Antwort von clicks-fx.comvor 12 Jahren
I'd really hate to justify our competitors, but you have no idea what you are talking about. PTC industry is a little bit more legitimate, than you imagine. I know a few websites, that would fit your description quite well, but, generally, there is not so much scam as you imagine.
OK, let's start from the beginning.
"members are clicking to get paid and not because they have a natural, autonomous interest in what they click"
Money is not the only thing, that you are rewarded with for viewing ads in our world.
When you watch a TV, YouTube, or even most websites, you see the ads in exchange for some value - entertainment. Same thing with PTC, you see the advertisements of goods or services in exchange for some value, only this time it's money. This form of advertising, when applied correctly, is extremely effective. Just like TV ads.
"---About search engines---"
Read wikipedia before you post something like this.
PTC advertising has nothing to do with search optimization.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ptc+traffic+google+page+rank
Traffic rank is formed by linked websites.
When engines like Google scan websites, they find links. More websites are linked to yours - better page rank you have.
Page with links on GPTs is either completely closed from unregistered visitors and search engines, or links are provided in some hidden form and don't redirect to advertised websites. On Clicks-FX they are both unaccessible and hidden.
And even if there would be such feature, this is not criminal - 1 PTC website is just one domain, this won't help your traffic rank.
Assuming, that traffic can boost your page rank in some visitor counters is just ridiculous too.
On ALL PTC websites you don't go directly to the advertised website, there is inner frame where the ad is displayed. In address bar you see address of PTC website. Otherwise, it is impossible to control how long member stays on the website. Only if you are interested in ad, you can open it in new window and get +1 visit to the advertiser's stats.
So the only website, that gets those visits in all possible ranks is PTC website itself.
There is no use of PTC other, than advertise content. If you want your ranks go up, you should go to really fraudulent businesses - SEOs.
"PTC sites regularly promote businesses which are unethical or outright scams."
Could not agree more. We are different. We don't promote any third party services or products, while all ads from advertisers have to pass our tests. If we find a proof, that advertiser is a scammer or promotes 18+ content, we simply refund money and block his ad.
"PTC sites tend to become insolvent due to pyramid schemes"
You are completely right here too. 99.9% of PTC websites sell "referrals" and "shares", that, eventually, lead to crackdown of their financial system. We don't offer any of those, and there is nothing even remotely similar to pyramid on Clicks-FX. Our model is transparent and simple - advertisers pay to get their work done, members get paid to do it. No "ands" or "buts". Thanks to our clients and partners (especially, Crowdflower), our finances are excellent.
After all - PTC is not spam. It is just new and awesome way to advertise your products or services. It is as effective and as legitimate as TV ad - only much cheaper. Especially on Clicks-FX, where your ad is backed up with unique attention checking system, that makes sure, that member can't earn a dime if he does not read text inside the ad.
Advertisers are really happy with sales they get, more, than 50% of customers are returning.
But hey, why am I telling you all this - aren't you supposed to find this info by yourself BEFORE you rate someone? It's said so in MyWOT rules. ;)