Keeping An Adsense Account Safe

[futuremills]

Basically I want to know some of the precautions that you all use to keep your adsense accounts safe. I always here stories about people who got their accounts banned and I want to make sure this does not happen to me.

Also I want to know if there is anything one can do to avoid the dreaded clickbomb from competitors. I heard some people say there are plugins that will limit a visitor to two clicks on an ad but i am not 100 percent sure of this.

[Scott Casey]

Hey...Good thread. I have the same concerns, however lately I have been hearing horror stories about adsense accounts getting shut down for no apparant reason...and customer support is a dead-end. That's scary for sure. I would love to hear about precautionary measures (if any).

[onabrud]

Just follow the Google AdSense policies and you will be safe. In my experience, they will first warn you if you have violated any TOS. Regarding clickbombs (this cannot be avoided) by your competitors, well as long as its not your fault, they will temporarily disable the ads to your site because of invalid clicks, but soon they will enable it. If not, contact them.

[areoo]

In my opinion ... Don't be afraid just don't keep your eggs all in one basket ... Like other warriors have been saying ... I take this as if you we got fired from our day Job ... So we look for better opportunities

[StoneWilson]

Obey Gooogle Adsense TOS and never cheat, even you got set up by competitors someday, you can get your account back. As to the plugins, if you are using WP, there are plugins like Adsense Manager can help you manage your adsense ads, such as show different ads to different audience, don't show ads to certain IP, etc. Actually there are lots of plugins can protect your adsense account, try to search them on Google.

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by StoneWilson

Obey Gooogle Adsense TOS and never cheat, even you got set up by competitors someday, you can get your account back. As to the plugins, if you are using WP, there are plugins like Adsense Manager can help you manage your adsense ads, such as show different ads to different audience, don't show ads to certain IP, etc. Actually there are lots of pluins can protect your adsense account, try to search them on Google.

thanks , I was looking for something like this. More so something that will limit the amount of clicks a visitor has in a certain time span.


do you all run google analytics. I have heard many people say do not run adsense, wmt, and GA on your sites because you are giving google all your data to google

[faceblogger]

This thread has some valuable discussion on this topic. - Adsense Account Disabled Today

Most of the concerns are discussed.

[ahmadbasyir]

I think that, always aware about the visitor IP address... If you ask many of your friends to click on your adsense ads continuously, you put yourself in risk to be banned.

[Heavenstorm]

I have a personal adsense account and a business adsense account. What I do is I put all my micro niche sites with my personal adsense account and my big authority sites with my business account. Like everyone says, don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

[Rough Outline]

Originally Posted by Heavenstorm

I have a personal adsense account and a business adsense account. What I do is I put all my micro niche sites with my personal adsense account and my big authority sites with my business account. Like everyone says, don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

Are you even allowed to do that? I thought that having multiple accounts was an offence? Surely that is the opposite of keeping your accounts safe.

[Heavenstorm]

you are allowed to have ONE personal account and ONE business account. Its not against the rule.

[Amigo]

Originally Posted by onabrud

Just follow the Google AdSense policies and you will be safe. In my experience, they will first warn you if you have violated any TOS. Regarding clickbombs (this cannot be avoided) by your competitors, well as long as its not your fault, they will temporarily disable the ads to your site because of invalid clicks, but soon they will enable it. If not, contact them.

Agree..
Just keep in mind that do not click your own ads accidentally, you know its accident but Google don't. I have experience..

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by ahmadbasyir

I think that, always aware about the visitor IP address... If you ask many of your friends to click on your adsense ads continuously, you put yourself in risk to be banned.

i would never tell friends and family about your adsense sites. THey may want to help you and click on your ads thinking they are helping but they are really just hurting you

Originally Posted by Heavenstorm

I have a personal adsense account and a business adsense account. What I do is I put all my micro niche sites with my personal adsense account and my big authority sites with my business account. Like everyone says, don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

This is what i want to do eventually. but i want to have different LLC for every couple of adsense sites that way if i get banned once the whole business doesnt go down the tubes.

[Heavenstorm]

if you have different accounts for every couple of adsense sites....then I think that will be against the policy of google...

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by Heavenstorm

if you have different accounts for every couple of adsense sites....then I think that will be against the policy of google...

It wouldnt be my personal account it would be business and separate businesses at that...does anyone here do anything like this?

[Heavenstorm]

you can only have 1 business account under your name. Unless you have partners in your business and you register the account under his/her name. Each business account also require a seperate business address and business bank account.

[paulgl]

I am surprised that you people are not worried about going to prison.
Because it's the same question.

How do I keep my adsense safe?
How do I stay out of prison?

Well, what are you doing to stay out of prison?

Exactly!

Paul

[Amigo]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I am surprised that you people are not worried about going to prison.
Because it's the same question.

How do I keep my adsense safe?
How do I stay out of prison?

Well, what are you doing to stay out of prison?

Exactly!

Paul

Hmmm... Now you got me into this to think about it!!!

[gamingmaster42]

As long as you play it safe there's nothing to worry about.

[cheezystix2]

I've lost and got a new account setup (being ultra safe) .. so far so good

To be ultra safe, I'd suggest
1) Keep everything you do Clean and within their TOS

2) Do not play with or attempt Black-Hat methods (such as Linksharing, self auto-pingers, your own link farms, etc)

3) Never give out your site names to anyone (friends, family, whatever) as they could get you banned (by accident or not)

4) DO NOT scrape content .. use only unique quality content on your sites.

To be ultra, ultra safe

5) Get rid of Google Analytics, the less they know about your sites the better

6) Consider a private domain (to keep prying eyes away)

7) Separate hosting account (with a unique ip address) Basically to make sure you do everything you can to make your site look like it's on an island all by itself. This is probably overkill, but an attempt to avoid being associated with other site or as part of any type of "blog-farm"

Some other comments ..
Big G are real pain in the keyster so make sure you have a backup plan in place as they can at anytime pull the plug on your account with no reason or explanation at all.

Good Luck

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by cheezystix2

I've lost and got a new account setup (being ultra safe) .. so far so good


Big G are real pain in the keyster so make sure you have a backup plan in place as they can at anytime pull the plug on your account with no reason or explanation at all.

The advice given is for someone who is afraid because they are not following
google TOS. And from someone who got banned. Why would I follow them?

The overwhelming number of people who come here and say they got
banned, for no reason, makes it seem as if everyone should be scared.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Paul

[DWolfe]

Never drive any paid traffic to your site, I learned that this past weekend. Some one in another thread said look at the terms of service. After looking into the TOS it says no Paid Traffic !

[yukon]

Originally Posted by cheezystix2

To be ultra, ultra safe

5) Get rid of Google Analytics, the less they know about your sites the better

6) Consider a private domain (to keep prying eyes away)

7) Separate hosting account (with a unique ip address) Basically to make sure you do everything you can to make your site look like it's on an island all by itself. This is probably overkill, but an attempt to avoid being associated with other site or as part of any type of "blog-farm"

LMAO!

I can't even type this comment without laughing.

If you have Adsense on your site, it's the exact same thing as Google Analytics.

Google isn't going to have a billion dollar product (Adsense) without tracking every single minute detail.

Everything you & I see inside our Analytics accounts, I'll bet Adsense tracks way more details. They wouldn't be worth a $hit If they didn't.

You can run, but you can't hide, lol...

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by DWolfe

Never drive any paid traffic to your site, I learned that this past weekend. Some one in another thread said look at the terms of service. After looking into the TOS it says no Paid Traffic !

Oh ...really?

Seriously. I suggest YOU actually look into the TOS.

One big urban myth about paid traffic. Promoted by people
who obviously don't actually read the TOS!

What do I keep telling people? Read the friggn' TOS. You will not
find anything about paid traffic against TOS. Quite the opposite.

Google's empire is based on paid traffic. Why would they have terms
against it?!?!

No wonder people get their adsense banned. They believe myths
and a twisting of facts.

Google does not allow PTC, stuff like clixsense, neobucks, etc.

PPC is a different ballgame. Paid traffic is just fine if you follow the
rules.

Let's see what google actually says about paid traffic:
(please read the whole thing)

Can I purchase traffic to my site? Which services are okay to use?

You’re welcome to promote your site in any manner that complies with our program policies. However, AdSense publishers are ultimately responsible for the traffic to their ads. So if you choose to partner with a third-party service to increase traffic to your site, it’s critical that you monitor your reports closely to gauge the impact that each source has on your ad traffic.

There are many services out there that can increase traffic to your site, including pay-per-click solutions to connect advertisers and publishers, as well as search engines and directory sites. However, we’ve found that some of these services actually send artificial traffic to websites, despite their appearance. To deliver the traffic levels that their customers expect, these services often generate clicks and impressions using click bots, or by providing users incentives to visit sites or click on ads. For this reason, we strongly urge you to use caution when partnering with third-party traffic services.

Paul

[MisterE]

Just for reference.

Here is the link to the Adsense help page regarding the Program Policies.

I encourage you to 'expand' each of the sections... I have the feeling that many are in violation to some degree without realizing.

[DIGITALCHAMELEON]

I am sorry but there are no precautions when it comes to the safeness of adsense account, we are just nothing to Google Adsense, let us let them to decide.

[WilliamBLee]

Just follow the Google Do's and Don'ts no fake click and do try to login your account from multiple IPs.

[cheezystix2]

Originally Posted by paulgl

The advice given is for someone who is afraid because they are not following
google TOS. And from someone who got banned. Why would I follow them?
Paul

I have sites running Adsense and some black-hat sites as well.
I guess I am both GOOD and EVIL

I lost an account awhile ago and now have one running just fine for months. Since Google gives no explanation I thought I'd share my experience on how to stay on the GOOD side. You can take it or leave it.

As far as your comment William about hiding your IP .. I also do this as well (something that could be added to the ULTRA SAFE list) block your IP and use private (cookieless) browsing everytime you log into Adsense. Again to avoid being related to any previous IP or any other "bad neighborhoods"

Good Luck

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by MisterE

Just for reference.

Here is the link to the Adsense help page regarding the Program Policies.

I encourage you to 'expand' each of the sections... I have the feeling that many are in violation to some degree without realizing.

Exactly my point. Just because you refuse to read and try to shmooze, in
no way means you were clean. People just stick their heads in the sand
or try to get around stuff. Then claim innocence. Or ignorance.

There is no reason to hide your IP or any other such nonsense. Unless
you were trying to do things that will get you a ban.

Paul

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by cheezystix2

I've lost and got a new account setup (being ultra safe) .. so far so good



6) Consider a private domain (to keep prying eyes away)

7) Separate hosting account (with a unique ip address) Basically to make sure you do everything you can to make your site look like it's on an island all by itself. This is probably overkill, but an attempt to avoid being associated with other site or as part of any type of "blog-farm"

can you explain number 6 a little bit more. What do you mean by prying eyes? is this a way to keep your ad safe from sites like spyonweb which shows all your adsense sites to your competitors?

[esdavis]

Originally Posted by onabrud

Just follow the Google AdSense policies and you will be safe. In my experience, they will first warn you if you have violated any TOS. Regarding clickbombs (this cannot be avoided) by your competitors, well as long as its not your fault, they will temporarily disable the ads to your site because of invalid clicks, but soon they will enable it. If not, contact them.

Actually, there is software out there, as a plugin or as a script, which use a form of IP monitoring. Once a unique session has viewed/clicked on a page more than a set number of times (usually 3 to 5 is safe), then the IP is recorded and no ads are shown to that person until a later specified time.

I use that on my sites. It's a bit more overhead, but prevents most clickbombers because they'd rather give up and go somewhere easier to be a pain at.

[MisterE]

Originally Posted by esdavis

Actually, there is software out there, as a plugin or as a script, which use a form of IP monitoring. Once a unique session has viewed/clicked on a page more than a set number of times (usually 3 to 5 is safe), then the IP is recorded and no ads are shown to that person until a later specified time.

esdavis,

Would you be willing to provide a name and/or link(s) for the script or software?

Enjoy,
Mark

[esdavis]

One thing to consider about Paid traffic, and that's AdWords specifically. In my understanding, Google does not want you to have Ads on a topic on the content network and then have those ads showing on your own sites on the same topic and getting clicks.

It's a kind of double-dipping. You get the traffic on your site like normal, and your ad gets displayed. If somebody clicks your ad, Google makes money from AdWords but has to share the revenue earned from you WITH you. You're basically getting a discount on your ad.

They don't want to share their revenue with you like that. So even if the TOS doesn't explicitly say not to do that, I wouldn't risk it. They can change that TOS at a drop of the hat. And there's probably enough vague stuff in there that they could justify doing it anyway and not let you appeal.

Heck, if they were playing mean, they might kill your Adwords and AdSense accounts.

I'm not saying this will happen. I'm just saying that's Big G's mindset about revenue sharing. I suppose one way to avoid the issue would be to have your sites explicitly excluded from the content network sites list that your campaign runs on.

I'm not Google, so don't consider me an expert on this. It's observation, logic, and personal experience only. You can take it for what it's worth to you.

[esdavis]

Originally Posted by MisterE

esdavis,

Would you be willing to provide a name and/or link(s) for the script or software?

Enjoy,
Mark

I've been using Ad Unit Magic for a while. Not the fanciest tool in the box but it does help. I use it for click fraud primarily because it's mostly designed for non-WP sites and a couple of features don't work directly with WP (at least in my version of AUM), but it does what I really want and need - protection.

http://www.softwaregoldclub.com/salespages/adunitmagic/

(not affiliate link)

[cheezystix2]

Originally Posted by futuremills

can you explain number 6 a little bit more. What do you mean by prying eyes? is this a way to keep your ad safe from sites like spyonweb which shows all your adsense sites to your competitors?

#6 is private registration and allows your contact info to remain anonymous.
By blocking this info you can potentially keep your enemies away. If someone doesn't like you they could find your site thru whois search and disrupt your account. I am not saying this will remove the problem (people can still find you if they want to) it's just that a private reg may make things a little tougher to do so. There is a reason why anyone who trains on adsense keeps there main sites anonymous .. to discourage wrong doers

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by esdavis

I've been using Ad Unit Magic for a while. Not the fanciest tool in the box but it does help. I use it for click fraud primarily because it's mostly designed for non-WP sites and a couple of features don't work directly with WP (at least in my version of AUM), but it does what I really want and need - protection.

Ad Unit Magic

(not affiliate link)

thanks for the link, does anyone know of any wordpress plugins

[dagaul101]

One good tip is to be wary of using any link promoter to promote your site unless you know precisely where your sites are going to be promoted, so you can check them out for yourself and that they won't ruin the credibility of your Adsense account

[steveseo]

yes just keep limited number of Adsense ads on your website and use quality content.

Don't share your website with ppl you think can harm you. that's all

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by futuremills

Basically I want to know some of the precautions that you all use to keep your adsense accounts safe.

You dont use Adsense on garbage sites and low quality traffic sites and you avoid using sites like blogspot, youtube etc.

I know its difficult because usually a person can only have one adsense account, but in an ideal world you use your adsense account only on your "good" sites.

There is also software like adservers which have "clickbomb detection" and similar...it would disable ads automatically once it detects any suspicious activaty, eg. extreme high CTR.

I forgot the name, but i think its an Opensource software.

[esdavis]

Originally Posted by cooljapra

dont use any kind of javascipt to avoid clicks from ur enemy or do not try to modify the ad codes .it againg the TOs of google adsense.

Google won't stop you from using Javascript on your site at all, AS LONG as you don't interfere with the functionality of THEIR javascript. That's what the TOS says you can't do.

Clickbomb protection usually takes the form of some kind of tracking of session clicks on a page. Once the cookie registers a level of activity considered dangerous, the next page load on the session kills the display of the ad block. You aren't hurting Google's code. You're not modifying it or manipulating it. You're just temporarily removing it from the page at load.

It's no different than removing your ads manually.

I did some research into ad rotation scripts to see if Google would allow me a server-side rotation of the AdSense javascript code - not changing but shifting specific ad blocks. I got a lot from both sides of the coin. I eventually decided that they probably won't protest based on their response to me, but that was around the time they got more aggressive overall, so I decided to ditch it and just track better rather than risk it.

[esdavis]

Originally Posted by futuremills

thanks for the link, does anyone know of any wordpress plugins

When I looked 2 years ago, I couldn't find one. It may have been developed by now by someone, but it might take some research to dig it out. If you find one, could you PM me or post here for everyone? I'd be interested in looking at it.

Some good people to ask would be popular Wordpress plugin developers who've taken an interest in providing AdSense specific plugins for using it on sites. If they haven't done one, they might know someone who has, or someone willing to develop a plugin. I'd look around, but I have a process in place I can live with right now.

[wolfmmiii]

Real simple:

1. Read the TOS
2. Follow the TOS

[chini]

If you really want to be 99% diversified, partner with people who dont have adsense accounts give them 10%-20% of the earnings, and they send you the rest.

WIN/WIN = they get free money + and you have a brand new adsense account to use.

[Stalliontheme]

I create WordPress themes with AdSense built in, the user should change my pub-number to theirs. Occassinally they don't and I'd get the AdSense revenue.

Cool hey, free money, recently my account was banned, I got it reinstated after about a week and agreeing to turn on the approved sites list. Wasn't specificaly told it was one of the domains using my themes and not changing the pub-number, but as I listed all my domains on the approved list, must have been as no problems since.

Be careful where your pub-number is used, can get your account banned if it's associated with content that breaks the TOS and they have some quite strict rules (I've had warnings about sites just mentioning sex, one site mentioned anal sex as a joke and got the three day warning).

I'm an extreme case since have thousands of webmasters using my themes with about 20 domains not using their own number. I don't think I'd ever publish a product that shares AdSense income on other sites (WordPress plugins where the plugin author gets a % of the clicks for example).

Interestingly barely made any difference to my AdSense earnings, so looks like the sites weren't worth having my pub number on anyway.

David