100 Google Adsense Tips

This article is the first of a 6-part series in 100 Google AdSense Tips. Here is the full series:
100 Google AdSense Tips – Part 1, 100 Google AdSense Tips – Part 2, 100 Google AdSense Tips – Part 3, 100 Google AdSense Tips – Part 4, 100 Google AdSense Tips – Part 5, 100 Google AdSense Tips – Summary

1. AdSense Earning = Impression-count x Click-though-rate x Cost-per-click x smart-pricing-factor.
2. Impression count is basically referring to your traffic. It means the number of times AdSense block is displayed.
3. Click-through-rate (CTR) is ratio of clicks per impressions. It can range from 0.1% to 30%, but most commonly around 1% to 10%.
4. Cost-per-click (CPC) is the earning you get per click. While traditionally it refers to the amount advertisers pay for each click, it can also mean the amount publishers get for each click.
5. Smart-pricing is AdSense method to determine how valuable clicks from your site is worth. If clicks on your site doesn’t provide good value to advertisers, e.g. from visitors’ geo-location that seldom translate to sales, you will only get a fraction of the supposed CPC.
6. Apply for AdSense account via blogger.com for faster approval.
7. Once you get your AdSense publisher code, you can put it any of your websites without requiring further approval.
8. Read and reread Google AdSense Program Policies and Terms and Conditions.
9. Don’t click on your own ads, or ask people to click, even if you are using proxies.
10. Don’t use click-bots.
11. Don’t encourage your visitors to click on ads. The only acceptable text is “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements”.
12. Don’t put competitor contextual ads on the same page as your AdSense, for example: Yahoo Publisher Network, Clicksor. Non-contextual ads are ok.
13. Don’t put your ads on objectionable material, e.g. adult sites, gambling sites, mp3, etc.
14. Basically, don’t cheat AdSense. Google will catch you, sooner or later.
15. Viewing your on website will not get you banned. Just make sure you don’t click on the ads.
16. However, repeatedly reload your page to jack up page impressions can get you banned.
17. When in doubt don’t hesitate to contact the AdSense team. They are very helpful.
18. Choose a high paying niche without too much competition.
19. You can try highest paying keywords from cwire.org, but know before-hand that you’ll face very fierce competitions.
20. Use Overture Bid Tool and Search Engine Keyword Tool to find suitable keyword

What Is AdSense Clickbot

Note: I do not condone or encourage cheating on Google AdSense or any advertiser network. This article is indeed written to show why you should NOT use clickbot. If you want to increase your earning, there are legal and easier ways. Read 100 Google AdSense Tips.
Apparently, for some reason, it is not easy to find information about clickbots from the Internet. I need to dig a bit into Google cache to get some decent information. At the time I’m writing this, even Wikipedia does not have an entry specially for “clickbot” yet. The nearest term from Wikipedia is “Internet Bot”.

A bot is common parlance on the Internet for a software program that is a software agent. A Bot interacts with other network services intended for people as if it were a real person. One typical use of bots is to gather information. The term is derived from the word “robot,” reflecting the autonomous character in the “virtual robot”-ness of the concept.

Put simply, clickbot is a specialized bot made to simulate clicking. Initially popular for gaming cheat, now clickbot has taken the highlight in pay-per-click advertisement business. In 2004, a California man created a clickbot that he claimed cannot be detected by Google. Failed to make good money selling the program, he tried to blackmail Google for $150,000 to hand over the program. He was arrested, nonetheless.
For computer savvy users, creating a clickbot is very simple and straight forward. You just need a macro to record your activities. While the macro is recoding, you visit your own site and click on the ads. Save the macro, and then let it run. Of course, you will also need a list of proxies to cover your track.
Fortunately for advertisers and honest publishers, Google is not stupid. With the huge amount of data that it has, Google can easily compile the most comprehensive proxy list on earth. In the AdSense report, clicks from proxies will add up to the number of clicks, but no money is credited to the earning. As you guess, when the proxy clicks exceed a certain number, your AdSense account is disabled.
Organised crimes handle this by having the clickbot software on many computers around the world, each with their own Internet Service Provider. Some of these software may be installed without the computer owners’ permissions or knowledge, via trojans and viruses. Or it might be installed voluntarily by the click-network members.
Beginning of this year, Greg Boser from WebGuerilla did an experiment to test the extent of click-fraud by using clickbot, with no conclusive answer. Some experts claims that click fraud accounts for up to 20% of the clicks, generating more than $1 billion in a year.
Whether or not the estimation is correct, one thing is sure. Google, Yahoo and other big players in the PPC advertising business takes click-fraud very seriously, and it will be just a matter of time when fraudsters are caught.
If you want to increase your earning, there are legal and easier ways

Why You Shouldn’t Cheat AdSense

If you applied for AdSense account with intention to cheat and earn fast bucks, I hope by now you have understood that you shouldn’t.
Why? You say. Google is so rich, losing some pennies won’t hurt.
Well. Probably. But when I say you shouldn’t, trust me. You really shouldn’t. These are just some reasons:
1. You can’t cheat Google
Every once in while, someone will comes out with ingenious idea of how to get more money from AdSense in less than honorable ways. He will announce to the whole world, posting in every forum and tell people how smart he is. His idea is always untraceable by Google, it is always original, and it always gives easy money.
What he doesn’t know is, few months after that, he will get caught by Google, always. And his AdSense account will be disabled. Always. And he is banned from ever applying for AdSense account again. Always.
Google is a giant, with 2005 revenue of almost US$ 10 billions, and profits of more than US$ 1 billion. A large chunk of this comes from Adwords / AdSense advertisements.
More click fraud means less trust, less advertisers and less money, to the extent that if unsolved it will bring collapse to pay-per-click advertisement business. Now. Do you think Google will let you jeopardize their billion dollar business model?
They have money and ability to bring together many of the the smartest and brightest engineers and scientists on earth, has been doing that and will continue to do so. How smart do you think you are that you can outsmart collaborative effort of the brightest brains?
You might be able to pull through for two or three months, but eventually the fraud detection algorithm will catch up and you are caught. And you get banned from Google AdSense, among other things.
2. Cheating = stealing
No matter how you want to justify, face it, cheating is stealing. You are not only stealing from Google, but also from Adwords publishers. Majority of these are are not big companies, but small webmasters depending on Internet to make a living.
Moreover, even if your morality (or lack thereof) permits stealing from your own fellow, bear in mind that stealing is illegal. Regardless of whether it is done offline or online, a crime is a crime. You might get jailed for that.
In fact, Google has started to bring AdSense fraudsters to court a few months ago. Some were jailed, and some others were fined heavily.
3. It is just too easy to earn more, legally
Let’s say you managed to cheat AdSense undetected. You don’t use clickbot or proxy or click-ring or paid clickers. You managed to somehow get the clicks from distributed IP. You don’t use pop-ups, spyware, adware. You are careful that your CTR does not exceed 10%. Still, your earning is limited. There is a cap you can’t cross, else you will invite unwanted attention to your account.
With so much effort to cover your traces, actually you will get better result if you concentrate your effort to improve the website.
Write more contents, submit articles, improve on your search engine optimisation, improve adsense placement, and you can get the same earning or even more. Sure it will take some time, but this is legitimate.