A few of my friends and also 1-2 visitors asked me personally, why I chose to be Nuffnang’s Gliteratti instead of Advertlets’ TITAN. Is it better pay or is the ads working better. When I gave my answer to them, they were surprised and suggested that I should blog about it. They say, if I keep quiet, that would mean I’m guilty. Especially in the eyes of Josh Lim of Advertlets.

After considering after a while (like 6 months!), I think I’ll tell the whole story here. Since I shamelessly declared that Josh Lim loved me a year ago, it’s only fair to report that our relationship didn’t work out.

My earnings amount with them went over the minimum cash-out a few months after I joined and I decided to cash out before Raya last year. The cheque didn’t arrive after 2 months so I sent a support ticket, I received assurances I would get it before Christmas.

Year 2008 came and still no cash. Sent an email inquiry again.

*And then* the real reason came out.

Their email support says my account was involved in a click-fraud scheme. Twice I had to answer a set of questionaires that was basically trying to force me to “raise my hand that I asked my readers to click on the ads”.

Even after answering those questions the check never came. I emailed again and Josh personally replied me, saying that I will get my money minus the “suspicious” clicks. In the same email, Josh advised me not to ask my reader to click on the ads again.

Aiyah - looks like someone lost trust in me and my dear blog.

So I replied and asked for the logs or maybe, the set of IP addresses that advertlets identified as “suspicious” so that I can do my own investigation and then, I can skip serving the ads when these ip addresses came.

Of course, no reply from Josh. I finally got the cheque in with half of the amount deducted.

The whole episode left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s one thing to be accused of something but at least try to show me some facts that made them say I was involved in a click fraud scheme.

And can somebody show me the part where I asked you to click on my ads? I’ve been serving adsense for how many years and I never had any problem with them. Advertisements on my blogs and other sites have been serving me well and only greedy publishers would ask their readers to click or participate in a “if you click mine I will click yours” scheme.

By publishing this post, I am making a stand againts Advertlets to say that all that was earned in my account was legit. My conscience is clear. I am not fighting to get the money as it seems that they need it much more than I do. I just don’t want you to think that I am guilty of anything if I kept quiet. That’s all the purpose of this post, I don’t want the people over at advertlets going around saying my blog is not trustworthy.

That will scare potential advertisers from my blog and related sites for good.

In a way, I was forced being a Nuffnang Gliteratti but it seems like it is the best move for me. I have cashed 1 cheque and I have 2 more on the way (1 will be cleared end of this month, while the other end of next month).