Buying Adsense traffic?

[zipit]

I have noticed that the "traffic sellers" are now offering guaranteed "clicks/hits/referrals" (whatever you want to call it) for a price. Guaranteed to generate double, even triple what you pay for the traffic in adsense revenue.

What are peoples thoughts on BUYING traffic/hits/referrals/clicks? Is it against Google's policies since you are not the one generating the clicks? Is it fraudulent (invalid) if the clicks are generated by real traffic (assuming it's real traffic)?

[hyperkik]

I would assume it is not real traffic. "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

[loanuniverse]

Bad news... stay away. The Google js code should be able to detect your referrals. Not only is it bad from a moral standpoint to get into this, but chances are you will get found out.

[ronin]

I doubt very much it's going to be real traffic.

1) You pay the traffic seller.
2) The traffic seller takes a cut and pays people sitting at home to go to websites on a list and click on AdSense panels.
3) Google pays you for clicks.
4) The companies paying to advertise on your site see no benefit from their advertising.
5) The whole system gets fouled up and gets a bad name.

[mquarles]

This sounds like a good way to get your site banned, assuming that's your goal. If your goal is to make consistent, long-term money with AdSense, I'd shy away from it.

MQ

[BennyBlanco]

Here is the question though....

If you are a site that uses multiple streams of advertising, including paid advertising (just to generate traffic mind you, never enticing or providing incentive to click on any Google Ads)... how could it be said that the traffic is bad?

I mean, certainly Google will not start to expect that Webmasters will place the importance of AdSense over the importance of keeping their site's traffic solid.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I would hope that the problems would only arise with enticing users to click, not just buying canned traffic to your site.

How many out there have not used a targeted opt-in list at least once to get bulk traffic to a site?

[loanuniverse]

If you are a site that uses multiple streams of advertising, including paid advertising (just to generate traffic mind you, never enticing or providing incentive to click on any Google Ads)... how could it be said that the traffic is bad?

Your interpretation or mine does not really matter. You do not want to give the appearance of impropriety. Also the supposed {... guaranteed "clicks/hits/referrals"...} implied by the original poster already makes this highly suspect.

[dvduval]

Hopefully, Google is starting to get a good recipe for catching poeple and banning them.

Having a quality program is good for the publisher too, because it means the advertisers are receiving a great value, which means they will spend more.

Since Google is able to track conversions, it would be great if they started adding a bonus per conversion. That would add a lot of value for the advertiser and the publisher, and discourage fraud a little bit more.

[jomaxx]

Advertising is obviously going to be OK. But I have read the small print at some of those bulk traffic sites and it ain't pretty. IMO anyone who's got a good thing going with AdSense should be very careful about going this route.

[Jenstar]

If you want to buy traffic, buy PPC keywords through Overture and/or Adwords under the premise of "get em in cheap" and then hope they leave by clicking an ad with a higher EPC. Several members here are doing this successfully.

Do avoid those "get thousands of visitors for only $19.95" kinds of ads, the traffic is untargeted, if it comes at all.

[jomaxx]

Yeah, not just untargeted but involuntary, via popunders, redirects, blind links, spyware, etc. And even involuntary traffic sounds better than traffic that is "guaranteed" to generate a certain level of AdSense clicks.

[zipit]

I guess my original thoughts on this was is it wrong to buy traffic, clicks or referrals? Say from a click farm?

There are others that you can pay $1.00 for an ebay ACRU, which then nets you $5.05 (unless you go up a tier level and then more). The ACRU would have to be legit because they have to register on ebay with at the very least a valid e-mail address, and then bid on an item.

So in the same vein, you could pay for "legit" clicks on google ads on your site. Let's say they are legit and on the up and up (real people not bots or anything). Is it against policy or wrong to buy such things?

[ogletree]

They could be selling 404 traffic. I bought a site that had good PR value. I changed the site completly. People who went to the old site had no interest in the new site. I sent all the 404 traffic to an adsnes site and made a lot more money.

[dvduval]

Maybe someone could start a small business specializing in catching adsense cheaters?
(Ex. Infiltrate sites and forums and find out which sites are involved)

[ganderla]

Maybe someone could start a small business specializing in catching adsense cheaters?

How would one make money off of this?

[jomaxx]

There are others that you can pay $1.00 for an ebay ACRU, which then nets you $5.05 (unless you go up a tier level and then more). The ACRU would have to be legit...

LOL, like many types of scams, this one begs an obvious question: If the lead is worth $5, why are they selling it to you for $1?

Look, obviously buying clicks and leads is going to involve you in knowingly or wink-wink-unknowingly defrauding merchants (assuming you don't simply get ripped off yourself). As for simply buying bulk traffic, read the fine print. The sites I have looked at CLAIM to be selling things like 404 traffic, but the contract says otherwise. My decision was to not gamble my AdSense account on the credibility of sites that were clearly dodgy.

[dvduval]

Google would pay you, or you could find adwords advertisers who could donate. You could also help prepare reports for the Adwords advertiser, and they could split the refund Google gives the advertiser after dicovering fraudulent activity.

(just a hair-brained idea...I wasn't all that serious...but you never know...worse ideas have worked!)

[ChrisKud5]

Is this one of those Indian "companies" where the "employees" sit around all day and click on ads?

HA