Now that April Fool’s is over, I just wanted to clarify that THIS IS A JOKE. Please do not click you own ads as that’s the easiest way to lose your acount. This was humor. Here’s a clue: what does the name Kliff Draucc really stand for?
Note: the following press release was forwarded to me by a Google employee who wishes to remain anonymous and
is set to cross the wires later today. AdSense publishers should check the AdSense Terms and Conditions before acting on this information, as the source may be unreliable.
Google Allows AdSense Publishers to Click Ads
Rules on What Constitutes Click Fraud Relaxed, Advertisers to Benefit
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – April 1, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it was removing prohibitions that prevented AdSense publishers from clicking Google-supplied ads on their own sites. (AdSense is Google’s contextual advertising program; it allows third party sites unrelated to Google to display advertisements placed by advertisers using the Google AdWords program.) This follows statements yesterday by Google CEO Eric Schmidt that click fraud is not something that Google shareholders should worry about.
“We feel sorry for the small publishers,” says Klif Draucc, AdSense optimization specialist at Google, “the ones that do not reach the $100 mark in order to get paid. Relaxing our rules as to what constitutes click fraud will help them increase their earnings.”
AdSense publishers are still not allowed to use automated means to click the ads and face suspension or termination if they are caught. “Believe me, as a computer scientist, we have the ability to detect the invalid clicks”, reiterates Schmidt. “Plus we have so much free cash now that we thought it would be nice to share it with our greatest supporters, the AdSense publishing community. Think of it as an early Christmas gift.”
The AdSense terms and conditions have been updated to reflect the new rules so that AdSense publishers can immediately begin clicking their own ads. “We expect to see some increase in the amount of money we pay out each month to publishers,” says Draucc, “but it should settle down somewhat over the longer term. Who has the time and energy to sit at their computer all day clicking ads? We really don’t think it’s going to be an issue with advertisers once they realize the benefit of exposing their ads to a much broader audience.”
Further tips on optimized self-clicking are expected to be provided by the AdSense team in the near future.
For more information about AdSense, please visit http://www.google.com/adsense.
Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. You can read this blog by mail if it’s more convenient for you, just send a blank email to memwg-blog@aweber.com to subscribe.