Pity Clicks?

I read in some blog that a good way of saying thanks to a blog that you read is to click on the ads on the site.

I've seen many reaction on the said blog and some strongly disagrees on this and even pointed out that advertisers would see their ROI drop from these ads, causing them to either cancel the ads or negotiate lower prices because of this 'pity clicks'.

At first I thought that clicking the ads on a good blog that you read is ok. It's like, as the author puts it, a 'tip' to the author for the good read.

While clicking the ad would mean just like going to a mall and not buying anything at all, what will be it's impact on the advertisers?

How about you, what do you have to say about this?

 

A lot of people would say it's a waste of advertisers money, but I don't really agree with that. There are a lot of good sites getting no clicks and a lot of bad sites getting a lot of clicks.

I spend months making my site and I get a click about once a month. Pity clicks for me wouldn't be bad

 

I don't think you should do anything like that out of pity. If you really wanted to help someone, give them some advice on how to improve their site...

 

As an advertiser, I say - if you want to leave a tip for a blogger, do it out of your money, not mine.

 

If it's an ad you are actually interested in, I'd click it if not I usually try to bookmark the site and come back a few more times to give them a traffic boost, if I really like the site/product I link to them though one of my many blogs.

I agree if you want to help with money donate, even if it's just a dollar many people would be grateful for that.

 

But how can you tell the difference between pity clicks and genuine clicks?

 

Pity clicks won't work. Google tracks how many people order from a particular site, so if they see a number of clicks from one site to another that don't convert & don't stay there long, then you will get smartpriced, meaning only low value ads will be served on your site.

 

And further to that - again speaking as an advertiser - I run regular reports on where my ads are appearing in the content / adsense network. Anywhere I'm getting clicks that aren't converting, or even just doesn't look like the right place for my ads - I put on my exclusion list.

(EDIT - does a little dance - this was my 2000th post!)

 

I believe it was Seth Goden that said that. Think he was just trying to be controversial though.

 

Interesting point, not sure I'd encourage it though - the all-seeing Google eye will always find out