Don't Click Your Own Ads

Those of you who are participating in the RateItAll Economy Program know that you make money when people click on the Google Adsense Ads that rotate in on your pages (profile, weblists, new listings, etc).

Some might be tempted to click their own ads in an attempt to increase their earnings.

Here's why you shouldn't do it:

1) By signing up for a Google Adsense account, you agreed to the Google Adsense Terms of Service

2) It's stealing. The official term for this is Click Fraud. If you make fraudulent clicks, you are stealing from the ad budgets of the advertisers which keep sites like RateItAll afloat. It's unethical, and it's the classic case of "biting the hand that feeds you."

3) Google will catch you, and boot you out of the program. Google has incredibly sophisticated tools for tracking suspicious behavior, and if you try and cheat, they will catch you. My personal opinion is that we are just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of folks being able to make money online. I think that in the not so distant future, you will be able to attach a Google Adsense ID to just about every contribution you make online - chat rooms, social networks, forums, etc. As Google Adsense is the king of the sorts of programs that will enable this, getting booted now could mean missing out on tons of opportunities in the future to make money.

Don't mess up your relationship with Google for a few measly clicks today.