Chitika Attacks Click Fraud, Warns Publisher Revenue Will Be Down

While I'm not currently accepted by Chitika, I'm still covering them. It seems they've been having some trouble with click fraud or as they call it "curiosity clicks" and will now be cracking down on it. They also warn that this will directly effect publishers revenue.

Chitika Blog

To help filter out so-called “curiosity clicks” that typically do not lead to conversions on the merchants’ side, we updated the eMiniMalls units to drive qualified clicks. Hence, eMiniMalls users will notice a dip in the overall click through rate (and hence the overall revenue).

Sounds like the party's over for publishers who have been raking in hundreds. If a user is simply browsing and clicks through and doesn't buy anything I guess you don't get any money as an advertiser.

While I see the problem they're facing, browsing is part of advertising (branding) and a publisher shouldn't be slammed when they have been advertising something and an end user is just curious.

Eric Giguere of An AdSense Blog has this to say:

Anyone who thinks that these other pay-per-click systems won't eventually end up with payout rates similar to AdSense are just deluding themselves. Once the novelty wears off, you'll see things level off on a general basis, and it will be up to each individual site owner to figure out which program works best for them, because it certainly won't be the same for everyone.

I agree. Not every advertising program is going to work with the content you deliver. As a web publisher it is up to you to find the system that works for your website.

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