moTi - 10:26 pm on Jun 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

ok, you want to continue the discussion.. no problem.

The case is not always settled in CPC. The SE/ad network can decline crediting the publisher if the click is considered invalid for some reason.

yes, clicks can be tracked, which provides at least the opportunity of supervision, whereas it's impossible to track the origin and execution of every sale and reward the publisher accordingly. it needn't necessarily be fraud, it's just in the nature of the accounting method.

Unless the vast majority of advertisers are fraudulent, the damage should only be limited to those fraudulent advertisers.

only one fraudulent advertiser suffices to cause huge damage to the whole system as one cheated action is worth hundreds of clicks. affiliates are much more dependent on confirmed sporadic ppa earnings than on a flow of clicks.

An advertiser has an incentive not to cheat the system because access to the system improves their overall ability to do business.

there will always be ways to cheat and still stay healthy in the system. no need to be overoptimistic with advertiser behavior patterns and to idealize the future implementation of a ppa program. more than ever as we only can speculate how google will work that out finally.

Not really. Money has changed hands; some people have profited; some people have been victimized by fraud.

well, there's a dark side of every success story. but overall it seems to work out quite nicely for the largest part of participants. and afaik, the network is still growing strongly.