Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong...

General Discussion
1

I’ve been thinking… (Yes, it sometimes happens.)

 

See those adds that appear on the right of the “home” page? If I understand well how it works, every time you click on one of those, Mike Paler gets a few cents, right? (Or maybe it’s only a few cents for 10 clicks or 100 clicks or whatever, but the basic idea is “the more clicks, the more Mike will get”, right?)

 

Now, if you are the one running the ad, I suppose that every time someone clicks on your ad you have to pay a few cents to Google, who, in turn, pays back a tiny part of this to Mike Paler, right?

 

So, basically, someone pays (the guy running the ad) and someone gets paid (Mike Paler), right?

 

Of course, the guy running the ad thinks that the more clicks he gets, the more potential customers he will get. That’s why he’s willing to pay for that because he thinks that his potential income will be far superior to the money invested in his ad.

 

Now, imagine that my worst business competitor would run an ad on Swaylock’s. Since I am very wicked minded (insert sardonic laughter here), I would do this: every time I connect to Sway’s, I would systematically click on my "enemy"s ad. Of course, I will never buy anything from him, so what I’m doing is making him waste money. At the same time, Mike gets paid for that so it’s not really a bad act, is it?

 

Now, imagine that some far away eastern business competitor would run an ad on Swaylock’s…

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I like the way you think.....

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(chuckling ) Yep - that'd work.

Also, I think that a certain percentage of the ads are shown based on where you've been on the 'net, which is why I have been seeing Lenovo ads and such- https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&hl=en&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-et-storefrontEN_v2_ProgramPoliciesLink&medium=link is kinda interesting . Google, to use a favorite term of a former girlfriend, is kinda insidious.

Google Advertising Cookies


AdSense publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website

 This also explains some of the rather odd ads some people have been seeing -

Welcome to the information age.

doc....

 

4

I never see any ads…

5

I only see adds for weight loss and sup’s. Is google trying to tell me something?

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For those who can’t see it:

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Yep - 'sponsored link' advertising.  I use it through Google, but all other browser giants offer similar advertising services.  The person running the ad pays google each time their link is clicked.  The more popular a search term is, the more advertising costs the person running the ad.  Because 'wooden surfboard fins' and any wording variations of that phrase are not incredibly popular, I only pay about 5-10cents per click.  Anybody advertising say -'FCS fins' or 'Standup Paddleboards' would pay significantly more when their link is clicked on because they're competing with so many other advertisers to have their advert front and center.  

Whenever I go to Sways I see: Segway Composite, Killer Dana, and multiple SUP company links.  These guys are either paying big money to have their links in front, or have chosen to have their ads posted exclusively on Swaylocks and other specific sites of their choosing.  The alternative would be to let Google find the markets for you in your country, countries of your choosing, or worldwide based on the frenquency that keywords pertaining to your product, service, etc. appear. 

I hate to say it, because it is a sneaky and underhanded way deal with competition, but yeah, that might work for a short while.  The problem is, however, that the person doing the advertising can see where those clicks are coming from.  If he gets 1000 clicks/day on his link from advertising on Sways, but doesn't get any business or inquiries from there, he should know something's up and either quit advertising there or look into it.  Whether or not the activity could be traced to your IP and that person could do something legally is an entirely different issue. 

It's a strangely invasive world out there (as Doc points out) and I would have no doubt that information is being mined through people's emails, social networking sites, browser cookies, etc. for marketing purposes or worse.  AHHHHHH! - I'm getting outta here! 

 

 

 

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Camplus, thanks for the very clear and complete information. I promise I won’t click on your ads but I do regularly visit your website when I need to drool…

 

I must admit that I didn’t think of any legal action that could be taken against me (or others) for doing this. I don’t think they could pull it out: after all, if you run an ad you can’t complain that too many people click on it. Besides, how would you prove that it was done with a malevolent purpose? And would you try sueing people all over the world one by one?

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Thanks basla.  That's a reply I can appreciate! I'm also glad cyber-drool doesn't exist yet!  

As for the legal stuff - I'd have the same questions too, but lately (because of an automobile accident and a friend of a friend's online campaign against corporate waste) am learning a lot about how people can be manipulated by laws and entities that no one besides a lawyer would ever know exist.  I'm sure there are folks out there that would rather make money through litigation-derived technicalities instead of the merit of their own hard work, and view cyberspace as a relatively untapped resource. 

OK - I admit I'm being a bit cynical and paranoid about that stuff, but then again, I have been dealing with lawers and insurance companies for the past couple weeks . . . God Help Me! 

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I don't click on ads.  If you are going to start clicking on all sorts of crazy stuff, then you probably should not use IE.  I'm so paranoid, I do most of my web browsing and web purchasing on my Linux laptop.

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In theory what was suggested would work.......BUT.........you have to go a step further.  The advertisers start to see a vast number of clicks costing them money but see no return on their advertising dollars.  They come to the conclusion that advertising on sways is a poor investment and leave.  Sways ultimately loses advertisers and on and on.

12

howdy mako,

hmmm to this i could mention the greater-fool theory, as the saying goes, “there’s one born every minute” 

so if anyone here did have enough spare time to click through those ads just for the heck of it, disgruntled advertisers would leave, only to be replaced by fresh ones hehe and the cycle continues…

still i’d doubt whether anyone here would seriously get stoked from ad-clicking " )

 

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    Howzit doc, Go a web site called analogx.com and downloada program named cookie wall and you can delete all the cookies that websites have dropped on yur computer with 1 click. I ahve been using this program for years and the only cookies on my computerare the ones I want. If people only knew how many cookies are on their computer they would not believe it. Aloha,Kokua

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Hey, Kokua -

Well spotted, and thank you.

As an idea of how many cookies are on an average machine - well, I have had this one for something under two months and CookieWall (http://analogx.com/contents/download/Network/cookie/Freeware.htm ) found 1045 of the things. Best to have 'em under some control -

Thanks again

doc...

 

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    Howzit doc, Now you just need to keep ones that you want , ones that contain user names and pass words so you don't have to enter that info every time you log on to certain websites. I only keep cookies like Swaylocks and banking info. It seems you downloaded the program and now if you empty the middle box after every online session you won't get those emails that seem to read your mind. Every one should use it. Aloha,Kokua