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How To Virtually Game Google's Adsense Program
We ran our software in a myriad of environments or "in the wild" using the following hardware and applications: Thirteen PC servers each equipped with its own virtual machine (meaning that each server had another operating system working within the parent operating system) Two separate modems All servers are linked together using one KVM switch (an abbreviation for Keyboard, Video or Visual Display Unit, Mouse is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse). All known available versions of browsers, platforms and OS builds. Each server is equipped with it's own software (XAMPP 1.6.1, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Reify Turnabout plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Greasemoney Extension for Firefox, Automate 6 Professional and Codelobster Code Editor) All screen resolutions All browsers and their past and present versions Frames and no-frames Flash and non-flash equipped sites Javascript and non-javascript enabled One monitor One key board and mouse Connections using a dial-up service, which gives us access to a list of phone numbers from all over the country (using twelve land lines), cable and DSL One IP address Excel The software performed the following tasks: It could boot up and shut down each server at specified times, which occurred during our normal working hours at our office (9 AM to 7PM). It could restart any computer when they crashed (They were PCs, what else?) It moved the mouse cursor (based on vertical and horizontal coordinates and relative to whatever screen size and resolution it's using at the time). It found a browser from a pool of many. It could find and open different search engines. It transversed a webpage. Lastly, and the most important aspect of the software, it clicked on links, again based on pre-programmed mouse cursor coordinates. All of those movements are activated using PHP, which talked to Javascript, which communicated with an Excel spreadsheet, which then gave each servers its commands. One day while watching our software work, we both noticed how our efficiently it traversed our web sites as though it were a real person. I don't remember which of us mentioned it first, but we both realized that our software had the capability to click on ads. With that in mind, we decided to try it out on Google's Adsense program, just as a test, to see if we could fool their algorithms. As an aside, in 2004, there was a story about a programmer in Seattle who attempted to extort money from Google. He threatened to sell a software similar to ours online unless Google paid him $100,000. What he had attempted to do was not considered fraudulent by the legal system so Google was forced to drop the charges. The guy was obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he did prove that Google could be gamed. So, we came up with a 'game' plan. We first registered several Godaddy accounts, choosing a template, which they offer, to match each one our domains. Everything we used was fake. Fake names, fake email addresses, fale physical addresses, fake phone numbers (which we purchased online), and most importantly fake EIN numbers (which Godaddy and Google does not typically check until the end of a 45 day pay cycle). The only element in the equation that we did not create and use were twelve unique IPs as that would have been click fraud. When everything was in place (and this was a massive undertaking for just two people) we set our virtual employees (bots) loose and they did their thing. In less than 45 days our software accumulated 60K in PPCs (that's virtual dollars folks. We never collected it). When it came time for Godaddy to pay us, their algorithms had discovered all the traffic was coming from one IP address (As I mentioned, we did not institute multiple unique IPs because we never intended to collect on the money). Subsequently, Godaddy cancelled our domain names. All in all, we were out the cost of the domain names, which was approx. $1,800, but we felt that it was money well spent for us to learn how to exploit Google's Adsense's inefficiency. Had we used twelve unique IPs and real EINs it remains to be seen what kind of revenue we might have captured. Had we implemented our concept correctly, not only would we have not been detected, but we wouldn't have been greedy. which would have kept us under the radar. Plus Google our clicks would always be mixed with the malaise of advertisers themselves clicking on their competitors ads to see what their pricing is and certainly to sink their budget. We will always wonder if Google kept their share of the revenue our bot clicks made off their advertisers. I somehow doubt it as they purport to be honest and if they were challenged by a advertiser, they wouldn't be able to provide the evidence that paid us. But who knows how many advertisers take them to task after forking over a sizable sum of money. I read somewhere that 26 million publishers commit click fraud. Based on that fact and future inevitability, it seems to me that it would behoove advertisers to buy ads on a cost per action basis, meaning that they would only pay for clicked ads when the clickers turn into buyers. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com "Understanding Internet Technology" - www.understandinginternettechnology.com/2008/05/partnerships.html |
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