Put horizontal ruled line above Google ads at bottom of each hub

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   EmpressFelicityposted 12 years ago

   I have noticed that the three Google ads that appear at the bottom of each hub look very much as though they are part of the hub itself. I am wondering whether this could be a reason why some HP members have had their Adsense account disabled, because if you put a link of your own at the bottom of one of your hubs and encourage people to click on it, this could very well mean that Google thinks you're encouraging them to click on its ads.
   
   Would it be possible for HP staff to put this ad block in a square border or add - say - a black horizontal line at the top of the ad block, the better to distinguish it from the material in our hubs?
   
   The alternative is for us to add a line of our own at the bottom of every hub. This would be too labour intensive for me, never mind people with hundreds of hubs!

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   1. STAFF

      pauldeedsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The ads above the share bar are non-standard units that use custom formatting.  They are only run with the HubPages AdSense Publisher Id in them as part of the HubPages Ad Program, so it's very unlikely that those ads could be responsible for someone's account being disabled.  In addition, Google reviewed and specifically approved our implementation of that ad, as they do for all ads with custom formatting.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         OK, thanks for clearing that one up.

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         LeanManposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         What about where some hubbers have inserted a picture pointing down to the voting bar saying "click here" to encourage votes - now it points at the adds..... did google see an example of this when they reviewed the add placement??

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         1. STAFF

            pauldeedsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            We'd appreciate it if those inducements were removed, but as that ad does not ever contain their AdSense Publisher Id it should not cause them to be banned from AdSense.
            
            While, I do not believe encouraging people to vote on a Hub as you describe is clearly prohibited by our terms of use (we do prohibit "engaging in behavior designed to manipulate HubScores"), it does present a few problems:
            
            - it has the potential to skew the thumbs up and down ratio for a Hub in unnatural ways (as compared to Hubs without the inducement)
            - it hampers our ability to make design changes, for instance moving the share buttons to the top of the hub or affixing them in the sidebar as some sites do
            - very aggressive inducements to click on a link or take some particular action could be construed as "overly promotional" (for the most part this does not apply to what you are talking about)
            
            As such, we encourage Hubbers not to make assumptions about the location of non-capsule layout elements, such as the ads, the share bar, or related hubs, when deciding how to layout theirHubs.   While they have been very stable over the last 5 years, and we always do consider the effect of a change on existing Hubs, things are almost certain to change at some point.  In fact, some concepts were posted to our blog a few months ago (though a switch to that design is not imminent).

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   thisisoliposted 12 years ago

   I thought one of the bonus points of the HubAds program was that we gained access to more adsense/non standard units, or does it actually mean we get access to the standard adsense ad units plus HubAds?

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   1. STAFF

      pauldeedsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Those ads run in both our share and author's share, but they always have our publisher id in them, meaning that the earnings from them is paid out through the Ad Program.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Just wondering something else: do Hubbers get any money off actual clicks from Adsense ads served as part of the HP ad program? Or is anything we get just from impressions?

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         1. STAFF

            pauldeedsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, clicks affect how much you get paid, but the connection is not quite as direct.

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         thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks!

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   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   I would appreciate a horizontal rule and/or a tiny bit of space between the bottom of the hub and the ads. I have arthritis, and I accidentally clicked an Adsense ad down there while aiming for something else.
   
   "Oh, no!" I thought. "I hope Google didn't see that! I didn't mean to do it!" Losing one's Adsense account just as one is finally approaching the minimum payment threshold would be so frustrating. I've read so many horror stories.
   
   It also is a little hard to see, visually, where the Hub ends and the ads begin. I keep finding myself placing a picture or ... something, anything at the bottom to make the division between my content and advertising more clear. It's especially problematic with the Links capsule, since it tends to blur right into the ads, yet the bottom of a Hub is generally the most logical place for links/bibliography.

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