We're temporarily running a 'skyscraper' ad in the lower left of the site to analyze revenue vs the standard 'Sponsored Links' list. This is also to see whether AdSense visual ads (image and rich) have improved vs our last look at them when loads of 'fake download' buttons had proliferated. If you see any fake download button or similar ads, please post a note here and let us know so we can disable that site in Google AdSense. (AdSense has really poor tools for excluding deceptive ads and no tools for reporting them, unfortunately)
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Looking good so far.
I've been running AdSense visual ads on my site for a number of months now and haven't had any issues or seen any fake download buttons, even having enabled the sensitive categories of ringtones/downloads and video games. I've also seen the need to only block one advertiser URL in that time.
Of course PortableApps.com is a much higher ranked playground for the ad networks than my site, but hopefully it will work out for you.
Thanks. I tried to keep them out of the way. I chose one that lined up with the left toolbar and sits lower on the page so it doesn't push down useful stuff (account links, about links, app directory links).
As soon as I setup the adsense ad I started getting fake download buttons. Well, 5 minutes in. So, I had to block some silly installldownload dot com domain, bringing my total blocked domains to 58. They'll likely use it to install spyware/malware/adware via fake download ads on adsense until they get caught and just register another domain. They pop up continuously. That was one of GIMP's issues with SourceForge as they use AdSense as well and fake download button ads show up frequently on SourceForge, PortableFreeware and other AdSense sites. I'm going to work hard to avoid that and block them here. If I can't, we'll probably continue to avoid using the image/rich media ads.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yeah, I have noticed that in the past at Sourceforge, although I thought GIMP's problem with them was more to do with SF trying to
bribepromote top projects (including themselves) to bundle their apps in SF installers which include toolbars/adware/potential malware.I suppose being logged into Google on 3+ computers on which I spend at least 60 hours a week gives AdSense a lot of target material for me, plus it looks like locality-based advertising trumps random download sites, as 60% of what I see here, on my own site, and a number of other sites, are Australia-targeted ads.
GIMP mentioned both the offer-based installers and the fraudulent download button ads (including a screenshot of them if I recall correctly). There is a right way to do offer-based installers, even if no one is doing them yet. I sent SourceForge a 12 page slide deck on how they could do it open source, transparently, without doing stub downloaders, and with truly useful offers to users (no toolbars or spyware allowed) that I'm hoping makes a difference.
Google targeted ads can be interesting. I've been experimenting with Google Now to see how well it understands stuff I do. It's a bit hit and miss so far.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
if it bring in revenue. Do you plan to do another push at a Wikipedia-style call for donations?
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I was debating doing something like that for the holidays. The past few days I've been focusing on optimizing the site and ad content. Interestingly, Google wants you to optimize your site (combine CSS, gzip files, increase expiration on images, etc) as part of optimizing Google ads, which is helpful.
We may do a push for donations and monthly donations but I may hold off until we have more to offer as a 'freemium' product.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
PortableApps.com has been the only exception in my AdBlock Plus settings for a long time, but I can't stand flash ads and will be removing that exception if I keep seeing them.
Also I think you might benefit more by making sure your ads qualify under AdBlock Plus' "Acceptable Ads" criteria so you can get whitelisted and have your ads be visible to all the people with the 'Allow Acceptable Ads' function enabled (which is the default).
Please consider it.
Unfortunately, with Google AdSense you can set it for text or text+images. And they consider Flash to be "images". There are no additional settings and no way around it. Switching it to text+images and adding a skyscraper ad has more than doubled our ad revenue in the 2 days I've been testing. We desperately need that revenue. I have exhausted the personal funds I can use to keep this site afloat. I can no longer pay to operate this site at a loss.
I set it up so the skyscraper is at the bottom of the left column on purpose and set the top ad to continue to be text only (meaning lower levels) so it will be less distracting. Most of the skyscraper will be below the fold by default and won't interfere with reading the title of a page or an app's main description, etc in the app directory. I'm also continuing to monitor it and block fake download buttons and tweak the included categories so we won't see potentially objectionable images. Unfortunately, as AdSense ads are self-serve, there will be times when things we don't like pop up.
I really appreciate that you took the time to whitelist us. If you'd like to be able to see the text ads to support us now and then, you can also add something like FlashBlock to turn all Flash objects into click to play. This has the added benefit of blocking cross-browser flash bugs. And you can whitelist specific sites (game, video) where you want Flash to load by default. I use it and it's quite handy.
I'm going to explore whether there is a way to replace a specific Drupal block for logged in users so folks like you can optionally select to see a text-based ad in place of the flash ad as well.
UPDATE: While we're experimenting here, logged in users can select to hide the Skyscraper ad from their My Account page. Click edit and uncheck Skyscraper Ad near the bottom. Note that this setting will not remain in its current form and may not propagate automatically to its final form.
I'm also working on a PortableApps.com Gold or similar level of monthly support that will allow users to hide the ad blocks entirely as well as get downloads in the platform from a faster mirror network. But that is not yet ready for release and I need a way to keep things working until then.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John,
I came across a "fake download" button. The img html for that particular ad is as follows. hopefully this helps.
You need to hover over the ad and determine the actual end URL that gets linked to.
Unfortunately, AdSense is more and more of a cesspool of malware, spyware and adware as of late. I'm exploring alternative ad networks.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
And I thought I was being helpful inspecting the element. If I see it again, I'll let you know.
[EDIT] Here's one: flvrunner.com [modded by JTH]
If you paste it into a text editor like Notepad++, you'll see a real URL about part way in. That one was for flvrunner.com, which I'm adding to the block list.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Ah, OK. That makes it easier.