in your signature in your regular correspondence I don't think it would be a big deal but again you'd run into the problem of people potentially clicking because they think they're helping.

Rather than trying dodgy methods and hoping they're ok, why not do some that you can be pretty sure aren't going to be a problem?

What I mean is to promote my site or blog by sending the latest information regarding any articles in my site through yahoo mailing list. Suppose my site is about cooking, so I join cooking mailing list, and then I sent mailing list informing any latest information in my site. But I'm worried about doing this since it could be regarded as mass emails? I've known a person who was banned for sending mass emails, not through mailing list like me, just regular emails, so I'm really worried.

[vagabondette]

I still don't know what you mean by yahoo mailing lists. Yahoo doesn't have mailing lists. If you mean yahoo groups then it's likely your post would be seen and reported as spam. The groups are there for interaction not for you to send messages about updating your site. They get REALLY touchy about it unless you're an active member. Then they tend to be more lenient.

Again, stop trying to figure out how to skirt the rules and start working smart. Build your own list to promote your products to so you don't have to worry about spam issues.

[AggieMom]

I think the biggest problem of the facebok or so the social networking site is the traffic is un-targeted.

People came thoses places for fun, for sharing the private with people they already know!

[vema123]

Originally Posted by vagabondette

I still don't know what you mean by yahoo mailing lists. Yahoo doesn't have mailing lists. If you mean yahoo groups then it's likely your post would be seen and reported as spam. The groups are there for interaction not for you to send messages about updating your site. They get REALLY touchy about it unless you're an active member. Then they tend to be more lenient.

Again, stop trying to figure out how to skirt the rules and start working smart. Build your own list to promote your products to so you don't have to worry about spam issues.

What I'll do is just posting a useful information for the recipients, and put the link to my blog as the article source. Of course, I'm still working my blog in the smarter way , but in the mean time, the method I'm thinking about can drive a lot of traffic, but I'm still worried about really using it.

Sorry, yes, you're right, what I mean is yahoo groups. So do you mean that as long as nobody reports my blog as spam so I'm safe?

[michaellive1986]

The point is you can not bring traffic from your social networking sites by asking from your friends / friends and especially the search is not targeted to the product.

Just play it clean if you want..

Treffic from Facebook is not prohibited as long as you don't ask for it.

[aboutalhah]

I'm not really sure people will be happy to see an adsense site while they are chatting with their friends on facebook...

[vema123]

No, I NEVER ask anyone to click on my google Ads. I just put my link in facebok. That's all.

Another thing, can anyone let me know if it is okay to put my signature (in a form of link to my site) in the emails sent through yahoo groups to promote my site? Do you think it violates AdSense's rule of "... unsolicited mass emails..." kind of thing?

Thank you for your advice

[nettech]

Technically you can drive traffic to your sites which I don't think is against AdSense TOS. What I would be careful of is using Facebook. As mentioned above, people will tend to click your ads as they think they are helping you but will cause a great deal of click bombimng and chances are your account will get banned...I would personally stay away from this method!

Unless your newsletter is highly targetted then you can drive traffic to that page but try to avoid trying to promote the AdSense links (by telling people to click on them) in any way otherwise that could get you into trouble.

Just focus on the quality contenf of yoru site and let the rest happen by itself!

None of my friends or famaily even know about my AdSense business.

[vema123]

Originally Posted by nettech

Technically you can drive traffic to your sites which I don't think is against AdSense TOS. What I would be careful of is using Facebook. As mentioned above, people will tend to click your ads as they think they are helping you but will cause a great deal of click bombimng and chances are your account will get banned...I would personally stay away from this method!

No, the facebook I have is filled with people I don't know (I just add them randomly), and I also put the link to my site in other facebook groups, which is in the same category as my site, therefore I'm driving targeted traffic to my site.

So far the CTR is still normal (around 10% or less), but still I don't feel 100% safe with this method, yet I'm still doing it for it's been driving lots of traffic so far.

Is there anyone who's been promoting their site or blog by using yahoo groups or facebook? If any, how long have u been doing this?