Can You Run A Contest or Is It Against Adsense Policy

[Peachesbackwards]

I actually have several questions and would appreciate anyones answers:

1. Can one run a trivia contest on my blog which would cost nothing & I'd give a free prize or does adsense consider that a violation?

2. If I say as a tie breaker, one has to guess the winner of the Super Bowl and how many points will be scored, is that OK with adsense or do they consider it gambling?

3. Let's say my contest involves a theme like Beatles trivia. Do I need the Beatles permission to have a Beatles trivia contest (obviously they wouldn't give me the time of day) or is this the type of thing I don't need permission for even though one would need knowledge of the Beatles to win the contest?

Thanks for your input

[Bloggeries]

I don't see why it would be a problem. You should contact adsense to make sure if you perceive a problem.

Re Beatles - No clue.

[Peachesbackwards]

Contacting Adsense for an answer is like Screwing for Chastity!

[aniroy1986]

i hav seen blogs with contests using adsense.
but surefire way to know...as admin says

[effektz]

I dont see this being a problem. I've seen many bloggers who use AdSense run contests on their blogs. Google is more concerned with contextual competitors.

[Educator]

I ran a 3 week contest for Home Depot gift cards in Nov / Dec and there was no conflict with Adsense. I never heard anything from them. I don't see why there would be a conflict, myself.

In fact, it saw an increase in visitors to my site.......minimal increase in ad clicks as many contestants are hit-and-run type.

Dan

[peteranswers]

The only thing Google would care about is if you made the contest dependent on clicking ads or something. As long as you don't do that you will be fine.

[Krueger]

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's what Peteranswers said as long as your competition isn't for clicks or anything like that you should be fine, I have seen alot of youtube videos giving away itunes cards and gift cards for doing things like leaving comments for the video so if that is legit then one would hope a simple contest like yours would be fine. Not sure about the whole super bowl idea though.

[bobbytoat]

I agree, contests would usually not violate Google Adsense policy. However, if they find you guilty, it will most probably be for the sins of asking contestants to link to you in order to be rewarded with certain amount of entries, thus making it possible for them to penalise your site PR and/or SERP.