Ad revenue in the online world is based on clicks and impressions. For example, I have a relationship with Google that generally pays on clicks. I also have a relationship with Investing Channel that pays on impressions (views). I do not pay anyone to direct traffic to my blog and I do not ask people to click on ads they are not interested in. Nor do I want them too. On several occasions, I even reported myself to Google. Why? Because I accidentally clicked on an ad. It's easy to do when scrolling, even on your own blog. I don't pretend to be a knight in shining armor, but I do think honesty is the best policy. On each occasion I reported myself, I believe Google made a small adjustment to my ad revenue, and theirs as well. Here's the question of the day: When tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of stock market valuations are on the line, does integrity go out the window? The following video brings the above question into play. Link if video does not play: Facebook Ad Revenue Fraud. Please play the video. It's a real eye opener that is hard to describe. You will enjoy it. Facebook vs. Google From my experience, Google is very meticulous about weeding out fraud. If you pay money to generate clicks or impressions on your site, Google will drop you from its ad program. If the above video is even in the ballpark, there are serious issues at Facebook. In general there are serious problems if you pay someone to "like" you or drive traffic to you. Addendum: Just moments after I made the above post, I received an email from Lenny Teytelman regarding his company's experiences with fake "likes": What do Facebook “likes” of companies mean? The moral of this story is don't pay for "likes", don't pay to have someone drive traffic to your site either. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
