Back when WidgetBucks was just launched, I did ask in my post how they would conduct their fraud auditing because I did not see anything related to it on their site. I noticed though, that WidgetBucks had, and still has perhaps the most attention drawing “widget” I’ve seen to date on the Web. In terms of ad appearance, I think they took it to a whole new level. I thought it was probably worth a try on a relevant shopping site, but didn’t expect WidgetBucks to take off like it did.

In little more than a month, WidgetBucks has notched a top 5 k Alexa ranking, “disappeared” from Google, reappeared back on Google, had their widgets served to several hundred million impressions, and probably ended up being blogged about by more blogs than I dare to imagine…as well as appearing on thousands upon thousands of sites.

Now, in the wake of their auditing, and many publishers getting banned, naturally a lot of people are asking, is WidgetBucks a scam? My answer is, “I don’t think they are a scam, BUT they didn’t do themselves any favors by accepting so many publishers in the first place, and not having very strictly defined terms of service up front – on the first sign up page.”

I don’t think they are fake, because if that were the case, why do they have so many huge shopping site names in their network? Names like eBay and Amazon, to name but two. Secondly, they have multi-million dollar venture capitalist funding, with big names on board. I don’t think these guys would risk their reputation to scam people for some fast money…

I still believe they will pay their publishers their due, come December, but with all the bans dished out, how many will actually be paid in the end? That’s the question.

Update: WidgetBucks will no longer pay for clicks originating outside of the United States and Canada, and they will scrutinize all new applications carefully before approving them, as of November 15.

The latest addition to the gadget bandwagon is WidgetBucks, an ad network that pays via a CPC (cost per click) model. I had a look at it, and it looks somewhat promising, as it’s not based on a CPA (cost per action) model, unlike AuctionAds.

What this means is WidgetBucks could (in theory) be easier for the publisher to make some money with, since people do not have to buy anything for the publisher to get paid.

But I have a couple of questions…

How does WidgetBucks differentiate between genuine and invalid clicks? I searched, but couldn’t find further info on this. There is currently no detailed ad tracking mechanism for the publisher apart from the basic stats in their account. Also, how do they determine fake sign ups since the only requirement is an email, and every sign up gets a $25 credit to boot?

Aside from that…

WidgetBucks may still worth a try, because…

• It’s very easy to place/embed on any site.
• It’s very targeted for product specific sites.
• It has a theoretically easier monetization model (CPC).
• It pays via PayPal (convenient) or check.
• It has a geo-targeting feature called MerchSense.
• It has nice graphical layouts and a rotating product display which attract attention.
• It bears a similarity to Chitika, a tested and proven model.
• It appears to be a viable Adsense alternative.
• It appears to be compatible with Adsense; Chitika was.

As WidgetBucks appears to be very new on the scene, I think it does deserve a shot before embracing/dismissing it. What better way to test, than a high traffic product based site?