While my initial test of Exoclick seemed promising, long-term results make me question whether it’s worth using at all. I want to believe that it will send me quality traffic at 1.3 cents per click, but it looks more and more like Brainfox-quality traffic (and that’s about the worst traffic you can get.)

See, I’ve been checking things out, and even when Exoclick sends me 100 clicks to a specific page, 0 of those show up in Google Analytics. Their traffic used to show up, but it looks like there are too many spammers partaking in Exoclick these days.

(I should point out that some campaigns do get traffic from the actual Exoclick search engine, but I think the problems stem from some scammers in the content network that are ruining things for everyone.)

I guess the time has come where we’re limited to Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

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Everyone is always going on about “the next Google” or “the Google killer” or whatever. The website in question is usually some new search engine that has some bugs to work out, or it’s their own project that they think is the greatest thing ever. And claiming something is the “Google killer” will get some buzz, right?

But everyone is missing out. See, the next Google is SearchMash. No question about it; this is a fact, not a guess.

How am I so sure? Because SearchMash is Google!

That’s right, SearchMash is owned by Google. It’s where they test out cool new features before using them on Google.com. This way the regular Google users don’t get freaked out. So if want to see some of the new innovations for Google, look at SearchMash first. Chances are, any new Google innovations will be on there first.

Don’t believe me? Just check the whois data.

By the way, it’s a cool search engine. It’s Google 2.0 you could say.

So next time some wannabe webmaster says they’re developing the Google killer, tell them to get a life, and then tell them to take a look at SearchMash.

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Have you ever ventured outside the realms of Google and Yahoo in search of cheaper Pay-Per-Click (PPC) traffic?

If so, you may have used places such as 7Search, Kanoodle, and Brainfox.

I’ve used all of them, and while none will be overtaking Google anytime soon, hopefully one will get shut down. And that one is Brainfox.

I could be wrong, but I think it is a total scam. All my dealings with them have been fishy. Luckily their minimum deposit is $10, so I’ve never lost a lot, but it’s kind of annoying to say the least.

Last time I used them, after I made my deposit, I burnt through my budget of $10 overnight. How did I get 1000 clicks overnight? With the keywords and bids I entered, that should not have happened. (It never happened in AdWords or Overture and those search engines have a tad bit more traffic…)

Hmm…

So I checked my reports to see where the traffic was going. The keywords showed about 50 cents worth of clicks, yet all my money was gone! At first I thought it was a reporting glitch, but I kept checking back, and the stats were the same. It seems that the real stats don’t come till a month later. What good is that?

Still skeptical, I searched the net for some Brainfox reviews. Too bad I didn’t do this a while ago - just look at these results!

• An Epinions forum thread
• Very good thread on DP forums
• Some reviews at alexa.com
• Notice at Search Engine Forums

I think the results speak for themselves…

And did I mention they don’t have any helpful support…

AVOID Brainfox!

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