I’ve always tried to work on that premise…simply because unless the clicks get a return for investment…they won’t be there tomorrow…and you’ll kill the golden goose.

With that in mind, I try to create commercial content that’s interesting…and the art is in the placement and color of the ads…not just getting the click.

Andrew

The first pic looks like it is promoting particular colors of lipstick. But if the pic was of a woman putting on lipstick, that is different.

If you read Google’s guidelines you can have pics like this, but generic pics that don’t target a product. They don’t want advertisers paying for the ads to be competing with the pics.

Madeline Binder
Super Science Fair Projects

Hey Mike

Great post, thank you so much. Google were always going to have problems with misleading graphics.

There will always be greedy or foolish AdSense publishers pushing the rules too far.

I’m one of the “on the fence” publishers. I did not take the risk, which proved to be correct.

I guess the smarter ones will profit from the misfortune of others in the long-term.

Keep the advice coming. yours is always honest and correct.

Sincerely,

John Adams
http://www.Honest-homebusiness.com

This has to be major work for Google and I imagine it will lead to a significant loss of revenue. But then I do like the fact that they are walking the walk and sacrificing revenue for the sake of higher quality advertising.

It will be interesting what the gurus come up with in response to this…

If you use graphics next to your ads, you MUST have a BORDER around your ads which will cut into your ctr because they won’t be as blended into your page as they should be.”

I never suggested that a line would solve the problem. I suggested a seperator of some sort. Me, I used a big logo in between.

Now as far as using graphic next to ads - it may be ok - in fact a reader just sent me a copy of his email from Google saying it was ok in his case - he had a pictire next to an ad block - but it did not look deceiving - they told him iyt passed their guideline. So please do not give folks the impression that you CAN’T USE GRAPHICS near the ads. Google is concerned with deceptive graphics.

As for your link with Google guidelines - yes - I had seen that and was aware of their policy. They only showed 2 examples and the examples shown ARE deceiving looking to me.

Also to clear the record - that sample I posted above is not from my site - I found it on an article announcement - the member has since fixed his site - I just put it up to show that what I saw is MESSING WITH TROUBLE!

As for GRAPHICS in general - use your best judgement of course, but please, don’t think that GRAPHICS alone will get you in trouble - it’s only when you use them in a deceptive manner.

A picture of a flower next to an ad block with several ads will in most cases NOT be deceptive.

As far as I am aware Google did not give me a chance to fix the problem. I did not try to contact them. The owrding of their note indicated it was not up for discussion. As I said I simply switched to Yahoo ads.

If you use graphics next to your ads, you MUST have a BORDER around your ads which will cut into your ctr because they won’t be as blended into your page as they should be. Click and read the above clarification from Google’s own mouth.

I knew this was coming, that’s why I didn’t hop on the band wagon with the graphics thing.