Cheaters and Theives Amongst Us
Recently there have been several webmasters outed for their methods of cheating link exchanges and banner exchanges. After several topics were posted TalkArcades created a new forum section to report these sites and their methods: Hall of Shame
Be sure to read each page of every topic because there are several instances in which multiple sites where implicated within a thread. Better make sure to remove any of those links from your site! With the type of massive traffic trading that happens in the arcade industry, I have no doubt that there will be very many cheaters exposed.
I have found I have to watch all advertising I buy. If things don’t add up I visit the website. Lately I have found websites I have bought advertising on($$$) don’t show the ad at all and have been refunded. What looks good in the stats for the website may not be true. In the last week and a bit I have been refunded advertising dollars just because I check them out. Banners and peelaway ad spaces are not even on the websites at all. That made them easier. Other factors have been my websites analytics (of which I have 4 scripts including Google) I use to see which, who ,what,how, where,when, pageviews and in’s and out’s. Advertising stats have shown views and clicks, but my internal stats have not.
If you are buying. It pays to have your own ways of checking they are doing what you paid for.