My MFA experiment

[BFTUK]

Inspired by a thread on this very forum, i'm launching my own $10 adsense experiment.

Can i make money using MFA sites?

Find out more at my new blog:

www.monetising.co.uk/experiment

One Man, One Month, One Adsense account and 10 dollars!

[DaVe™]

you know that is against the t&c's, making a site specifically for adsense

[Rasputin]

It might be against the T and C, but the site right now is showing an ad titled 'Try Google AdSense': Earn money with Google Ad Programs. Free and Easy setup - apply now, and a link to www .google.com/adsense

So google don't seem unduly bothered.

[fryman]

wow... you must be so proud with your "experiment"...

Why don't you create a good site and try to make that one earn money instead?

[tonyinabox]

10 dollars in a month????

[hdpt00]

$10/month on an MFA, you suck ;-).

[cyanyde]

$10/month on an MFA, you suck ;-).

we all do at some point in our lives.... :p

[corinaw]

I'm not going to blast you-

But one real site, with real content can honestly make as much as make 10 to 20 times $10 in a day. It depends on the number of pages, of course, and the quality of the content, but really there is no reason to sink to mfa crap. You are bringing the web down.

[easterwolf]

>>>>>>>@ corinaw, WORD. I agree, these sites lower the quality of the web and makes for an unpleasant experience. Need to work on content that is original.

[cocaine]

sorry to bother a nice discussion. But i am not clear what mfa is.
can anybody tell?

[corinaw]

mfa= made for adsense. crap/junk/only made to incite clicks

[GADOOD]

$10/month on an MFA, you suck ;-).

He means he's only spending $10 on creating the MFA's.

Why not let him experiment and see what he can do. Who really cares about MFA's etc - they're here to stay.. if he's got some good ideas and develops his own scripts etc maybe his results will be interesting?

It is only an experiment afterall. Who says he doesn't have a bunch of good sites too?

Pete

[BFTUK]

Some interesting replys.

I've got a couple of 'normal' sites that run adsense / affiliate adverts aswell.

I was intrigued by a thread on here about purchasing ready made sites from ebay and some people claiming that you can make money from them.

I certainly don't consider my blog to be MFA, its made to follow the progress of my experiment.

As for my ready made sites, again i don't consider them to be MFA, they are made/purchased for my experiment, the experiment is not all about adsense (although that is a major part), the experiment also encompasses getting the site/s indexed by the search engine, getting visitors to the sites etc.

The aim in the first month is to double my initial 'investment' of $10, so i'm hoping to earn at least $20 in the first month.

Yes its a modest target, and although i still have other sites, i still consider myself to be very much a newbie.

The discussion in the thread that inspired this experiment, evolved around someone puchasing 147 sites for $2.50 then realising that they were practically worthless. However a few people suggest that with a little work, they could perhaps make a small income.

I can take any flak you guys want to throw at me, but i thought this would be an interesting idea to play with, i'm not going to chuck a load of time and definately not alot of money at this, and who knows what the end result of this will be?

[corinaw]

Pete,
what do you think every time you search for information and get a mfa/junk site. What would you think if you were spending your money with adwords and your ads were displayed on the gobelty-gook/crap site. What would you think if you were a publisher (an honest one) and no one want to advertize on the content network, because of all the crappy/dishonest mfa sites.

What am I supposed to do, because I have a really good site, really good content and the freakin mfa's are ruining the content network. Who would want to advertize on an MFA SITE? It is NOT a ZERO SUM GAME. Real sites are loosing. Crap is winning.

I'm sorry- I'm pissed. MFA's should not be here to stay. MFA's scrape (steal) my content, and make the web a less usefull place for all of us for the sake of making money. Google should figure out how to stop these sites as they ruin the web.

[BFTUK]

Corinaw,

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one.

I'm aiming to get visitors from search engines, so if they find my site and click on an advert they will undoubtadly be interested in the advert they are clicking on.

[BFTUK]

MFA's scrape (steal) my content, and make the web a less usefull place for all of us for the sake of making money. Google should figure out how to stop these sites as they ruin the web.


Okay perhaps i have a different meaning of an MFA, my definition of a MFA is a site that is purchased and has articles taken from free article distribution sites. These articles are allowed to be reproduced in full with certain links being left into the authors site and the article site.

Perhaps what i mean are more like 'ready made adsense sites'?

I would certainly not condoned stealing content.

[corinaw]

Hi BFTUK,

here is a really good example of a crappy scrapper site:

http://4467.q5oy2fbr3.info/


We have many "Big Dogs" on DP. People making big money, with much history and knowlege. I mostly lurk on the DP forum, and just pipe up ocasionally.

But the common thread I notice when reading posts is that the content network sucks due to mfa's/scraper/dishonest sites.

I do not do adwords- only because I am doing well with seo, but if you read all the posts, following the pro's advise (and If I was to go into adwords) I'd bypass the content network and just do search- only because of the low quality scraper sites on the content network and just because of what I have read on DP.
So if no one want to advertize on the content network, because of all the mfa's why am I paying copywriters $15-20 per page to write real content that is helpful to my visitors? This is why I think MFA's are ruining the web.

[BFTUK]

Right okay, so i perhaps had the wrong definition of MFA then.

[jackburton2006]

Inspired by a thread on this very forum, i'm launching my own $10 adsense experiment.

Can i make money using MFA sites?

Find out more at my new blog:

www.monetising.co.uk/experiment

One Man, One Month, One Adsense account and 10 dollars!

Waste of money, and worst, a waste of your time that you could have spent on better, more productive things than following and writing about such a ridiculous experiment.

[GADOOD]

Pete,
what do you think every time you search for information and get a mfa/junk site.

I have yet to experience this. It just doesn't happen with general searches that I do and doesn't occur on any of the hundreds of key phrases I'm targetting on my websites either, nor the thousands of keywords I have witnessed on other sites I have built for clients.

What would you think if you were spending your money with adwords and your ads were displayed on the gobelty-gook/crap site.

I would think - do these convert? If so, great.. if not, I would disable the content network as it performs poorly in comparison to the search network anyway. Just because a click comes from a 'MFA' it doesn't mean it's not targetted or have any less of a chance at converting.

What would you think if you were a publisher (an honest one) and no one want to advertize on the content network, because of all the crappy/dishonest mfa sites.

I am an honest publisher. People do advertise on the content work and always will.

What am I supposed to do, because I have a really good site, really good content and the freakin mfa's are ruining the content network. Who would want to advertize on an MFA SITE? It is NOT a ZERO SUM GAME. Real sites are loosing. Crap is winning.

Sorry but I know many people specifically target MFA style sites. Advertisers will advertise on any site as long as they convert or get their message across. MFA's are not ruining the content network, in fact, I believe they are creating a wider reach for advertisers.

I'm still suprised the poor conversion rates of the content network are being blamed on 'MFA's' - it's the nature of the content network that provides generally lower conversions.

I'm sorry- I'm pissed. MFA's should not be here to stay. MFA's scrape (steal) my content

Valid point on stealing your content but then scrapers which steal content don't really get that far do they? Google is doing much to combat these sites. Search is still pretty much in its infancy. All in good time..

Pete

[corinaw]

GADOOD
I think from reading your posts, you are a small publisher (just like me) and if you took a second to get a world wide view, (just by reading dp- with all the big revenue adwords guys saying no content network because of crap sites) and you might think again.

[alemcherry]

Interesting.. Waiting for the result. Hope you can confirm that MFAs sucks.. But if this thread creates a bit of hype and you end up making some money?? hmmm..

[GADOOD]

GADOOD
I think from reading your posts, you are a small publisher (just like me) and if you took a second to get a world wide view, (just by reading dp- with all the big revenue adwords guys saying no content network because of crap sites) and you might think again.

There is a large difference in conversions between the Search and Content networks and always has been, even before 'Made for AdSense' style sites began popping up large-scale.

Most people who say no content network because of crap sites have no idea that they still convert and can be useful to advertisers. They don't even bother testing and assume because the content network performs poorly in comparison to the search, that 'crap sites' are to blame when more then likely it just isn't the case.. some people just see the crap sites and think 'Ooh I won't advertise there' ..

When I ran an ecommerce store a few years back, before the MFA rush, the search network provided 4% conversions and the content network 0.6% conversions for my particular product - the only smart thing to put this down to is the people coming from content sites generally aren't actively looking for something to buy, where as those coming direct from search results are.

Generally people who find themselves on MFA sites are coming directly from search results, therefore you would expect MFA's to actually carry a higher conversion then your average content site... controversial eh?

Pete

[ontheweb]

When I ran an ecommerce store a few years back, before the MFA rush, the search network provided 4% conversions and the content network 0.6% conversions for my particular product - the only smart thing to put this down to is the people coming from content sites generally aren't actively looking for something to buy, where as those coming direct from search results are.

Generally people who find themselves on MFA sites are coming directly from search results, therefore you would expect MFA's to actually carry a higher conversion then your average content site... controversial eh?I totally agree with what Pete's saying here. As an Adwords advertiser it's very hard to justify running ads on the content network. The ability to have a separate content network bid and search network bid has helped the situation a lot by offering cheaper CPC for the content network, but at the end of the day the conversions will still be lower than the search network..

[BFTUK]

Hmmm, this thread got moved from the Adsense section to the website reviews section???

That should stifle most of the interesting Adsense discussion here then!

Alemcherry, its certainly generated a bit of controversy!

[dunstan]

good luck :)

[reallifepixel]

I think MFA sites are crap. What upsets me is when I watch my wife use the Internet and she runs across one and thinks it is a "real" website. I think they clutter up the Internet.

[brokensoft]

it is against the t&c's

[MrBounce]

made for adsense or no, if it does in fact supply the information that the searcher is looking for then isn't that alright?

i was under the impression though that these sites rarely got anywhere due to the duplicate content penalty?

[jackburton2006]

The thread is 7 months old, guys. Get a clue.

[imbrod]

wow... you must be so proud with your "experiment"...

Why don't you create a good site and try to make that one earn money instead?

Because it doesn't pay off...

[jabb]

it is against the t&c's
Way to bump a thread with a wrong statement :)

[Kassi]

Actually, I think, no. In addition, I would like to mention that your ads after every title make your blog hard to read. You could try to place your ads at the top in the header and/or at the end of the post.

[netjunkie]

So MFA is inducing clicks that wouldn't have been made?