I'm getting fake, unwanted traffic to my URL

10 replies
I am getting like 1000 visits per day to my website from fanfiction.net. It is using up all of my bandwidth allotment I have for each month, AND it skews my ratios. I think this happened because I got suckered into using adengage.com and buying ppc banner ads. I emailed their support to try to stop it. is this common? if I was getting 1000+ REAL visitors per day, i would see sales, and I am not. this is annoying, how to make it stop, can I ban any traffic from that site somehow or what???

when I look at google analytics or my AWS stats (hostgator). i can see that its less than one second on the site and there is no clicking around on the page at all or scrolling.

any insight or feedback appreciated. Im guessing this is pretty common. Looks good in a report. 30,000+ visitors per month, 100,000 hits, but its crap traffic

:confused::confused::confused::confused:
#fake #traffic #unwanted #url
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Mayo
    Block the IP address of the site or in your ".htaccess" file redirect the IP to and blank page.
    That will seriously kill the bandwidth problem. Or redirect the traffic back to them...lol

    Hope that Helps,
    Have a Great Day!
    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Or redirect anyone coming from fanfiction.net to a page on your site with all content and no images.

    That way, if it is just low-quality traffic, you will still get a chance to convert them.
    Signature
    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author magnus1
    Yeah, redirect that traffic to a very general offer, maybe "win a free ipad" cpa offer or similar. Seems a waste not to capitalize on that traffic.


    Cheers,
    Michelle
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  • Profile picture of the author HotDamnShortSales
    could this possibly be REAL human being traffic? i dont think it is, and what is the benefit of someone spamming my url? I don't get it why its happening. Im the creator of the product,so my skills with this kind of stuff is very limited. maybe I can call hostgator support and they can do it for me?
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  • Profile picture of the author HotDamnShortSales
    figured it out, just matter of simply adding the domain name or ip address to the block list. thanks..
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by HotDamnShortSales View Post

      I think this happened because I got suckered into using adengage.com and buying ppc banner ads.
      Originally Posted by HotDamnShortSales View Post

      figured it out, just matter of simply adding the domain name or ip address to the block list. thanks..

      To be honest, I am incredulous!

      You think this traffic is the result of some paid advertising you have in place.

      And since the traffic is not converting, you are going to block the referrer.

      First off, bandwidth is super cheap.

      Second, you are probably paying for this traffic, yet you are complaining about it not converting, and not willing to do anything to present an offer that audience wants.

      Now I can get that those people are not in your target audience. But wouldn't it make more sense to stop paying for the advertising?

      Don't you see what you are doing?

      You are paying for traffic, then blocking the traffic you are paying for...

      Just give me the word, and I will send you the instructions on how to redirect that unwanted traffic to one of my pages.

      After all, you are paying for that traffic. Instead of letting those people land on a blank page, why not send them to a page where someone could potentially give them something that they would be interested in seeing?
      Signature
      Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
      Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author Leslie B
    why don't you just stop the ad? Once you stop the ad, it won't appear on fanfiction.net anymore and you won't get traffic from them. Or can't you block that site from showing your ads?

    I read fanfiction myself (one of my guilty pleasures) and honestly, when those ads appear, I click away asap 'cause I want to read the story, not see that "annoying" ad, so yeah, I could see that those wouldn't convert.

    Leslie
    Signature
    Taking it one day at a time!
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  • Profile picture of the author MrBig
    Block the IP address of the site or in your ".htaccess" file redirect the IP to and blank page.
    That will seriously kill the bandwidth problem. Or redirect the traffic back to them...lol
    That really helps your problem ..
    i also have had this problem ...

    why don't you just stop the ad? Once you stop the ad, it won't appear on fanfiction.net anymore and you won't get traffic from them.
    This One looks like a nice one to me ..

    try to kill your attraction of the site ... that would really help to release your bandwidth.
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  • Profile picture of the author HotDamnShortSales
    @tpw...I stopped paying for this traffic weeks ago, to be honest, I don't even know if it was from the adengage ad,

    2) its getting hits from all areas of fanfiction.net yet when I go there and surf around for an hour i never see one of my ads.

    3) the "traffic" spends less than 1 second on the site, there is no clicking around or scrolling down to see the price. its crap crap traffic and someone or somehow I'm being spammed. So I am NOT paying for this traffic, I stopped all ppc ads weeks ago. I also used adbrite, might be coming from that, but like i said I only spent 50 bucks with them each. so somehow, somewhere, i keep getting these "hits", they are crap. im not interested in reselling my domain or site so I dont need "10,000 hits per month" website!

    4) Im lowering the price, 99 bucks I think is too high, gonna drop it to $47.

    5)I am now just spending my money on organic SEO, linkbuilding,article marketing, etc. Going to take months and months or more, but that's the route im going. I like FB ads, but they are expensive and its not in the budget yet. We DID have sales, but they were at the launching price of $47 bucks, so Im gonna drop it back down to that.

    I blocked the fanfiction.net domain. I also found out with hostgator, i have the silver reseller account, i DONT NEED a reseller account, but i was told to get that one and leave godaddy by someone. I just need the basic hostgator hosting for 9.99 per month, but now hg is telling me I cant downgrade and need to just purchase a completely new membership and transfer all my files, etc.

    right now i think its 19.99 per month, but the other one is unlimited bandwidth and then I dont have to care. anyway...thanks everyone for your feedback.

    chris
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