There’s a lot of different things you can do to skyrocket your income from Google AdSense. Repeatedly clicking on your own ads is not one of them. In fact Google takes a very strong stance on this - as you would expect - and rightfully so. You would make a massive mistake thinking you can fool Google that way - and if they catch you (they will!) - you’ll more than likely be banned for life.

That’s not an unreasonable punishment! After all - what you’re doing is defrauding Google’s advertisers - because they will be charged for your visit, without getting what they pay for.

The question is: Does this leave a golden opportunity for someone to hurt your AdSense income? Let’s assume for a minute that you’ve built a good AdSense income. You’ve also made an enemy or two. Is there anything stopping them from coming to your site - clicking your ads 20-30 times - and wipe out your income?

The answer is: No! Sounds scary? It should! Once you get banned - you’ve had it! It is extremely difficult to persuade Google to let you back in into AdSense once they’ve shut you out.

So - when it comes to protecting your AdSense income - it’s a good idea to be pro-active. Yes - it’s important to check your stats for the purpose of monitoring your click-through-rates and earnings, but you should also look out to make sure that no one is trying to land you in trouble with Google.

If you can see that your ads had a lot of clicks in a short amount of time - and from the same IP address - don’t wait for Google to get in touch! Their letter probably won’t be pleasant reading. Drop them a line right away - tell them that you have detected some suspicious clicks on your site - and ask them to investigate.

Don’t be surprised if they write back to you, telling you that those clicks won’t be counted towards your revenues, and that the money earned has been refunded to the advertisers. At least you still have an AdSense account - and you’ll still be earning.

Admittedly - it doesn’t happen very often that someone goes out of their way - to cause problems for AdSense publishers. Most people you meet on AdSense forums, social networking sites, and other online communities are good decent folk, who only wants to help.

It’s worth remembering though, that your site is vulnerable, and you should be taking steps to protect your AdSense revenue. After all - you install anti-virus software and firewalls on your computer - to protect it from external enemies. Keep a close eye on your AdSense stats - and be the first to make a move if you spot something suspicious.

By K Madsen