After doing LOTS of reading through Google's different guidelines and legalese, I thought I'd post this and maybe help other people in the same situation or who worry about landing in it.

There was an ad on my blog that said "Iraq on eBay." She clicked it out of curiosity. Even that's not allowed - Google has a tool to "preview" the ads on your site, that you can click them and not have it count as a click. So extreme curiosity at a bizarre ad isn't a legit reason to click an ad, even though I had no idea about the preview tool. And even if it was my wife, not me, it's the computer I published the ad from, and she really wasn't interested in buying, just finding out. If it said "Iran on eBay" we would have thought it was a beautiful rug, or something like that. But Iraq?

Google has a form for reporting bad clicks, to keep your account in good standing, but a lot of people advise against using it. They say it's like a confessional that only works once or twice.

But it turns out you don't have to report a single bad click. Google has a statement somewhere (sorry, lost the URL) saying that they understand invalid clicks are bound to happen from time to time in a medium where everything must be clicked. They have software to weed the bad ones out, and they appreciate people working with them, but it isn't necessary to report every single click you didn't mean.

Which makes me wonder what the invalid click reporting form is for? In any case, my heart didn't actually stop, and it's not showing on my adsense report. So everything is as it should be. Except I have a headache from all the reading!

I think you used it correctly. The invalid clicks would be if you were testing something to be sure the Adsense worked and clicked on a few ads just to be safe. I had a client do that once.

It can also be used if you think a friend did it by accident.

Not sure what else, other than that.

John the truth is you need to tell Google everything and show them the divorce papers so they know you've completely dealt with the situation.

Things like that do happen. The ones who get banned are the ones who click repeatedly on the ads.

If you use Firefox there's an extension called AdSense Preview that also lets you see and click ads without them counting.

I think you need not to tell google. Google do not punish the ocassionly click by your self

Although Google says it is not required for you to report accidental clicks every time, I think it is always better to stick to it in order to secure your adsense account.

Please visit:
http://www.dagsensecodes.com/2006/11...clicks-to.html

Originally Posted by vangogh

John the truth is you need to tell Google everything and show them the divorce papers so they know you've completely dealt with the situation.

Well I looked into that, too, and there's nothing in the guidelines about a spouse clicking on an ad out of curiosity about it. You gotta admit, back in the 1800s getting married meant making one person out of two, but we don't really look at things that way anymore. I can't click on the ads, but she didn't digitally sign anything saying she won't. Hell, she didn't even know I'm not allowed to. Honest mistake, right?

I sent Matt Cutts an email, and can you believe he responded personally? He says since it's a first offense, an honest mistake like I said, and how they appreciate someone using Blogger for something other than spam, they're going to be extremely lenient with me.

All I have to do is send them one of her fingers, like in the mail, and they'll reinstate my account. They're even letting us decide which one. Any advice from someone who's been through this before? I say pinky, but she doesn't like that idea.






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Originally Posted by ctrip

I think you need not to tell google. Google do not punish the ocassionly click by your self

In my experience, I second this view.

All I have to do is send them one of her fingers, like in the mail, and they'll reinstate my account. They're even letting us decide which one. Any advice from someone who's been through this before? I say pinky, but she doesn't like that idea.

The ring finger...with the wedding ring on it. Google should be able to read between the lines.

John getting back to the two as one thing in a marriage would technically mean you did click the ad yourself. Fortunately Matt is letting you off the hook.

The pinky finger is a natural, but Adam's suggestion of the ring finger and the ring would show Google you mean business. Another option might be the index finger since that was likely the clicking finger and could help prevent future clicks.

If I understand this correctly...Matt is asking you to give him the finger

I think we have now have a winner on the appropriate finger to send. Do we all agree the middle finger is the one?

"my wife clicked my ad" reminds me of "my dog ate my homework"

both are excuses that are not likely to cut you a lot of slack. Sorry for the rant, it is a pretty funny thread title.

Google's Inside AdSense blog is actually telling people not to report the occasional accidental click now. I think they were getting overwhelmed with all the email.

I strongly suggest they should employ more people to work under Adsense Team. Handling emails is simply a basic thing of customer service.

You have to look at how much it costs though to hire all the people who would only be sending out a generic "don't worry about it" email. Letting people know they don't need to send the email is likely more cost effective.

In all honesty I've generally found the AdSense team to be responsive in replying to emails. They've always gotten back to me in a reasonable amount of time. They may not have always told me what I wanted to hear, but they did always answer.

Of course on this matter it's Google's own fault they were getting all the emails. They have most webmasters so afraid of getting banned for a single accidental click that the webmasters want to rush to show Google it was a mistake and not anything more.

Not telling them at all might not be the best solution, but I can see how this makes a lot more sense than hiring more employees to respond to the email.

Hey, this is really a coincidence. I clicked my own ad today. And, believe me, this was an accident. I saw the "Tune in" button in the ad. I didn't think any further.

I thought it wasn't my ad and assuming its also a flash ad like the Apple "I'm a PC. I'm a mac", I clicked the tune in thing. Before it took me anywhere, I realized what I've done and stopped the browser.

****. Will it get me banned ? Centuries ago maybe, curiosity killed da cat. Will it kill my account ? What should I do now ?

I think you don't need to worry about it. Google knows people accidentally click their ads. Ideally they wouldn't count them, but my guess is many get counted. Unless you're methodically clicking your ads it shouldn't be a problem.

I clicked my own ad once by accident, and I wasn't banned - yet!!

It is funny to see that the thread "My wife clicked my ad" is a real success in terms of views. More than most other threads in this forum.
Apperantly this is what people want to read:-)

Maybe we should always take some more time thinking of a cool headline before we start a new thread:-)

not so much as what people want to read as what they want to reply too, some good funny comments in this thread