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A while back I created a FaceBook group http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_157538824296773 called AdSense Secrets. Quickly got bored of FaceBook (didn’t make me any money) and never promoted the FaceBook group. It managed to generate about 800 members and at times had AdSense click exchange discussions, basically people trying to make easy money by getting others to click their AdSense ads (AKA fraudulent AdSense clicks), usually using free BlogSpot blogs.

I’ve never clicked my own AdSense ads on purpose (in years of using AdSense I’ve accidentally clicked ads, but not often) or asked others to click my AdSense ads because I know Google AdSense exists to make money for Google and the people behind the Google AdSense program are working hard to stop publishers defrauding their advertisers out of their hard earned money.

Basically I know given time IF I clicked my own ads or arranged for others to click them I’d eventually get caught and my AdSense account would be banned and I’d no longer make thousands of dollars a year via AdSense.

Is it Safe to Join AdSense Click Exchange Groups to Cheat Google AdSense?

If you search in Google for “AdSense Click Exchange” or “AdSense Click Fraud” you will find various web pages offering to work with AdSense publishers to defraud the Google AdSense program. The current first listing for the search “AdSense Click Exchange” is a FaceBook page and the person who created the page was trying to get their AdSense ads on a BlogSpot blog clicked. When I checked the blog out (July 2010) the BlogSpot blog had been banned by Blogspot (which is owned by Google, that’s the same owner as AdSense you know  ).

Over the last couple of years I’ve occasionally taken a look at sites that have asked for fraudulent AdSense clicks in exchange for clicking others AdSense ads and have found there is a strong tendency for AdSense either to be no longer shown on the sites (suggesting the account was banned and the owner removed the ad code) or an error block shown where the AdSense ad should be (that happens when an AdSense publisher account is banned or a site is blocked from the AdSense program).

I haven’t performed statistical analysis on sites listed on AdSense click exchange groups, but I’d estimate over half of sites that are listed as looking to exchange AdSense clicks fraudulently are banned from the AdSense program within 6 months. Some sites are still showing AdSense ads a year on, so Google AdSense might not be doing as much as they could to catch the AdSense click fraudsters, but for me a 50% chance my Google AdSense account could be banned within 6 months is way too much of a risk for a program that’s made me over $75,000 since I joined the program in 2004.

Ways to Cheat the Google AdSense Program

I do not advise trying any of these AdSense click fraud techniques, I would expect your AdSense account to be banned eventually.

Click Your Own AdSense Ads

Well, if you’ve clicked your own AdSense ads you are an idiot, give up any hope of ever making money online, you are too stupid and shouldn’t even be allowed Internet access!

When you login to your AdSense publisher account Google AdSense will know your IP address and will know you are clicking your own AdSense ads, also they will consider the impressions and clicks as invalid and you won’t get paid anyway.

Click Your Own AdSense Ads via Proxy Servers

You’ve done some research that you can hide your IP address etc… by using a proxy server. Technically speaking this could work, however I’m not a computer programmer, but even I know it’s not going to be rocket science to the Google AdSense engineers (those geeky computer programmers who live programming code) to compile proxy server lists and check for AdSense clicks from them and checkout AdSense publishers who’s ads get a fair number of AdSense clicks from proxy servers.

Lets imagine you have a domain with AdSense and every day you login to your site through 10 random proxy servers, browse a dozen pages and click one AdSense ad. In a year you’ll generate 3,650 fraudulent clicks related to about 40,000 impressions and your clicks from proxy servers won’t generate a single sale for the AdWords advertisers.

This isn’t even large scale AdSense click fraud, at a relatively high $0.25 an AdSense click it’s only $900 a year, but you can see within a year you’ve left a serious footprint of your fraudulent AdSense click activity!

Ask Friends and Family to Click Your AdSense Ads

This is straight forward, you have a lot of friends/family and you persuade them to click your ads on a regular basis (though not family members using the same Internet connection you use!).

If done intelligently I could see this working, picture a family living in 5 properties, you persuade one member of each family to click one ad every day, you get around 1800 fraudulent AdSense clicks from real people in different locations (different IPs: would work better if all 5 are on ISPs that use dynamic IPs and none of them have their own AdSense accounts: see later under “AdSense Click Exchange Networks”.).

The problem with this (any AdSense click fraud) is scale, if I popped down to my local library once a day and clicked one ad, this would result in 365 AdSense clicks a year, would this throw up a red flag? Probably not, but 365 clicks a year isn’t exactly going to be worth the effort of visiting the library every day (at $0.25 a click it’s under $100 a year). Basically if it’s financially worthwhile putting the time into AdSense click fraud you are inevitably going to leave a footprint the very smart Google AdSense engineers are going to be able to spot and then ban you for.

AdSense Clickbot

Software that clicks AdSense ads and generates impressions so it looks like you have a lot of visitors and some click ads. Do you trust a computer programmer to not leave a footprint from an AdSense clickbot program that fraudulently clicks ads that Google AdSense can’t find?

I wouldn’t, there could be hundreds of other AdSense publishers using the same clickbot and one small mistake by the computer programmer who wrote the AdSense clickbot and you are all caught and banned!

Paid AdSense Click Cheats

Pay a group of people to visit your website and fraudulently click your AdSense ads. This is hiring people from economies where people will work for a dollar a day (India, Africa, Pakistan etc…) and have them generate X number of impressions and Y number of fraudulent clicks per month.

The problem with this is you are trusting fraudsters to generate impressions and clicks without leaving a footprint the Google AdSense engineers can spot. As has been discussed above this isn’t that easy and running AdSense fraud as a business means large scale which inevitably leaves an even larger footprint which makes it even easier for Google AdSense to spot.

AdSense Click Exchange Networks

You find others looking to defraud the Google AdSense program and you click their AdSense ads and they click yours.

Do you trust total strangers to be intelligent when they click your ads?

Think about it, if they are fraudulently clicking your ads they are probably fraudulently clicking others AdSense ads as well, it’s not going to be difficult for Google AdSense to track AdSense publishers (like you) online AdSense click activity.

An AdSense publisher is on a static IP address or have a dynamic IP but regularly log in to their AdSense account. They have logged into their AdSense account with that IP which links any AdSense click activity to that person. They visit your website and click a few ads, go to another AdSense publishers website and click a few ads…

You are also on a static IP address or are on a dynamic IP, but regularly log into your AdSense account which links you to your AdSense account. You click the AdSense ads of an AdSense publisher that’s clicked your ads, then go to another AdSense publishers website and click their AdSense ads.

Hmm, back at AdSense HQ a pattern has emerged, we have three or more AdSense publishers clicking each others AdSense ads, but never buy a product or service. Can you see just how easy it is to be caught clicking others AdSense ads?

How to Make Money with AdSense Ads

I’m afraid there’s no get rich quick schemes with the AdSense program. You build a website with content that generates traffic and some of that traffic clicks your AdSense ads, that’s it.

It’s the ONLY safe and LONG TERM way to make money from the Google AdSense program.