Click Fraud
Click fraud is almost completely out of control. Businesses hate to advertise on Google but they feel they must or risk losing their place in the space if they don’t.
Mark Cuban has a great piece on the ginormous fraud within the space and it reads like it is written by someone who has been a victim.
What I appreciated most about the piece was the term keyword arbitrage, (define arbitrage) which I think defines the practice of keyword+splog manipulation quite nicely:
engines. Its a simple , somewhat risky, but very workable concept. I buy words on a publishing network on a CPC basis
for 10c and I link to a page with outbound links on keywords or affiliate networks that pay more. So if i can buy
the keyword “YoBaby” for 50c per click, and have that link to a page full of links that are paying me 5 dollars per
click and more than 10pct of my users “click out”, Im making money.
Click fraud is the one thing that could put Google out of business. You laugh, but imagine a lawsuit that encompassed all of the businesses that have been defrauded just over the past 6 months…
Tags: adsense, click-fraud, fradulent-clicks, google-adsense, keyword-abuse, keyword-arbitrage, splog