In Business Since 2001 We accept Paypal
Home Article Directory
More from Bill Platt
"Bill Platt for Book Authors" Youtube Channel
Training for Book Authors
Other Resources for Book Authors & Publishers
FictionPlots.com (350+ Plots & counting)
Please Support Our Advertisers

 
D9 Hosting


Going Broke on Google Adwords?

Copyright (c) 2006-2023 , All Rights Reserved
(See This Article in its Original Format.)

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 (http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/google-vs-lanes-gifts--settling-for-better-or-f.asp/3201/). 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 (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_40/b4003001.htm?chan=innovation_branding_top+stories) 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 (http://www.exactseek.com/featured_listings.html) and then promoted through the ISEDN (Independent Search Engine and 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 http://www.exactseek.com/featured_listings.html.

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: Shop Amazon - Top Gift Ideas
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 (http://blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim's email is: kim @ seo-news.com

This article may be freely distributed without modification and provided that the copyright notice and author information remain intact.

VOTE ON THIS ARTICLE
Needs Work >> 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 << Excellent Article

Tell our authors what you think about their article.



Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles

10 Most Recent Articles Written by Kim Roach

Google Gets Personalized
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-12-08 | Word Count: 942 | Page Views: 3814 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 1.77
Traditional algorithmic search engines have reached their peak. Personalized search is a natural and necessary progression for Google and other search engines as well.

7 Online Marketing Tools for the Smart Webmaster
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-12-06 | Word Count: 1144 | Page Views: 4509 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 2.36
As an online marketer, it's hard to wade through all of the misleading information that is running rampant on the Internet. Who do you trust? Where do you go for the very best information in online marketing? Well, this article was written to answer those very questions.

Creating Your Own Online Radio Station
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-11-27 | Word Count: 1138 | Page Views: 6700 | Votes: 23 | Rating: 1.91
Podcasting has leveled the playing field for people around the world. With just a few tools, you can quickly and easily set up your own talk show on the topic of your choice. All you need is a computer, a microphone, and a passion to share your knowledge with others.

Smart Webmasters are Wasting Online Real Estate
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-11-24 | Word Count: 1307 | Page Views: 4125 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 1.93
Many webmasters are not using their websites' traffic to full potential. The Web is full of wasted advertising space. Chances are that even your website has some virtual wasteland. These are areas that often go unnoticed by even the most experienced marketers, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars of potential revenue.

Hidden Market Research on Ebay, Amazon, and Others
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-10-12 | Word Count: 1489 | Page Views: 8814 | Votes: 28 | Rating: 1.93
Are you looking to provide interesting content to your visitors? How about popular in-demand products? Do you know what your target customer is really searching for online? No worries. You are about to discover that there are literally thousands of untapped markets just waiting at your fingertips. To get started, let's go on a little virtual journey.

Unique Marketing Strategies
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-10-11 | Word Count: 1629 | Page Views: 7458 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 1.77
As an online marketer I have learned a variety of techniques for attracting traffic. However, sometimes I stumble upon marketing strategies that are truly unique. I urge you to read on.

Web Marketing 2.0
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-10-10 | Word Count: 1645 | Page Views: 6975 | Votes: 16 | Rating: 2.50
If you're like me, then you are probably tired of hearing the word Web 2.0 passed around the net like a buzz word on steroids. Google alone currently shows 126,000,000 results for the search term "web 2.0" at the time of this writing. However, although this term may be overblown, it does have significant influence on the current changes taking place on the Internet. Most importantly, it has many implications for the online marketer.

Franchising Your Online Business
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-09-29 | Word Count: 1833 | Page Views: 4381 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 2.41
Franchises have proven to be much more successful than the traditional small business. Almost 80% of new business start-ups fail each year. Franchising, on the other hand, allows an entrepreneur to open up a new business based upon a proven brand and business model.

Essential Programs For Your Virtual Toolbox
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-09-28 | Word Count: 947 | Page Views: 5347 | Votes: 18 | Rating: 2.28
As an online marketer and webmaster, there are a number of tools that you will want in your virtual toolbox. To get you started, I have scoured the net to find some of the best programs to help webmasters improve their sites, their rankings, and their productivity. Best of all, each one of these tools is free.

See Your Website Through Your Visitors Eyes
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-09-26 | Word Count: 1325 | Page Views: 6997 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 2.27
Every time a visitor comes to your site, they take a particular path. Their eyes move in quick motion, hopping from one hotspot to the next. If you don't know how your visitors are traveling, your conversion rates will suffer dramatically. Fortunately, there is a company who has performed in-depth testing for you, revealing the common behaviors of people viewing web pages.

All of Author's Articles on this site:

Most Recent "Business Online" Articles

Four Tips For Creating An Effective Authors' Resource Box
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-27 | Word Count: 1669 | Page Views: 8290 | Votes: 18 | Rating: 2.50
In article marketing, there are many factors that will affect your articles' ability to promote your website in the most effective manner. In this article, we will briefly discuss a couple those factors, before we dive into how to create an effective Authors' Resource Box, also known as the About The Author Information.

Website Traffic Generation: Winning the Love of the Traffic Fairy
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-24 | Word Count: 1149 | Page Views: 9151 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 1.86
Some people still believe that all they have to do is build a website and customers will magically appear on their site... Once they have built their websites, they wait anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to come and sprinkle its magic dust on their website too, so that they can make lots of money like other success website owners.

What Kind Of Backlinks Are Best At Helping Your Website In Google?
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-21 | Word Count: 439 | Page Views: 10213 | Votes: 23 | Rating: 2.74
I was in the Warrior Forum, and someone asked what kinds of Backlinks are worth pursuing. This is my answer to that query.

Understanding the Mechanics of Effective Article Marketing and Article Syndication
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-01 | Word Count: 1399 | Page Views: 6795 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.80
Visit several marketing blogs or marketing forums, and you will find dozens of people proclaiming the death of article marketing as an effective marketing tool. Before we start agreeing with them, consider this...

Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketers Fail With Article Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-31 | Word Count: 1025 | Page Views: 8088 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 2.08
If you've been marketing products online for any length of time, you've likely heard people talk about the power and promise of article marketing for the promotion of your online business. Unfortunately, many online marketers have tried to utilize article marketing to benefit their online business and failed. In this article, I document the top ten reasons why people fail to find success with article marketing... And how to fix your article marketing campaigns...

Article Marketing Tip: Stop Trying To Sell From Within Your Articles
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-30 | Word Count: 1229 | Page Views: 6245 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.40
The basic premise of article marketing is to present people information that will be important to them, then at the end of the article, present information "about the author" and offer to the reader a means to see how the author can help the reader further. When done well, article marketing continues to be one of the most effective methods of promotion that one could employ online.

The Six Degrees of Internet Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-30 | Word Count: 991 | Page Views: 8671 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 2.43
The theory behind the Six Degrees of Separation is that all people on earth can be connected together in as little as six steps. Now, I know what you might be thinking at this juncture... That sounds fun and interesting, but what does that have to do with Internet Marketing? That is a great question that I am going to answer for you in this article...

How To Win More Eyeballs for Your Offers and Websites
Written by: Bruce Lansing | Distributed: 2013-07-29 | Word Count: 1373 | Page Views: 6147 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 1.45
Most people using search engines on the Internet are looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems. If you can give people what the answers they want, you will be able to position your business as one worth hiring today or tomorrow.

How To Increase Your Rates and Earnings As a Freelance Writer
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-29 | Word Count: 1191 | Page Views: 6176 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 1.55
Freelance writers fill a very important role in today's business marketplace. They create the on-demand, customized content that business owners everywhere need to push their businesses forward. In this article, the author explains what freelance writers should do to ensure that employers will pay them well for their services.

Promoting Your Business With Content:: Defining Your Writing Strategy
Written by: Bruce Lansing | Distributed: 2013-07-25 | Word Count: 677 | Page Views: 5875 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 2.00
Many people suggest that you should write articles on the basis of the benefits that people will get from reading your articles. I'd like to suggest that there is a better reason, and that is to write your articles on the basis of what problem people will be able to solve, as a result of reading your articles.

Most Viewed "Business Online" Articles

Attracting Readers to your Book
Written by: Alastair Hall | Distributed: 2006-05-18 | Word Count: 708 | Page Views: 46681 | Votes: 17 | Rating: 2.06
One of the common and obvious ways to market a self-published book is having your own website. The harder part is how to attract your target audience and then convert the sale.

How To Make Visitors Bookmark Your Site
Written by: Cheryl Miller | Distributed: 2006-10-10 | Word Count: 536 | Page Views: 38965 | Votes: 21 | Rating: 2.19
When visitors bookmark your site it is a sign that you have built a great website and are pleasing them. Visitors think highly enough of your site to want to return and possibly tell others about it. You are not only increasing traffic from your existing clientele you are encouraging new traffic by means of viral marketing.

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-07-27 | Word Count: 472 | Page Views: 30473 | Votes: 33 | Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the following checklist to find out.

How I Got 70,000 Useless Visitors To My Site In One Day! (One Internet Marketer's Analysis of Social Bookmark Traffic)
Written by: Titus Hoskins | Distributed: 2007-11-06 | Word Count: 1545 | Page Views: 28518 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.70
Is social bookmark traffic useless? Is it even worth cultivating for your site? Can it be used from an online marketing perspective? Read to discover one Internet Marketer's analysis of social bookmark/media traffic...

Successful Article Marketers Help Readers Solve Problems
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-24 | Word Count: 816 | Page Views: 26285 | Votes: 34 | Rating: 2.79
Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the benefits and challenges of using article marketing to promote an online business. Article marketing is about getting your sales message in front of potential customers and to get links to your website. Many interpret this to mean that an article should directly promote a website within the article, but that approach is wrong and will reduce one's success using this methodology.

Tips For Building Your First Website
Written by: Benny Tsabba | Distributed: 2007-05-30 | Word Count: 1511 | Page Views: 19531 | Votes: 18 | Rating: 2.11
New people are coming online everyday. And many of those people desire to turn their spare time into spare cash. So begins their journey.

The Importance Of Effective Follow-up
Written by: Kate Smalley | Distributed: 2007-01-15 | Word Count: 493 | Page Views: 14488 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 2.55
Marketing experts say that following up with clients is crucial to successful selling because most prospects do not buy the first time, according to Aweber, a leading autoresponder company. People must encounter a marketing message multiple times before making a purchasing decision.

Today's Google Bots and What They Do
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-08-02 | Word Count: 1061 | Page Views: 14177 | Votes: 16 | Rating: 2.63
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However, before these pages were placed in the index, they were each crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot. This article will attempt to reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function, and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the well-known GoogleBot.

Ten Tips For User Friendly Online Registration Forms
Written by: Jim Romanik | Distributed: 2009-02-24 | Word Count: 775 | Page Views: 13378 | Votes: 15 | Rating: 0.93
Have you ever registered or attempted to register for an event and spent half an hour trying to figure out what you needed to do? Or have you used an online registration form that lost your data or was so complicated that it seemed like more work than faxing the form?

Successful Forum JVs and How To Get Them
Written by: Diana Barnum | Distributed: 2006-06-15 | Word Count: 648 | Page Views: 13109 | Votes: 19 | Rating: 2.11
The forming of common alliances, also referred to as a joint venture (JV), happens nearly every day in the business world. One of the most popular means of linking people up online of so that they can work together on their projects is via forums, where people of all levels of business and expertise post in common threads.

Highest Ranked "Business Online" Articles

Is Your Business 'Out Of Site'? Employ The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-01-09 | Word Count: 445 | Page Views: 5586 | Votes: 21 | Rating: 3.76
With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, the web site is conceivably the most powerful marketing and sales tool you can employ. Find out what a web site can do for you.

How To Use Your Race To Get Rich
Written by: Herbert Harris | Distributed: 2009-07-07 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 5995 | Votes: 48 | Rating: 3.71
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

Why I'm A 'B-Level Marketer!'
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2007-07-16 | Word Count: 917 | Page Views: 6864 | Votes: 26 | Rating: 3.58
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, I was sitting around the hotel lobby with approximately 20 other seminar attendees and speakers. The seminar's host was in attendance, and the conversation covered a range of internet marketing topics with extreme frankness. Our proximity to the hotel bar certainly contributed to our 'conviviality.'

15 fixes for a failing website
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-02-07 | Word Count: 593 | Page Views: 3555 | Votes: 25 | Rating: 3.48
Employ these 15 tactics to improve your search engine rankings, engage visitors and convert more sales.

The Most Important Ingredient for Info Product Success (is You)
Written by: Judy Murdoch | Distributed: 2008-04-15 | Word Count: 981 | Page Views: 6046 | Votes: 15 | Rating: 3.47
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I help small business owners create information products. The other person was very friendly until I said "information products." Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees

How to Keep Your Article Content Fresh and Interesting
Written by: Craig Ritsema | Distributed: 2006-08-29 | Word Count: 699 | Page Views: 5567 | Votes: 25 | Rating: 3.44
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and interesting content for their website. Along with these content qualities is the requirement that it be unique. Everyone wants their website to stand out above the others in the search engine results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of this quality content coming your way?

How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile
Written by: Harold Hemmings | Distributed: 2009-08-06 | Word Count: 1357 | Page Views: 2747 | Votes: 8 | Rating: 3.38
Online marketers everywhere are finally starting to tap into the Twitter Marketplace. Marketers are getting involved in Twitter at awesome rates, but all seem to have one unanswered question: How do we actually monetize this marketplace? It is my goal that by the time you have read this article, you will have a clear idea of exactly how to monetize your activities in Twitter.

Increasing Productivity In Your Online Business
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2006-06-14 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 7454 | Votes: 40 | Rating: 3.35
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I have to be much more productive than the average person in a "regular job."

Turn A One-Night-Stand With Google Into A Long-Term Relationship
Written by: Diane Metz | Distributed: 2007-07-10 | Word Count: 882 | Page Views: 2711 | Votes: 6 | Rating: 3.33
Want to win the favor of Google? Then you've got to build a long-term relationship with her. Many new SEO strategies are simply recycled old-tricks. And Google is a smart gal who can see right through them. Position your website for the future by understanding what Google really likes â€" and what she really loathes.

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-07-27 | Word Count: 472 | Page Views: 30473 | Votes: 33 | Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the following checklist to find out.











Download an eBook today
 
Directory Navigation
Locate By Category:

ALL Categories
Arts & Crafts
Arts & Entertainment
Automotive
Business - Offline
Business - Online
Career
Computers
Education
Family
Finance
Food & Drink
Health & Wellness
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet
Nature & Pets
Real Estate
Religion
Self Improvement
Shopping
Society
Sports & Recreation
Technology
Travel & Leisure
Uncategorized
World Events
Writing & Speaking

Change Number of Results:
50 - 100 - 200 - 500
Article Reprint Rights
Creative Commons License

This work is
licensed under a
Creative Commons
License


You are not required to show the creative commons license notice when you reprint this work.
Article Statistics
Word Count: 1229

Total Views: 8198

Article Rating: 2.08 of 5
Votes Cast: 12

More Articles By Author:



Last Distribution Date:
2006-12-05 10:48:00

Internal ID: #4006





All Articles are Copyright © 2001-2023 of the Defined Authors.

All other material and images on this site are:
Copyright © 2001-2023, ThePhantomWriters.com