1. Signing to AdSense without fully understanding Google AdSense's Terms Of Services agreement

Unlike many other agreements you sign while browsing the Internet, you simply have no other option but to read and understand AdSense's Terms of Service or risk receiving a ban. As it usually happens after a few months, you risk losing hundreds of hours of your work (as well as thousands of dollars paid for promotion and SEO) simply because you haven't read the agreement carefully enough.

Why is that? The common myth is that every webpage can display AdSense ads. That's not true. First, there are several categories of websites that Google forbids to take part in the AdSense program. Some of the categories are obvious - racist websites, those promoting illicit drugs or pirate software - but some are not. For example those advertising beer or hard alcohol-based products are also prohibited, so forget about opening an AdSense site about Russian vodka.

Another thing is that the AdSense's Terms of Service describes several specific activities you must not perform on your website if you are to avoid banning. Among others they include such things as excessive use of keywords, lack or minimal content on your site or adding misleading labels of Google ads. For example Google may ban you even for using "Click the ads" phrase!

The bottom line: Without learning what is and what isn't a viable AdSense website, you can't really start your business. Terms of Service agreement sets strict boundaries you have to keep yourself within in order to do business with Google. If you have any doubts about the rules, contact Google and ask them what they think about your problems. You keep to their rules AS THEY UNDERSTAND THEM or you're out of business within hours.

2. Asking your friends or relatives to click on your ads

Surprisingly there are still many people who think that they can make money on AdSense by asking their friends or relatives to click on their ads. This scheme is both ineffective and very short-sighted, but nevertheless there are people who think they can do business this way.

The problem is that no one can become a successful AdSense businessman by using this method to create the artificial clicks. First, there are practical reasons: in order to make this scheme work, you must have at least two thousand clicks a month. What is more, they must come from different computers and different people! There is no way you can do that - getting thousands of people to click on your ads in any other way than by creating a decent website and/or a SEO campaign is simply not cost-effective.

Then, as such practices are expressly forbidden by Google, asking anyone to click on your ads increases the risk of banning you from AdSense. If the system detects multiple clicks from a single source, it raises the alarm and this usually ends in banning the website in question. Even if you ask your friends are relatives to use different computers or IP numbers, it is next to impossible that everyone will remember about it all the time. And you would need A LOT of people to make it worth more than an additional dollar or two a month (see above).

In short, any using method of creating artificial clicks - ie. those made by anyone but people who visited your website and were really interested in the ads - is pointless. It won't pay off and sooner or later will bring you a ban.

3. Clicking on your own ads

Never click on your own ads. Never! This rule seems to be obvious, but surprisingly this is one of the most common mistakes done by the beginning AdSense website owners. Clicking on the ads you have on your own site is the quickest way to get irreversibly banned from AdSense - sometimes even a single click is enough to alert the system. What's worse, you will have nothing for you defense - clicking on one's own ads is expressly forbidden by the AdSense's Terms of Service.

At times, clicking on your own ads may be tempting - but this is both immoral and ineffective. In short, it is not worth your time but may get you deeeeep in trouble.