Sedo: Please show the proof of fraud

[Tedgeman]

Wow, just reading this thread, little wonder, not many companies, like Sedo, have the courage to engage a thread like this one.
Anyone, with who is unhappy with their service gets to bash in an open forum.
This enableling, gives a bit of a weapon to a disgruntled domainer.
Well, its get to hear from you Jay, hope this forum proves more helpful than harmful to Sedo, who many of us use and remain quite happy with.
Hope your problem gets resolved Domaindealer.
Tedge

 

[Smith]

I applaud sedo for taking a hard stand on click fraud. We need more companies to kick the ass of people committing click fraud, they are not only steeling from the advertisers, they are steeling from everyone involved in the ppc market.

I would also love to see some communication behind the scenes between the ppc companies. When one person who commits fraud is identified all ppc's should be alerted, a black list if you were. I'm sure Lawrence & Dan would be down for something like this.

 

[hiOsilver]

I applaud sedo for taking a hard stand on click fraud. We need more companies to kick the ass of people committing click fraud, they are not only steeling from the advertisers, they are steeling from everyone involved in the ppc market.

I would also love to see some communication behind the scenes between the ppc companies. When one person who commits fraud is identified all ppc's should be alerted, a black list if you were. I'm sure Lawrence & Dan would be down for something like this.

Agreed.

Complainers should consider that when traffic is really bad, the advertiser will ask the search partner, Yahoo or Google or whomever, for a credit. If the search partner sees the lame traffic coming from Sedo or whomever, then they will reduce the payment to Sedo or whomever. So, it is possible that Sedo received no income for this non-converting traffic.

Everyone of us has a responsibility to give our PPCServices the best traffic we can. The advertisers must make sales off of our traffic, or the whole PPC model collapses.

 

[tm3500]

Complainers should consider that when traffic is really bad, the advertiser will ask the search partner, Yahoo or Google or whomever, for a credit. If the search partner sees the lame traffic coming from Sedo or whomever, then they will reduce the payment to Sedo or whomever. So, it is possible that Sedo received no income for this non-converting traffic.

Even if that is the case, Sedo should take the loss, and pay the domainer for the traffic they consumed - right up to the point when they informed the domainer that they can no longer accept traffic from that particular domain. (Such a procedure is actually common practice at some of Sedo's more customer-oriented, and quite possibly more profitable, competitors.)

If Sedo absolutely can't pay that kind of money for financial reasons, i.e. if they are receiving more unperforming traffic than they can detect within a reasonable timeframe, then they should state very clearly up-front that they will only pay for clicks if at least some of these clicks result in sales at their advertisers' end, and that they can retroactively keep all revenue earned by a domainer in case the traffic from one or several of his domains doesn't perform. (i.e. "Pay Per Click if at least one Sale" rather than "Pay Per Click")

Anything else is a slap in the face of not just any self-respecting domainer but of the entire industry. I'm not disputing that there's a lot of bad traffic out there and that bad traffic hurts us all. But Sedo can't have it both ways - they can't accept traffic on a Pay per Click basis and then not pay for it if they aren't satisfied with the results.

George

 

[Try-Searching.com]

Even if that is the case, Sedo should take the loss, and pay the domainer for the traffic they consumed - right up to the point when they informed the domainer that they can no longer accept traffic from that particular domain. (Such a procedure is actually common practice at some of Sedo's more customer-oriented, and quite possibly more profitable, competitors.)

If Sedo absolutely can't pay that kind of money for financial reasons, i.e. if they are receiving more unperforming traffic than they can detect within a reasonable timeframe, then they should state very clearly up-front that they will only pay for clicks if at least some of these clicks result in sales at their advertisers' end, and that they can retroactively keep all revenue earned by a domainer in case the traffic from one or several of his domains doesn't perform. (i.e. "Pay Per Click if at least one Sale" rather than "Pay Per Click")

Anything else is a slap in the face of not just any self-respecting domainer but of the entire industry. I'm not disputing that there's a lot of bad traffic out there and that bad traffic hurts us all. But Sedo can't have it both ways - they can't accept traffic on a Pay per Click basis and then not pay for it if they aren't satisfied with the results.

George

George, I have to say that you wrapped it up pretty good there.

Sedo has given themselves a black eye in my book and I will not do business with them and will continue to tell others that I don't think they should either. At least until they make some changes.

Best of success to you my fellow domainers

 

[DomainDealer]

Even if that is the case, Sedo should take the loss, and pay the domainer for the traffic they consumed - right up to the point when they informed the domainer that they can no longer accept traffic from that particular domain. (Such a procedure is actually common practice at some of Sedo's more customer-oriented, and quite possibly more profitable, competitors.)

If Sedo absolutely can't pay that kind of money for financial reasons, i.e. if they are receiving more unperforming traffic than they can detect within a reasonable timeframe, then they should state very clearly up-front that they will only pay for clicks if at least some of these clicks result in sales at their advertisers' end, and that they can retroactively keep all revenue earned by a domainer in case the traffic from one or several of his domains doesn't perform. (i.e. "Pay Per Click if at least one Sale" rather than "Pay Per Click")

Anything else is a slap in the face of not just any self-respecting domainer but of the entire industry. I'm not disputing that there's a lot of bad traffic out there and that bad traffic hurts us all. But Sedo can't have it both ways - they can't accept traffic on a Pay per Click basis and then not pay for it if they aren't satisfied with the results.

George

I totally agree with tm3500 + Try-Searching.com :

I dont dispute the fact my traffic was bad or non-converting, but to come to me 1 to 2 days before I get paid and inform me, I not going to be paid for the last 40 days for parking my domains was disbelieve. They could have and should have informed me earlier and not wait till they get most of my traffic.

Sedo seems like to change subject and play with stories ... when I inform them of such above statement about my traffic, they inform me I was cheating there system and I have not received one prove of evidence for one month and still waiting. According, to Jay it takes lots of manual work to go over the traffic and find the evidence ! Huh ? Then why do you send email with nothing to backup there statement and hope for the best ?

 

[esger]

Got this mail from SEDO a week ago :

Hello,

We have analyzed your parked domains traffic and we can come to no other conclusion than it is artificial. This domain has not been parked with us but records hundreds of unique visitors per day. Our parking program cannot accept promotional traffic, such as that generated by pop up or pop under software, in any way shape or form. Our advertising partner does not consider this traffic to be of any value. Per our agreement with our advertising partner we cannot pay you for the traffic and we must decline all future traffic from this domain.

We must insist that you stop using any service that artificially inflates the number of views.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer them.

Best Regards,

Of course, I did not generate traffic in any way. I reply to SEDO and since, no news from them... Until today, I got an email from Paypal saying that I received money from SEDO. That was the money for this domain name.

The day after I received the first email, I removed 90% of my domains from SEDO and parked them on GK...

Going back to SEDO? Humm...

Thanks for the money... Apologies and answers to my mail would be welcome as well...

Steve

 

[SedoCoUk]

Hello Steve,

From the signature in your thread it looks like you've got some very good .ca names. I'll be happy to look into this closer for you when I get in tomorrow and can look through my mail. Just in case please pm me your Sedo login name.

Jay
[email protected]

Got this mail from SEDO a week ago :



Of course, I did not generate traffic in any way. I reply to SEDO and since, no news from them... Until today, I got an email from Paypal saying that I received money from SEDO. That was the money for this domain name.

The day after I received the first email, I removed 90% of my domains from SEDO and parked them on GK...

Going back to SEDO? Humm...

Thanks for the money... Apologies and answers to my mail would be welcome as well...

Steve

 

[DomainDealer]

Got this mail from SEDO a week ago :

The day after I received the first email, I removed 90% of my domains from SEDO and parked them on GK...

Going back to SEDO? Humm...

Thanks for the money... Apologies and answers to my mail would be welcome as well...

Steve

I never tried GK but DS has been making me good profits. Sedo is Company you cannot trust they will backstab you when ever they are in need of money. There trick is to send random email to there clients about not being paid for 'cheating, fraud, etc' and wish for the best.

Trick me once, shame on you. Trick me twice, shame on me.

 

[MarkMan]

ok,

as anyone can see Sedo used google and google is the one that cancels publishers that are not converting.

so if the traffic is not converting .. google doesn't pay sedo for that advertisers traffic and well sedo doesn't pay the person that parked with them.

is it fair, hell no i once payed google $11,500 in advertising that only generated $4000 in total revenue .

i never got my money back for this and i don't believe google gives any of its advertisers money back for non converting traffic, but google doesn't pay its publishers for non converting traffic and Sedo is only a publisher.

how do you people think google has such huge revenues??

conclusion avoid any domain parking program , or sponsor that used or deals with google

 

[namestrands]

Markman by your definition then we should stay away from Airplanes and cars because sometimes they are a little risky.

The fact is... these issues are exceptions to the rule. The majority of people have positive experience.. as for you spending $11,500 only to gain $4000 is just crazy..

Most people I know spend $4000 and earn $20,000+.. granted its not easy but experience and taking risks is the only way to make money.

Traffic that does not convert hurts us all as advertisers pay less and therefore our cut is less.. all PPC programmes should have Zero Tolerance Policies..

People do try many tactics to cheat the systems, its in our nature.. I mean what harm would a couple of clicks do..? its easy money.. however the reality is that it will not sustain the industry and the revenue will be short lived.

Buying domains that have dropped also hides many secrets as you are not aware of what advertising or SPAM the previous owners had used to promote.. also buying domains on ebay are often over inflated with untargeted traffic from exchange programs and such like.

Ignorance can not be a defense.. If you were to buy a car.. you would want to know its history.. a domain name should be treated the same.

Google has to act in the best interest of its advertisers.. if they allowed rampant click fraud then they would be out of business very quickly.. SEDO must protect there assets and reputation.

 

[MarkMan]

well that's the point, you can't blame sedo for what Google's polices.


I am not unique in the 11k to 4k revenue problem, i know others in my industry with the same problems and yes it is one of the reasons the pay per click in my industry dropped to the ground, in fact when i been checking lately their are barely any advertisers in my industry anymore
its funny their used to hundreds of advertisers now only 2/5

so as you said google must protect its advertisers but they don't they only protect their pockets. If they did give advertisers the money for the non converting /invalid clicks .. they would not stop advertising as they did and so did i.

I no longer offer any of my clients google as a medium for advertising .. i have to be crazy to do that .

sedo is a publisher of google, i am sure they do their best to pay the most they can and in the same time make some money using the advantage of being big and having a larger share of revenue .

 

[ukbackorder]

Seems a lot of people miss the point. If sedo pay out for false or rubbish traffic then ultimately bids will fall and people with genuine/quality traffic will lose money. All parking programs are quite clear on what is and isn't acceptable - terms which you agree to when using their parking services. Those of you who quickly rally to the side of someone with 50 domains who has had his account suspended due to bad traffic are not looking at how allowing this person to continue would affect your own futures. I have 2500ish domains parked at sedo and have never once had a warning about bad traffic. Why is that? Simply they are typeins or search engine driven as per Sedo's terms. All the people who complain and have revenue withheld are either deliberately trying to boost earnings fraudulently or are passing traffic that is not worth a bean. I hope they continue to clamp down on these people and keep bids high for all of us that don't seem to have a problem. At some point you must decide if you wish to keep the freeloaders going or expect some of them to be shut down to preserve your own livelihood.

 

[financialtraffic]

The quality of traffic has everything to do with it. I Have never heard of anyone with a one or two word GENERIC domain (that has logical keywords) having a problem with fraud, unless they start link spamming or something of that nature.

If you invest in spammed or linked/expired domains you have to understand that you may not get as much for the traffic as it may not be as valuable as traffic generated from a pure type-in domain. And it is Google's or Yahoo's right to say, "Hey we are getting garbage traffic that has a .0001 conversion rate from this domain -- we don't want it and won't pay for it!"

 

[MarkMan]

well I was right about staying a way from companies that deal with google

funny , but i should take my own advice sometimes

my account got canceled for the same reason. I called Sedo and talked to my manager and was told that simply the traffic wasn't converting well.

I am disappointed but not surprised , hay next time i would listen to my own advice

lol

anyway, i am going to try to find a way to actually convert this traffic to sales.

i get the point that Pay Per Click is really just a Pay Per Sale with a face lift

 

[namestrands]

The problem is not with google or its partners the problem is with domain owner.. if the domain is crap then why should people pay or get paid for that matter..

In my experience google cancel accounts with good cause... and I have no problem with that.. or any other Parking Program banning users and telling them that there domains are not converting which is another way of saying that something is very suspicous with the traffic.

 

[TurNIC.com]

>>After 5 days of testing with GoldKey, I'm back to Sedo & willing to establish a long-lasting relationship. I definitely appreciate Jay's constant feedback, support and good sales skills>>

You are like a belly dancer. With Sedo without Sedo with sedo without sedo. Not just you but this guy with this little chinise picture. This thread was very interesting to read to see how people turn from what they said before. Here is the moral of the study. If you have a domain which was used forn porn sites or tgps then you dropcathed it can not be used for credit card keywords. If you use bad traffic SEDO can claim both previous or future revenue back.

Believe me this practice is good for all of domainers.

TurNIC

 

[namestrands]

You are like a belly dancer. With Sedo without Sedo with sedo without sedo........

I think a lot of people are now leaving goldkey.. they had a good run...

As for SEDO I wish them every success but all relationships must end.. SEDO are still the market leader.. no doubt..

so no belly dancing for me.. its either all in or all out now...

 

[furca]

One of the many reasons I use DS. (plus they can make payments through paypal)

Sorry to hear of your "Horror" stories

 

[namestrands]

I have tried them all.. There are 4 main contenders SEDO - DomainSponsor and the new underdogs ParkingSite and NameDrive.. competition is great for the market.. it wont be long before they start buying each other out.

There is a vote of no confidence in SEDO at the moment.. but I am sure they will listen now and take action. They have to ensure that the flow of information during issues and events like those of recent weeks be addressed.. it takes only 2 minutes to post an update.

Fraud is rife in this industry.. next to Gambling and Porn its nothing short of organised crime by these click junkies trying to defraud parking and other contextual advertising programs.. its these people that tick me off more than the below average customer service from certain PPC's

I myself got a letter from SEDO.. Yes Me.. I know I was shocked too.. about a certain domain of mine that was producing false traffic.. I was so angry.. but I bit my tongue and explained that is was a dropped name.. and they were like ok thats cool.. now we know.. so there you have it..

I vote for ZERO tolerance and I would stand by any PPC program that got rid of these little fraudsters once and for all.. as it only incourages them to want more, and to go on to bigger and more damaging Scams..

Show Proof of Fraud.. hmm I think there should be a rogues gallery of these fraudsters and there domains posted for all to see.... and shared with all PPC programs and Search Engines.

My 2 cents...