We take a break from our regular programming to bring you a community service message about something that is rather worrying to us lately.
As you might already know, there are 2 types of Nuffnang campaigns that bloggers may earn from: Metered Cost per Impression (mCPM) Campaigns, which pay according to the number of blog visitors who view the ads running on blogs; and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) campaigns, which pay bloggers based on the number of clicks generated on the ads.
We've noticed that certain groups have been engaging click fraud, which is defined as clicking on CPC advertisements intentionally just to generate earnings for a blog's owner. We understand that some of you may just be anxious about earning some side income from displaying the banner ads, but do note that this is in fact a violation of our Terms & Conditions under Section 6.
Among some of the actions which constitute click fraud are;
- clicking on other bloggers' ads and leaving a comment behind asking/hinting to the owner to click on their ads back
- asking for blog visitors' help to click on the ads
- registering a large number of blogs and clicking on ads on each of them
- repeatedly switching to a different IP to click on own ads
Banner ads spaces are bought by advertisers to promote their advertising campaign. Ads are are only supposed to be clicked on if the viewer is interested to find out more about the advertising campaign, not for the intention of earning extra money. Merely clicking on banner ads for the intention of earning extra money would jeopardize the effectiveness of a campaign. It may seem harmless, but click fraud benefits no one in the long run because should this situation worsen, the frequency of ad campaigns might be significantly reduced as advertisers will be selective to only advertise on blogs with no records of click fraud, reducing the number of ad space available to advertisers.
Our system is capable of tracking these actions mentioned above, which are documented and if necessary, be used as evidence for any legal purposes. In the past, Nuffnang has suspended and banned various individuals and groups for involved with this offence. However, as the number of bloggers who engage in click fraud has been growing in an alarming rate within our community, we are forced to be more vigilant to bring this to an end. We would take the necessary action to preserve the quality of blogs and ad space available to advertisers so other members of the community are not affected by those who engage in click fraud.
We realize that many Nuffnangers may not be aware that they might unintentionally be involved with click fraud, therefore we ask that you please help us spread the word. If you are aware of any of your friends or other Nuffnangers who have been engaging in such acts, we would appreciate it if you could kindly educate them on the harms of engaging in click fraud activities.
Thank you for your attention.
Say NO to click Fraud.
Cheers
Robb Chew
Blogger Relations Department
Nuffanng Sdn Bhd
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salam sejahtera Nuffnanger,
Seperti yang anda mungkin sedia maklum, terdapat 2 jenis kempen iklan yang diberikan oleh Nuffnang iaitu Metered (mCPM) Campaign yang dibayar berdasarkan jumlah pengunjung yang melihat iklan dan Cost-Per-Click (CPC) Campaign yang dibayar berdasarkan jumlah klik terkumpul dari iklan yang disiarkan.
Kami menyedari bahawa terdapat sebilangan ahli yang terlibat dengan aktiviti click fraud, iaitu perbuatan klik pada iklan CPC dengan sengaja demi menjana pendapatan pemilik unit iklan tersebut.
Aktiviti click fraud melanggari terma & syarat kami di bawah seksyen 6.
Suatu unit iklan itu sepatutnya diklik oleh pengunjung yang berminat untuk mendapatkan maklumat lanjut mengenai kempen iklan yang dipapar, dan bukan semata-mata bertujuan untuk menjanakan pendapatan. Sekiranya situasi ini bertambah buruk, kadar penyiaran kempen iklan akan turut berkurangan oleh kerana pihak kami hanya dapat menjual ruangan iklan di dalam blog yang tidak mempunyai rekod aktiviti click fraud.
Sistem kami mampu untuk menjejak serta merekodkan aktiviti click fraud dan sekiranya perlu, rekod-rekod yang terkumpul boleh digunakan sebagai bahan bukti bagi tujuan kehakiman. Sebelum ini, pihak Nuffnang telah pun menggantung dan menyenarai hitam pelbagai individu dan kumpulan yang terlibat dalam aktiviti click fraud. Namun, disebabkan bilangan ahli di dalam komuniti yang melakukan click fraud semakin bertambah ke suatu tahap yang membimbangkan, kami dipaksa untuk lebih berwaspada dan tegas dalam mengambil tindakan. Ini bagi memastikan ahli komuniti yang lain tidak berasa tertindas dalam jangka masa panjang.
Di antara perbuatan click fraud yang umum ialah:
- klik pada unit iklan milik blogger lain dan meninggalkan komen di blognya bagi meminta blogger tersebut untuk klik pada unit iklan milik sendiri.
- mendaftar sejumlah besar blog dan klik pada iklan dalam setiap satu.
- menukar alamat IP komputer dan klik pada unit iklan secara berulang-ulang .
Tindakan akan diambil sekiranya perbuatan di atas dapat dikesan oleh pihak kami.
Sekiranya anda mengetahui mana-mana rakan anda atau pihak lain yang terlibat dengan aktiviti ini, kami amat menghargai usaha anda menasihati mereka untuk tidak berbuat demikian. Mana-mana ahli yang dikesan melakukan aktiviti click fraud akan diambil tindakan tegas oleh pihak kami, sama ada melalui penggantungan atau penutupan akaun miliknya.
Terima kasih atas perhatian anda.
Sekian,
Robb Chew
Jabatan Perhubungan Blogger
Nuffnang Sdn Bhd
