I guess journalism schools should teach it: whenever you're doing a story about anything, take a look and see what's happening on eBay. I didn't do that when I wrote last week's post Click Fraud Worsening?, which noted that a recent study found that more merchants were pulling back on their keyword advertising out of concerns over click fraud. But a Blogging Stocks reader named Joe did take a look around eBay, and what he found is quite remarkable.
See for yourself. Head over to eBay, search for "Adsense clicks", and as of this morning you'll find more than a dozen auctions offering everything from "5 Google Adsense Ads Clicks Hits Each day for 5 Days" (BuyItNow for $1.99) to "1000 Adsense hits clicks website marketing traffic. Adsense clicks delivered within 10 days. Different IP's" (12 bids, up to $31) to "Unique: Guaranteed Unlimited Legal Adsense Clicks - Extremely Simple" ($9.99).
Here's the sales copy, verbatim, for one offer:
We don't deal with worthless hits/clicks. These are real people clicking on your Adsense ads. Real money flowing into your Adsense account.
People are selling on Ebay the " I'll look around your site and click ads " scheme. THIS DOES NOT WORK. You will get banned from Adsense right away. Receiving multiple clicks from the same IP address will get you banned. That's why you should NEVER click on your own ads.
Thus being said, the traffic you will get will be: never from the same person (or IP address) in a 24 hour period.
Now, the only other thing you MUST watch out for YOURSELF is your CTR (click thru ratio). If you win this auction and I bring you 250 clicks, your Click-thru will soar up - Google will then most probably ban you. Bring in a constant flow of traffic to your website. Keep your Click thru rate between 1% and 3%.
Now, I can't guarantee that you will get a certain number of clicks or that you will not get banned. I'm not Google - who knows what they do. However, I have been bringing in clicks and making a steady $1500 a month and haven't gotten banned using this source.
Of course all of these offers may be frauds, but a number of these sellers have very high Feedback Scores. And some go into considerable detail as to their techniques--one fellow apparently uses MySpace as a way to organize his clicksters.
This raises some interesting questions, chief among them: doesn't this violate eBay's listing policy against "encouraging illegal activity"? Or perhaps this is one of those gray areas where eBay chooses to look the other way -- particularly considering that the particular ox being gored here is rapidly turning into their number one competitor.
In any event, it does provide yet one more proof point of the basic law of cyberspace: On the Internet, if it can be abused, it will be abused.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-10-2006 @ 2:36PM
Corey Katir said...
I am looking forward to the day FBI agents will be knocking at their door.
Corey
7-10-2006 @ 2:39PM
infosrama said...
These guys should be banned. Sure google has something to check on these guys. I am not sure why people fall for these crucks
7-10-2006 @ 3:42PM
Scott Boyenger said...
Make sure you check out your legal options, the process is becoming easier for refunds.
Step 1. Have a Click Fraud tool like Click Defense.
Step 2. Make certain the reports are going to measure up to the expectation of what the search engine needs to quantify the results.
Step 3. Be patient - Don't harrass the search engines, allow the process to complete before making any judgement calls.
Scott Boyenger
CEO
Click Defense
7-10-2006 @ 5:11PM
Jim Trego said...
If finding click fraud for sale on Ebay is shockig, check out this site! http://www.clickmonkeys.com/aboutus.shtml
There are click farms in India and the Ukraine that advertise for people to sit at a computer and click on advertiser's sites. It is getting completely out of hand. We work hard to track these sites down and find ways to spot their clicks to add to our click fraud reports. Ck http://www.clickfraudlegal.com
7-10-2006 @ 5:48PM
Dale said...
Click fraud is a huge problem and all these people will only ruin it for the folks that do everything by the book.They should all be hung up to dry for ruining it for the rest of us.
7-21-2006 @ 2:59PM
Corey Katir said...
Why honest publishers should boycott eBay?
I have been reading and thinking a lot about the dilemma of Click Fraud.
I believe Click Fraud is more of a danger to existing Google AdSense
publishers who are honest than Google.
I also read about eBay promoting click fraud with allowing people to place dishonest
ads.
See below:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/361351/ebay-sells-adsense-click-fraud-plays-with-fire.html
also see:
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/07/10/click-fraud-for-sale-on-ebay/
I believe Google has created tremendous value here in United States. Google and Google AdSense Team should be congratulated for such achievement.
Let me show you how I mean this. Here is my reasoning:
I like to pose this question:
How much is your website worth if you make money from Google AdSense?
Let's say your website makes a good $30 per day on average. This is how we
calculate the value of your website:
Yearly income = $30 x 30 x 360 = $32,400
Value of the WebSite= $32400/interest rate = 32400/.07 = $462,857 (this is
assumed that the income will never end and is good for ever. Of course if
the income grows, the value will be even more)
How many websites do you think make over $30 per day? If the answer is say
10,000. Then total value created is:
10,000 x $462857 = $4,628,570,000. That is more than 4 Billion Value in
all US.
Google should be congratulated for creating such wealth.
I am 100 percent sure not many AdSense Publishers are aware of this value.
If they knew, they would also be more protective of the existing system and
the integrity of the AdSense system.
Hence, I believe Google should plan a campaign to educate the honest
Publishers of such value and the fact that Click Fraud can jeopardize this
value.
If the Honest AdSense Publishers recognize this value and also recognize the
danger that such value could be jeopardized by Click Fraud, they will take
action.
This might relieve Google from Burden of fighting Click Fraud alone.
I suggest we, boycott eBay. Or, we, honest publishers, fight along Google
to eradicate Click Fraud.
Corey Katir
http://www.iconocast.com/