New York Times Essay on Ken Lay Explains a Lot about Pay per Click

So it seems that disgraced Enron Chairman Ken Lay is spending about $25 a day in pay-per-click advertising to tell his side of the story to people who search on Google for "Enron" or the names of reporters who have written negative stories about him. When you search on one of those terms, you get a listing to the right or at the top of the page that takes you to kenlayinfo.com, and Lay has to pay Google about a dime every time someone clicks on one of those links.

Of course, this has led, according to an essay in The New York Times, to a fair amount of click fraud. Some former employees of the company who feel cheated by Lay are cheating back by clicking repeatedly on those ads, getting small revenge in chalking up additional dimes for Lay to pay.

The writer of the Times essay, John Schwartz, likes the idea so much that he suggests it for investors reading his essay. He tells them how to do a search, find the link, and click away in order to get their revenge on Lay.

In his essay, Schwartz has done a great job of explaining the ups and downs of pay-per-click. It can be a fantastic tool, but it is open to fraud. Contact MHP Communications of you're considering a campaign of your own.