aim

Has anyone ever received an e-mail from Google AdSense like this? They sent me this email regarding one of my domains... funny thing is, I run AdSense on a number of other domains that get a lot more traffic than this one, which makes it odd that they would include this in their "custome placement" program.

My question is this: how many 300x250 blocks do I need to run? I already run block pretty prominently in the upper-right corner. This is "above the fold" as the e-mail talks about. I am hesitant to add another 300x250 block because I don't want to ruin the customer experience (the ugly YPN block below the content already does that) but also I don't want to take away from potentially high earnings.

Anyway have any experience with getting an email like this and how it was handled?

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Ruge3

I'd find out if this is going to net you any incredible traffic gains. Otherwise it doesn't really seem like they are giving you motivation to make the switch really.

DaveEMG

Quick question... You got this letter from Google while you're running a site that features both Google and Yahoo ads on the same page? Isn't that grounds for getting the boot out of their network?

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waz67

I got the same email last week for one of my sites, haven't implemented the ad unit yet on my site, but I will next week and give it a try...

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waraas

Does YPN care about those images next to your ads? They looks like they woudl work great!

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Cyclops

Google are gearing up for Video ads so if you received an email I would suggest doing what they ask.
Those Video ads will be paying a lot more than text or banner ads.

surly

I got the same.

They want as many 300x250 units to show as many CPM image ads that large companies are buying. In my niche they aren't particularly high paying...

sage55

More then likely it's against the TOS for those images to be there.

aim

I couldn't find anything in YPN's FAQ's. I thought I remembered reading that running YPN on the same page as Google is forbidden, however I have an e-mail saved from a few months ago where an AdSense rep said that it would be okay as long as it was clear that the Yahoo Ads were not AdSense ads, or something of that nature.

Anyway, thanks for the responses. As I said, I already have a 300x250 ad in the top-right of the page, "above the fold" - I don't know how many other ad units they are going to want. Like I said, I'm reluctant to do this because I really dont want people clicking on ad-units lower down the page, because this niche already pays pretty poorly with Adsense.

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Cyclops

Heres the latest change of TOS by Google. A lot has changed.

On Wednesday 17th January Google released New Policies for it's AdSense Program.
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/01/updated-program-policy-page.html

Google now says that sites displaying AdSense or Google search boxes may not display other ads or services using the same layouts and colors as the Google products. That applies to all ads an AdSense member might have displayed anywhere on his website.

AdSense users beware. Google has updated their policies, and if you have been running AdSense and a competitor's service like Yahoo Publisher Network on a fifty-fifty basis, you could be in violation of the new terms.

Publishers using Google and Yahoo ads will have to make some major changes. Webmasters will need to set one of those ad units apart visually by adding borders or a colored background to them.

Some sites run AdSense without borders. Jennifer found out from Google that they will not be very forgiving of any ad look-alikes:


"What about those running borderless ad units? I asked Google, and it doesn't sound as though simply changing the title link color is enough. You will need to do something more drastic, such as changing the color of all the text to something different, or adding a border or background."

The new policy from Google applies to all ad units one of its network publishers may have on display anywhere on a web site. Even ad units that are not contextual in nature will have to look different from AdSense to avoid a violation.

Blogger Darren Rowse welcomed a rewording of the AdSense copyright policy. He called the change that prohibits using AdSense on pages with copyrighted content, "great stuff for those of us who are getting our content scraped."

That leaves the question of enforcement open for Google's international publishers. In the United States, the highly controversial DMCA law enables people to request that Google remove links to copyrighted material. That could be used to call attention to AdSense policy violators too.

Google said that AdSense policy update changed much of the wording used. Most of the policies have not changed, but webmasters will still want to review them, if only to refresh themselves on the details.

A couple of examples that apply to our sites.

Competitive Ads and Services In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.
Adsense and YPN.

Publishers have often complained about the rigidness of the AdSense policy that prevents publishers from running AdSense on the same page as another contextual ad program. So running AdSense & Yahoo Publisher Network on the same page during the same page view would be a no-no, but rotated 50/50 would be perfectly within the AdSense (& YPN) policies and terms. But not any more.

Their competitve ads & services policy was updated to this today:

Competitive Ads and Services In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

What does this mean for publishers? If you are running YPN and AdSense on a 50/50 ad rotation using the same or very similar color palettes, you would now be in violation of AdSense policies. Likewise, if you are running AdSense on one part of your site, and YPN on another part, you would now also be in violation of the policies.

katoved

Yeah, those arrows next to those YPN ads is BS. Blatant violation of TOS. You can have arrows pointing to the damn ads.

monetizetraffic

I was surprised to receive the same email for one of my sites with very low levels of traffic. I have not yet given the ads a try.