It is a given that there is click fraud out there.  That's why we (speaking of AdGenta) scan the incoming click data for obvious fraud then when we audit it goes through again.  Come on sometimes it's obvious.  Like the one user who clicked on the same ad over and over and over again, within minutes, from the same computer, without even refreshing their cache.  I'm serious it happened, I saw the data.  Dumb, plain dumb.
 
So Chitika.  Well they told everyone how much they might earn from their unaudited data.  Hey I use Chitika eMiniMalls too.  Heck there are even Chitika ads in some of my old posts (which makes me wonder how those are generating significant clicks).  How does this work?  Well they counted a click.  The click is worth a certain bid price (cost per click) so they just went clicks x bid price = earnings.  Great.  Simple math.  But ... But at the end of the month Chitika's ad providers come back and say ... okay you sent us 100 clicks ... we're only paying you for 45 of them, sorry.  Ouch.
 
So, I'm not blaming Chitika here.  They have to audit their data, match it with the ad provider's data coming in (which btw is not fun ... ) and report.
 
How can we make this better?  Well, let's be realistic ... unaudited data should NOT be reporting earnings.  I use the data as a barometer for how my traffic and ads are doing (with AdGenta data you can track down to the post/ad).  I track the number of impressions and clicks.  In fact, I scann all AdGenta users' data.  I'm looking for patterns. Are impressions and clicks going up or down (you know there is a noticable pattern for the week, btw)?  Is there a user who seems to be getting it right?  Do I know how much the clicks are worth (in terms of bid prices)?  Of course I do, that is part of my job.  You'd be pretty cranky at me if I wasn't tracking that data.
 
So for AdGenta we've been giving you unaudited data.  Data you can use to help you track your ad impressions and which advertisments your readers respond to.  Not how much cash you're making.  We can't tell you that until we know which clicks will count and how much those clicks are worth.  Yeah it's quite a matrix.  Again, not fun.  In the future we'd like to improve things.  We'd like to be able to give you live, audited data.  Can we?  That all depends on the data we get.  In the meantime ...
 
We're auditing data.  We'll tell you, as best we can, how it is done.  We'll tell you what is out of our control.
 
If you have questions ... fire away.  This is new territory for not only us but advertisers too.  I personally talk with them.  I personally argue your case.  That bloggers should be able to place ads they control into their posts.  They should be able to post that article wherever they can.  Some advertisers get it.  Others don't.  Regardless, we're working hard for you.  Let me know how I can help you.
 
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