Problems with Clicksor

Hello.

As part of a pay per popup service review, we at the Great Traffic Experiment were testing the Clicksor popup service. For our test, we placed Clicksor code on a high-traffic test page. We then monitored incoming hits and usage data in order to determine whether Clicksor was accurately reporting ad impressions.

Everything was going fine until our test page got Slashdotted and received the customary massive surge of traffic. In very short order, our Clicksor account had accumulated about $130. We then removed the ad, as it was producing multi-spawning windows (which, by the way, Clicksor says its code will not do).

But no sweat, right? We annoyed the visitors a bit, but at least we got some great data and made some cash to boot. Nope. At the end of the month, we got this message from Clicksor:

Your account '[number removed]' at clicksor.com is suspended!
Clicksor.com audits every Affiliate's traffic on a regular basis.
According to our audit, we believe that you are producing commit fraudulent activities.

At first, we figured there must have been a software error. Google and other well-established companies have software that's smart enough to realize that websites sometimes get sudden, massive surges of traffic from one place, but a little guy like Clicksor probably isn't smart enough to figure that out.

We figured it would be a simple matter of contacing their customer support and having a human look at their logs, and maybe sending them our data to prove there hadn't been any funny business. After all, looking at our traffic data (shown here in a screenshot culled from Google Analytics), it's easy to see where the massive surge was coming from:

http://www.thegreattrafficexperiment.com/Analytics.gif

After contacting their support people, we got this back:

After reviewing your account in detail, unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that your site will not be re-activated. We have detected that there was excessive reloading generated from your site. As impressions and clicks generated are disqualified, the revenue generated will be refunded to our advertisers.

Ok, so it was a different problem--reloading. Our test page contains about 10 videos linked to one central page, so the usage data tends to show visitors going from the main page to the videos, back to the main page, on to another video, etc.

Given that layout, it's possible that their software saw a bunch of hits from the same IP on one page 30 seconds or so apart, and thought something fishy was going on. There's also the chance that someone got angry about the popup and decided to spam our page in retribution.

In any event, we figured it was a simple misunderstanding--either they would look at their records, see our page layout, and give us our money, or they would deduct a certain amount for the fraudulent traffic.

When we contacted Clicksor via phone, they informed us that they were suspending all of our earnings permanently. When we asked them for any specific information about the nature of the "fradulent" traffic, they refused to give it to us, saying that all of our traffic was from suspect sources. The implications of that are ridiculous--it's simply not possible that every Slashdot user is a robot or paid surfer, yet that's how Clicksor classified them.

In our last communication with Clicksor, we simply asked for information, so that we could determine what they were actually working with:

"What I want to know is what portion of my traffic was actually considered fraudulent, and exactly how that determination was made (how many refreshes are considered suspect, etc.). Although I know that I did not commit fraud, I am willing to acknowledge the possibility that a visitor refreshed my page illegally, inflating my hit count. If that occurred, then I am also perfectly willing to forfeit the earnings that were credited to my account as a result of that illegal inflation. However, since you are giving me no specific information as to the nature of the alleged illegal activity, I have no way to know how much of my traffic was determined to be fraudulent, and how that determination was reached."

As of this writing, more than a month after that email was sent, Clicksor still has not responded to us.

Based on our experiences, it's fair to conclude that Clicksor's software is faulty--it red-flags large surges of traffic, and it raise a red flag if a page is laid out in such a way that visitors leapfrog from place to place.

Clicksor's business practices are also questionable--they essentially stole $130 from us without providing any information as to the nature of our alleged fraud. Since Clicksor won't share its data, even in the event of a seizue of funds, it could easily cheat its publishers by claiming that fraud had occured, witholding funds, and pocketing money from its advertisers.

Overall, the best advice we can give is to think twice before signing up with Clicksor, especially if you have a site that is subject to large traffic surges, or high number of pages views per visitor. Clicksor's software isn't smart enough to handle sruges or comlex layouts, and you risk losing your earnings based on information that Clicksor will not share with you.

If you've had any similar experiences with Clicksor, or if you'd like more information about our experience, please feel free to contact us at feedback@thegreattrafficexperiment.com

Tom
TGTE