Be careful of click fraud

This site is equipped with Google AdSense ads. Of course, I want my readers to click on them. Every time they do, I get a tiny bit of money.

However, I won't ever consider click fraud as a way to get more money from my blogs. Click fraud, apparently, is a pretty big problem these days for AdSense and other pay-per-click services.

The fraud happens in a few ways. Most common is that blog owners somehow try to click their own ads for extra dollars, perhaps from an outside computer, such as one at their place of employment or at their local public library. Other times, site owners tell their friends or family members to click on their ads to help them make a few extra pennies.

Both are considered fraud because the folks clicking on the ads have no interest in the company's placing them.

The New York Times ran an interesting story recently about click fraud.

The Times details the steps online advertisers are taking to make sure that the clicks they do receive are from Web visitors truly interested in their products or services.

If you run AdSense, don't be tempted to engage in click fraud. The folks at Google monitor these things carefully, and if they determine that you're trying to game the system, they won't hesitate to give you the boot.