It's called "domaining", "domain Kiting", or "domain tasting". It is the art of buying domain names and parking them with adsense. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about…so many times, I search for a domain name and see it taken, then I go to the website and find a single page parked with tons of ads on it. Frustrating, isn't it. need an example, look at domaining.com, it's a perfect example.

Domain tasting lets you try a domain name for about 5 days without having to buy it. Spammers have written automatic scripts to register as many domain names as possible. They immediately park ads on the site, and try to get some clicks. If the site does not produce they drop the name, or they drop it and re-register it immediatly…known as "domain kiting". So they can basically keep millions of domain names without paying for them. Of course the process is immediate so there is no chance for you to try to get a one of these domain names when they expire.

The spammers throw away the domain name if they do not generate any money, so how much does the domain need to generate in order to be kept? try $6 a year…not a day, not a month, $6 a year. Of course multiply that my thousands of websites and you are making some serious money.

With up to six million names tied up at any given time through a practice known as domain-name tasting, individuals and businesses are having even greater difficulty finding good names, particularly in the already-crowded dot-com space.

The practice has spiked, with an average tasting of 1.2 million names each day in December, compared with 7,200 two years earlier, according to data from Name Intelligence, which analyzes domain name patterns. Legitimate registrations made up 2 percent of the registrations at the end of 2006, down from about half in 2004.

Source: International Herald

Here is some good information about domain parking: Netbusinessblog.com 

How do you get an expired domain…old story, but a good read: expired domain auctions 

Bottom line is this, if it can earn 2 cents a day it can provide 6% ROI, at 3 cents a day that's a whopping 60% ROI and that's the bottom of the barrel, look and you can hand register much better than that daily.
Source: Webmasterworld forum on parking

so next time you try to get a domain name and find them all taken, just know you are not alone. 

Popularity: 13% [?]

The biggest concern about advertising with google adwords is what stops competitors and criminals from clicking on my ads and driving up my advertising costs. Looks like very little, but google is working on it, and currently, even though less then 10% of all clicks are due to fraud this adds up to billions

“At Google’s current revenue rate, every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone,” said Google. Add it up and Google forgoes roughly $1 billion in revenue due to click fraud.
Source:ZDNET

I have stopped our adwords campaigns for 2 reasons. First, it is getting too expensive to use adwords, secondly You can clicks to website using other free methods, it just takes more time.

I stopped using adwords late 2006, and we recently started them back up, but to my surprise they added minimum bid requirements and for most of the San Francisco keywords I wanted to use, the minimum bid was $5.00 and most clicks coming from those was $2.00 to $3.00. On a budget of $20.00 per day, that is only 10 clicks a day and with a 50% conversion rate to leads, that is only 5 a day…compare that to our other means of getting leads and it is just not worth it. I think I would just have to study the system for a couple hours to understand the google adword system again, but I’m going to put that off for now, especially after this report.

Miriam L. Kauterman, owner of Premier Homes Real Estate LLC, a vacation rental home and sales firm in Avalon, N.J., said she spent more than $27,000 advertising with Google for two years, but stopped in August after she saw a suspiciously high number of clicks. When she asked Google to investigate, the search engine refunded her only $56 — much less than what she thought she was owed. She has joined the lawsuit filed against Google last month in Pennsylvania. “I feel like I’ve been robbed and there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said. “It’s infuriating.”
Source: Washington Post

How does click fraud get committed?

It’s really quite simple…Fraudsters start an adsense account. From this adsense account, they will earn roughly 15 cents per click (Real estate is high price advertisment, so real estate ads bring in closer to 40-50 cents). Now they create a group to click on the ads and pay them roughly 1 penny per click. although some pay half a penny per click. Why people do it? I have no Idea. The same amount of time it takes to make minimal profits could be spent working at a normal job and making minimum wage would be ten fold.

This problem of click fraud is really just the second coming of web 1.0, remember the first internet. I use to do a lot of affiliate marketing around 1997, before text ads. Back then it was all image banners. The method of payment back then was pay-per-click, roughly 10 cents per click on a banner in your website…This model eventually gave way to a pay-per-signup, or pay-per-purchase. Looks like the current trend in online advertising might be headed the same direction.

in 1997, click fraud came from websites that allowed free Warez. Warez is hacked programs to run without serials, mp3, appz, images, etc…This is before Napster and torrents so we had to get our mp3’s somehow. There were sites that allows you to download unlimited mp3’s from their site, but you had to login to access the music. To get a username and password you would have to go to their site, click on a banner, and then find the username and password on the advertisers page. There would be instructions like, username is the 3rd word in the website title, and the password is the last word on the page. Don’t forget these are caveman days as compared to the internet of today.
Other sources:
Adwords Blog

SearchEngineLand.com

Popularity: 8% [?]

This is what it looks like when google adwords goes down:

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Google AdSense の web サイトは一時的にご利用いただけません。後で再度お試しくださいますようお願いいたします。
お手数をおかけいたしますことをお詫びいたします。

Die Google AdSense-Website ist vorübergehend nicht verfügbar. Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal.
Wir entschuldigen uns für eventuell enstandene Unannehmlichkeiten.

Le site Google AdSense est temporairement indisponible. Veuillez réessayer plus tard.
Nous vous prions de nous excuser pour le désagrément occasionné.

El sitio web de AdSense de Google no se encuentra disponible en estos momentos. Por favor, inténtelo de nuevo más tarde.
Disculpe las molestias.

Google AdSense 网站暂时无法浏览。请您稍候再尝试。
对于造成您的不便我们感到抱歉。

Il sito AdSense di Google è temporaneamente non disponibile. La preghiamo di provare più tardi.
Ci scusiamo per il disagio.

De website van Google AdSense is tijdelijk niet beschikbaar. Probeert u het later opnieuw.
Onze excuses voor het eventuele ongemak.

Google AdSense Sayfası geçici olarak hizmet dışıdır. Lütfen, daha sonra tekrar deneyin.
Bu geçici sorundan dolayı özür dileriz.

O site do Google AdSense não está disponível no momento. Tente novamente mais tarde.
Pedimos desculpas pelo inconveniente.

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

Witryna programu Google AdSense jest chwilowo niedostępna. Prosimy spróbuj później.
Przepraszamy za wszelkie niedogodności.

Веб-сайт Google AdSense временно недоступен. Попробуйте, пожалуйста, еще раз через несколько минут.
Мы приносим свои извинения за причиненные неудобства.

Google AdSense webbplats är för tillfället inte tillgänglig. Försök igen senare.
Vi ber om ursäkt för eventuellt besvär.

Google AdSense-webstedet er ikke tilgængeligt i øjeblikket. Prøv igen senere.
Vi beklager ulejligheden.

Google AdSense 웹사이트를 일시적으로 사용하실 수 없습니다 . 나중에 다시 시도해 보십시오 .
불편을 끼쳐드려 죄송합니다 .

Google AdSense-webområdet er midlertidig utilgjengelig. Prøv igjen senere.
Vi beklager eventuelle problemer dette medfører.

Google AdSense 網站暫時無法流覽。請您侍候再嘗試。
對於造成您的不便我們感到抱歉。

A Google AdSense oldal jelenleg nem elérhető. Kérjük, látogasson vissza később.
Elnézést kérünk az esetleges kellemetlenségekért.

Google AdSense –sivusto ei väliaikaisesti ole saatavilla. Yritä myöhemmin uudelleen.
Pahoittelemme tämän aiheuttamaa hankaluutta.

Stránka Google AdSense je dočasně nedostupná. Zkuste to později.
Omlouváme se za způsobené nepříjemnosti. 

Stránka Google AdSense je dočasne nedostupná. Skúste neskôr, prosím.
Ospravedlňujeme sa za spôsobené nepríjemnosti.

Google AdSense sučelje trenutno je nedostupno. Molimo Vas pokušajte kasnije.
Ispričavamo se za neugodnosti.

إن موقع Google AdSense غير متوفر وقتيا. يرجى تكرار المحاولة لاحقا. نعتذر عن أي إزعاج.

אתר Google AdSense איננו זמין כרגע. אנו מצטערים על אי הנוחות. אנא נסה שנית מאוחר יותר.

Google AdSense уебсайта е временно недостъпен. Моля опитайте по-късно. Извиняваме се за неудобството.

Η ιστοσελίδα του Google AdSense δεν είναι διαθέσιμη προς το παρόν. Παρακαλώ δοκιμάστε αργότερα. Ζητούμε συγγνώμη για την ενόχληση.

Popularity: 4% [?]