What is Digg?66 Comments
- drewhenson, on 10/11/2007, -3/+58Is that an interrobang?
- clinko, on 10/11/2007, -5/+57I know i'm not the only one who looked this up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang
- Ninjab3ar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+29By Golly! Someone has discovered the rare and elusive interrobang! Spotted only by the uber 1337, the interrobang is the result of a question mark mating with an exclamation point...
- kcpwnsgman, on 10/11/2007, -3/+25oh thats ironic ؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark - bjornski, on 10/11/2007, -1/+20And there shall be much rejoicing by people who are sick of clicking through pages that were made for nothing but to draw adsense revenue.
I HATE them. Absolutely HATE them. They are nothing but spam that litters the internet.
I'm sorry if you make money running this scam, but I'm NOT sorry to see it go away. - Irimi, on 10/11/2007, -3/+21good riddance.
- scottc, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16"Why would they shut it down -- it's good economy, plus its a win-win situation, especially for Google."
It's only win-win in the short term. In the long term consumers - the ones who ultimately pay for all those clicks - get fed up with having to dig through AdSense farms to find what they and they switch search engines or give up on search altogether. - jeffguillaume, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13Excellent news. Now better quality ads will appear on real content-oriented sites.
- wolferz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12@ gamebittk
...and the usefulness of Google's search results suffers.
If enough of this was going on it could drown out all relevant information turning Google into the kind of search engine it was meant to replace: useless ones. Then nether Google nor these "services" would make a penny. Of course while Google files for bankruptcy these "services" would just hop on the latest big search engine that is trying to replace Google. In the end the only sure-fire loser is Google. - scottc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10@morganm "To be clear, these sites hurt no one, and marginally help a lot of people."
Interesting point. I would argue that they hurt more than help because they make searching a frustrating process of clicking through irrelevant pages of ads. If Google doesn't work to limit that someone else will, and they will have a better search engine as a result. - fkr3, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12It's about time google got rid of the whole "made for ads" crap. Probably a majority percentage of spam on the internet can be attributed solely to Google AdSense.
- SteveTheSultan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7End Customer. Clicking too much. That is googles customer. They got to keep them happy.
- SteveTheSultan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I think google is trying to bring good content to users. Rather than doing 2-3 jumps to get to a site the adsense would take them right to the content. Its good business for google, because thier users want results, not just more click throughs based on ads. This may be a move on google to limit the advertising and charge more for it, because the user experience is better?
I could just be talking out of my ass, which happens from time to time - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+11True Arbitrageurs will just evolve with these changes. There is too much money to be left on the table.
- Mudger, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8In case someone doesnt know what arbitrage it: It's a site made for a high "Click Through Rate" of adsense ads. Traffic is drove cheaply to the site via Adwords or Adcenter.
- checksumz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Arbitrage alone isn't the problem. It's arbitrage that offers no value to the advertiser while simultaneously pouring thousands of clicks into the system, effectively draining said advertiser's budget.
Arbitrage can be used effectively to transfer traffic from one PPC network to another, and while there are great profits to anyone who successfully manages to do this, it benefits the advertiser as well. Win/Win.
So to clarify, Google isn't simply going after arbitragers, they're going after arbitragers that offer no value to the network. - vroom101, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7For those who use this technique, is it fair to say there will be much private weeping and personal turmoil as folks see their AdSense revenues approach $0.00?
- Ademuth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6@Atomic1fire
Lats say i wanted to do this with Hoodia weight loss pills. I would build a site targeted towards a high paying keyword, say "Hoodia 57", which is this example would pay $0.25 per click, and put adsense all over it. I would then gather tons of keywords related to Hoodia weight loss pills and set a maximum price i am willing to pay per click, say $0.05, through a cheaper advertiser like findwhat or peakclick. some users will just click off of the site, but since it is targeted traffic a lot would stay and click on my ads and i would get a high CTR (click through rate), say 70%. So if i get 100 clicks, i pay and total of $5.00 for those clicks to my site. If 70% of those 100 people click though to my adsense ads, then i get payed $17.50. Thats $12.50 profit. (this is just an example, none of the prices above reflect actual prices or payouts, it's just off the top of my head, but you get the idea) - mlschop, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7FYI - "Arbitrage" is not a site. Arbitrage is a term used in economics for a risk-free investment (which is exactly what the these ad-sense "abusers" were getting)
- SteveTheSultan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5So I am clear, these are the sites that gather adsense advertising and are nothing but a portal or a list of google ads. The site would have a name like sccacarracingasdfasdf.com and basically just have adsense pointing to other sites. Kinda advertising to advertse?
Not trying to sound stupid, just want to make sure I understand - gamebittk, on 10/11/2007, -10/+15Why would they shut it down -- it's good economy, plus its a win-win situation, especially for Google.
Google gets money for sending traffic to arbitrageurs, arbitrageurs and Google make money with AdSense, companys signed up to AdSense get more traffic. - Atomic1fire, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5from a little research
and what you just said
is arbitrage just paying one company to send people to your site
and using google adsense to make money from those people - freeb26, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I am thrilled these opportunists are being shutdown. Google creates a cool system that works and damn "make a quick buck" ***** fill the net with rubbish. Oh well I guess this mean they going to spend the time now sending me more Viagra mail.
- jetpac83, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Exactly, it's a drive from google to provide more relevant adverts and therefore higher clickthroughs with more benefit to the user blah blah. I also heard an interesting quote from a product bod at one of the big metasearch engines : "why does it matter if a result is an advert or not as long as the result is relevant to the user?".
- ScottDaMan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Arbitrage is the act of paying for clicks to your site in the interest of them following through with a purchase, another advertisement click, etc. Most Google Adsense sites are arbitrage. The MFA sites are the ones that should worry
- joaob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Adwords to Adsense is a bad example.
3rd tier search engines like 7search to Adsense is more like it. - WilliamDavis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4"the only way to get it back would be to pay google $5.50 per click on thier network"
Damn man, get creative. You should've already talked to the ugly site guy, and been getting a better price than Google was giving you to start with. - oceanmajk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4It makes sense... with Google Checkout in the mix, it's a better business model to earn a profit on actual sales than a bunch of crap websites with your ads on it and ripping off businesses who don't get any real leads or sales through AdWords. Looks like AdWords might actually become useful again come June.
- JeremyTTU, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Google is #1 in the search market right now and they feel they must now deliver the best content to the end user. As much as we think big business is only in it for themselves, Google is doing the opposite.
- JeremyTTU, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Doubt it... the 3rd tier PPC vendors are not in the same $$$ level as AdSense. You get a higher avg CPC for an AdSense ad compared to providers like SearchFeed and Looksmart.
Therefore, you will not see the higher returns and profits. The only thing you could do is increase traffic to your site, but I highly doubt you will get the clicks you would need to make nearly the same profit at the same margin currently. - indicas, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Yes, and no. You pay pennies for PPC ads, send the traffic to a page with high-paying contextual ads. The difference is your profit, and it can be very high.
It's a nice ball once it gets rolling, but you need some capital. - explnx, on 04/27/2009, -1/+4I'm not educated on how this works. How do people get more money per click than they pay? Doesn't google take a sizable cut?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Its possible. However, Adsense has the widest array of advertisers & relatively the highest market click prices. Many arbritrageurs bottomfeed on very skewed keywords, and with other networks those keywords would not show ads as Adsense does.
- tim507, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Its not the end of arbitrage. Arbitrage is a very common business practice. its the MFA's (made for adsense) accounts that their getting rid of (bad arbitrage)
- lfrandom, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3What's to stop them from doing the exact thing but with two companies?
Pay Google for AdWords, another company to pay for click-thrus. The worst part about that arrangement is it would not be in Google's best interest to shut them down. - oceanmajk, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4The businesses paying for AdWords to generate leads or sales don't win. They just blow money on junk traffic.
- mikew101, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@rcook
No that would be an example of cpc ads for affiliate revenue. Ebay and amazon, and other large websites have affiliate sites. People buy obscure search queries that cost low amounts per click, and then send them to targeted search pages or product pages in hopes that the user will sign up if they do not have a login, or buy the object. Then ebay or amazon or whoever will pay these people a percentage of the sale. - torched, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4This has nothing to do with providing better ads for the customers its all about getting advertisers to pay more for clicks. My website is all about plasma tvs and I was running ads on the publisher network and found my adsense ads on what could be one of the ugliest web pages to ever hit the net BUT he was sending me clicks at $0.80 each that were converting at an average of 1:26 which is amazing for $1000+ priced items. A few weeks pass and the traffic stops, I come to find out that he wasn't running adsense on his site anymore (maybe banned?) so now my business was down 30% and the only way to get it back would be to pay google $5.50 per click on thier network (search results).
- JeremyTTU, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Yup...
- r2pro, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3oceanmajk is absolutely correct. Many adwords customers, myself included, opt out of the adsense network and only advertise on the search results due to this practice and the resulting junk traffic that it brings.
Google has known about this forever but they were content to let it go as long as it was more profitable to do this. I think the amount of adwords advertisers opting out of the adsense network have finally reached the magic point where it would be financially better for google to drop these MFA's and increase the quality of the adsense network. - rcook18, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I'm trying to understand this. A second ago, I did a Google Search for "strontium 90" and a link to eBay showed up advertising Strontium 90. (I suppose someone has some they don't need anymore.) Is this an example of arbitrage? How did it work?
- Gunrun, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Wow it's like you didn't even read the article. Here, let me point something out to you:
"Well, it seems from the WebmasterWorld thread that those MFAs and AdSense arbitrageurs are being shut down.
"They told me my account will be disabled at 1st June, and also added that I'll receive payment for all outstanding earnings in accordance with the standard AdSense payment schedule"" and then a bunch more stories from other users. - WilliamDavis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I lose a few times.
Not that I'm more entitled than anyone else, but it creates more competition for someone like me who will spend the time to go after all of the long tail stuff on the search network.
On the content network... some sites are just junk traffic. Luckily, I write good ads and have good tracking. I have to say, though - arbitrage traffic is better than a lot of the domain traffic. Anyway, I lose by spending on junk traffic, looking for junk traffic, trying to avoid junk traffic, etc. - NOSLOW, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The problem is that these types of sites are perceived as "subject matter experts", but are made of optimized copy to promote the highest paying adsense links. This is done by stealing relevant copy from other sites, then hand-edited to promote the high paying adsense.
To take the Hoodia example from above:
1. create a site that reviews all diets and diet products.
2. steal "real" diet reviews from all over the net to get relevant copy text.
3. modify the content to basically discredit each particular diet and say that Hoodia is a better alternative (assuming Hoodia adsense ads pay the highest in the diet marketplace).
4. create a low cost adcampaign for each diet product name to drive relevant traffic to your site (instead of paying for the expense, generic "loose weight" terms...cash in on people researching a specific product, which you will then discredit in favor of your "sponsored" products.)
Now people researching, say, "Diet Plan A" will see the ad for your site come up first or second (who else is paying for the search terms "Diet Plan A"? Maybe the company for "Diet Plan A", in which case your ad comes up second). Person then sees a great review of "Diet Plan A", which you discredit in favor of Hoodia. Person then sees several links to buy Hoodia right next to your articles. Since Person *perceives* you as the subject matter expert, they click on the Hoodia paid link.
In this example, both the company for "Diet Plan A" and the diet researcher both suffer.
Ok, I spelled it out for everyone. Let's see how many diet review site show up this week :P - scronline, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Oh, I read the article. Shutting down a few here and there does not mean they are fully "shutting them down". Some of us have learned many years ago that Google's search has become less than satisfactory. Adsense only made things worse. When people can get paid to take advantage of a system, guess what they are going to do. Google has always downplayed it for years now. They are just placating a few of the bigger advertisers who had some proof is all.
When I say I'll believe it when I see it, I mean.... I'll believe that they are shutting them ALL down when I see it. Until they shut them all down, not only is advertising with them not worth it, it is also another reason why their search engine is flooded with BS results more often than not. - guk6kk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2MFA sucks and Arbitrage ***** sucks too. Some publishers that write their content and work hard on their websites receive $5 for 1000 clicks. Is that fair? I hope to see an overall increase in CPM starting from June 1st.
- bjornski, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It's also making Google IRRELEVANT.
When all I get on Google is adsense pages, I'll quit using Google.
They know this. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -7/+8As a quick example -- 'data recovery' is a very expensive term. You should create a page with content created solely to make the AdSense ads on there appear for that keyphrase. So you'd have a paragraph about data recovery, and repeat the phrase over and over. If visitors clicked on your AdSense ads, you'd be in for a cut of an expensive word.
On the front side, you would advertise in AdWords for data recovery related terms, that were lower in frequency and cheaper. Sort of the long tail fo data recovery searches. There's just less competition as you move away from the clear, high-traffic terms.
So if you do it right, you can pay maybe 10-14 cents per visitor, maybe get a third of them clicking through on ads that pay you like a dollar, so you are making over twice what you spend in that example.
At low volumes I've gotten 10x, as you move up you just need more terms to get any traffic, and I got down around 1.5x what I paid, but you have to float that money for maybe 60 days before you get it back.
The funny thing is, people who search on those uncommon terms are just going to be served less well now. The big data recovery firms don't bother with the tiny traffic terms, and these traffic funnels didn't hurt anyone. At worst they helped correct errant searchers looking for something.
Anyway, go for it Google, there are so many other (and better) ways to do it, and it won't improve anything that Google produces.
To be clear, these sites hurt no one, and marginally help a lot of people. A lot of people get jealous because they think it's 'spam' or that doing research and being creative are doing nothing, but there are always ways for creative people to make money. Good for Google. Yahoo Publisher pays (or paid) a better percentage anyway. - scronline, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, Google makes money from that, why should they shut it down?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Basically yeah.
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