Defining invalid clicks and click fraud

We often receive questions from new publishers about what these two terms mean, and we'd like to help you understand the difference.

Invalid clicks are clicks for which we decide not to charge our AdWords advertisers, since they may artificially drive up advertiser cost or publisher revenue. These include extraneous clicks without any value to the advertiser, such as the second click of a double-click. They also include many other types of clicks that we've determined aren't motivated by genuine user interest.

"Invalid clicks" are often confused with "clicking on your own ads". However, we'd like to stress that invalid clicks are generally any clicks that artificially inflate advertiser cost or publisher revenue, regardless of their source.

Click fraud is a subset of invalid clicks that are generated with malicious or fraudulent intent -- in other words, clicks that are intended to drive up advertiser cost or publisher revenue artificially. Sources for these clicks include, but are not limited to:

A publisher clicking on his own ads, or encouraging clicks on his ads

Users or family members clicking to support the site / publisher

Third-party programs with user incentives, such as paid-to-click services and click-exchanges

Automated clicking tools, robots, or other deceptive software

The same principles above apply to ad impressions and conversions as well. Some sources of invalid impressions include, but are not limited to:

Excessive page refreshes, generated either manually or automatically

Third-party programs with user incentives, such as paid-to-surf or auto-surf programs

Third-party programs for purchasing fixed amounts of traffic, e.g. "$10 for 1,000 page views"

As a reminder, any method that artificially generates clicks, impressions, or conversions is strictly prohibited by our program policies. You can also find more information about these topics in our Invalid Clicks FAQ.

How to Find Advertisers for Your Website: The Ultimate Guide

[Firstly i would just like to give credit to Daniel Scocco at www.dailyblogtips.com for this arcticle that i have reposted here. its an excellent article. Make sure you visit their site for tons more great articles on blogs.]

Direct advertising sales is arguably the best method to monetize a
website. Finding advertisers for your site and actually closing the
deals, however, is not as straight forward. Over the past 6 months I
had more than 10 high profile companies sponsoring Daily Blog Tips, and
through out this article I will share what I have learned along the way.

The Pros

• More money: The first advantage of selling your
  own ads is the fact that you will cut the middlemen out, increasing
  your revenue potential. Suppose you sell text link ads on your sidebar
  through a certain company, and the text links sell for $50 monthly.
  Since you are using the company network to sell the ads, they will eat
  50% of the price, and you will end up earning only $25 monthly for each
  text link. If someone is willing to pay $50 for a text link on your
  site, though, it means that they are getting $50 of value out of it.
  Why, then, should you share that with someone else?
• Independence: Sure, large advertising networks
  have access to a wider pool of advertisers, and they have more
  credibility to close the deals. But if you have all the requirements in
  place (see the section below) and spend some time looking at the right
  places, I am sure that you will be able to sell your own ads just as
  efficiently as the larger networks.
• Flexibility: The third advantage of selling direct
  advertising is that you will have much more control over where and how
  the ads will be displayed (i.e., you can avoid intrusive advertising).
  Google Adsense is nice, but unless you blend it with the content –
  annoying some of the readers – you will get terribly low click-through
  rates.
• Credibility: Finally, having sponsors and direct
  advertisers on your blog might help your credibility. Even small and
  poorly crafted blogs can stick some Adsense units here and there.
  Having established companies that are willing to partnership with your
  site, on other hand, can signal that your content has quality and that
  the site is somewhat professional.

The Cons

• Time consuming: While selling your own ads has
  many advantages, it is no panacea. The first drawback of this
  monetization option is the time that it will consume. This time will be
  spent optimizing your website for the ads, finding potential
  advertisers, negotiating with them, and handling the administrative
  matters (e.g., making payments, tracking statistics, delivering reports
  and so on).
• Many requirements: Selling direct adverting is not
  as easy as making money from Google Adsense. As you can see from the
  section below, you will need to have a popular blog, a professional
  looking design, special software and the like.
• Unstable: Unless you close deals for very long
  periods, which is unlikely, you will find your self looking for new
  advertisers or optimizing your website to attract new ones every other
  month. The opposite is true for most advertising networks, where you
  just need to plug some code and they will do the rest of the work. (If
  your site or blog is just a hobby, therefore, direct advertising might
  not be the best option)

What You Need to Have in Place

• A popular website: Before landing direct
  advertising deals you will need to have a good amount of traffic on
  your site. There is no “magical” number here, but a good rule of thumb
  would be 1000 daily unique visitors. If you are below that mark you
  should focus on building traffic instead of looking for advertisers.
  Other factors like Google Pagerank, RSS subscribers and Alexa rank
  might also help. (Notice that small websites might also be able to sell
  direct advertising, but usually the time spent on that will not justify
  the results)
• A clear focus: You might have the most popular
  site on the Internet (well, not as extreme as that, but you get the
  point), but unless your site also has a very clear niche and a defined
  audience, advertisers will not find it very attractive. This means that
  you should avoid rambling about 100 different topics on the website.
  Advertisers want to deliver a message to specific people, and the more
  specific the better.
• A professional looking design: If you are planning
  to monetize your website through sponsors, you probably should invest
  some money into a professional looking design. Advertisers will be
  associating their product or service with your website, and not too
  many of them would be willing to get mixed with an ugly, MySpace
  looking site.
• Give visibility to the sponsors: This point is
  connected to the previous one. Not all templates and themes will be
  suitable for selling direct advertising. Preferably you want to have an
  idea of what kind of advertising you will sell (e.g., 468×60 banners,
  125×125 banners, text links) and design your website according to those
  objectives. Advertisers want visibility, so reserve a good spot for
  them.
• Adserver software: In order to serve your ads,
  rotate banners and track statistics you will need to install an
  Adserver. If you are looking for a simple solution you should try WP-Ads.
  This Wordpress plugin will serve ads for specific ad zones that you
  create. The only drawback is that it does not count clicks (only
  impressions). If you need a more sophisticated solution check OpenAds. You will need to spend some time learning how to use it, but it offers virtually all the features you will ever need.
• 
  “Advertise Here” page: It is very important to have an
  “Advertise Here” page. On this page you want to give some details about
  the website, like audience, traffic and any other factor that might be
  of the interest of potential advertisers. Secondly, make sure that you
  have some link to that page on the navigation bar and if possible close
  to the zone where the ads will be displayed. You can see a perfect
  example of such layout on Copyblogger.com.
• Standard letter to approach advertisers: While
  some advertisers will contact you after reading your “Advertise Here”
  page, the rest of them will need to be directly approached by you. In
  that case, it is a good idea to create a standard letter to contact the
  advertisers. There is no “one size fits all” solution here, but you can
  follow some general guidelines:
  

  1. Introduce yourself and quickly explain what the email is about
  
  2. Explain why you decided to contact them and what they have to gain
  
  3. Give details about your site (traffic, subscribers, topic, audience)
  
  4. Give details about the advertising options (location on the site, max number of advertisers, monthly price)

  
  

  That is it, after that information the advertisers should be able to
  decide if they are interested or not. If they reply, then you will fix
  the details. Bear in mind that all the info I mentioned should be
  contained in 2 or 3 paragraphs. If you send an essay to potential
  advertisers they will just skip it altogether.
  

• Accepting payments: You might have
  everything in place, but if you are not able to cash payments – or more
  importantly, if advertisers are not able to pay easily – you will end
  up losing deals. PayPal is the best option here. Notice, however, that
  a personal account will not suffice. You will need at least a premier
  account to be able to accept credit cards.

Where to Find the Advertisers

Once you have your direct advertising program established, you will
start to receive inquiries from people. On the beginning, however, you
will need to hunt advertisers down. Do not get discouraged if get
turned down initially, provided you have all the aforementioned
requirements, sooner or later you will find someone willing to take a
shot on your site.

• 
  People linking to your site or articles: If a company
  is willing to link to your articles or to add your website under its
  “Links” or “Resources” section, it is also probably willing to discuss
  about advertising on your site. Keep track of those incoming links.
• People leaving comments/e-mails: The same
  principle applies to people leaving comments on your blog or sending
  you e-mails. If among them you see an employee or the owner of a
  company that could be interested on your website, bingo! Contact him or
  her and get the conversation going.
• 
  AdWords advertisers: Through out your search for
  advertisers you will notice that most of the established companies are
  not aware of the benefits of online advertising. If a certain company
  is already spending money on Google AdWords, however, it is very likely
  that it would also be open to other forms of online advertising. Think
  about some keywords that are related to your topic and Google them.
  Check the sponsored links that will appear and contact them. (You can
  also check the advertisers that appear on the Adsense units of related
  websites)
• 
  Other advertising networks: While Google AdWords is by
  far the largest advertising network on the Internet, there are many
  others that could be useful. Check the companies that are spending
  money on AdBrite, Text-Link-Ads, BlogAds, SponsoredReviews and so on.
• 
  Banner advertisers on similar sites: Check out popular
  websites on your niche and see what companies are advertising there.
  Provided you offer them an interesting deal (i.e., a reasonable price
  for your size), I am pretty sure they will be interested.
• Create a “Potential Sponsors” bookmark folder:
  This technique produced outstanding results for me. I have a bookmark
  folder on my browser called “Potential Sponsors.” Every time I come
  across a company or website that could be interested in sponsoring my
  website, I bookmark it. Currently I have over 100 bookmarked sites on
  that folder, and I have not approached half of them yet.

How Much to Charge

• You need to provide value: It is all about value.
  A potential sponsor or advertiser will want to see some returns for the
  money he will be spending on your site, and this can be seen as
  visibility (impressions) and leads (clicks and possible sales). Make
  sure, therefore, that your advertising deals will deliver.
• The numbers: Remember that there are some pretty
  cheap advertising options out there (e.g., Google AdWords), and you
  will need to be competitive. Provided you reserved a good spot for the
  sponsors (sidebar or header, preferably) you could start charging a
  $0,5 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions). If your blog is generating
  100,000 monthly page views, therefore, a banner spot on your sidebar
  should cost around $50. Start low and build your way upwards. Popular
  blogs (e.g., TechCrunch) have a higher CPM, sometimes as high as $10,
  but you will need a huge credibility to arrive there.
• Cross-check: You can easily check if you are
  charging a suitable rate by using Adsense units on the places where you
  will sell direct advertising. Analyze how much you would gain with
  Adsense, and adjust your rates accordingly. Secondly, you can also
  check similar sites that are already selling direct ads.
• Be flexible regarding the terms: Flexibility is
  key. First of all make advertising agreements on a month-to-month
  basis. People don’t like to commit to something they are not completely
  sure about. If someone proposes you a longer deal, offer a discount in
  exchange.
• Offer test periods: Unless you have a very popular
  website, you will find potential advertisers reluctant to spend real
  money. If you are confident that the deal will create value for both
  parties, however, you can use that on your favor. Offer a free test
  period whenever needed. Some of the times the advertiser will turn you
  down after it, but other times they will confirm the deal. Either way
  you have nothing to lose.

Live Search Adds Home Page "Hotspots"

Microsoft just announced the official U.S. launch of their new home page. The home page was seen in test mode a few months back, but now it is officially live.

The home page contains a background image, which contains "hotspots," used to show off some of the search queries available at Live Search. The home page background images are suppose to change over time and thus generate different query "hotspots," for the end users to play with.

Here is a picture of the new home page, as I see it now:

If you look when the page loads, you will see hotspots fade in and out. If you hover your mouse over the page, you will notice that those hotspots will activate and show you a query. Here is one example of a hotspot on the Live Search home page:

This specific result took me to a Live Video Search query for animals in Bostwana. But other hotspots show off web search, map search and so on.

This looks like another way for Microsoft to generate more search queries, i.e. come play the Live Search home page scavenger hunt, if you will.

A peek into recent AdWords developments

If you're an avid Inside AdSense reader, you know that we
frequently post about the latest developments in AdSense and new
features you can take advantage of. However, we've heard from some
publishers that they want to know more about what's happening in
AdWords, and what we're doing to bring more relevant, targeted ads to
AdSense sites like yours. With that, we'd like to take a moment to give
you insight into a few recent AdWords developments, and what they mean
for you as an AdSense publisher.

One of the main changes is
the ability for advertisers to be more specific with their ad targeting
through a combination of contextual targeting and placement targeting.
As you may know, contextually targeted ads will appear on your pages if
an advertiser's keywords match your content, while placement-targeted
ads will appear if an advertiser has specifically selected your ad
placement or site. Now, advertisers can target your site or placements,
but can also specify keywords for them so that their ads only appear in
the most relevant pages. These ads will still need to compete with the
available inventory of ads for a particular placement, and so only the
highest-paying, most relevant ads will appear on your pages. At the
same time, you'll still be able to use your Competitive Ad Filter to prevent ads from specific URLs from appearing.

What
does this mean for you, as an AdSense publisher? Your users may see
more relevant ads on your pages, and advertisers who become more
confident that their ads are reaching the right audience may increase
their ad spend -- both of these can result in higher monetization for
you. In addition, while advertisers previously could only change their
bids for all ads running across multiple sites, they can now adjust
their bids for individual sites. This means that advertisers can spend
more of their budgets on the specific AdSense sites which perform well
and generate high-quality leads for the advertiser.

With these
recent improvements, we're looking forward to expanding the number of
advertisers who use the AdSense content network and increasing the
relevance of their ads on your sites. Not only will this increase your
earnings potential through the AdSense program, but it will also
strengthen the ads ecosystem that benefits publishers, advertisers, and
users.

Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Google launches virtual reality site

Internet search leader debuts 'Lively,' an online world in which Web users can interact with each other using avatars.

Last Updated: July 9, 2008: 9:36 AM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In the latest expansion beyond its main mission of organizing the world's information, Internet search leader Google Inc. hopes to orchestrate more fantasizing on the Web.

The Mountain View-based company unveiled a free service Tuesday in which three-dimensional software enables people to congregate in electronic rooms and other computer-manufactured versions of real life. The service, called "Lively," represents Google's answer to a 5-year-old site, Second Life, where people deploy animated alter egos known as avatars to navigate through virtual reality.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) thinks Lively will encourage even more people to dive into alternate realities because it isn't tethered to one Web site like Second Life, and it doesn't cost anything to use. After installing a small packet of software, a user can enter Lively from other Web sites, like social networking sites and blogs.

The Lively application already works on Facebook, one of the Web's hottest hangouts, and Google is working on a version suitable for an even larger online social network, News Corp.'s (NWS, Fortune 500) MySpace.

"We know people already spend a lot of time online socializing, so we just want to try to make it more enjoyable," said Niniane Wang, a Google engineering manager who oversaw Lively's creation over the past year.

Although Google is best known for the search engine that generates most of its profits, the company has introduced other services that are widely used without making much, if any, money. Google's peripheral products include its 3-D "Earth" software, Picasa for sharing photos and programs for word processing, calendars and spreadsheets.

Google has no plans to sell advertising in Lively, Wang said.

But the service could still indirectly help the company if it encourages people to remain online longer. Google's management reasons that more frequent Web surfing ultimately will lead to more moneymaking clicks on the ads it shows alongside its search results and millions of other Web sites.

Lively's users will be able to sculpt an avatar that can be male, female or even a different species. An avatar can assume a new identity, change clothes or convey emotions with a few clicks of the mouse.

The service also enables users to create different digital dimensions to roam, from a coffeehouse to an exotic island. The settings can be decorated with a wide variety of furniture, including large-screen televisions that can be set up to play different clips from YouTube.com, Google's video-sharing service.

Lively users can then invite their friends and family into their virtual realities, where they can chat, hug, cry, laugh and interact as if they were characters in a video game.

As a precaution, Google is requiring Lively's users to be at least 13 years old - a constraint that hasn't been enough to prevent young children from running into trouble on other social spots on the Web.

Google spent several months testing Lively among a group of Arizona State University students before opening the service to the public through its "Labs" section - a technology sandbox set up for the company's experimental products. 

First Published: July 8, 2008: 7:28 PM EDT

[CNN]