Warning about SheToldMe

1. 69

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   I was doing some research into the site, specifically on some media buys.
   
   As a potential advertiser they show traffic patterns and referrers to the site.
   
   The 2nd biggest source of traffic is:
   
   w/ 789 refers today onedollarPTC .com
   
   yes, PTC, paid to click, regardless of whether those hits go directly to your "scoop" with the way the adsense revshare works
   your pub-id is displayed 100% of the time to your referrers.
   
   In general that is a very dangerous association to have with your adsense account, I highly suggest pulling your pub-id out and/or mass mailing the site admin to block access from that ip, as to not endanger your adsense account
   
   Usually, im the one to laugh at TOS, but this isnt an example of one those situations, its an obvious and easily trackable violation

   replyreport
   1. 61

      Lady_Eposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Great, I only joined 2 days ago.
      
      I would love to know what other Hubbers think, particularly Uninvited Writer - as she recommends the site and is one of the top 10 referrals noted on the site's webpage. (I mean this in a positive way).

      replyreport
      1. 69

         sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         The only way one would have been able to discover this is by trying to Buy advertising, Im a regular media buyer, certainly teh site seems great and I would refer others to, if I hadnt seen the ads pages

         replyreport
   2. 58

      SheToldMe.composted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hello, I'm James from SheToldMe.com I've registered on HubPages just to answer this thread even if I know from experience with the internet that the only way to undo the damages done by this thread would be:
      - the original poster edit and update his first post with new information
      - the thread is deleted
      
      otherwise, just me answering the issue won't help anything, people will still think something is going on here, you know, there's no smoke without fire..
      
      Well, I answered already about the autotraffic going straight to a registration page with no adsense on it, so that should clear everything but of course it won't..
      
      Anyway, I said to myself that in order to protect shetoldme from future situations such as this one on hubpages, I should ban autotraffic sites even if there's no problem. Simply because if this traffic (going to pages without adsense on) made the original poster worry enough to create a forum thread about it, I guess several other people in their own mind have also had the same questions without speaking publicly about it, but perhaps decided not to take action (registration, advertizing, etc.)
      
      So it's better to just ban this useless traffic anyway, I think the users who used autotraffic to their referral link had one new user every one million visits.. This is really poor quality traffic as everyone knows except a few..
      
      Ask me questions if there's some doubt left, I'll be watching this thread for the following days, but it's pretty simple and can be summarized like this:
      
      1. the autotraffic was going to referral links, with no adsense on it, not mine, not the one from the users and of course not yours.
      2. I went ahead and banned that traffic (with a few lines in .htaccess file) just so nobody can worry about it like you did. By the way I understand that you worried about it because you couldn't know where the traffic was going, you couldn't know that I had already checked it long ago and that it was going to a registration page with no adsense on it and that shetoldme.com was still complying with adsense policies.
      
      Cheers,
      James

      replyreport
      1. 79

         LiamBeanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks James. I'm signing up. In fact I didn't know about SheToldMe until I saw this thread.

         replyreport
   3. 0

      cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      well i too am lost but i will keep reading - eventually it will click
      
      for now i will keep adding my hubs links at shetoldme because it seems like a neat site but i will leave my adsense ID out until i know fully what i am doing

      replyreport
2. 69

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   the admin contact is:
   
   contact@shetoldme.com
   
   you can see the site stats for yourself here
   
   http://www.projectwonderful.com/adverti … amp;type=4
   
   
   and the buyer of the traffic seems to be:
   
   Hubpages profile = HSanAlim
   
   Very sorry if Im wrong, but thats one of the scoops that is directly advertised on the PTC site, so even if not responsible should be aware that their account is in the most jeopardy

   replyreport
   1. 59

      HSanAlimposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You are incorrect and should be careful about making such allegations. Hsanalim has NEVER participated in any PTC sites, methods or operations.
      Hsanalim does have an account with shetoldme but only as a user.
      
      She told me seems to return no revenue but does help traffic on other sites, such as Hubpages, because of the dofollow links that come as a result of shetoldme postings.
      
      I checked the project wonderful site you mention and can find NOTHING tied to user hsanalim what so ever.  What was it that you saw that indicated that was the case.

      replyreport
      1. 71

         thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         That may be because this thread is about 8 months old.

         replyreport
      2. 69

         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Some critical reading of this rather short and very dated post should expose this:
         
         "Very sorry if Im wrong, but thats one of the scoops that is directly advertised on the PTC site, so even if not responsible should be aware that their account is in the most jeopardy"
         
         
         If you need any help figuring out what I meant by this:
         
         http://www.google.com/search?q=websters … =firefox-a
         
         Also if you had taken the time to read anything here you would have seen that (8 months ago) James reacted to our emails and this forum post by blocking all PTC traffic.
         
         critical reading, its whats up

         replyreport
3. 79

   Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

   I went and took my adsense out also. I wasn't earning much anyway, maybe $2 today.
   
   I feel bad now about referring people if it can damage their Adsense account

   replyreport
   1. 69

      sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      It wouldnt be your fault!
      
      One of the users has probably purchased the traffic, its not uncommon for people to try and trick adsense in that way, but they always get caught.
      
      The site admin can very easily insert a code that blocks all traffic from that IP.
      
      What concerns me is that they openly showed this referrer on their advertsing page, when they should have known that the association was dangerous, I imagine their income is adsense based also!
      
      As THE top referrer an email from you may convince them to make that small change

      replyreport
   2. 61

      Lady_Eposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Just reading your post. No need to feel bad - a lot of websites mislead. You've taken out your Adsense but did you leave your pages in as backlinks or did you delete your whole account?

      replyreport
4. 69

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   Final update:
   
   Another top referrer is
   
   autohits.info  also a paid to click/paid traffic site
   
   and the hubprofile that is suspected has just cleared 10,000 views in less than 2 months with 17 hubs, pretty good achievement for using legitimate traffic sources ?
   
   Personally, I pulled my pub-id and notified my known referrals, will keep all scoops for possible traffic and signed up and inserted the "chitika" code into the scoops.
   
   As I previously did not use the service, could care less if I lose it, so at least their is some chance of direct earnings from previous scoops

   replyreport
5. 69

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   *deleted, nevermind*

   replyreport
6. 96

   Sue Adamsposted 14 years ago

   I followed someone's advice here on HP to join She Told Me So and pasted a link to their site on nearly every hub I wrote. Should I now remove those links and close my account with She Told Me So? Please tell me what to do.

   replyreport
   1. 79

      Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I am keeping my account, I just took my Adsense out of it. So, I won't earn money but will get the backlinks.

      replyreport
      1. 96

         Sue Adamsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         "just took my Adsense out of it" How do you do that? Deleting the links from my hubs?

         replyreport
         1. 79

            Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            When you created your account you put your Adsense account number in, just delete it.

            replyreport
   2. 61

      sandwichmomposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I joined for the same reason- advice from a hub. I guess I am too trusting

      replyreport
7. 61

   Jane@CMposted 14 years ago

   I deleted my adsense.  I wasn't getting any traffic from there any how.

   replyreport
8. 96

   Sue Adamsposted 14 years ago

   Thank you uninvitedwriter, I deleted my adsense now.

   replyreport
9. 74

   glendoncabaposted 14 years ago

   Why would SheToldMe post this on their site:
   
   "This field is also optional, if you have a Google AdSense account you can earn money on SheToldMe.com for each scoop that you create. If you enter your AdSense Publisher ID, an ad will be displayed at the top of your scoops 100% of the time and you'll earn money as if the AdSense code were on your site. This AdSense sharing method is allowed by Google, do not fear for your account, SheToldMe.com doesn't violate AdSense policies in any way and in your own scoops it's up to you to make sure you don't talk about topics not allowed by AdSense, like you should do on your own site."
   
   Especially the bit about "doesn't violate".
   
   I am not being difficult, but is there something going on that I'm not getting?
   
   I'm going to pull the link from my HubPages profile.  But will leave the pub ID until confirm possibility of violation.

   replyreport
10. 69

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    what your not getting is that most likely a USER of the site, not the actual site admin is creating the problem, unfortunately the admin apparently isnt very sophisticated or knowledgable enough to protect themselves.
    
    
    The site admin is probably making way more from adsense than u imagine, and is put in a way worse place than we are by these actions.
    
    
    Im guessing, good idea by not so competent people
    
    The site is fine, the problem is there incoming traffic is coming from a ptc site, since your adsense code is directly visible on the site, you are at risk....using the site w/o inputting adsense makes you safe...then you get traffic benefits,
    
    now if UW only has made 2.00 as the very TOP referrer than the risk is not worth the tradeoff og having your pub-id on a badly managed page.
    
    
    hopefully you have always noticed that the design was very poor, which reflects on the overall abilities of the owners

    replyreport
11. 74

    glendoncabaposted 14 years ago

    OK.  Will watch situation.  Have removed Google ID. Don't know if it's embedded in scoops.

    replyreport
12. 74

    glendoncabaposted 14 years ago

    Contacted SheToldMe and received this reply:
    
    "Hi again,
    Could you please also make it clear in the forum that the original poster sent me an email which I answered 5 hours ago, and on the forum I see that he keeps on replying as recently as 1 hour ago, like if I didn't send him the explanation. In particular he says:
    
    "unfortunately the admin apparently isnt very sophisticated or knowledgable enough to protect themselves"
    which is clearly false since I explained to him that I already long ago checked where autotraffic sites are sending traffic, and since it's on pages with no adsense on it, there's no reason to worry about adsense at all. And blocking a site is easy if needed.
    
    I don't know what really is going on since I've sent my reply 5 hours ago and he keeps on saying things like:
    "now if UW only has made 2.00 as the very TOP referrer than the risk is not worth the tradeoff og having your pub-id on a badly managed page."
    when UW clearly said it was just for "today" which isn't finished and not for all time earnings. And that finally there is no risk indeed.
    I don't know why he's doing that, perhaps for an unknown reason or for no reason at all, perhaps he didn't get my email... but it's not fair.
    
    Cheers,
    James
    <snipped link>
    
    On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 6:59 AM, She Told Me <contact@shetoldme.com> wrote:
    Hello and thank you for notifying me about this forum thread. I already received questions today about this source of traffic.
    If you would be so kind as to notify people on this forum about my answer, thank you, because I do not have an account on hubpages or this forum and my answer is very simple:
    Several users of shetoldme wrongly think that autotraffic sites such as onedollarptc are useful. Of course when I first noticed referrers from those kind of sites I've checked where they send the traffic to, before taking action to block the traffic.
    I've noticed that people who use autotraffic sites know that adsense and autotraffic don't mix together, so they simply send the traffic to their referral link.
    Their referral link redirects visitors to the user registration page on shetoldme which has no adsense whatsoever.
    
    I know that people are quick to worry about risks to their adsense account, and I would be the first. I've read the forum and the reactions, but what can I do really? I don't think that registering to this forum and posting an answer myself will do anything as it will be lost in the thread. The best would be for the original poster to edit his first post and update it with this information. If you could re-assure other by posting part of my reply, it would be more efficient I believe.
    
    It's easy to block traffic from autotraffic sites, the only reason why I didn't do it is because no adsense is displayed on the pages to which this (useless) traffic is sent.
    
    Cheers,
    James
    <snipped link> "

    replyreport
13. 74

    glendoncabaposted 14 years ago

    Now you guys are the experts.  What am I to make of this?  They r saying that the autotraffic is going to places where there are no AdSense ads. 
    
    Sunforged over to u.

    replyreport
14. 74

    glendoncabaposted 14 years ago

    Have put back my google ID but removed referral from my HP profile until this issue is settled.
    
    Uninvited writer and sunforged, where r u going with this one?  Do u accept the webmaster's explanation?

    replyreport
    1. 69

       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       hubpages id is safe, put it back.
       
       ill investigate webmasters explanation in the morning, USA eastern standard time as to safety of shetoldme links

       replyreport
       1. 74

          glendoncabaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Meant the SheToldMe referral link in my HubPages profile.

          replyreport
15. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    I have a related question I hope someone can answer.
    
    I live in GA and am very familiar with the state. I have several travel articles about GA. If I get a lot of clicks on google ads on those hubs, like for vacation rentals to the places I wrote about, is google going to think I'm just getting all my pals to click on the ads?? It's natural that people in GA would be interested in places to go in GA, right? I just started thinking about this today. I'm slow. lol

    replyreport
16. 72

    AEvansposted 14 years ago

    I took it out and also feel bad about refering but I will definitely tell them to remove there adsense id.
    
    Uninvited Writer don't feel bad SheToldMe is new so they will iron things out, I am not leaving them I have some solid traffic but for now we will just remove the adsense id no big deal.

    replyreport
17. 69

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    Its true , the web admin did respond to my original email, I have not responded yet, it is in fact 2.30 am here in ny,usa, so i wasnt checking my email yet.
    
    
    According to the site admins email, the destination address of the paid traffic is safe for adsense...i cant prove or disprove this at this point, I will ask detailed questions tomorrow, so for now, i stand by opinion that allowing such traffic would be seen as a sitewide issue.
    
    But the site admin is telling the truth when it says they have responded to me...I really am not in agreement to the anser at this point, but its not my site, they SHOULD know better than I

    replyreport
18. 69

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    i will add that the webmasters response (james) does seem legit and appropriate, so my concerns are settled for the night.
    
    If he says that PTC link lead only to registration pages, then in fact everyones adsense ids should be safe.
    
    thats his word, not mine....but is an appropriate and detailed response, so i am on his side for now

    replyreport
    1. 69

       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Everything James has said seems to be on point, I would not be concerned about my my adsense account and association with shetoldme.com.
       
       James should be commended for his detailed response and actions relating to this issue.
       
       A webmaster can block an ip or an entire range of ips using a simple htaccess mod, it looks like James not only blocked the sites in question but also other commin ones that could present a problem later
       
       
       Although I have no access to his site stats, I went to:
       http://www.onedollarptc.com/index.php?view=click&
       
       and followed the shetoldme link on that page, I was brought to a scoop w/ adsense on it, not the registration page
       
       But thats a moot point, So dont worry James, I think your quick and professional response will get you nmore users not hurt you
       
       Thanks

       replyreport
       1. 59

          deartfuldodgerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          it looks like Sunforged did put a final response in, Im new to hubpages but not to the IM world, and I am familiar with adsense/and PTC sites ,  Google isnt always fair and it isnt wise to have your top referral sites to be coming from such a "bad neighborhood", so unless you were profiting enough from that site that its worth a gamble with your adsense, it seems like leave your adsense id out, it still seems like an ok site for backlinks.
          
          As far as that goes it does have a PR3 front page, so its an ok backlink to have, but your scoop pages have no PR at all, so the backlink is no better than being on your own brand new blog.
          
          Unless it makes the fron page, most scooped, than it gets the PR3 link
          
          Thats my impression after reading this whole thread

          replyreport
19. 67

    emievilposted 14 years ago

    Just logged in hubpages and immediately saw this forum post. Thanks for the advice sunforged. Temporarily pulled out my adsense ID but I'll also bookmark this thread so that I can refer to it later.
    
    Hey, UW don't feel bad. It's really great of you to refer us to that site. And like AEvans said, it's not your fault if the site is like that.

    replyreport
20. 66

    Pearldiverposted 14 years ago

    Oh Congrats on your 100 Em... Well Done!
    
    And you'll get a medal for your next post as well! (1000)

    replyreport
    1. 67

       emievilposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       LOL, my favorite puppy! Let's make this special. My 1000th post is for you. *hugz*

       replyreport
21. 75

    NaomiRposted 14 years ago

    Thanks for the warning. I also took out my adsense. I didn't earn anything from them, anyway.

    replyreport
22. 93

    viryaboposted 14 years ago

    Will pull out my id for now. I never really liked the way the adsense ID was always in my face everytime. Gave me quiet fears.

    replyreport
23. 55

    Genniferposted 14 years ago

    After reading all these posts, I've decided to take my ID away from SheToldMe...

    replyreport
24. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    PLEASE, please someone answer my above post! Thanks!

    replyreport
    1. 79

       Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       It's got nothing at all to do with this thread.

       replyreport
25. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    Well, gee, that was kinda mean. So much for the hub community being helpful and supportive. And actually, it was related to the thread topic. It was about google adsense.

    replyreport
    1. 0

       Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       It really has nothing to do with shetoldme.com - which is what this topic is about. You could start your own topic instead of "hijacking" this one.

       replyreport
    2. 79

       Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       No, it's about SheToldMe...
       
       I'm sorry but I get offended when people demand that people answer their questions.
       
       Why don't you start a new thread under need help about it and people might be able to answer you.
       
       Personally, I have no idea about what you asked.

       replyreport
    3. 61

       Lady_Eposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I know, I'm feeling yah.
       
       Read your post and I don't think Google will think like that. It shouldn't be anything to worry about. Like you wrote, its only natural that people in GA would be interested.
       Regards, E.

       replyreport
26. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Back on topic.
    
    I have also removed my Google Adsense id from shetoldme. Don't know if I'll continue to use them for backlinks or not. Can't decide now if they'll evolve into a "bad neighborhood." Might delete my scoops as well.

    replyreport
27. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    Thank you very much, Lady E!!
    
    And to those I "offended," sorry I hijacked your thread. I guess I'm just used to a more friendly writing community. I assumed HP would be the same. That's what I get for assuming!

    replyreport
    1. 79

       LiamBeanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       We are friendly and helpful. Start a new thread though.

       replyreport
28. 79

    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    We are friendly. I am friendly.
    
    I do not like the way you demand people give you answers when you ask a question in a thread and it's not answered right away (I've seen you do it before)...I find that rude.
    
    Anyway, I'm sorry if I upset you and I should not have said anything obviously. And...as I said, if you post your own threads under need help you will get a lot more response.

    replyreport
29. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Wow habee, you just don't give up. UW is one of the most helpful people here. The shetoldme topic is an important one, because so many of us signed up for it and now we have to decide what to do specifically with that site, because we are concerned about our adsenes accounts. To go off on a Georgia travel topic really isn't germaine.
    
    I really think you're off the mark on this. I don't get why you're insisting on multiple posts making the same point - that we aren't nice people. We get it. And disagree.

    replyreport
30. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    Multiple posts? There were two alluding to the unfriendliness.
    
    UW, I honestly am sorry that I misjudged you. As I was reading the posts about shetoldme and adsense, I thought about my issue, so I posted it. I should have started my own thread, but I didn't realize the strict rules about remaining on topic. That said, I didn't "demand." I asked "please." And I do agree that there are a lot of friendly, helpful people on HP.
    
    Hope you guys work things out with shetoldme.
    
    Peace and best wishes.

    replyreport
31. 77

    kirstenblogposted 14 years ago

    I have only just found this site today.....
    I do not see where my adsense id shows up on a scoop?
    I do see a link to my profile here but I put that there just in case a person visiting decided to sign up here.
    I do not understand what is going on with this? It sounds like there are two concerns here one being how adsense is going to respond to a site that drives PTR traffic and second that that PTR traffic is somehow able to see sensitive info that could be abused?

    replyreport
32. 69

    John Zposted 14 years ago

    I just read this thread and deleted my adsense ID on shetoldme.  I also removed the referral link in my profile. 
    
    I recieved a comment on one of my hubs about an hour ago.  It was full of question marks and at the end had a link to an arabic site.  I translated it and it appears to be a chat site.  I denied the comment.  This was before I read the thread but I am pretty sure the comment came from HSanAlim.  I went to his hub and removed myself from his fan club as well.  I noticed he has only 2 fans (one now).  Don't know how related this comment is but thought you all would like to know.

    replyreport
33. 0

    ryankettposted 14 years ago

    Thanks for your response James, I will keep bookmarking on your site as long as you have blocked ptc traffic.
    
    To put it into perspective, this community are likely to be a thousand times more beneficial to your site than somebody trying to drive referrals. Hubbers seem to be responsible for a lot of your content, I have 'scooped' 106 of my hubs already.... But I am happy enough with your answer as long as you put it into action. I have seen a decent amount of traffic from shetoldme, not enough to write home about but better than expected.
    
    Another reason why I dont want automated/incentive traffic going to your site is that your open stats policy is distorted and gives a false representation of performance.
    
    Thanks for taking your time to respond, I am sure that sunforged will acknowledge your action in due course and make up for it by starting another thread/editing and bumping this one. (e.g. when it is apparent that the automated traffic has ceased).

    replyreport
34. 0

    pgrundyposted 14 years ago

    Wow, I'm totally confused, but I took out my adsense ID and I'm deleting my referral link from my profile.
    
    I feel bad now about referring anybody.I think I sent about 10-11 people over there, but so far as I can tell I've  earned no ad revenue from SheToldMe at all.

    replyreport
35. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    I'm pretty confused as to what is going on as well. So I took out my adsense. There's doesn't seem to be a way to delete scoops so I'll just leave them there and see what transpires.
    
    A big thanks to thanks to sunforged who's looking out for us.

    replyreport
36. 58

    SheToldMe.composted 14 years ago

    See, pgrundy, Nelle Hoxie and sandwichmom didn't get to read or understand my message and only ryankett did. But after a while, who will read my message on the third page of a long thread? Nobody :-)
    I know that it creates some damage to my site, but I don't mind, it's ok, I take it as the high price of a lesson:
    Next time I'll evaluate a situation not only in terms of compliance to adsense TOS but also in terms of risk of confusion in my members and potential advertizers.
    
    The ban of autotraffic is effective as of several hours ago. As I said it's very easy to ban since they show in the referrer string. So far I banned not only onedollarPTC.com but also:
    autosurf.cc,autovisitas.com,trafficg.com,clickthru.net, trafficnowfire.com, clickevolution.com and ad-ventures4u.com which were all used to drive autotraffic to shetoldme's registration page by different members.
    
    Cheers,
    James
    http://SheToldMe.com

    replyreport
    1. 0

       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Dont worry James, Sunforged wont leave you hanging too long.... like he said, it is early hours of the morning where he is (so he is likely to be zzzzzzzzzz) I believe that he makes his living online, so its not like he is going to leave this thread hanging for weeks..... just give him his 6 hours sleep and his morning coffee

       replyreport
       1. 0

          ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Oh..... but that was 13 hours ago :S

          replyreport
          1. 69

             sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             Yes Sunforged partied very hard saturday night until the wee hours of the morning...and is just drinking his morning coffee at 4pm, lol!
             
             I think I did my part to alleviate the sites rep and think the original issue was very real,ive answered all open questions in the thread
             
             Hey James, now that you have a hubpages account write a hub about your service!

             replyreport
             1. 69

                wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                Yes, please do

                replyreport
             2. 58

                SheToldMe.composted 14 years agoin reply to this

                Thank you for giving your new opinion, I suppose you have no way of editing your first post to add "the issue has been resolved"?
                
                Indeed I know hubpages since several months, probably years by reading hubs from time to time.
                I began a hub about shetoldme but saw "no spam" not talking about a site or service. But I suppose it's ok because I already read hubs about shetoldme done by others. :-)
                I started to write a little, but it was too little to be published.
                I might spend some time to do it better later.
                
                Cheers,
                James

                replyreport
                1. 69

                   sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                   No I cant edit the thread, but it will die within the day I imagine, evryone who saw your responses will be impressed by the level of service you offered, I wouldnt worry about it.

                   replyreport
                   1. 0

                      cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                      it will porbably die quicker if you ask the Hubteam to lock the thread. just a suggestion...

                      replyreport
                2. 74

                   glendoncabaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                   Happy to see you took my advice and came over to explain. 
                   
                   Must say here that I was pleasantly surprised by the prompt response when I contacted you.
                   
                   For those who want to know more on SheToldMe I had done a hub on it some time back:
                   
                   http://hubpages.com/hub/Join-ShetoldMec … acklinking

                   replyreport
                3. 86

                   Lily Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                   Why not start a new thread with a title like "SheToldMe is now safe" - that'll get everyone's attention, I would imagine.

                   replyreport
37. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Thanks for participating James. I did read you're post. Afraid that I'm not that tech savvy to really understand what you did. But it's fabulous that you're responding and here. I am following your comments very closely and with interest. And as others participate, I will gain more of an understanding of the situation.

    replyreport
    1. 58

       SheToldMe.composted 14 years agoin reply to this

       If you want I can summarize the situation just for you, it's quite simple if you know what is an autotraffic (traffic exchange) site:
       
       - original poster said he saw in my site's public stats that a significant amount of traffic was coming from autotraffic sites.
       
       AdSense's TOS has this to say about using autotraffic to link to pages with adsense on it:
       https://www.google.com/adsense/support/ … swer=48182
       "Google ads may not be placed on pages receiving traffic from certain sources. For example, publishers may not participate in paid-to-click programs, send unwanted emails or display ads as the result of the action of any software application."
       
       Well, all traffic coming from these sites had already been checked by myself and it was going to a page of my site without any adsense on it.
       
       So my site complies with adsense's policies and no-one account is at risk. All reactions from readers of this thread are useless (but understandable).
       
       One thing to note is that I only could know where this traffic was going since I have access to my web server logs with precise details of all connections. That's why the original poster couldn't know about that and just assumed the traffic was going to some pages of my site with adsense on them.
       
       As a result I simply decided to ban all autotraffic sites from accessing my site, I should have done it before, so that this thread would have never existed, but life is made to gain experience, so next time, on another site of similar nature, I won't even consider letting autotraffic sites access pages without adsense on them. :-)

       replyreport
38. 69

    Paradise7posted 14 years ago

    I wish this thread started out with a little more information about what shetoldme is.  I'm fairly new to all this and would like to find a legitimate way to increase traffic to my hubs without scamming anyone or breaking any rules, and it sounds now like "shetoldme" is a legitimate and good, safe way to do that.
    
    Shetoldme apparantly responded quickly and appropriately and has solved the problem.
    
    Now I would just like to know more info on what shetoldme is, and how well or poorly it worked for those who tried it.  Thank you!

    replyreport
    1. 0

       ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Simple, its a social bookmarking site. Just like Digg, or Stumbleupon, or Deli.cio.us......... only some of the adsense ads displayed on your submissions (known as scoops) are yours, with your adsense ID, meaning that you can earn a little money whilst also giving your hubs a backlink.

       replyreport
    2. 77

       kirstenblogposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I had only just signed up with these folks a few hours before this thread was started! You can imagine how confusing it all is, should I remove my adsense or leave it or what? I agree that the fact this site has signed up here and responded so quickly is comforting. It seems like it is trying to be a legitimate way to attract traffic to articles but having only just signed up for it I cannot say if it will deliver that traffic. I do hope it brings some extra traffic for those articles that have a hard time ranking highly with google.

       replyreport
       1. 74

          glendoncabaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          My humble suggestion:  read the entire thread and then make your own decision.  I am sticking with them but I believe it is best when you take responsibility for your own decision.
          
          Since sunforged started it all he may weigh in with an expert SEO advice.
          
          Even my hub on them is really my effort to share the little I know.  Read it at http://hubpages.com/hub/Join-ShetoldMec … acklinking
          
          I am happy that the issue appears to be resolved since I am promoting them in my hub as well as doing backlinks with the site.

          replyreport
39. 58

    SheToldMe.composted 14 years ago

    Paradise7, there's a page on my site explaining what it is, but to be honest it's just one more such sites where you can create links to your own pages on hubpages or your own blog/site.
    Creating links to your web properties is meant to be beneficial for your search engines ranking. But of course one link from shetoldme is nothing, counts for nothing. It's just the idea of creating links to your content, you need a lot.
    
    Then, on shetoldme there's also a possibility to display your adsense on the pages you've created (each time you create a link to your content, a page is created on shetoldme)
    
    But you can earn only if someone visits the page on shetoldme and then click on your adsense. This happens sometimes because google sends visitors to shetoldme, some of them then go to your web properties, some of them click on your ad (or mine)
    
    Lastly, there's a referral program. Like UninvitedWriter, you can give a special link to people you know online so that they register on my site and create links to their web properties. You'll then have the possibility to display your adsense on the pages they create.
    
    Well that's the theory, in reality, at the moment, as Uninvited Writer said, she's earning about $2 a day, and she has referred a lot of members. Some other members can have better experience, and most will have a poorer one, because it also depends on the topics you're writing about (some topics have best paying adsense than other) and how you write about them (best is to write sentences like people write when they search online).
    
    Cheers,
    James

    replyreport
40. 69

    Paradise7posted 14 years ago

    Thank you very much for the info and the prompt response.

    replyreport
41. 0

    pgrundyposted 14 years ago

    James I read your posts, I'm just not net-savvy enough to understand any of this. I joined because Uninvited Writer endorsed the site, as a way to boost traffic but soon got busy with other freelance projects and forgot all about it until I saw this thread.
    
    Sorry for the confusion. I remain confused, but it's not your fault and I'm tired now anyway.
    
    I think I've picked up my son's flu. Ick.

    replyreport
    1. 69

       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Feel better!
       
       Simply put, not all traffic is desirable, a user of shetoldme was buying poor traffic, james blocked that poor traffic, problem solved.

       replyreport
       1. 0

          pgrundyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks! Now that I understand. I really appreciate it, seriously.
          
          (Back to bed now...cough, cough...)
          
          

          replyreport
42. 0

    cosetteposted 14 years ago

    so...break it down for us dimwits
    
    is our adsense ID safe there?
    
    does anyone else see it or use it?
    
    why did shetoldme ask for it in the first place? what do they do with it?
    
    if i leave my adsense out but my hubpages links in, will that make any difference revenue-wise?

    replyreport
    1. 69

       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Shetoldme gives you an opportunity to earn money from adsense via their site, just like here at hubpages.
       
       Leaving out your adsense will make the difference of you not potentially making any money from them
       
       According to James your adsense id is safe.
       
       
       I am and have left all "scoops" up anyway, I will put the adsense id back in after the sites I was concerned about, no longer appears in stats ( prob a month)
       
       
       Youll have to check with other users to see what use shetoldme has been for traffic and earnings

       replyreport
       1. 0

          cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          oh i am only interested in linking back to hubpages.
          
          what's a scoop? is that when you post a link to your hub?
          
          thanks!

          replyreport
43. 69

    wyanjenposted 14 years ago

    I've read this forum through a couple times, it's beginning to click for me now. I'm using HubPages as a platform to build up a portfolio while I'm learning the ropes. (Still doing more researching than writing in my limited time.)
    I don't have nearly enough hubs yet but I'm going to look into shetoldme.
    I'm impressed (and I'm appreciating) that this issue was explored so carefully.
    Thanks sunforged and James :-)

    replyreport
44. 69

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    Not on sunday, cosette, hopefully all staff is out enjoying the weather (56 degrees and sunny in san fran, there prob in their winter coats !)

    replyreport
45. 64

    Kidgasposted 14 years ago

    I have had good interactions with James in the past on email communications.  I am not concerned about my adsense at this point.
    
    I just haven't earned a single penny or have even been getting any views from the site.  I have stopped using it since it isn't worth my time.

    replyreport
46. 72

    AEvansposted 14 years ago

    I stayed because it is generating traffic however I did delete my adsense id.

    replyreport
47. 58

    SheToldMe.composted 14 years ago

    To AEvans and others who deleted your adsense id from your shetoldme account:
    
    There's no logical/valid reason to do so. If you think this thread recommends to play safe and remove your adsense id, then you've misread it.
    
    To be honest when a user submits scoops to shetoldme and doesn't fill in his adsense id, all ads displayed are from my adsense account. So when you remove your adsense id and you say that you get some traffic from shetoldme, it means you're letting me enjoy the profit. That's very nice of you and I'm happy with it.
    I'm just sorry that you may do so for the wrong reasons (misreading a forum thread)
    
    Cheers,
    James

    replyreport
    1. 61

       sannyasinmanposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       You have deleted my account as I asked, but you have left all of the URLs in place which contain the titles of my articles, on  your site. 
       This is dishonest, as your URLS, which now contain NO CONTENT relevant to my hubs, are coming up in front of my hubs in Google.
       
       I am asking you to delete the URL also, so that there is no longer ANY REFERENCE TO ANY OF MY ARTICLES OR THEIR TITLES in the URLs pointing to your site.
       
       Examples:
       
       http://shetoldme.com/Lifestyle/Hottest- … -the-World
       http://shetoldme.com/Lifestyle/Medical- … Costa-Rica
       http://shetoldme.com/Lifestyle/Sex-and-the-Japanese-Man
       
       
       Please confirm when you have complied with my request.
       
       Michael Curley

       replyreport
48. 0

    sandra rinckposted 14 years ago

    I believe that I read in the adsense tos, that participating in any site that advertises 'clicks' will get your account banned.
    
    I went to that site maybe two weeks ago (???) but decided it wouldn't be in my best interest and that just sticking with hubpages and playing by the rules does just fine for me.
    
    I don't make a lot of bling but at least I make honest change.

    replyreport
49. 59

    deartfuldodgerposted 14 years ago

    Its true, if you actually read this thread, you would see that an issue was brought to attention, discussed and rectified.
    
    Ive seen james on sitepoint, he wouldnt do anything to jeopardize his own account on the site if the problem was a bit in the gray area, that is moot and he pointed out that he was aware of the issue at all times.
    
    i still use the site, i am happy to hear that those sites were blocked though

    replyreport
50. 0

    cosetteposted 14 years ago

    i just have a question about scoops...do they remain with "Queued" status if you remove your adsense ID?

    replyreport