Hey, this is the Daily Overpass! My name is Eric and I make apps! Now today, I want
to talk about how I'm very angry about developers who try to defraud their
advertisers.
Okay, so today, I got an email from someone that I'm gonna read to you. It
actually makes me a bit angry and a bit, a bit - I'm a bit frustrated with it.
So, I'm gonna read it to you and so you, guys, could see what I'm talking about. So,
it says, "Hi sir. I'm an Android developer from India. I
have a question about AdMob VPN clicks. AdMob VPM click exchange is safe or not?
Or please suggest me other earning method from Android apps." Okay, so,
I didn't know what and what AdMob VPN click exchange was. I did a quick Google
of it just to make sure that I - it was what I when it sounds like, which is fake
clicks on app. So you know, if you go through and just start, if you put an
AdMob on your phone and just start clicking it all the time, thinking you're
just raking in the money, you know, and just doing fake clicks that way, they're
gonna shut you down. And they should, right? So, apparently, this is -
some people out there have these services that you could have VPN network,
so you have the fake clicks and you could get around the system or whatever
supposedly. And he's asking me whether or not it's safe. And the thing
that frustrates me about it, the thing it makes me angry about it is that I have
no idea, I would never do anything like that. This is not a victimless
crime. Is it safe? God, I hope not. I hope it get shut down. I hope they all get
shut down. I hope Google does their job. The thing is, a lot
of people get their AdMob accounts suspended before for too many clicks or
excessive clicks in a development environment. Like they don't go through
and put the ad test device in there. Or you - like for me, I've never had my
AdMob suspended, oh, except for placement issues. Like I said, you know, you can't
have it when it opens up here, that kind of stuff. It's usually really simple
It's just - it's like an honest mistake or I'll just go through and
readjust that ad. Move something over, that kind of stuff. But I've never, I've
never been done for fake clicking cuz I could I never have. So, and
I've had friends who said to be like, "Oh hey, I was using your app and I was
clicking on the ads for you." And I think, 'Yeah, please don't do that.
That's not - that's not helpful at all." One of the things to be really
careful about when you're in development is sometimes like you're using a test
device and like a lot of times that test device ID, it changes. Like for me, I
got so many different test device IDs and it's all for the same phone, because
when I test it again it does it. So, as soon as I see that I have a live ad on
there, then I'll go through and put ad test device because, you know, because
they do - they do crack down on that. Did you think about it, this kind of thing?
And the thing that bothered me the most about it was, cuz I spend money on ads
too, right? I've gone through and spent money on advertising. Some of my
apps I've done it through AdMob, I've done through Facebook. I've done through
lots of other networks trying different things, so you know, so basically what
this person is doing is like taking from me. Not just taking it from me, it's
taking from app developers all over the world, or small businesses all over the
world. So, it's not a victimless crime. It's not just you
taking from the big faceless Google. it's taking from them and all these other
people put their hopes and dreams into I've got this, I've got this app,
or I've got this product. Or I've got this website and I just need to get
people. If I could just get people to find it, I'll pay. I'll pay a few cents to
get some eyes on it, everything like that. and that's who you're taking away from.
And it just it made me angry. I always say that if you plan on
making money from ads in your application, you need to take out some
ad yourself. So, you understand the whole process. You need to understand
the impressions versus impressions versus clicks, you know, the different
ways people pay, the way they monetize the different areas and just go to
understand the process. So, you know, how it goes. You can optimize your
your app for that and always hear the same thing from people. When I say
you should create some ads, see what it's like, oh yeah, but Eric
I don't have any money for ads. And the thing is, nobody has money for ads.
That money could always be spent on something better. Every time I spent
money on ads, it's been, you know, I really don't want to do this. I'd
rather spend this on improving the product. I'd rather spend this on on
doing something like hiring somebody or getting- getting some new
graphics, all that kind of stuff. But no, we need to get this in front of people,
that's our media concern. So, we'll spend a bit of money on ads and then of
course, apparently there's services out there. I know there's people
out there who are trying to fake the system all the time. And I know when you
get all those clicks, we put out an ad, you know, a lot of the clicks
might be fake. This is why I always go for the lowest bid price possible. I
will go for one cent and if if that's too low to get any impressions,
I'll go for two cents and I'll go for three cents, which is terrible
because on the other side of that, I make revenue from that. And then the RPMs
keep going lower and lower and lower. But that's because your faith in the system
goes down. Because there's people out there who are faking the system. So,
it's a - it's like that email that I just read. What it does is - what it shows me is
that there's this - there's still this mentality out there that there's
free money available with apps. All you have to do is be smart enough and
they just like - Dude, apps are just like everything else just like your job,
just like everything else. it's an exchange for goods or services. People
are either gonna buy your product, they're gonna buy your app and they're
gonna pay for the good. You're gonna pay for your product or they're gonna pay
for your service. So you know, what advertising is doing is that what you're
doing as an app developer is you are doing something you love. You are
building a product, you are getting an audience and you're doing - you're
building something. Getting an audience and as you build that audience, people
are paying you to send a little bit of that audience over to have a look at
their product. The ads don't run the application. The application runs the
ads. Same as a television show, you've seen television shows which are all
about ads, you know, they're just completely concerned with advertisements
and not about the story. Pretty soon people don't go to those because because
it's that way. And you see other things that are just all about the story and
they work so well and do such a good job that eventually they can charge a lot
for ads, because they've built that audience. So anyway, I'm angry that I
got that email. Just to make the record clear for anybody else who wants to
email me about how to fake the system in the future, I don't believe in it. I don't
do it and most people who watch this channel, most developers
I've ever spoken to don't do it. If you want to make money there are better ways
to do it than through AdMob. There are easier ways to make money than through
that method. So anyway, that's - sorry for a little bit of a rant today. Let me
know what you, guys, think. It might - it might just be too sanctimonious today
because of the sounds. I think I just got a little riled up. So anyway, let me know
what you, guys, think. That's it for today. I'll talk to you tomorrow.