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Very nicely presented article. Only thing that I’d say is that I’ve actually had very good luck with Google responding when I’ve had minor problems with their services. Specifically maps and mail.
I think this is where cost per action will work well, you only pay when the prospect downloads a file.
“And when I say generating, I mean “stealing it from the advertisers”.”
That seems a little strong (disclaimer, one of my businesses runs on AdSense). I don’t think the sites are the ones to blame here as much as Google. Google is paying the site essentially to give prominent placement to it’s ads. Google themselves make the ads look like normal page content, and allow the skinning of the ads to further camouflage them. Advertisers are encouraged to write content that does not seem “ad like”. The whole idea is set up from the get go for this kind of thing to happen.
At that price range, site owners are HIGHLY motivated to get the ads clicked on. Personally, I think Google should ban sites that offer no legitimate content besides ways to drive AdSense, and should have someone personally looking at sites before they allow AdSense to be used on them.
You obscured the branding of the site, but you left the URL visible in the URL bar. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not.
I would say that stealing is an appropriate term. Most advertisers don’t even realize what is happening on the content network. I’m surprised any advertisers uses this program.
Now as for the word. Stealing is an action where something is acquired without exchanging for it. In a store, the exchange is n the form of money. When it’s a service, the exchange is the product of the service itself. In advertising, it is a lead. These clicks are not leads, they are mistakes, hence no exchange has taken place. So it is is tantamount to stealing.
Great article for exposing the scum.
While I very much agree with much of what is said in this blog, I think the website you took this from was a bad example in general. You would also have to search the entire website to find another such example like that one. Furthermore the eCPM of this website is $7.50 which means you exaturated by more than 5 times in the article.
We love building these templates. The templates are free.. We have received 100’s of thank you email – and until today’s article no ONE SINGLE NEGATIVE email about our website. Checkout those Bingo templates they allow you to create multiple Bingo sheets in random configurations in just seconds and do so for free. Other websites charge a $10 monthly fee for something we were happy to build for free.
On a final note the website doesn’t make any money at all. The cost of the website is still more than the website earns from Google Adsense. We do it because we like building them.. That is all there is to it.
I do agree with much of what is said in this article and I have accidently clicked ads a time or two which is frusterating.. I would rather use banners running up and down accept that the design of the website isn’t quite right for it..
I will be happy to change this particular ad – but you will notice on many of our pages we have NO ADS and on most we have only one ad..
- David
Just one problem here… It seems that the person that started this blog runs a bingo related website and is just upset that this particular one is giving away similar services free of any charge. Your tactic to disrupt this website which is in fact presenting a product for free that does work is far more unethical (I tried their Bingo PDF file after reading the last blog to see for myself). If you were truly objective this would not have been the website you would have selected as it is a poor example of what you are trying to state.
WOW!,
What a great article.
I have no interest at all in Bingo Cards.
I am a budding entrepreneaur(sp) at 62. Just starting my online business venture with an eBook. Next will set up some affiliate sites. I don’t have a clue what I am doing but am learning tons everyday.
As I said, no interest in Bingo but, I will be checking your site to read YOU. Excellent article.
You seem to have a lot of knowledge and express yourself very well. Please give us more about the marketing/business side.
Thanks , Chuck
Great article. I’m getting read to start testing the AdSense waters and it would seem I have a bit more to learn still. I’ve done a little in the past, but never really put the effort into it. I love the gawk reference. Between sed and awk you can accomplish amazing things. Keep up the writing both here and over at the Business of Software forums.
Rex, I have no problem with people giving away free bingo cards. I do it myself: http://www.bingocardcreator.com, click on the link in the main title bar for Free Printable Bingo Cards which will take you to exactly what it says it will take you to.
What troubled me is exactly what I said troubled me: the site appears to be designed to maximize advertising revenue (which is money which comes directly out of my pocket) by directing its users to click on ads to get the free bingo cards. When clicks on ads happen, the site is emphatically NOT free.
David: I received your mail earlier but haven’t had a chance to read it yet (not accessible on this system). If you requested a response I’ll try to get to it later. If your placement of the ads was accidental, I apologize for lumping you in with the scammers and will edit the post to reflect that. Unfortunately, there are several sites using this strategy and while I’m generally charitably inclined I can’t credit an accident for all of them.
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Dang, bingocardcreator.com has gone offline.
Appears to look good over here, Chui.