There have been whole AdSense accounts bringing in $5000 per month banned for life from Google because of fraudulent clicks. If Google catches you clicking on your own AdSense ads, they can shut you down.

You won`t get canned just for a single click, but if you`re like me and tweak your site a lot it`s only a matter of time before you click on one of those things by accident.

The way I keep this from happening is I temporarily block the domain name Google`s ads are served from. Once I`m finished editing my site I go back under the hood and turn it back on.

Getting this setup will take you less than a minute.

First, find your HOSTS file.

Open Notepad. Go to File, and Choose Open.

If you have Windows 95, 98, or ME browse to the folder `C:windows`

If you have Windows XP Home browse to the folder `C:windowssystem32driversetc`

If you have anything else (Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000, NT, 2003, etc.) browse to the folder: `C:winntsystem32driversetc`

Once you`re there, open the file called `hosts`. If you don`t see anything listed just type the word hosts and the file should open up. Just the word `hosts`, no extension or anything after that. It`s probably blank but it might not be.

Add this line:

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

And save. You`re done.

Now go back to a site that you know has some Google Ads. There should be an empty space where the ads appeared.

Want to turn it off? Don`t just delete it, put a `#` sign in front of that line, like this:

# 127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

What`s that do? It basically says `ignore this line.` I like to leave it like that so when I want to hide Google Ads again, all I have to do is remove the `#` sign and save – then put the `#` back in when I`m ready to go back to normal.