Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Clicking On Your Own Ads
When the concept of pay-per-click advertising was first thought of, there was one obvious flaw. Pay-per-click depends on blog and website owners displaying contextual advertising on their website. Every time a visitor to that website clicks on one of those adverts, the website or blog owner receives a small cash amount in to their PPC account. When the funds in the PPC account have accumulated, the blog or website owner can withdraw the funds - and another Internet Marketer is born.
Yet there's an obvious problem with this idea. If revenue is generated by people clicking on adverts, surely the blog or website owner could just go around clicking on their own adverts? They'd generate revenue easily and quickly, perhaps touring around internet cafes, browsing their own site and then clicking on an ad and watching their PPC account total build. What a wonderful life!
Of course, spotting this flaw was fairly immediate. In truth, there isn't much that PPC companies such as Adsense can do regarding this practice; it relies on the honesty of its users, and the amount of time that would be needed to constantly be changing IP address and locations. Even if you did tour internet cafes, thus changing the IP address of every click, a PPC company would eventually notice that a large portion of clicks were coming from one geographical area.
And that's only if you're smart. Some people, people who are now banned from PPC companies, click their own ads off the same computer and IP address they use to login to their PPC account. It's crazy, and if you get caught, your account will be terminated and your website blacklisted forever. What's more, all funds in your account will be terminated. Don't take the risk; you will get caught, and you will be banned.