With Google’s massive computing power and the best minds in the business, it is practically impossible to beat Google in the long term. Sure, there are those who call their cousin Jill and ask her to click on an ad or two. And some people will try to cheat the system and click on a few ads from their computer at work. This may work over the short term, but Google will discover it and disable your account long before you make any serious money.

If Google detects unusual Adsense clicking activity regarding your account, they will not normally disable your account immediately (although they can). In most cases, your account will initially be flagged. If your account is flagged, it means that Google will keep a close eye on things. Sometimes, they send you a warning letter, informing you that they are looking into suspicious activity. On other occasions, you get nothing. If the suspicious activity continues, your account will be terminated and banned from using the Adsense program in the future.

Google uses a number of techniques to determine suspicious activity and invalid clicks. Following, is a list of just some of those methods:

1) Your computer’s IP address is similar to the street address where you live. It uniquely identifies a computer or other network device that is connected to the Internet. When you sign up for your Adsense account, Google logs the IP address of your computer. During the course of business, Google collects the IP address from each ad as it is clicked on your site. If the IP address matches the one from your initial Adsense sign-up, your account is flagged.

2) I can hear many of you thinking now, “Ah-ha! If I disconnect my computer from the Internet and re-connect it, I’ll get a new IP address." Forget it, it won’t work. Google places cookies on your computer. These cookies can be traced to determine whether ad clicks originated from the same computer as your initial sign-up.

3) Google has done extensive research regarding the average number of ads clicked versus the total number of visitors on a site. This is called the Click Through Rate. If 100 people visit your site and six of them click on Adsense ads, your Click Through Rate is 6%. The normal click through rate varies between .5% and 10%. If your Click Through rate exceeds 10%, or whatever percentage Google is using today, they will flag your account.

This information was obtained at http://smilemaker.uk.to/google-adsense/adsense-essentials/page2.html . This is an excellent site for facts relating to Google’s Adsense program.

The Google Adsense program is a good advertising medium that can very nicely increase the income your site generates. It is in your best interests to play by the rules. The few extra dollars that you might make by cheating the system is not worth the legitimate income that you stand to lose over the long term. Please keep in mind that the information above is subject to change at any time by Google.