Click Theft on the Net Part 3

byVicG

255 followers

9 years ago

Here's the thing, look at the comments underneath popular social media posts. There you'll commonly find a thread of arbitrary comments such as “Great post” or “That’s great?”

Well, prepare yourself for a shock. It’s more than likely to bde a hired Asian worker's piece. Look at this screenshot:-

These comments are typical. They are abrupt, rapidly churned out, and obviously written by hired workers who don't read the actual social media post.

This leads to the sad conclusion that much social media following is fake. It makes you wonder how much web traffic is dubious.

Google is trying really hard not to be like this, but it has actually become a 'feeding ground' for thieves who call themselves 'Internet Marketers'.

The thieves place 'just enough' content on a landing page so that Google sees it as being legitimate.

The content is well watered-down and of very little use to visitors. However, on the landing page, there will be a strategically placed advert for a product or an online service that will solve the visitor's problem!

That will be followed by a 'Buy Now' button.

There will probably be a stack of AdSense ads, too. Hired workers will click on those. The click thieves get the reward while the advertiser gets the big bill for dishonest clicks.

We as content writers usually spend hours writing great posts that are obviously worth reading ... only to get just a handful of views. Yet posts containing a silly maths puzzle, say, or with young ladies showing their cleavages, get thousands upon thousands of shares and likes.

It is a fact that social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have millions of fake accounts. Many use photos of pretty women to entrap gullible readers. It's simply just another method the thieves use to steal clicks.

Unfortunately, this deviant activity works. The list of companies that have made it big by using unscrupulous methods is eye-opening.

Sadly, smaller businesses like ours are basically being taken for a ride. We find it hard to compete — to get our messages out. It's now very difficult to prove return on investment from social media sites, pay-per-click, and even search engine optimization.

But is it all doom and gloom for affiliate marketing, and for honest, small online businesses?

No. That's because there remains a method of communicating with people that will always succeed in getting them to visit our websites.

To be continued...