Norton Blocking Affiliate Links + AdSense Revenue - IMPORTANT!

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

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Norton Internet Security and Firewall are blocking most affiliate links & banners and even AdWords and Adsense ads. It also blocks most ad servers. It may even be blocking your own site logo if it is a certain image size.

FYI - When I say "blocked" I mean erased, wiped out and invisible. It leaves a blank white spot where the banner or text link should have been, making it look like your site is messed up or you are missing information. It totally strips out your osurce code too. With AdWords and Adsense ads the body copy is visible but the link is missing so you cannot click.

I have been researching this issue for awhile now, and have posted a warning here before, but just finally downloaded the software to start testing. I'm APPALLED and ENRAGED at how this software DEFACES websites and can effect webmaster/affiliate revenue!

THE DEFAULT IS SET TO BLOCK ADS, so for non savvy users that don't realize how much Norton blocks, they will just think your site is poorly designed or info is missing when the see all the white spaces. Norton is being shipped with many new computers so I think this problem will grow.

Please download the FREE trial of Norton Internet Security (which includes the Firewall software too.) Check your site!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words I have built a page full of examples to display the problem and spread the word. Thought I would share so you can the damage it does.

There are also links to a forum were people are testing and trying to come up with workarounds. We have some possible solutions.

http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.co...s-revenue.html

If you are an affiliate that sells Norton, please stop promoting it. If any of your links are blocked let your merchants and advertisers know about this problem.

[tomj]

yep, i bought a new HP from pcworld a few months back and norton came as default. noticed that it automatically blocked ads.

real fecker, it wipes out all my TD CJ AW & OMG ads.

luckily it still shows my espotts results.

i think a lot of people wise up tho and customise it to only disable pop ups as it does mash up the websites you look at.

[pistol101]

I'm not having any problems with Norton, everything tracks correctly with me and i've never touched any of the settings.

[tshirtsuntan]

the best way to customise your affiliate sites to get your links seen by others using norton firewall is by making use of forwarding pages.

Its the only way around it for CJ links.

any link like that is a cj link like http://www.qksrv.net/xy123123

is filtered out when users have norton firewall installed. Its a default setting.

It also makes google adwords appear funny and unclickable.

Use of url forwarding is the only way around the CJ links becoming invisible to those using norton firewall.

{edit} BTW the links actually are invisible, you cant see the text hyperlink or image link if you have norton firewall installed.

I found this out a while back as I have two computers in my house on a shared internet connection. One has norton the other doesn't and I use both to check my sites to check for compatibility probs and I discovered on the comp without norton i could see links on the other it was just blank space.

You couldn;t even see the link in the html using view source command!{/edit}

[Aquanuke]

How can that work if you click on the link it will still resolve to a blocked domain/ip

[scifind]

What do the networks think of this?

They would be the ones with the clout but even combined not big enough to tackle Symantec!

What can we do?

Just use forwarding URLS and cached banners?

[Mogga]

Does google mind their ads being blocked?

[getvisible]

just sent em (adsense) a mail:

Hi

I'm reading reports that the new Norton suite of PC protection tools from Symantec is not only blocking affiliate banners etc but also Adsense!

There's a screen grab of what it does to Adsense on http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.co...s-revenue.html

Is there anything you can do to stop them making blocking Adsense as a default on new instalations of Norton and is there anything we should be doing?

Kind regards,

Lee

[Marc Gear]

Yet another reason not to use/recommend Norton...

[FleaPit]

Next thing you know they'll be teaming up with the networks like 180solutions and swapping our id's for there own!!!

[MarkyB]

Originally posted by getvisible
just sent em (adsense) a mail:
Hi

I'm reading reports that the new Norton suite of PC protection tools from Symantec is not only blocking affiliate banners etc but also Adsense!

Will be interested to see what the reply is to that getvisable.....

Cheers,
Mark.

[Malcolm Cowley]

Got someone looking at this for us now - it looks very serious and we will not be taking it lying down - will also be interested to see googles reply - Adsense for me has been dropping income like a stone the last few days ( personally ) and I looked today and its only counted 60 or so impressions lol so something is not right there.

We have a few tricks up our sleave for the norton thing if it is affecting us as badly as it seems to be effecting other networks so dont head for the window just yet :-)

Sure it will be a hot topic tomorrow so will try and have some good news for when I come down to the GTG.

[angelabx]

Nasty! Norton could destroy the internet as we know it!

No ads => No revenue => No sites!

All we'd be left with is pure retailers - no portals or information/enthusiast sites.

Do they really think these things through properly?

I suspect that we could see them serving their own ads soon! Perhaps GAIN has got to them!

[mediswab]

Originally posted by angelabx


No ads => No revenue => No sites!

All we'd be left with is pure retailers - no portals or information/enthusiast sites.

not everyone who makes websites is doing it for the money

i would like to see less money orientated websites, get sick of portals and comparison sites in search engines

[ianm]

Originally posted by mediswab
not everyone who makes websites is doing it for the money

i would like to see less money orientated websites, get sick of portals and comparison sites in search engines

No but they need some form of advertising to make money for hosting costs (even if they aren't interested in making money).

Without online retail, the net would not have grown as large as it has - it would be limited to academic and government sites and perhaps the odd corporate using it for brand awareness.

And it you're not in it for the money what are you doing here?