Someone else's hubpage showing up in my list of AdSense sites

1. 92

   SMD2012posted 12 years ago

   I just noticed today that the Hubpage site of another Hubber that I don't even know or even follow has shown up on my list of sites that are displaying ads from my Adsense account. I've never seen this happen before. Does anyone know what this means and should I be concerned about it? Why would my ads show up on someone else's page unless perhaps they put in the wrong Adsense Publisher ID when they configured their Adsense account on Hubpages?

   replyreport
   1. 86

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Are they one of your referrals, in which case your ad ID will show on their pages 10% of the time?

      replyreport
      1. 92

         SMD2012posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks IzzyM for the quick reply. I don't think they are a referral because according to their profile they've been here for 9 months. I've only been here for three.

         replyreport
         1. 86

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I have no idea then. Have you tried emailing the hubber concerned? You could also right click on any of their hubs and see what adsense ID is being displayed.
            
            You right click and choose "inspect element" and look for the Adsense ID, not forgetting that HPs ID will be there 40% of the time, or perhaps someone else's 10% if they were someone's referral. If yours is there, that is odd.

            replyreport
         2. 93

            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Have you linked to any hubs from that other hubber?  That can also produce what you are seeing - I've noticed it a couple of times.

            replyreport
2. 63

   Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

   Your settings in Ad Sense should generally be on (essentially) "only allow these sites to display my ads".  (Well, that's if you're concerned that something malicious could be going on.)  There's a space where you can type in your HP subdomain and any other URLs you have with Ad Sense on them.
   
   Go to your Ad Sense account and click on "account settings".  Scroll down until you get to "access and authorization".  Under that is something like "sites authorized...".  Click on the question circle to read about it.  You'll get a yellow box with a little info, and the link to read about selecting the setting that's right for you.  Click that, and there's more to read about other sites displaying ads under your code.  Reading whatever they have there will give you an idea of how/why you could have that kind of thing happen.

   replyreport
   1. 86

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The only problems with doing that is that if you have your Adsense account on an article somewhere out in the web that you have forgotten about, you will no longer receive payments from it if someone clicks, and also you do not get paid if someone views any of your articles through Google translate.
      
      I didn't realise this when I set mine to 'only allow', and quickly set it back when I learned about Google translate, as a lot of my views come through it, according to Analytics.

      replyreport
      1. 89

         lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Ya, plenty of people visit my hubs through google translate too.

         replyreport
   2. 63

      Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Now I'm confused (but I'm often confused).  It's been a while since I looked at the Ad Sense settings, so now I see that I worded the previous "settings thing" wrong (or too carelessly/broadly) (maybe - I haven't finished my coffee yet  ).  I just went and looked at mine. 
      
      I have "allow any site" (the top one in the settings), but it's the third-party access that I don't have "allow anything" on.  With the third-party access I've specified all the URLs (that are mine or that I'm OK with).  I did that one with the idea of preventing malicious stuff.  So now, my coffee-deprived brain is wondering if I"m cancelling out the "allow any" (the top setting).  (Sorry for the too-careless choice of words in the earlier post, by the way.)

      replyreport
3. 88

   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   If I click on a referral link of yours, it is then active for a certain period of time. If I browse ANY hub on the site during that period of time, your adverts will show for 9-12% of views on ANY hub on the site.
   
   So it just means that someone clicked your tracker and then either continued browsing the site or came back later.

   replyreport
   1. 89

      sharkfactsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I never fully understood trackers.
      
      But what you are saying is that it is quite possible for a hubber to pal up with another, sign out from Hubpages, click on a referral link of their friend and go hub hopping all over the place, especially on high-trafficked hubs, and earn their friend some money?
      
      And vice-versa of course.
      
      That seems a bit unfair, somehow. It's like cheating.

      replyreport
      1. 88

         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Not really... Adsense only pays for clicks (or about 1c per 100 views for SOME adverts)
         
         What would the difference between that person visiting their friends hubs as opposed to someone elses? The adverts ONLY show for that ONE person IF they have the tracker active.

         replyreport
         1. 88

            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            This hub (and the ones linked to it) may help: http://darkside.hubpages.com/hub/Referrals

            replyreport
4. 92

   SMD2012posted 12 years ago

   Thanks everyone for these helpful replies. I think I know what might be happening. I did do quite a few "link to this page" referral trackers yesterday and the day before. I was curious to see how they worked. I currently have my Adsense account set to only show ads for sites that I authorize. If Hubpages is showing my Adsense ads on sites that I refer and on any other Hubpages that may be viewed during that referral visit, then it makes sense that other Hubbers sites would show up on my Adsense account. I guess if I am going to do referral linking, I need to allow all sites to show my Adsense ads. If I keep the setting to authorize only certain sites to show my Ads then I think I would have to manually add each new site that shows up to my list of authorized sites (which seems like a lot of work).
   I'm going to go back and read as much as I can find on referral trackers and see if it says anything about how our Adsense accounts should be configured re; authorized sites. I guess the upshot is that I would rather have my ads show up on another hubbers site than some scammy page that might get me in trouble with a click-bombing scheme.
   Thanks again everyone!

   replyreport