Borrowing a sentence and distorting the same partially from a US Court case against Google, if it is said that “The web is becoming increasingly ‘Googlized”, it would not be wrong. Existing in a web space without Google has virtually become unimaginable. Whether you may need getting fully indexed by Google, or monetizing your site through adsense or ranking high in Google search results or be it getting page rank for your pages; what ever be your reason, you are going to need Google. After all, it has become a sort of objective source of finding content on the internet.

Google adsense and controversies.

Rise and rise of Google is not entirely unaccompanied by corresponding increase in litigation and protests over its terms of service. Some of these terms are plainly monopolistic; but you can not wish it away in a fair marketplace.

Those, who have adsense as revenue model for sustenance of their site, would always dread of having a mail like that your account was found to be related to invalid clicks and publishers disabled for invalid clicks are not allowed further participation in the program. Those banned from adsense have a unanimous complaint that they were not served with any warning or were not given any data by Google to substantiate claims of fraudulent clicks. Google on the other hand insists on protecting integrity of its proprietary technology and refuses to divulge any details.

Actually the whole system of adsense is so made up that anyone with just a basic understanding of the internet and search engine ranking can dynamically insert a javascript provided by Google in his website and earn substantial income that is very attractive considering that it takes no much time and one can work from comfort of his home in his free time. This view further gets strengthened when one comes across many “made for adsense sites” on the net that apparently seem to be doing well.

Of course, a unanimous argument is emerging that Google should explain its actions in more transparent way as to when it blocks adsense account or removes a site from its index and what irks the people most it that they are unable to find out how they can regain the lost indexing or page rank. Limiting myself only to the issue of disabling of adsense account in this article, let me opine very clearly that it is good. Nobody has right to cheat ad publishers and it is good that Google takes it seriously.

What can lead to banning from adsense?

Google is not known to take click fraud lightly as they also are to retain the advertisers interest in their mind. But I have seen that they are open to reason. I personally know at least ten webmasters whose account has been restored. If this disabling has happened to you, first action you must take to write them a mail giving all the reasons with some evidence as server log, files etc to strengthen your claim. It is definitely difficult regaining account from Google but if you are honest, it is not impossible. I think more often is the case where the person suffering the ban was doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

Some of things, you must avoid to avoid disabling of your account is signing up under multiple names, clicking yourself or through any network on ads appearing on your publishing network, generating robotized clicks through many enticing programs available on the net, expressly encouraging a visitor to your site to click an ad, having a site that is based on adsense arbitrage. I have seen many sites that expressly state something to the effect that their services are free but to help them sustain please click the ad. To mind, it is like playing with fire and such publishers can face disqualification any time. When you are buying a domain, please satisfy yourself that it is not previously blacklisted by Google. Remember when Google bans a site, it does not deliver ads to any other url which was previously running on same adsense pub-id.

One major reason of getting banned from adsense is get rich quick. A new webmaster, in case, he does not have much content on hi site would barely get 10-30 visitor on his site, which are not sufficient to help him earn from ad clicks. What he should do at that stage is to build good content but he is soon tempted by con men on the net selling something like "Automated Adsense Software". This is biggest scam happening where many new webmasters are trapped. Most of the time such software would steal content through scraping methods and creates thousand of content pages. As such search engines are cluttered with duplicate and useless content and you are risking getting banned from Adsense as this violates the terms of adsense.

Warnings by Google

Many webmasters whose sites have been banned, grudge that they never got any warning. Remember it is up to you to take precaution at the right time and keep checking the logs. Google will not give you any warning. However on a more personal note I have seen Google give warning or sorts. I saw a site which ultimately was banned, had high value ads being offered and gradually started getting low value ads and more and more of “Public Service ads” even when similar sites were served paying ads. This may be was Google’s way to telling that something is amiss.

What to do when banned from adsense?

Google bans publishers guilty of fraudulent clicks for life and does not allow then to rejoin the program. I would also like to share from my experience that such is Google’s reputation that many advocates who claim to specialize in fighting your case against Google to regain the account also would agree to take your case if you satisfy them that you are a victim and did not do any act against the terms of service.

There is no record of Litigation with Google being fruitful on this account. Google has its proprietary technology to detect such click frauds, which Google does not disclose. This stand of Google that it is not open to disclose its proprietary technology has been upheld by various courts. If you are the one whose account has been disabled, I don’t want to appear distressing to you but from my own experience in dealing with such cases, I must say generally ‘something’ is there which leads to Google disabling the account. If you are sure you did not indulge in such acts, must look around. May be some competitor did it to hurt you.

However if the banning of adsense, happens, then what are the suggestions, remedies or alternatives? Please go on to read the article from the link given in the signatures.

About the author: R S Chawla is a CFO and webmaster of www.b2blounge.com, a free to register portal for trade and services.

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Imagine the next time you join a discussion about Adsense. When you start sharing the fascinating Adsense facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

Is everything making sense so far? If not, I'm sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.

Many web site owners are getting their Google Adsense account terminated when they have done nothing wrong to deserve the punishment. Considering the money that they are getting from Adsense, they would certainly want to get back into it.

Considering the money to be made with Adsense, it is no wonder that they would want to get back into it.

It is that same consideration why the Google Adsense click fraud is thought of and why many people are getting into it.

Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the advertiser money. It is simply the same as paying out cash for false leads. Many people website owners are aware of this fraud and are sharing the same sentiment that this is the one big problem that Adsense is facing.

How do you prevent being involved in this fraud?

Majority of web hosts are offering access logs. Once this is offered to you, it is necessary that you hand it over to Google as well. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is saying that you would want to help them in any way you can in solving the problem.

It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. If you do not have one yet, you should try and get one. There is absolutely no major factor preventing you from having one because most of this software is free.

As usual, all the information you have received should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it.

Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing.

You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through a htaccess file. This will avoid Google mistaking as clicking on your own ads and be kicked out because of it.

Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult and gambling ones. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.

Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own as, whether accidentally or intentionally. Or the times when you have done something that is against the Terms of Service that they are implementing. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.

Do not tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than help by trying it in the first place.

If ever someone you know chanced upon your Adsense, make sure they understand that they cannot click on your ads under any circumstances. It would be wise to brief them on important things about Adsense and what not to do with them.

Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser’s information, user’s session info and pattern recognition. They also have “systems” available that detects fraud. Not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds.

Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using “negative keywords” can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Adding tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.

Do not be caught in the Google click fraud. Be aware and be wary.

Don't limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Adsense. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what's important.

About the author:Sinta Makah is a Full Time Adsense Publisher and She Makes her living from Adsense. She is passionate about sharing her Adsense Knowledge. Further information may be obtained from: http://www.mydomainname101.com/adsense_technique.htm http://www.mydomainname101.com/Adsense-Click-Fraud.htm

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One of the most serious issues that online marketers face is click fraud. A recent issue of Newsweek (Oct 6, 2006) contains an article on click fraud which has cast some doubt on the many pay per click services that are offered on the Internet today.

Pay-per-click advertising allows marketers to gain website exposure by paying only when someone clicks on their ad or search result. Search engines such as Google let advertisers place bids for placement of paid links or ads. These links will then appear when certain keyword searches are done.

Click fraud is getting to be so pervasive that search engines such as Google have created teams specific to combating click fraud. Since 95 percent of Googles profits are derived from advertising it is important that they keep their customers happy, so Google offers refunds to advertisers when click fraud has been discovered.

Click fraud involving human operators can be much more difficult to detect. This type of fraud involves many people clicking on ads from different computers across the country. This does not provide any type of pattern that can be analyzed. The India Times reported that people are being hired to click paid links from home allowing them to make up to $200 a month.

What an impact click fraud could have in the future on pay for click advertising since it's estimated that up to 15% of all clicks are fake. It's also estimated that up to 500 million dollars of advertising expenses are being wasted due to the click fraud industry.

What should you look for in a "guaranteed click" service?

1. If they claim to be able to send 20,000 hits to your website, then find out where these hits are coming from.

2. Do they allow sites with pop-ups? If they do not then it may be because they are using an automated click system that does not work on sites with pop-ups.

3. Monitor your site to determine if the clicks that you paid for are coming from unique visitors and not from one machine clicking your site 20,000 times.

4. Make sure you know the conversion rate for your site. You should be making one sale per so many clicks.

5. Check the Better Business Bureau for complaints. You can also Google the company you are thinking of buying your clicks from and search for any online complaints.

6. If you think you are being cheated then contact the company and request a refund. If you do not get it, then file a complaint with the BBB or threaten to.

There are three methods of click fraud.

1. The most common method is the use of online software that is programmed to click on links that are found on websites or that may be listed in search engine results.

2. Another method that is becoming more common is to employ low cost workers from third world countries to click on test links and classified ads.

3. One source of fraud can be much closer to home. This happens when company employees click on their rivals ads to deplete they’re marketing budgets and skew their search results. Eventually, such bogus clicks can add up and dry up a competitors budget.

Paying for traffic to your website may seem like a good idea when you are not experiencing much success, but this is when most people become vulnerable to click fraud. You may want to consider these four tips before handing over your credit card.

1. Make sure you take plenty of time to consider and research the credibility of any offers. Sleep on it.

2. Developing traffic to your website takes time and persistence. Traffic can be found in many different ways, and for free or low cost. Quick fixes do not usually work.

3. Get recommendations from reliable sources on what methods work and what does not. Visit marketing forums.

4. Keep in mind that when you come across a sales page for paid for clicks that they are designed to sell you, whether their service really works or not.

Everyone wants to get more traffic to their website whether it is to increase sales, memberships, or subscriptions. Just remember not to be in a hurry to spend your money, and just be a lot more careful.

About the author: Joe Rispoli,Through years of research Joe Rispoli has put together the most relevant of free advertising resources to get you started on the right path to accomplishing your online marketing goals. Before wasting your money on guaranteed click services visit his site, UcanTo.com for online marketing information such as safelists, free classified advertising, traffic exchange programs, and much more

Copyright 2006 Joe Rispoli

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Very often big business houses fight about the quality of their products in advertising media. It is a sign of bitter competition and these fights are settled somehow in or out of the court. On the Internet, where detection is difficult due to it being a virtual medium, the competition takes a different pitch. Here the competition is killed by fraudulent means.

Internet has always been a thriving place for fraudsters, for instance, dubious websites pretending to be the legal websites of other businesses or organizations, extracting personal details like credit card data of online users only to siphon off money from their accounts. The reason for such proliferation of fraudsters is the masked protection offered by the medium itself.

In PPC advertising, frauds happen in the form of unknown individuals or groups clicking the advertisement with no intention of buying the services, only to deplete the account of the advertiser. The malicious intention is to kill the competition by depleting the advertisement budget, thereby making the businesses removed from the advertising space. It is estimated that 20% of all clicks are fraudulent.

Just who is involved in these frauds? Sometimes it could be some strange individual clicking at an advertisement for unknown reasons. The reasons could be behavioral anomalies, just like addictive shoplifting, a complete dissatisfaction of the products leading to take such action, etc. The above case would be rare and the effect minimal. The effect would be disastrous when it is organized.

A big business with a huge advertisement budget may organize this crime by hiring people (IndiaTimes, a daily in India, reported about this in an article) or with the help of software, just to click at the advertisements of the competitor in order to remove it from the host site. It could also be the service provider who is doing the same to generate revenues. In any case, the victim is severely drained of the resources without the energy or a way to fight back.

What are the mitigation strategies? The host sites provide unique IP tracking software that would detect multiple clicks from the same IP and therefore not deduct money from the account. At the individual or business level, it is advised to track the budget and if the account is depleted suddenly by a huge amount without any sales being realized, to take up the matter with the host, to get a refund, and to keep mining the log files of the server for the purpose of identifying multiple clicks. When it is not possible for businesses to do it by themselves, specialized services are available who keep track of clicks, report to the websites and get refunds. Software is available that sends a warning message to the IP address from whence the fraudster is working.

About the author: Marcus Peterson PPC Advertising provides detailed information about PPC advertising, optimized PPC advertising and more. PPC Advertising is affiliated with Cheap Internet Web Hosting.

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If you have multiple sites or multiple directories in your site for different subjects and you have placed Adsense codes in your site, I am sure you would like to know: (a) from which site or directory you are earning the most / least, (b) which Adsense ads are being clicked and (c) from which page?

CREATE CHANNELS FOR EACH SITE

To get separate stats for each site / section / directory / page with Adsense, you need to create channels for each one. Create a channel with a relevant name and generate a code for that channel. Paste that particular Adsense code to the concerned pages / sites.

GET CHANNEL STATS IN REAL TIME

Google now provides Channel Data in real time. Earlier, it used to provide data for '2 days before'. Follow the procedure mentioned below :

1. From 'Date Range' drop down menu, select 'today'.

2. Check the radio button : Group data by 'Channel'.

3. On the right hand panel, check the radio button 'Channel data'.

4. Click on 'Select ALL' at the bottom of channel list.

5. Click on 'Display Report'.

Now you get the seggregated report for clicks generated for each channel.

WHICH ADS ARE BEING CLICKED AND FROM WHICH PAGE?

It is very important to know that which pages / sites are generating good Adsense revenue and which are not. We can work upon those poorly performing pages. If we can get to know about which ads are being clicked, that would make us feel more informed for many obvious reasons.

Currently Google does not provide this data. But you can still get it from a very nice and detailed free web stat service, Add Free Stats.

Add Free Stats provides a very detailed web stats which satisfies most webmasters. You may open a free account at : http://www5.addfreestats.com, get the code and paste it at the bottom of each of your pages.

Make sure that in 'Your Account' section you mark 'Yes' for 'Exit link tracking'.

Now check your stats at Add Free Stats, and you will find a "A" icon beside the visitors' ip. That means that visitor has clicked on an Adsense code. Place your mouse over the icon, and you can see which ad has been clicked.

You can also generate a separate report of pages that have generated Adsense click. Select 'Exit Links/Adsense' from the drop down menu marked as 'Pages'. Here you get a folder icon named Adsense, the number of Adsense clicks etc. Click on the Adsense folder icon and you get the number of Adsense clicks on each page and which ads are clicked on that page. Click on the 'hour glass' icon and you get the CTR, PV too for each page.

I am no way connected to Add Free Stats. I am just a happy user. Any webmaster working seriously towards Adsense earning, must have this tool.

About the Author: Subhendu Sen is the owner and webmaster of A Low-Cost Web Host : http://www.IndHosts.Net/hosting.html and is in the business of web hosting since 1998. He also owns other sites of interest : http://www.TheWebContent.com — An Article Directory and http://www.PopAccount.com — A Free Email Address Directory

• 3 comments »

Click fraud is one of the biggest issues in the pay per click industry right now. It's easy to understand why, too – click fraud costs advertisers money, but gives no return. It cuts deep into profit margins, and in some cases, may be the difference between making money and losing money.

Click fraud is, at its simplest, clicks on ads that are not generated by a real person interested in making a purchase. Click fraud can come from many different sources:

Click bots, which are robots designed to click on ads, are one source. Click bots are often run by an affiliate of the PPC search engine.

Competitors may click on your ads to try to drive your cost up.

Click schemes are programs people join to click on ads for each other. Usually these people are affiliates of the PPC search engines.

Combating click fraud can be tough. One of the easiest ways to combat click fraud is to not advertise on search engines who deliver lower quality traffic. This factor is easily determined with conversion rates. If one search engine's traffic converts at 2 percent, and traffic from the second search engine converts at 1 percent, you know the traffic from the second search engine is half the quality. Click fraud is likely one of the factors involved.

In addition to such basic tracking mechanisms, you can use more advanced tracking mechanisms to try to catch click fraud. For example, you could use a script that you would gather data on visitors from PPC search engines (data might include IP address, number of times they clicked on the ad, and time they spent on the site) and use that data to pick out suspicious visitors. You can then submit the data to the search engine and request a refund on the traffic.

Click fraud is probably the biggest problem in the PPC industry, and you can work to save yourself some money by combating click fraud.

About the author: Gabriel J. Adams,Bespoke click fraud detection and protection software from Evolution Internet Ltd.

• 2 comments »

You've heard the stories. Click fraud has run rampant on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This is evidenced by the numerous law suits that have been filed. One of the most notable cases occurred this year when Google settled their own click fraud case to the tune of 90 million dollars. In fact, Google and Yahoo have each settled a class action lawsuit filed by marketers. Click Fraud - What It Is So, what is click fraud and how does it occur? Wikipedia provides us with a definition: "Click fraud occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating an improper charge per click. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud whether they like it or not." However, I would like to simplify this definition. Click fraud is a crime, plain and simple. Cybercrime, however, is hard to track. Law enforcement has only just recently started focusing on the threat of click fraud. Click fraud is now being targeted by some of the industry's biggest names. This movement has both the American court and government system involved. Business Week recently announced that major brands including Expedia.com and mortgage broker LendingTree.com planned to go public with their disputes over click fraud in late September. Who can blame them? When it's your money that's going out the door, you need to be asking questions. Unfortunately, Google and Yahoo haven't come up with many answers. They have certainly paid lip service, indicating that they have systems in place to deter it, but the click fraud numbers continue to rise. The Threat to a Popular Advertising Model The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that 20 to 35 percent of ad clicks are fraudulent. The multi-billion dollar search industry is under attack and the problem is not going away anytime soon. Advertisers are being cheated and the search engines appear to be sitting on the sidelines, leaving much of the responsibility for detecting click fraud with advertisers, the majority of whom lack the tools and knowledge to detect it. The high level of click fraud has undermined advertisers' confidence and some have even pulled their entire ad campaigns. For small to medium-sized businesses click fraud effectively erodes ROI, impacting the bottom line and future marketing initiatives. Click fraud is also the single biggest threat to companies like Google and Yahoo, whose digital empires are largely dependent on their advertising revenues. Google's $6 billion-a-year advertising business is especially at risk. Despite the threat, or maybe because of it, Google is saying little about click fraud and the pay-per-click concept as a whole. While Google maintains its silence, many advertisers and savvy online entrepreneurs wonder where pay-per-click is headed. Click fraud threatens to destroy the very business that Google thrives on. In fact, click fraud losses have surpassed the total loss attributed to credit card fraud in the U.S. Do the current click fraud problems have the power to slow the growth of pay-per-click search advertising or even bring it to a screeching halt? Well, that's hard to say, but the industry as a whole is certainly being crippled by this problem. Pay-per-click may not be the future. Many advertisers are now starting to look at advertising options that offer an uncorrupted alternative. Flat-fee advertising, pay-per-percentage, and pay-per-action are all possibilities, but there is one alternative in particular that deserves attention. This search engine advertising model was first put forward by ExactSeek.com and then promoted through the ISEDN (Independent Search Engine & Directory Network) which ExactSeek founded in June, 2005. The model promulgated by ExactSeek and the ISEDN does not eliminate click fraud but does eliminate the cost associated with it. How the ISEDN Model Works The ISEDN charges a flat fee for advertising, making click fraud a pointless endeavor for scam artists, "paid to read" rings and cutthroat competitors. Your competition could click on your ISEDN listings all day long and it wouldn't cost you a single penny more than what you originally paid. $3-$4 provides you with an entire month's worth of advertising across a network of 235+ search engines and web directories. If you choose to buy in volume, you can even expect some significant discounts. Let's face it, pay-per-click advertising is expensive. There are a number of companies who spend $5,000 to $10,000 per month on paid search marketing. Competition is fierce with many keywords costing $5 per click or more. The problem is then compounded when you consider that 20 to 35 percent of those advertising dollars are wasted on fraudulent clicks. Just imagine. If you are paying $1,000 dollars per month to advertise on Google, $200 - $350 of those dollars are wasted on click fraud. If you want to lower your click fraud costs, you need to buy click fraud monitoring software, which is quite pricey. Unfortunately, few click fraud monitoring companies target small to medium sized businesses. The ISEDN offers an affordable alternative that charges a one-time, flat fee. The initial cost is the only cost. Within this unique advertising model, the sale of any keyword or phrase is limited to 30 advertisers. Regardless of whether a keyword term is sold 5 or 30 times, ads rotate within the SERPs and throughout the ISEDN. The rotation ensures that every ad appears in the top 10 search results. In the worst case scenario, a listing would appear on the first page of results approximately once out of every 3 searches. Of course, you can't expect the same exposure provided by Google or Overture. Google alone receives millions of searches per day. However, if you are looking for a consistent return on your investment without wasting a penny on click fraud, then the ISEDN provides an affordable and lucrative solution. Not to mention, the ISEDN is growing every day. An average of 3- 5 search engines are added every week. As the network continues to grow, your ad automatically receives more exposure. This program gives advertisers the benefit of advertising with smaller search engines on a massive scale without the fear of click fraud and without the hassle of managing multiple advertising accounts. For more information on the ISEDN, visit Exactseek.com or ISEDN.org Summing It Up The rules in search engine advertising are shifting and the winners are adapting. As for Google, Yahoo, and MSN, you can definitely expect to see some changes being made with their paid search programs in the near future. Cybercrime is still a crime and law enforcers are finally starting to take these problems seriously. The pay-per-click model is inherently flawed and must be altered to survive. Google and the other major search engines know that their business will be crippled if they do not adapt. The challenge for them is how to adapt and still maintain those multi-billion dollar bottom lines. Fortunately, there are individuals, groups, companies and organizations more interested in finding and providing solutions to the problem of click fraud than in propping up a flawed concept. Those leading the fight against click-fraud, like the ISEDN, may never see 10 figure bottom lines like Yahoo or Google, but the revenue they do make won't be based on fraudulent clicks and at your expense. About the author:Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog. Kim’s email is: kim @ seo-news.com

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Bill was getting frustrated and desperate. He'd being trying to promote his website for months with little or no success. Adwords didn't seem to be working. He'd devised the most fiendish ads he could think of and set them up on Google only to find that nobody clicked on them. He had written several articles and, using an automatic article submitter, had placed them on hundreds of Article Barns across the web. There had been an increase in his Alexa Ratings, but that was it. Maybe there was a slight flurry of hits when he first placed the article, then nothing. He'd set up a blog, made a press release announcement, and done everything except don a Shaman costume and dance around his computer. He'd purchased ebooks on increasing his traffíc, and tried every idea he ran across. His budget was beginning to show the effects, and he had the chilling realization that if he didn't come across something that worked, he was simply going to run out of monëy and go bankrupt. In other words, he was about to become one of the 90 per cent of the Info Marketers on the web who fail. That was when he ran across a site that guaranteed traffíc. Little did Bill know he was about to become a victim of clíck fraud. Clíck Fraud and Big Business Clíck fraud has been discussed in a recent issue of Newsweek (Oct 6, 2006) as one of the most serious issues that faces online advertising. It has cast doubt on at least some of the efficacy of services such as Google Adwords to bring actual paying customers to a business website. It began with the monitoring of clicks that appeared to be coming from outlying countries such as Botswana and Syria, and grew into the discovery of a scourge that threatens to undo the very concept of paying for clicks as a way of obtaining legitimate customers. Whole cultures were discovered that sustained themselves by clicking on ads - "paid to read" rings consisting of hundreds of thousands of people who do nothing but clíck on sites. Newsweek reports that Yahoo and Google claim they "filter out" clicks of dubious origin, but the credibility of pay for clíck advertising is beginning to be undermined. It's estimated that 10% to 15% of all clicks are fake. 300 to 500 million dollars of advertising revenue are being funneled into the clíck fraud industry. The "visitors" COME FLOWING in Bill was seriously considering paying for "guaranteed targeted visitors". For as little as $100 he could get this kind of traffíc directed to his site, and after months of frustration in building his customer base he pulled out his credít card. And the clicks began. They started slowly and then gradually mounted. By the time they reached a thousand, Bill knew there was something wrong. He was getting a lot of clicks, all right, but he was getting no sales. Bill knew from his experiments with Adwords that his site had a 1% "conversion rate". That is, for every 100 clicks he sold one ebook. If he were truly getting paying customers he should be selling books, and he wasn't. What to LOOK FOR in a "guaranteed clíck" service So the question is, are all "guaranteed clíck" services fraudulent? If you're down to the point of paying for a service that will send you customers, you should take a hard look at a few things: 1. How do they get their customers? They should have some reasonable explanation for how they entice 10,000 or so customers to clíck on your ad. 2. Do they allow sites with pop ups? If not, why not? Could it be their automatic clíck machine doesn't work on sites that have pop-ups? 3. Do you have the software necessary to monitor your site to determine if the clicks are coming from unique visitors? If you don't, you have no way of knowing whether or not you have 10,000 unique potential customers or 1 machine clicking your site 10,000 times. 4. Do you know what the historical conversion rate of your site is? If sales aren't tracking that conversion rate, why not? 5. Are there any complaints listed with the Better Business Bureau? (Or, if you want a report for consumers by consumers, chëck the Rip Off Report). 6. Finally, if you suspect fraud or feel you have been badly treated, email the company in question and demand your monëy back. If you don't get it, post to the BBB, or better yet, the Rip Off Report. Sites like this one will put some of these guys out of business. THE MORE DESPERATE You Get... As your business progresses and you are discovering that you aren't getting the traffíc you need to truly "make a go of it", you become more likely to search out quickie solutions such as "paid for traffíc." *Thoroughly consider the credibility of claims and offers. Sleep on it before you jump in with your credít card. *Recognize that you need an overall "system" for developing site traffíc, not a "band aid" approach. Band aid approaches usually don't work. *Visit marketing forums and talk with people about what works and what doesn't. Get recommendations from reliable sources. *Remember, every recommendation on a sales page is ecstatic, and the entire page is psychologically designed to sell you a product, whether it works or not. In short, as time progresses and you aren't experiencing success, you become more vulnerable to fraud. You must take stöck of yourself and what you are willing to consider. And be a lot more careful. About The Author: John Young (c) 2006, John Young is a writer with a scientific and technical background living in Southern California with his wífe and cat "Bear". He is recommending an advertising monitoring software Adminder. Visit http://www.ebook-marketing-software.com/Adminder.html for details.For his guide through the Informational Marketing Swamp, visit the parent site Ebook-Marketing-Software.com

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With the creation of the Overture and Google Adwords systems, many webmasters believed they had finally hit the mother load. It was no longer necessary for small online businesses to invest large amounts of money into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services to gain high search rankings in the natural search results. Even webmasters committed to SEO campaigns began to realize its fleeting nature. Given frequent search engine algorithm changes, optimizing a website was no guarantee that in 6 months or less it wouldn't be back to square one and page twenty of the search results. Hiring a SEO company was no longer necessary to crack the top search engine results. A Page One placement could be purchased and often for far less than the cost of a SEO company's services. Webmasters discovered that they could get traffic to their website for as little as one cent per click. Pay-per-click, however, has evolved over the last 5 years and not to the benefit of most webmasters. Although five cents is currently the average starting bid price at most major search engines, many sought after keyword terms can cost as much as $30 - $50 per click. Given the increasingly competitive nature of PPC advertising and spiralling costs, many small- to medium- sized businesses today might be better served hiring a good SEO company to search optimize their websites. Who Is Clicking Your Pay-Per-Click Links? There are four types of people who click on pay-per-click ads. Knowing who these people are helps explain why experts keep telling us that 20% to 25% of all clicks on PPC listings are "fraudulent clicks". Personality Type #1: True-Blue Prospects These are the people for whom you have placed your pay-per-click ads. They see your advertisement; they like what they see; and they click your link to see if you can actually serve their needs. I didn't mean to cost that person money by clicking his advertisement... but I did. It was an accident. Now, the advertiser has to pay for my mistake. That bites. Personality Type #3: Jealous Competitors I would like to think that all of my, and your, competitors are fine, upstanding people. And most of them are. But, there are some who are not, and they click on pay-per-click links just to be spiteful or just to cost their business rivals a few dollars. Believe it or not, a good percentage of "fraudulent clicks" are believed to be clicks perpetrated by people against their competitors. Personality Type #4: True-Blue Fraudsters Not that long ago pay-per-click providers realized that there was tremendous opportunity in offering small website owners a method for cashing in on their limited traffic. Today, a webmaster can go to any number of pay-per-click services, add a small piece of code to a webpage and start serving paid advertising the same day. Webmasters thus become revenue share partners with the PPC provider, splitting revenues with the PPC provider for each click. Ethical webmasters, of course, put the needs of their advertisers first and focus on putting eyeballs on their website so that visitors can click on the advertising links. But, the word "ethical" doesn't exist in the vocabulary of some webmasters. These are the "true-blue fraudsters" who believe in making "revenue at any cost... no matter who might be hurt by their actions." They devise schemes to have their own ads clicked in order to drive up their revenue share. These webmasters, although a minority, are responsible for the vast majority of fraudulent clicks. And, they are the same people that should be taken out behind the barn, for a good old-fashioned flogging --- one lashing for each stolen dollar would be fine with me. The Unseen Costs Of The Pay-Per-Click Search Game If the experts are correct in estimating that 25% of all clicks are fraudulent, then you are paying out 33% more than you should have to pay to get your business. If you are converting PPCSE clicks-to-sales at a rate of $20 per transaction, then you should be aware that your actual conversion rate for non-PPCSE advertising would cost you an average of $15 per transaction. By escaping the pay-per-click search engine model, you could in effect make an additional $5 per transaction by cutting the fraud out of your marketing budget. Personally, I would rather not pay the pay-per-click mafia the $5 a transaction that they are exacting against pay-per-click advertisers. Where My Advertising Money Works Best I have always gained the best bang for my buck with pay-for-placement advertising. In a nutshell, I pay a monthly, quarterly or yearly fee to have my advertising seen on various websites. Banner advertising is always an option, but text links provide better click-through rates (CTR's). At any one time, you can find links to my websites on dozens of other websites. Here are a few examples of pay-for-placement, often referred to as "paid inclusion", advertising networks: ISEDN.org Network: The Independent Search Engine and Directory Network (powered by ExactSeek.com) is comprised of more than 200 specialty search engines, search directories and article directories. Through their system, you can buy quarterly or yearly top ten exposure for specific keyword phrases which are then shown through the ISEDN's 200 plus member websites. Their network claims to show paid inclusion ads 150 million times per month. Pricing starts at $4 per month per keyword term (word or phrase) and goes down according to the number of keyword phrases purchased. Quarterly and yearly rates for one keyword phrase are $12 and $36 respectively. BraveNet.com Home Page Featured Advertiser Listing: BraveNet is the number one provider of free web tools in the world and through their AdBrite sales page you can purchase a 30 day text advertisement at the bottom of the Bravenet home page for $1500 or a 3 month advertisement for $3500. According to the Bravenet Media Kit, their network serves 500 million page views per month. ColdFront Network: ColdFront serves the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) communities. With 150,000 unique visits and 12 million page views per month, they provide real advertising value, if your target market happens to be in this area. Paid inclusion can be purchased for $250 to $350 per month. Who Left The Barn Door Open? We put locks and deadbolts on our doors. In some localities, we put bars on our windows. We keep our valuables in safes. We keep our cars locked when we are not in them. We are a nation obsessed with protecting our valuables. And yet, when we advertise our online businesses, we seem to be willing to let PPCSE providers steal 25% of our advertising budget? It boggles the mind. Personally, I am done with PPCSE companies until they can assure me that my advertising dollars are protected from click fraud. I have always relied on my own search engine optimization skills to strengthen my natural search results. And frankly, I am pretty good at it. And, to supplement my own SEO efforts and organic search result placement sucesses, or lack thereof, paid inclusion currently offers me the best value for my money. About The Author: Bill Platt is the owner of http://thePhantomWriters.com Article Distribution Service. Through his system, you can have your Free Reprint Articles sent to thousands of publishers and webmasters looking for good quality content. If you need someone to write articles for you, Bill's writers can create interesting articles on most any topic. If you would like to talk to Bill personally about his services, you can reach him from 9:30am to 6pm CST at: (405) 780-7327.

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There are lots of different strategies that you can use to skyrocket your AdSense income. Repeatedly clicking on your ads isn't one of them. That's the sort of thing that Google take a pretty strong line on - and rightly so. It's just plain dumb and Google have a strong punishment for it: they can ban you for life.

That punishment's not unreasonable when someone's deliberately trying to con Google's advertisers. But it does leave a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to sabotage someone else's income. If you're making a lot of money using AdSense - and you've also made an enemy or two - there's nothing to stop someone coming to your site, clicking your ads a couple of dozen times and wiping out your income.

Sound scary? It should. Once you get banned, that's it. It's very difficult to persuade Google to let you back in.

That's why when it comes to protecting your AdSense income, it pays to be proactive. In my book, Google AdSense Secrets, I talk a great deal about the importance of checking your stats and tracking your results. I explain what you should be looking for when you want to increase your revenues.

But you should also be looking to making sure that no one is trying to deliberately land you in trouble. If you see in your logs that your site received a stream of clicks in a short time - and from the same IP address - don't wait for Google to get in touch. (Their letter won't be pleasant). Drop them a line right away, telling them that you've spotted some suspicious clicks on your site and ask them to investigate. You shouldn't be surprised if they write back and tell you that those clicks won't be counted towards your revenues but at least you'll still have your account and you'll still be earning.

It's pretty rare for someone to go out of their way to cause problems for AdSense users. Most of the people you meet on AdSense forums and other places online are good, decent folk who only want to help. But it is worth remembering that your site is vulnerable. Just as you install anti-virus software to protect your computer so you should take action to protect your AdSense revenue. Track your stats closely and move first if you spot something suspicious.

About the author: Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert. Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at The AdSense Code. To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com Joel invites you to download a free copy of The Internet Money Tree at http://www.internetmoneytree.net

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The recent high profile court case involving Google AdWords and alleged click fraud has filled many online marketers with suspicion. But as an advertiser using Pay-Per-Click search engines there is still plenty you can do to keep your campaigns running successfully.

No pay-per-click advertiser wants to pay for fraudulent clicks. Including me. But I know that no matter how hard the search engines try to detect it, there will always be some level of fraudulent activity, even if it is the owner of a small web site clicking on advertisements on his own site.

So what if a small percentage of clicks are invalid! At least you are still paying mainly for measurable results. Compare this to television or newspaper advertising where you pay by the second or by the inch, regardless of whether anyone sees your advertisement or takes any action after viewing it.

Once you accept that some level of click fraud is to be expected, you can get on with the task of addressing the issue wisely. So how can you be certain you're not going to lose big time and go into the red on your campaigns?

The solution to succeeding despite fraudulent click activity is to manage your advertising campaigns like any other professional in the marketing industry. Here are several aspects of your advertising campaigns you need to stay on top of.

1. Use only reputable PPC search engines.

I recommend advertising mainly with the larger, more reputable search engines such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter. These are the big three as I’m writing this, but depending upon when you are reading this, these may have changed. I have experimented with many other PPC search engines and I have been generally disappointed. Traffic quality tends to be poor and I guess there is less effort at fraud detection. If you want to experiment be sure to run small test campaigns first to check the 'integrity' of the traffic.

2. Monitor your campaigns regularly.

You should check your campaigns every day. I do. And if I am going to be away from the internet for a day or two, I ensure that my daily campaign limits are set at an acceptable risk level. If you are familiar with your usual daily statistics, you will have a greater chance of spotting any spike in activity that may be due to click fraud.

3. Know your conversion ratio.

What is your campaign's conversion ratio? You should know how many click-throughs you need to generate a sale. This might change from month to month and drastic swings may be an indication of click fraud.

4. Calculate your conversion cost.

Multiply your average cost per click by the number of clicks required for a conversion. This calculates your conversion cost.

5. Ensure conversion cost is less than revenue.

Ensure your conversion cost remains less than the revenue you make per conversion. And don't forget to allow for the percentage of orders that cancel.

6. Make changes when necessary.

When a campaign is no longer bringing in a decent profit over and above the costs, make changes. You might reduce your click fees, or change the wording of your advertisement to focus more closely on serious purchasers.

This is not rocket science. It's just good business sense. I hate click fraud and I’ll applaud every time steps are taken to reduce it. But I also know there will always be some level of click fraud. And whether it is 2% or 20% what I am really concerned about is whether I can continue to run my campaigns profitably.

If you stay on top of the vital statistics I mention above, you will be able to win despite click fraud and stay well ahead of the game.

About the Author: Scott Adams is an internet entrepreneur, and earns a small fortune marketing affiliate programs on pay-per-click search engines. He has written a book, Affiliate Adventure, which explains how anyone can launch an affiliate advertising business. It’s available now at http://www.AffiliateAdventure.com

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In PPC advertising industry click fraud is defined as clicks generated by

Competitors of advertisers: These parties may wish to harm a competitor who advertises in the same market by clicking on their ads. The perpetrators don't profit directly, but force advertiser to pay for irrelevant clicks thus weakening or eliminating a source of competition.

Competitors of publishers: These persons may wish to frame a publisher. It is made to look like the publisher is clicking on its own ads. The advertising network may then terminate the relationship. Many publishers rely exclusively on revenue from advertising and can be put out of business by such an attack.

Other malicious intent: As with vandalism, there's an array of motives for wishing to cause harm to either an advertiser or a publisher, even by people who have nothing to gain financially. Motives include political and personal vendettas. These cases are often the hardest to deal with, since it is hard to track down the culprit, and if found, there is little legal action that can be taken against them.

Unwanted "friends" of the publisher: Sometimes upon learning a publisher profits from ads being clicked, a supporter of the publisher (like a fan, family member, or personal friend), will click on the ads to "help". However, this can backfire when the publisher (not the "friend") is accused of click fraud.

Clicks generated by publisher:Some publishers tries to generate clicks manually or with the help of computer programs to drive up their revenue.

Following tips will help you protect your Adsense account from click fraud if u don't fall in the last category listed above.

1.Regular monitoring of traffic log and your adsense reports:

Monitor your adsense reports and your traffic logs regularly(atleast once a day).If you do this regularly you will become familiar with your site's performance and you will be able to easily identify something strange and suspicious very easily.If you notice something strange in your reports or traffic logs you will have to report it to adsense support as soon as possible.You may include all the details yo have from your reports or your traffic analysis tool.Suspicious activities can be something like a conciderably high click throgh than you normally gets,conciderably high increase in page impressions recieved,A large number of clicks from a same IP etc.By sending an email with all the details you found you can notify google about suspected invalid activity.In order to be able to be monitor your sites performance and the behaviour of the vistors u will have to encorporate some kind of traffic analysis tools to your site.Google analytics,Stat Counter etc are well known examples used by a large number of webmasters.

If you wish to track the clicks on the ads on your website you may wish to use Ad Logger .You may also check this which uses google analytics to track adsense clicks.You may also concider doing a search on "webmaster resources" and "site traffic analysis".

2.Be polite in forums:

This tips is only important for those who are promoting their websites through their signatures in different forums.If you act rude in the forums it is never going to help you,but it can sometimes put you in trouble.Think about this case,You behaved in a rude way to some other member in the forum and you have a link to your site on your signature and the angry member decides to click on your ads regularly and deliberately.This can send the wrong message to google and sometimes they may think thats it you who is doing the clicks or you have appointed someone to click your ads regulary and they might decide to ban you.so i'd advice you to be polite and helping in all the forums in which you are participating.If you can't help,atleast don't blame or make fun of anyone.You may read this for more tips on promoting your website using forums.

3.Don't discuss your source of income(adsense)with family,friends etc:

Don't tell your friends and family anything about how you are making money online or how your website is making money for you.Even if u decides to tell them make sure to tell them why they can't click on your ads.You will have to convince them that they clicking on your ads won't be a help for you and it will be a harm.The problem with discussing this with your friends and family is that sometimes they will start clicking on your ads thinking that the are helping you earn some bucks.But you know that it can get you banned.

4.Stay away from illegal methods of traffic generation:

Invalid clicks or click fraud includes clicks from traffic generated using methods like Traffic exhange,PTC advertising,Auto surf etc.Thes type of traffic are blacklisted by adsese TOS.So you must stay away from traffic generated by illegal methods.The above mentioned are just examples and the list is not limited to them.

Accidental Clicks:

Couple of weeks ago i wrote to adsense support about the impressions generated by me while updating my site.The reply i got from them said that a publisher is allowed to view his sites as much as they want provided that he\she is not clicking any of the ads that appear on his\her site,he\she is not refreshing the pages too often.So that clears things up.

What if you clicked on your ad accidentally? The answer is,You will have to write adsense support about this as early as you can.If you are interested in viewing and checking the ads on your site without creating illegal clicks you may use Adsense preview tool.AdSense preview tool is an addition to the right-click menu for Windows Internet Explorer 6.x, allowing you to preview the ads that may show on any web page.If you want to avoid complication of accidentally clicking on your ads you may disable ads for your computer.

Don't sit back and relax while your website is earning you money using adsense.You will have to work hard to protect that Source of income from threats like clickfraud.

About the author:Sushith Mundayadan

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Click fraud is a multi-faceted problem, it costs ALL advertisers, it costs Google, and ultimately, it costs legitimate publishers in lost ad revenues. Anyone who has worked in law enforcement and loss prevention in the brick and mortar world can tell you that community involvement in policing efforts is one of the single most effective crime deterrents in existence. As a community of concerned web publishers and advertisers, we can take our cue from the most effective crime prevention tactics of the brick and mortar world. Take a look at how many cities have cleaned up their streets to see how those efforts can translate to the online world and PPC advertising.

Step I: Hold Open Community Forums

The first step in any community policing effort is open communication between law enforcement and the community. Bringing everyone together allows them to share and define common goals, and create strategies to meet them. An open forum for advertisers, publishers and providers will create a sense of community and foster disclosure of methods, metrics and tactics. By opening the discussion to input from all concerned, the community can air concerns and share solutions.

Open discussion also fosters another type of interaction that has been proven to increase effective community policing: brainstorming. When you bring together many minds, solutions emerge that no one person working alone would have imagined. Those solutions include innovations based on existing strategies. This is the basis of open source software communities, and it should be the basis of creating software aimed at detecting, preventing and eliminating the sources of click fraud.

Step II: Increase Police Presence

In the ‘real world’, police departments increase police presence in a community by deploying more officers to neighborhoods in trouble, establishing community work stations and developing relationships within the community. In the Internet world, community policing has to take on a different face. There are no streets, no neighborhoods or beats to patrol. Instead, each shopkeeper is responsible for protecting his own property. And there’s the rub: the protection is only as good as the sum of the owner’s knowledge and economics.

A community solution to click fraud includes free, openly available and scalable click fraud detection software that is easily extendable. By maintaining open discussions in the community via a forum, developers can create add-ons to the existing software and make them freely available to increase the capacity of the entire community to protect itself.

Step III: Educate the Community and Notify the Wrongdoers.

Believe it or not, one of the more effective tactics of real world crime prevention is openly advertising the presence of community watchdogs. Community policing efforts that make a lot of noise are an effective deterrent to real world crime.

A community forum for click fraud prevention serves as a central distribution point for data about click fraud, its extent and the newest methods being used to defraud and to combat fraud. One of the more obvious examples of how this type of community works is in the realm of virus protection, where a number of high profile communities track the progress of new viral infections and collaborate on methods of removing them from infected computers.

Back in 1999, a new virus hit the internet that frustrated users whose efforts were thwarted as the software reinstalled itself time and again. The first mention of the virus hit the tech community boards at 5 AM EST. By 7 AM, two hours later, there were dozens of users around the world working on the solution – nearly three hours before the major commercial virus protection companies had even posted an alert. By 8:30 AM, the open community forum had isolated the solution in bits and pieces, and working from each other’s successes, had posted an effective solution to remove the virus from infected computers.

Imagine that kind of power and backing to identify, isolate and combat new methods and perpetrators of click fraud.

Step IV: Leverage the Power of Numbers to Bring About Change

There’s strength in numbers and networking. At the moment, the PPC engines rely on pre-click filtering to weed out fraudulent clicks before payment is issued for them. They respond to requests for refunds if the advertiser can prove their claim of fraudulent clicks. By leveraging the power of community, advertisers and publishers can:

- Share strategies for tracking click fraud down that goes beyond pre-click analysis.

- Support each other’s efforts when seeking refunds by sharing data to help establish a trend/pattern and make proof easier to display

- Demand more transparency and accountability from the search engines and PPC providers. This will in turn allow advertisers AND publishers to monitor their own sites more efficiently as well as report back to the PPC engines on the effectiveness of the filtering efforts.

By sharing information and support, we can make a difference and put a major dent in the losses due to click fraud. Click Sentinel is designed to capitalize on the strength of community. The Click Sentinel community is more than software – it’s a blueprint and infrastructure that is designed to foster, support and extend community and hit click fraud where it can’t fight back.

About the Author: Jay Stockwell has been fighting click fraud since 1999. In 2004 he developed the first version of Click Sentinel which was released 6 months later to critical acclaim. His release of Click Sentinel (Version 2) redefines how click fraud should be addressed.

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Search engine marketing is a billion dollar industry—but click fraud poses a threat to search engine advertising companies and online marketers alike. Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns are a fairly simple concept; advertisers bid on popular search keywords and pay the search engine ad companies every time someone clicks on their ad. This is a mutually beneficial relationship for the advertiser and the search engine company. The problem comes when the advertisers’ numbers—and their bills—are falsely inflated through click fraud.

What is Click Fraud?

Boris Mordkovich of Search Marketing Standard, a magazine devoted exclusively to search marketing, defines click fraud as “any click made on an ad with no intention of actually buying or looking for information, but rather with the intention of depleting the advertiser’s budget.”

Who is Behind It?

Who would benefit from deliberately running up your bill? To start with, your competition would. The ads in the top spots are always in the crosshairs of the ads a little further down the page. And if your competitor clicks on your ad a few times a day or a few times a week, the search engines won’t notice such small numbers. Doesn’t sound like much but it can really add up, especially when you have multiple competitors doing it. So they just chip away at your budget until you can no longer afford to advertise on that search engine.

Another common source of click fraud is search engine affiliates. When webmasters get a cut of the revenue from the ads on their sites, they sometimes play the same game as your competitors. They quietly click away at your ad and raise your bill—and their profits—one click at a time.

“It Could Happen To You”—Fighting Back

When you think you have found a case of click fraud, you need to gather your information:

1. the questionable clicks
2. the keywords that were clicked on
3. when they were clicked on, and
4. the country from which the clicks originated.

You can do this yourself by monitoring your server logs and watching for unusual increases in activity or repeated clicks from the same ISP address. Or you can get a third party to research it for you. http://Clickclub.com, http://AdWatcher.com and http://WhosClickingWho.com are examples of services that will analyze which of your clicks are valid and present you with all the relevant information in an organized report. This type of service may cost you from twenty to a hundred dollars a month.

You can email this information to your search engine and request an investigation for the purpose of obtaining a refund. Mordkovich warns that you should expect some resistance, but says “it’s important to elevate the issue to a supervisor.” If the search engines know you are serious, they will look into your claims.

The key to not becoming a click fraud victim is to be aware. Watch the sources of your clicks. Check your server logs. Watch for spikes. Consider a third party watchdog if necessary. Click fraud is both real and prevalent. So use a little caution and you can save yourself a great deal of money down the road.

About the Author: Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com are the Writers and Hosts of The Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing Radio Shows. Click Here for more FREE eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!

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