Never ever do it with AdSense…

There are a lot of myths floating around Googled AdSense program. Publishers sometimes get scared to do one thing while easily violating other policies without even knowing it. Here I decided to sum up some of the most basic cases, which can lead to suspension of your account. Read carefully, also read their Rules, and keep an eye on the updates on their blog, sometimes these policies change. So, let’s get started…

1. Don’t click your own ads, ever. Serious. This is the fastest and most secure way to get banned, without any way to get your account back. If you did click it by mistake, email AdSense, send them as much info as possible, i.e. when did you click, what channel, URL, etc. Make it look like a professional email from a publisher who cares for his account.
2. Be careful as to where you place AdSense. Never place the adsense code on pages that generate adverts in pop-ups, on Error pages, on pages without content (such as “thank you”, “email us” page etc. Sitewide ads on forums are excluded).
3. You’re publishing contextual ads, not contextual content. Advertisement should not dominate the content. Don’t make MFA (”Made For AdSense”) sites because it’s against the TOS. Ads should come as small addition to the content, not visa verse.
4. Watch out for the content you have, especially if you are running a forum. Remember that on pages with content related to gambling, adult and other illegal activities - Google ads cannot be implemented.
5. Blend in, but don’t over blend. Google does allow formatting the ads so that they will imitate the neighbouring content. This is tricky, as there is no real line between blended in ads and ads that imitate content. All I can advice is that you will not intentionally build your site FOR AdSense, don’t use ad’s structure to make navigation, for example.
6. Don’t suggest guest to click the ads. Might sound obvious but many people say on their pages - if you want to support this website - please click the ads. This is almost as bad as clicking your own ads because it will result in a ban once they find out.
7. Keep Google updated with your traffic. If you know you are going to be featured in some mass email, high-traffic directory and such, email Google in advance and notify them. Don’t let them ban you for sudden traffic burst, which will not look natural (in their eyes).
8. Don’t let your friends and family log in to your account. Your account info is confidential, they keep track with the IPs that log in to the account as well as IPs that click the ads. Keep their record clean from suspicious log-ins from multiple addresses.
9. Don’t disclose your CTR. If you want to take a screenshot of your earnings and show it, blur the column that shows your Click-Through-Rate.
10. Don’t use proxy to click your ads. Yes smart-ass, they would still know. Trust me, a company with 2 billion dollar annual income can allow to buy a proxy script decoder (’stripper’) for 60 bucks.
11. Don’t mess with the code. Adjusting, “beautifying”, and playing around with the java code, can also be fatal. You might have seen sites that use dynamic colours for ads - these are premium accounts, you need 2 million hits daily to get it. If you have less, you’d have to make do with what they provide you.
12. Don’t place images close to the ads. This sort of placement suggests that that the image has something to do with the and, since image is not clickable and the ad, placed near, is - it artificially increases clicks and AdSense doesn’t like it. This update of the policy is relatively fresh,up until recently it was allowed. The only condition on which you can have images near ads is if there is a line between ads and the images are irrelevant to the ad content. (But, since you can never know what ads will display, I’d personally suggest to avoid edgy situations with AdSense.)
13. Don’t add Google AdSense code to emails and send people. This will be considered (justly so) as typical spam.
14. Don’t tell people to click other ads as well! If you have Adsense on the pages, do not ask the visitors to click on other ads as well.
15. Don’t steal content. Don’t pull images / text from Google, assuming no one would ever know. Remember, it only takes one email to Google from ANY visitor who would decide to report violation on your site. Don’t take the risk.

I think this more or less covers the most severe cases. Use common sense, be honest with both Google and Yourself, and you will be fine. Good luck!