Organic traffic is “over” says Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix.

Usually, when I hear somebody from the online world say something is “over” I laugh. As we know TV is over (we spend 43% of our media time on TV and over 4 1/2 hours a day with live TV), radio is dead (only almost 2 hours daily with AM/FM radio) and so forth.

It’s usually just hype to get you to buy the next shiny object. But the Topix CEO’s claim is something entirely different. He’s gone on the record stating that the wave of the future for publishers is buying traffic.

That means he’s happy to sell you a heaping dose of bots. I’d argue mostly bots, especially if you’re lazy and don’t care to look too closely. Read the AdExchanger article linked above very carefully.

Take a close look at every site on which you purchase impressions. I wrote on this in December, with a quick checklist at the bottom.

Takeaway: You now have to treat every digital impression under the assumption that it’s not human. Fraudulent impressions are not the exception; they are the rule. Be skeptical. Very skeptical.

P.S. If you buy any digital media, I encourage you to read AdExchanger every morning. If you wonder why your working media percentage is so low, the gibberish you see on AdExchanger explains it. Pick a few of the terms and give your head of digital marketing a pop quiz some day.