Its not an easy one to answer. My solution is tell no one what sites I run. That way I won't get anyone trying to do me "favours".

By asking them not to click you may in effect draw attention to the ads.

Mack.

You don't mention the ads at all. Most people don't think that clicks = money, and if they do they usually just do it once. If someone tells me that they clicked my ads to help me, I either tell them that my clicks are worth so little money that they shouldn't bother (partially true) or that I don't get paid for clicks at all (good lie).

Mum's the word.

Well I like letting my friends know what internet projects I've got going, as I'm building unique utilities and resources, rather than drivel drenched MFAs.

I think the very few friends and fam I'd let know about my sites would honor a clear request not to click any ads. I'm sure a couple of these folk already have at least a vague understanding of PPC, but maybe not the awareness of the seriousness of invalid clicks. But then, I don't like telling people to do or not do things.

If I mention my sites to them without saying "don't click the ads" I feel like I might not be covering a base.

[Most people don't think that clicks = money, and if they do they usually just do it once.]

Yah, maybe that's the case.

when you come here saying how you've been banned from adsense ..you'll remember this thread

I'm discrete about my sites for this reason even though I'm proud of them. You tell someone you make money with clicks, and you know their brain records "money = clicks" and after a while, they may forget the "don't do it" part. Especially, older, less tech savvy people who mean well and may one day feel the need to "help out". That or some people may be secretly jealous and use that against you one day after your relationship hits a few bumps.

So I either don't tell people about the specifics of my sites, or don't tell how I'm making money, or lie a bit about the particulars, letting them assume vaguely that it's per impression.

Being dependent on your Adsense account is a very vulnerable position.

Keep it secret... Keep it SAFE!

In case you missed it, you might want to read the 'Revenge of an ex girlfriend' thread from 2005
[webmasterworld.com...]

You tell someone you make money with clicks, ...

You can tell endless numbers of people about your site(s) without ever mentioning that you get paid per click.

Even if someone asks how or if you make any money off the site all you have to say is "yes" or maybe "yeah, I sell a little ad space".

Keep it secret... Keep it SAFE!

That's a little harder to do when you have a site that you promote face to face to real people in the real world.

I had a link to a company in the engineering field about three or four years ago and the guy who ran their website emailed me to tell me that he had clicked a few ads on my website. This was an educated person who actually thought he was doing me a favour. The ads had never been mentioned between us.

Some people are very naive about these things.

If somebody clicks one or two ads then, frankly, it isn't going to show on the radar but if they keep clicking then it probably will.

If people asked about the ads I would tell them that they could click if they were genuinely interested but that multiple clicks wouldn't help me as G would discount them.

This topic actually came up a few weeks ago.
I told them do not click on the ads for integrity reasons.
Explaining, I didn't want them to skew my actual legitimate numbers. They understood.

Keep it secret... Keep it SAFE!

Yep.

The best way to keep a secret is to not tell anyone.

Or, my favorite:

Loose lips sink ships!

FarmBoy

Well I like letting my friends know what internet projects I've got going..

There's another aspect of human nature to consider. Just as you want to let your friends know, those friends will want to tell more people what they know. People like to be the person in a conversation who brings something new and interesting to the table, it's exciting, an ego booster, it draws attention to themselves in a group setting. And often things get exaggerated.

For example:

Your Friend: "You know that big multi-billion dollar company Google? My friend John has an agreement with them where they put ads on his site and he gets paid every time someone clicks on an ad on his site?

Your Friend's Friend: "Really, Wow, how'd he hook up with Google? He must be really good with that web stuff."

Your Friend: "Yea, I think John must be doing pretty good with this thing. He gets paid when people click, even if it's the middle of the night while he's sleeping"

Your Friend's Friend: "What's his site, I'd like to take a look?"

---------------------

Later...

Your Friend's Friend, in a group of his friends: "My buddy has a friend who has a website and Google is paying him to run ads on his site. All the guy does is sit around and wait for people to click on those ads and he gets paid every time somebody clicks."

Your Friend's Friend's Friend: "Hey, that's cool. If I were him I wouldn't do anything but watch movies all day and let the money roll in. What's that website?"

Later...

Friend's Friend's Friend visits the site and wonders, "Why can't I just copy some things from this guy's site, mix it up a bit and try to get someone to pay me for ads on my site!? Easy street, here we come baby"

Later ...

Post on WW: "I just discovered someone has copied most of my site and put it on another site with AdSense. Do I need to hire an attorney, what do I do? I don't have time for this, but I want this thief stopped."

And so it goes...

FarmBoy

> Or, my favorite:
> Loose lips sink ships!

Mine too! :-)
[webmasterworld.com...]

I don't like telling anybody. I think of my AdSense account as a private relationship and try as much as possible to keep it just between Google and me. Unfortunately, the IRS knows about it as well as my tax preparer. Other than that, when it comes to questions about AdSense I play possum. The less anybody knows, the better.

After reading about many different cases with AdSense these years, I would say:

• If possible, don't mention your sites and ads to family and friends.
  
• If possible, don't mention your ads to anybody.
  
• However, maybe a few times you can't avoid to answer just a little, for example "ads like in the newspapers"; usually that's enough and they don't ask how ads work.
  
• If you really, really need to explain your ad income to somebody, never mention the word "clicks"; you can say "buy" instead: when users buy more, you get paid more. That's true: if your sites do not convert, you get smartpriced, or worse...
  
• Remember to edit the hosts file in all your family's computers, "to display less ads from the Internet" you can say truthfully.
  
• If you did all you can to prevent illegitimate clicks, then relax and let Google filter the rest. Probably you will be fine.
  

Or, if you know how cookies work, have a Google Analytics (or similar) account, and can code up a few dozen lines of PHP code (or whatever scripting language you're happy with), then you could have a system like mine.

People like those that want to look at the site, and people that are working on/with the site, are given a 'special' URL to start from when they view the site. That page is robots meta disallowed, and asks the reader to NOT pass the URL on to others. That page drops a cookie on to their machine, which allows several things to happen. First, their site visits appear in a separate Analytics report, and filters ensure they are NOT included in any of the normal site stats or reports. Secondly the ad-delivery code is suppressed for page views where the user has presented the 'friend' or 'staff' cookie.

What they don't see, they can't click. On one site, the ad bars for these users, and only these users, were filled with graphics that 'looked' like real ads but which linked directly to other sites using normal href links. No advertisers 'click' code was activated if they were clicked. That reminds me, I haven't looked in Analytics to see if any of those 'fake' ads were ever clicked by friends or staff. They'd show up as an 'exit path' in the custom 'friends and staff activity' analytics report if they were clicked.

Yeah, I don't just do redirects and .htaccess stuff. :)

but now you are going to be inundated with requests to do the same ..( "if you choose to accept these missions" ;) be very very expensive ..

respects .M

yours and jim's conversations on .htaccess are however like listening to Bach ..musical ..precise ..and a delight ..

sincere thanks to you both ..

your sticky mail is as always full ..
so the above is what I tried to send ..( and not for the first time )

It's hard to control others, but in general, if someone thinks they are doing you a favor by clicking your ads, they aren't.

Most importantly is to avoid clicking on ads yourself. Usually it's people just starting out that like to click on a few ads at home, then go to school and click on a few more, then go to their part time job and click a few more. This will get you banned quickly.

Best thing to do if people ask questions about AdSense is to explain it, mention that they shouldn't click on ads to help you out, and teach them the right thing to do if they are interested in getting started with AdSense.

if someone thinks they are doing you a favor by clicking your ads, they aren't.

I think you can take it that the contributors to this thread already know that. ;)

This only really becomes an issue for me if someone comes to stay and wants to use my wifi connection. I then just tell them not to click on any ad, on any site, anywhere.

When they look at me like I am mad, which granted I probably am, I just tell them it is for security.

This only really becomes an issue for me if someone comes to stay and wants to use my wifi connection. I then just tell them not to click on any ad, on any site, anywhere.

You can just stop Google AdSense from displaying [webmasterworld.com] by editing the hosts file (also advisable for families: see AdSense and little kids [webmasterworld.com]).

They don't know about my adsense income. They're at a loss as to how I make my living. I'm kind of like that Kramer character on Seinfeld. Always have money but no job.

I'm kind of like that Kramer character on Seinfeld

Yeah I always wondered about him.. he's always got cash when he needs it. I see him getting on planes, going to ball games, rigging his apartment out with these whacked out gadgets that have to cost something.

My G/F knows what I do. She doesn't know where my sites are and doesn't care. Money comes in from some mysterious place (I do affiliate marketing too and get deposits 8 or 9 times a month). At the end of the month the big check comes. That's all she knows. I hit the ATM machine down the street on a regular basis and I'm never pulling out less than 200.00. That works for her.

I was pretty content to let it all ride like that. Then a rumour got started that I had poorn sites. That was the first part. The second part was that I was hacking credit card numbers.

I couldn't hack my way out of a wet paper bag and while I briefly considered the idea of getting into poorn, that market is so saturated a noob like me wouldn't stand a chance of making a buck.

Nobody I know clicks my ads because they don't know where they are. I come from hillbilly stock and most of my people don't even know how to turn a computer on, much less actually do something with it.

I like it like that. I'm the computer guy and there is a ton of mystery surrounding that. Suits me just fine.

Never been an issue for me. I can't very well hide my sites; every year there are all kinds of newspaper and TV stories about them. My family and friends aren't particularly interested in going to my sites; if they want information from one of them they'll just ask me.

> Never been an issue for me. I can't very well hide my sites;
> every year there are all kinds of newspaper and TV stories about them.

I think that if I was a premium publisher with all kinds of press, I wouldn't care who knew either as my sites would obviously be getting so much traffic and earning so much money for Google that the few friends and family I have posed no threat to my account - but that's not the case for me here in little league.

I'll echo what mack and netmeg said: The average Joe or Jane may not even know that clicking on an ad generates revenue for the site owner, and in any case, the only family or friends who look at my site at any given moment are those who have an interest in the topic (and who are likely to behave just like any other members of the general public).

I think that if I was a premium publisher with all kinds of press, I wouldn't care who knew either as my sites would obviously be getting so much traffic and earning so much money for Google that the few friends and family I have posed no threat to my account - but that's not the case for me here in little league.

I'm not a premium publisher and I don't earn all kinds of money for Google (certainly not this year) But my sites (which are local event sites) get a lot of local interest and thus local and statewide press.

All that press has probably earned me tens of dollars.

All that press has probably earned me tens of dollars.

At least you get press.