What can I do to ensure that my account won't be disabled?

[Joel Comm]

Google has added a great FAQ to answer your questions regarding keeping your account in good standing.

Here are the highlights from their page.

- Don’t click on your own Google ads.
Clicking on Google ads on your own site for any reason is strictly prohibited. If you'd like more information about one of the advertisers appearing on your site, please type the URL of the ad directly into your browser's address bar, or use the AdSense preview tool.

- Don’t ask others to click on Google ads.
Users should click on Google ads because they're interested in the services being advertised. Encouraging users to click on your Google ads, either directly or indirectly, can lead to inflated advertiser costs and can cause your account to be disabled.

- Don’t employ pop-up prompts or automatic software installations.
Google is dedicated to improving the user experience on the Internet, and promoting responsible software principles is part of that effort. Sites showing Google ads may not prompt users to install software on their machines. Publishers must also not attempt to change users’ browser home pages automatically or via pop-up prompts.

- Be aware of how your site is promoted.
Pages showing Google ads may never be loaded in an unrequested pop-up. This means publishers need to be very careful when purchasing traffic or setting up ad campaigns with third parties. Before contracting with any ad network, you should ensure that they will never display your site in pop-ups or as a result of the actions of any software application.

- Don’t place Google ads on sites that contain prohibited content.
Google ads may not be displayed alongside any type of content prohibited by our program policies, including adult or mature content, gambling-related content, or drug content. It's your responsibility to ensure that all of your pages adhere to these policies.

- Respect Google trademarks.
Framing or mimicking Google pages is strictly prohibited by our Guidelines for Use of Google Brand Features. In addition, publishers may not use any Google Brand Features such as Google trademarks, logos, web pages or screen shots, without prior consent from Google.

- Don’t tamper with the AdSense code.
AdSense offers a wide variety of approved formats, colors, and features in your AdSense account. Once you've generated your code, however, we ask that you do not alter any portion of the code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason, unless specifically authorized to do so by Google.

- Provide a positive user experience.
Sites that contain excessive pop-ups, use sneaky redirects to obtain traffic, or otherwise attempt to interfere with normal web navigation aren't permitted in the AdSense network. Please make sure your site doesn't deceive your users in any way. In general, it's a good idea to follow our Webmaster Guidelines on quality to ensure that your site provides a positive user experience.

- Provide a good environment for advertisers.
Sites showing Google ads should not present a poor opportunity for advertisers. Sites that use tricks or deceptive practices in order to trigger inadvertent clicks on ads are prohibited.

- Be responsive.
Publishers are asked to be responsive to emails sent by the AdSense team. Be sure to keep your email address up-to-date, in case we ever need to contact you about your account. To update your email address, follow the instructions here.

To read the full article on the AdSense support site, click below.

http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23921

[mochilero]

A friend of mine just had his account disabled, and Google even kept the accumulated revenue (to return to advertisers). He was making about $1200 per month.

Of, course, he had many one-page sites that were really without content, and engaged in a lot of "Google Arbitrage," buying .05 clicks on less competitive terms to get the .25 clicks when the person arrived at his content-less sites. Just a good example of what not to do, I guess.

[markp-r]

Has anyone heard of any online entrepreneur or business that offers an evaluation service that checks websites to analyze its websites compliance with Googles TOS?

I've read the terms many times, and I believe I'm in complete compliance. But sometimes having "experts" do the analysis provides a better set of eyes.

Perhaps this is the dawn of a new industry... kind of like Search Engine Optimization was back years ago.

I know how very important it is to protect ones business by not getting involved with tricks (or spam).

Any thoughts?

[flyer]

> Of, course, he had many one-page sites that were really without content, and engaged in a lot of "Google Arbitrage," buying .05 clicks on less competitive terms to get the .25 clicks when the person arrived at his content-less sites. Just a good example of what not to do, I guess.

So what rule(s) did he break? Arbitrage is not against their rules. His pages must have had SOME content, or else they wouldn't have been able to serve him ads.

[chopoalc]

So what rule(s) did he break? Arbitrage is not against their rules. His pages must have had SOME content, or else they wouldn't have been able to serve him ads.

I am doing a sort of "arbitrage" with ads clicks on my landing page around 2$ amd I am bit terrified to learn that I can be banned from GG.

I have my conscience clean :D but I am not sure that the gg team will like my "arbitrage".
Anybody knows what NOT to do ?

Thanks
Bernard from spain

Joel : my first post ! ;)