Adsense Arbitrage = Dead

I don't think arbitrage is the problem.

As recently as January Brian Axe, Google AdSense Product Manager said that Google was not against arbitrage and in fact they respect it as a business model. Brian clarified more by saying Google's main concern is the user's experience.

It's probably the landing pages more than the arbitrage that Google has targeted.

 

Shoemoney posted a video blog on his site today that goes over this. I suggest you watch it if you're interested in AdSense Arbitrage.

 

Thanks for that checksum, I hadn't seen the video. I remembered that Shoemoney had confirmed with a Google rep a while ago that Google was okay with arbitrage and I just searched Shoe's site to get what I linked to above.

 

>>from jen's article, it sounds like not all the termination emails have been sent yet.

People received them earlier in the week, and some as recently as yesterday, so it wasn't just a random email blitz at once. I wouldn't be surprised if more are sent next week. But June 1st is the magic date for all of them.

>> Interesting post from two months ago Sound familiar?

I have heard from a handful of people this year who received that, with termination the next day. But most were connected to another support/compliancy issue (such as asking for clicks or drawing attention to the ads in a way that is against the terms) outside of just being a random culling of publishers who are using the arbitrage model. This is the first time they have seemed to be disabling accounts en masse, and all with the same account disabling date.

>>I think jensense has stolen content straight from my blog. Its interesting
>>to note that I make this post on the 18th, and so does she?
>>
>>http://mubinahmed.com/made-for-adsen...-textlinks-in/
>>
>>Im gonna hit her with a C&D and see what happens

Um, excuse me? First off, never been to your blog before, and your article is about something completely different, so I can only assume it was your attempt at driving some page views to your blog by trying to accuse me of something I definitely didn't do.

 

Sorry Jenstar was meant as a total joke, no offence intended.

 

Noticed that you were joking in the comments on her blog, too.

 

once the mfa adwords advertisers are gone, who could get hurt the most by this? maybe publishers with really low average epc, because adwords mfa'ers were their bread and butter.

if your average epc was in, say, the $.01-$.03 range, how many of those clicks were links for mfa sites? did you use the ad filter? probably not.

if your pages were only worth $.01-$.03 per click, will there be honest advertisers available to take the place of the adwords mfa'ers that used to advertise on your site?

will google have to give you public service ads, because advertisers who want clicks that convert will always pay more for pages with quality content?

i think that publishers who optimized their pages for epc instead of ctr will come out ahead.

 

http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/05/19/adsense-arbitrage-just-the-facts/

That will answer everyones questions a little better. Thanks Shoemoney!

 

Sorry i missed Checksums post, you beat me

 

rubbish... his exact words were: "as far as arbitrage, anyone who is actually doing it hasn't received this ban notice"

but there are multiple posters in the wmw thread who admitted to doing heavy arbitrage, and they did claim to have gotten the ban notice.

shoemoney needs to wait for the other shoe to fall

those who are getting banned were hurting googles bottom line, because their traffic didn't convert for the advertisers, which in all fairness the shoe did point out... where he went wrong was making the inference that everyone is doing arbitrage, and there is nothing wrong with it.

 

The primary point I was trying to make is the fact its "arbitrage" has nothing to do with it. The fact it converts like ass for adwords advertisers is 100% the reason for this.

I just pointed out the facts that we know (from googles mouth) instead of guessing.

 

I've got your points, Shoe....
Can you provide me with that facts (from Google's mouth)?
I will be very appreciate...

 

thanks, that would be logical, except for...

i can't recall a previous instance of google banning publishers who provide lousy traffic to advertisers.

in fact, it's quite the opposite... google is deliberately allowing advertisers to receive marginal traffic from things like adsense on parked domains, and youtube scraping... and how much effort are they really putting into stopping click fraud? something like 35 engineers, vs. billions in total ad revenue?

 

Does this news mean that for Adwords adverstisers in the future, they cannot put Adsense on their landing pages otherwise it would be regarded as Arbitrage by Google?

 

I highly doubt that's where the future is headed. It would sort of be suicide.

 

So, unless I've missed a post here or there, I haven't seen anyone posting saying that they've gotten the dreaded letter. According to the vote, there are at least 8 people who are unhappy about the action, but no word other than the vote. I know there are a number of others on here engaged in such practices, but still, no one has said "yep I got canned"

 

This "MFA" argument IMO opinion is a red herring. I'd say that 95% of adsense sites out there were created with the sole intention of monetizing through whacking a great big block of adsense somewhere on each page. As long as your clicks convert at a reasonable rate how can google, or anyone, have a problem with that?

 

[Edit] Sorry guys think this has already been covered (teach me to keep up)

From Wikipedia ...

Should help you arbitrage virgins

 

There are four types of sites that can have adsense on it (or at least four main types) There are sites like mine that were created before there was a google. I think it's safe to say that those types were NOT created with adsense in mind and the bulk are of good quality for the following reasons: They were created back when the web was a lot more scholarly in nature as opposed to commercial. My own site was originally served from a .edu prior to buying a .com domain before the turn of the century.

Now, after adsense comes along, there are ones created by users who did not know about adsense at the time and may have retrofitted their site to accommodate it (much like the ones in the previous group did) Chances are these are good quality sites, too, since their origins were other than to provide a vehicle for adsense.

That leaves the "MFA" sites. The ones created with the intent to put adsense ads on them. There are two types of these. One is the type made by the person who says "I'd like to get in on this adsense thingy, and I know a lot about the Arctic Tern, so I'll make a site about that." Who knows, this site could go on to become an authority site.

The last type, and the only one I have any real problems with, and which should be banned are the ones where the creator says "I want in on this adsense thingy, I don't give a crap about the user, and I just want to make money any way that I can" And out pops a passel of sites blanketed with ads and little or scraped/stolen content.

This last type is what I hope google is going after. The arbitrage portion may be because those are easier to track. Afterall, with the recent account consolidation (one email/login for all accounts), google can link adwords and adsense accounts quite easily and then run some statistics between the two programs.

 

This way Google will kick out 'middleman' and take its place itself