Actually you can click on landing pages for referrals, I think, since it's CPA - nobody gets charged until it's actually installed.

I asked that question before, but of course got no answer. I dunno - I tried to go straight to the Mozilla page to download it myself and it was too busy every time, and I had a bunch of clicks on my referrals today but no conversions, so maybe the whole site was just too busy.

>nobody gets charged until it's actually installed

I'll raise you one, you can click and install Firefox and still no one gets charged as it has to be your first time installation (not update) for you to make any money from it. So go ahead and find out for yourself, although I think GooG won't update to 3 for a while.

Your not suppost to click your ads even the referrals read the TOS

I did read the TOS, and I know what I am talking about, do you?

[edited by: Hobbs at 2:01 pm (utc) on June 18, 2008]

[webmasterworld.com...]

Yes, inside your AdSense account you can click on the link to the advertiser landing page. However, once the code is live on your site, you can't click on your own ads.

No firefox 2 is still there but its converting for me brilliant yesterday / today ;-)

Today I had adsense open and went to page with referral ad, hey presto the referral link disappears off page. Switch off broadband connection give it time to switch IP switch on add is back.... guess they watch?

For FireFox:

a conversion occurs when a user downloads Firefox through your referral button and runs it for the first time. Your referral must be a Windows user, who has not previously installed Firefox, in order for you to receive credit

www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=27415

hobbs argue it out with adsense advisor....its not about converting you may find your conversions devalued because of invalid clicks.

just for reference hobbs... did you agree to any google adsense referral tos? No you agreed to the adsense tos and in the adsense tos it says dont click your own ads...

I will only change mind if you show me something that says google says its ok to click your referral ads, otherwise its posted everywhere your not aloud to click your referral ads.

I know its funny because your not actually installing the software only viewing landing page, but thats the stance.

did you agree to any google adsense referral tos?

I hope you're just trying to be funny.

The link you provided is for this forum, the link I provided is from google.com.

There's a bigger picture involved than just clicking Firefox ads, Google is trying to limit the instances where publishers are allowed to click their own ads in order to avoid possible confusion and accidents that may follow, you need to understand how ppa and ppc works and how tricky the documentation is when you try to address a broad spectrum of publishers with different qualification and backgrounds, that is why any Google employee will be very careful when addressing this issue, the quote I gave you above is clear and should need no further explanation or argument.

Hobbs, I get that you're trying to understand the spirit of the rules, but when it comes to my Google account, I obey even the letter of the law because I do not pretend to understand what Google "means" instead of what Google "says", and even if I did, maybe some inexperienced Google employee might not agree.

Last time I read the Policies, it was clear that all rules from the ad units applied to referrals units, except being able to mention the referral product when you display the ad to increase interest.

Actually, Hobbs, it looks like ASA weighed in on that thread from a year ago and specifically said no. Which is also contrary to the answer I got when I asked support, but that was a long time ago too.

Guys,
What sorts this out beyond any doubt is a quote from the TOS or AdSense help section regarding Google referral products, as I said above about maybe they're playing it safe, also maybe because non Google referral ads look very much like regular PPC ads which can open up a new can of click fraud worms for Google.

Anyway, I think the whole issue is not worth defending further, also agree that if you are in doubt stick with what you think is right.

[edited by: Hobbs at 9:05 pm (utc) on June 18, 2008]