Recently, Nuffnang and Advertlets started serving CPC ads to their publishers. Unlike CPM ads, CPC ads poses a new challenge to both companies — click fraud. Detecting click frauds is not a simple task. Building an effective system that recognizes and/or prevents click frauds is even harder. They are dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of possible click fraud cases. Therefore, “manual auditing” is definitely not an option.

Since the launch of CPC ads by Nuffnang, I noticed difficulty in differentiating between a CPM and CPC ad myself. There is simply no indication on the banner ad itself or even in the email notification sent by Nuffnang. This was also felt by a slightly frustrated chic.

Suet Li from Nuffnang explained:

The reason why we didn’t notify you prior to adding the ad is because the advertisers feel that if bloggers are told beforehand, then there will be a lot of faulty clicks. Some bloggers may themselves or through their friends click their own ads which will end up driving advertising costs unjustifiably.

After some discussion with another fellow blogger, I came to realize one thing. Does it really matter if I am served CPC or CPM ads? I might be disappointed after the week old campaign has ended only to find out that I have earned less than what I thought I would (ie. I received less clicks, thus less earning compared to CPM ads). Apart from that, what other reasons would I be frustrated for? Maybe if I knew that it was a CPC ad campaign, that I would have “done things differently”?

Both Nuffnang and Advertlets’ “fraud detection system” (if any) are merely few weeks old. pikey, who are publishers of Nuffnang and Advertlets has something to say (13/6/2007 08:15:29):

In terms of CPC, there’s better transparency in Nuffnang because it lists out the ad campaign you were involved, type of campaign, CPC and the rate for it. At the moment, Advertlets is still working on the Stat page and I’m still clueles. Am I running for CPC or Cost/unique campaign? and what are the CPC rates?

Sometimes, being first doesn’t mean better.

Barely 24 hours after exposing the Nuffnang’s evil quadruplets, all 3 of them have repented. Now that nAffnAng.com, nUffnUng.com and nAffnUng.com have seen the light, they truly know that Nuffnang.com is where they belong.

Let’s hope that the devil doesn’t pray pray anymore.

I guess it’s true that nothing taste better than free lunch.

Now, where the hell is my food?

UPDATED VERSION. Once again, the shy goddess surprised me with her latest findings. She even put up a short goddess conversation in her post while she was hunting for her nail polish remover (must read). I hope it doesn’t end in a goddess vs fairy duel. Quoting her findings:

Seriously, loyalty is based on trust and it’s Naffnang.com (go ahead, type in into your browser) shit like this that makes me afraid of you.

If you did not try it out, Naffnang.com redirects all traffics to Advertlets website. Just when I thought that the real Nuffnang has an evil twin, I received a tip off from Marcus of another registered domain — Nuffnung.com. All of a sudden there are triplets!

UPDATE: Finally, I have my account activated. I am able to view the full list of the other 12 domains that are hosted on the same server. That is when I found a fourth evil sibling — Naffnung.com!

A whois check on both all three of the domain names (naffnang.com, nuffnung.com and naffnung.com) reveals that the personal information of the owner of the domain names are masked with privacy protection.

After some digging around, I found that both all three of the domain names point to a server that hosts a dozen other domain names. Tumpang.com is one of them. I had some e-mail exchanges with the owner of Tumpang.com few months ago. If I’m not mistaken, I was told that part of the website was developed by Josh’s group. This was later confirmed by another individual.

A whois check on Tumpang.com shows that it is running on a dedicated server (should be the same server as the other 2 evil domains). So, does Tumpang.com owns the dedicated server? Or are they just a client of another company who owns the server?

adiestudio7.com is another domain name that points to the same server. However, traffic from adiestudio7.com is redirected to Tumpang.com. Strangely, the method used to redirect the traffic is exactly the same used to redirect traffic from the “evil triplets” to Advertlets website.

<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=0;URL=”http://my.tumpang.com”>

<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=0;URL=”http://www.advertlets.com”>

This could either mean that the person responsible for redirecting the two are the same person, or this is purely coincidence.

The question that I still can’t answer is, “Did Advertlets registered the two domains?”

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Note: I found out that this “news” isn’t new. People already know about the evil triplets quadruplets some time ago. Strangely, I have never heard anything about it at all. Have you?

So the battle between Nuffnang and Advertlets is heating up. Recently, I’ve read a few posts and comments (even in my blog) that some publishers from both companies are ranting about not being served paid ads yet. I’ve said this many times, we (the publishers) must be patient. Both companies are new and therefore the number of advertisers are small but growing. Angel left a comment in freethinker’s blog that I do not agree:

The ‘cake’ is only ‘this’ big. But the number of ppl who wanna eat the cake is increasing. You are a smart chap. You know where I’m leading to

The ‘cake’ is only ‘this’ big for now. It’s true that the ‘cake’ cannot support the whole population yet. However, it is constantly growing as time passes by. Again, patience is what we need. Correct me if I’m wrong, Advertlets has 2 or 3 advertisers so far, while Nuffnang has 6 or 7. Nuffnang’s “weekly campaign” means you get a chance every week. Check out this “post-length” comment I left on freethinker’s blog for more explanation.

Now back to the main point of this post. I have found a way for Advertlets’ publishers to get a paid ad served to them almost immediately. Sorry to Nuffnang publishers, because I doubt this method works for Nuffnang. At least Advertlets’ publishers get to “enjoy” this tip. I came up with this “formula” after reading a few blog posts and doing some “investigation”. I will only mention 3 of them here.

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First is babyfiona’s blog. In her post To PULL or Not to PULL (original post removed), she mentioned she was thinking of taking down Nuffnang and Advertlets’ banners because no ads have been served so far. In her next post Back Dated Post-Someone Disturb Me Buy Spotlight.., she mentioned that Josh Lim called her up on the same day while she was searching [REMOVED]. Guess what? She has been served an ad soon after.

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Second is drizad’s blog. In his post Running test – Malaysian ads for bloggers, I noticed the image posted below. The account status is still “Pending” but he has been served a paid ad. I thought a publisher will only be served a paid ad after they have successfully fill up the 50 answered polls?

Image from drizad’s blog.

Before I go too deep into this, I tested this myself — I still have a test account with Advertlets. So I filled up the 50 polls myself. Yes — for those Advertlets publishers who haven’t already know, you can fill up the polls yourself. I got my 50 polls answered in 10 minutes. That was when I realize that this could be a bug because after filling up the 50 polls, my status is still “Pending”.

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Third is freethinker’s blog. In his post Nuffnang : What Over Speculation Would Sound Like, he ranted spoke his mind about not being served an ad from neither company. What I want to point out is one of the comment he made, “Then after munching 2 hours of Bauer, I came back and see JL (aka Josh Lim) had served up an ad in this blog… what a coincidence…“.

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So, what is my “formula” or secret to be served an ad from Advertlets almost immediately? Just RANT! Rant about not being served any ads. Rant that you will ditch both banners immediately if no ads are served to you within X days. Rant that both companies suck and that they are just cheating you to help them advertise themselves. RANT! JUST RANT! To increase the possibility, put up both Nuffnang and Advertlets banners.

I am confident, in “no time”, Josh Lim will give you a buzz, and you will see an ad served to you almost immediately. Desperate situation requires desperate action. I guess my initial speculation might be true after all. Their “tactic” of serving ads to publishers who rant about not getting ads (especially) from BOTH sides, could be a desperate attempt to “WIN” their hearts over. I wonder if their “Monthly Impressions Available” counter not working has anything to do with all this.

After digging up a few other blogs and interviewing the blogger, I have conclusive evidence that Josh Lim is serving ads to “unqualified” publishers (ie. those that have not filled up the 50 required polls). And because one of them has requested that I do not disclose his/her identity, I have decided not to disclose anyone of their identities. If you are an Advertlets publisher and has been served an ad even when you are not “qualified” for it, do contact me or just leave a comment.

To Advertlets’ publishers, I hope you enjoyed my “tip”. Use it wisely!