DISQUS

I_Like · 2 years ago

B#stards :-D

Erik · 2 years ago

After hunting around marketingpilgram for what exactly is adsense arbitrage (by the way, nice article on defining it a while back) I can say this will be very interesting to see how it all shakes out.

I've noticed those sites regarded as arbitrage sites and wondered how Google kept them going. Like the ones that call themselves top 10 sites, having google ads on top of 5 or 6 "unique" answers, then they promote those sites using adwords. I thought it was an interesting business model but definitely not one that Google would agree with. Seems like they're coming around to the same conclusions.

HMTKSteve · 2 years ago

I consider this to be a good thing. How will this affect click fraud numbers and AdWords bidding?

I spent a long time building up the competitive ad filter on my AdSense account to block out the MFA sites that were bidding nickels for my traffic and then getting dollars from that same traffic on their site.

BCL · 2 years ago

This has to be good for google and publishers. We stopped displaying adsense long ago because the MFA and parked-domain sites were driving the quality and value of advertisers down.

Will Yahoo to do the same and clean up its network now?

Erik · 2 years ago

BCL and HMTK-

I never looked at that positive side of it. I looked at it more from a view on web pages. I'm also a publisher of many blogs and have found it quite annoying how low some of my click costs have gone down.

Never attributed to MFA sites. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out to say the least. You have to imagine that not only does google want to remain "good" but they also want to increase profits. They're, after all, a publicly traded company. If they think this will increase profits, I'm definitely on board.

Good points you two.

Aloha,
Erik

Car · 2 years ago

The email communications sent to adsense users say nothing about MFA or Arbitrage. The emails do say they do not fit Google’s business model.

Now, there are many sites that do arbitrage that are unaffected. Shoemoney did a video post that suggested it is not MFA that will get you banned but poor converting sites.

Could it be that poorly converting sites do not fit Google’s business model?

Many or most MFA or arbitrage sites do not convert. Many of the MFA sites use Google ads that are designed to get as many clicks as possible—regardless of the mood or intention of the buyer. They use text like, top information source, etc. in order to encourage clicks.

In addition, a few friends on the message boards run MySpace sites that are not arbitrage and get most of their traffic organically. They received the same e-mail of not fitting the business model and will have their Adsense account terminated June 1.

I think in this case a correlation is not causation.

Greg Howlett · 2 years ago

Retailers should applaud this move. It will cost Google revenue in the short term, but will improve the quality of results and will help retailers feel more comfortable advertising in that space. Most importantly, it will help drive down PPC costs to more appropriate levels. Currently, they are far too high across the board.

Rob Sullivan · 2 years ago

I was one of the small publishers hit. I don't generate a lot of traffic or clicks on the 3 personal sites I have the ads on yet my ads are gone. The most I've ever made on Google Ads in a month is about $100 on the 3 sites combined, so it seems that this is a wide sweeping change.

I too have unique content (all sites are blogs) that are updated on an almost daily basis.

I've appealed but I doubt I'll get anywhere with that.

Free Clickbank ads · 2 years ago

I like this new rule. Cos I do ppc campaigns to sell my products.. hope my bid will be lower now... :)