2005 is almost over, but looking ahead remains my passion. Here are a few more anticipations and predictions that should be added to my original Web Predictions for 2006 which I wrote over a week ago. Photo credit: Stefano Carboni…

I was accused of using programs to generate impressions and/or clicks on my site(s). Which i have never even heard of in my life. As a result my account (which has been active for almost 2-3 months), containing just over $100.00 USD was deleted and accused for the above. I demanded to see some evidence, or else legal (court) action will be taken against the company. I shouldnt be punished for something which i have never done or heard of, its pathetic!

While he sells PPC(CPC) too, only actions like online sales (no one can effectively track all offline sales unless the sale is made online and paid for at a physical location,IMO), registrations, forms, newsletter sign-ups, surveys completed, e-mail contacts, or “Live Help” contacts can avoid “large numbers” click fraud. Even small amounts of click fraud from only a few sources could be more easily detected with this “Pay Per Action” approach.

There aren’t many web sites that don’t want you to take some sort of action even if they are not e-commerce enabled.

Bill Kelm

The best way to greatly reduce and possibly elimiate click fraud? Junk the whole paid search system and replace it with a structured Internet environment; where competitors and other evil-doers would find it much more difficult, if not impossible, to locate especially suitable (ie high-cost/hi-value) ads to click on (as detailed at MatchTo.com).

How long will advertisers continue to “manage” 100′s to 1000′s of words and phrases once they’re given the chance to bid on their targeted markets’ actual demo/psychographics?

I agree with Paul that click fraud is only going to get FAR worse this year since the mainstream is starting to catch on. Like the early days of spam, there seems to be a potential for unchecked growth and the mechanisms to combat click fraud don’t seem as sophiticated as many of the click fraud schemes I have read about.

Perhaps one way of increasing the cost per click and reducing this fraud would be to implement something like a challenge response system for all traffic that is referred to a site via Ad-Words. Perhaps more sites will force customers to register. I guess it all depends on how badly the system get skewed – will click fraud be a parasite living in balanced coexistence or will it be irrationally virulent and bring the system down on its own head.