Has anybody noticed the invasion of the Acai Berry affiliate sites? Here are some, that showed up on my pages - ttp://annsweightloss.com ttp://carlasweightloss.com ttp://destinysweightloss.com ttp://isabelsweightloss.com ttp://kimmysweightloss.com They are showing up all over the place, and as reported elsewhere, there are many others. They displace almost ALL other ads! They look like they were all made by the same person, and they are all promoting Acai berry juice, and colon cleanse. What is going on? I threw them into my competitive filter, but now I wonder, since I see that they pay pretty well. But the CTR drags you down, since the ads are not contextual, but jammed in there. Should I take them out of my competitive filter, take the CTR hit, and collect the money? Is maximum payout ALWAYS the main objective, no matter what? What do YOU think??? I guess I'll just go for the money, until the EPC drops to single digits. just call me hordoggy . .
Here are 4 more - ttp://www.ellensdiet.com ttp://jennasnewlife.com ttp://www.jillsnewbody.com/ ttp://www.madelinesweightloss.com I am really surprised that no one else has responded to this thread. Is it just me? 1 Rule to a Flat Stomach 2 Rules to a Flat Stomach 3 Rules to a Flat Stomach, etc., etc., etc. You can solve all your weight problems with Acai berry and colon cleanse! At least, that is what Google is telling my visitors - 3 times - all at once. It must be the new super-combo! . .
Tony is a diet guy, but his stuff is different. The 9 sites I mentioned above ALL do the same thing - 1. Acai berry, plus 2. some form of colon cleanse (several different ones). I understand that there are MANY others (mentioned on a different forum). I used to do quite well with a few of my food-related pages, but now that ad relevance has been thrown out the window, my CTR (on these pages) has totally tanked because of these new ads. .
We had the same problem. Too many to track and filter. We ended requesting G disable site targeted ads on our account.
Yeah, I'm having the same problem as well on my bodybuilding blogs. The ads don't really suit my site, and it definitely DOES turn down the CTR which is a hassle. Here's the most common sites I've seen popping up on my page: debrasweightloss[dot]com erinsweightloss[dot]com I need to go to my account and have it filtered out.
I've also filtered out some of the nameweightloss.com sites but then more keep appearing. Not sure how to keep up with it because I don't really want to check my ads every day to see if there are new ones like this. Since they're not contextual how do they end up on your site? Is it just because someone targeted your site in a Google Adwords placement?
So, to summarize (remove the star)- http://*annsweightloss.com http://*aprilsweightloss.com http://*barbarasweightloss.com http://*brianasweightloss.com http://*carlasweightloss.com http://*cherylsweightloss.com http://*cindysweightloss.com http://*debrasweightloss.com http://*destinysweightloss.com http://*donnasweightloss.com http://*ericasweightloss.com http://*erinsweightloss.com http://*isabelsweightloss.com http://*jamiesweightloss.com http://*janesweightloss.com http://*kimmysweightloss.com http://*mandysweightloss.com http://*michelesweightloss.com http://*michellesweightloss.com http://*mollysweightloss.com http://*rachelsweightloss.com http://*sallysweightloss.com http://*sarahsweightloss.com TRY ANY FEMALE NAME! It will probably work! (Some are different - Mary, Sue, etc.) and http://*jennasnewlife.com http://*ellensdiet.com http://*www.jillsnewbody.com (www must be present) http://*www.madelinesweightloss.com A portion of one of my sites deals with food, where they are really hitting hard. I have never enabled "site targeting", or "site placement" so I can't turn it off! These ads are coming from the "standard algo". They ALWAYS grab 2 of the 3 ad positions in the single ad block I use, and frequently ALL THREE! I have disabled the ones listed above, so I can see others, and delete them too. Doesn't Google realize how this is gumming up the works? Decimating CTR? Irritating publishers? Better controls in the Blocking Filter can't come soon enough. Blocking by publisher page would be ideal. We need to get back to ON-TARGET ADS, ideally publisher approved. .
Fyi- even if you do not enable site targeting, google will still allow sites to target you via category targeting. The ONLY way to turn it off is to contact the Adsense team and request it. Which is what I finally did.
If I contact them and make the same request, is there any significant downside? In other words, will this "blanket action" cause me to lose good, TARGETED ads? Can the baby be thrown out with the bathwater? How do they know which sites to block? Is it necessary to name every undesired site? Or do they just block all of the site targeting? What about the blocking of targeting of other subjects on the same site? Can targeting be blocked by subject, so that other pages are not affected? Do I ask enough questions? (Tee-hee.) .
You seem to have forgotten: barbsweightloss dot com biancasweightloss dot com brianasweightloss dot com gracesweightloss dot com judysweightloss dot com judysweightlossjourney dot com elensweightlossjourney dot com In my experience, these are the "sites du jour" and will be heavily pushed for maybe four to six weeks at best, then there will be another "hot topic" site that will be heavily pushed. The one prior to this one was all variations of "belly fat". I'm not a big advocate of rattling Google's cages for stuff like having options turned on or off, so I rely fairly heavily on the filter, but I actively manage the filter. Every time I add something, I record it with the date in my workbook, and then a month or so later, I take it out. Sometimes it's a revolving door, but I look at it as a couple of minutes worth of work every other day and is part of managing my sites.
whizzer - Such wisdom from a person with only 2 posts! You have been watching this stuff for some time. I will eagerly listen to whatever else you may have to say. I, too, refrain from running to AdSense support too much. I don't want to be perceived as a needy whiner. Besides, I think they read posts here very frequently. I know I would, if I were them. I did catch Briana, and a few others, before I read your post. I will stop editing that post now. .
I'll have to admit that I don't post as much as I read, but I'm trying to get out of that rut. But I've seen this stuff before and when they blow their bankroll on this particular hot topic, they'll move on to something else. If you have some sort of food or foodie site, then maybe a serious sidestep in to the diet world is a natural progression. I'm amazed at what people are willing to pay to drop a few pounds. It's been on my list of things to do for years.
I've seen a lot of these, too, and they're running a lot of ads on myspace. Lose weight with acai pills... These programs give you a free sample with a small shipping charge, but hammer your credit card on a monthly basis thereafter, like $70 or $80/mo. It can be extremely hard/time consuming/frustrating to get the membership cancelled. Use caution.
Perhaps we've been a bit premature in closing off the editing. I'm seeing a number of new variations that have popped up today: rachaelsweightloss.com (The header on this one says: "Rachael Ray Diet of Year". The actual site has a butt morphing, but nothing about Rachael Ray.) amysfatloss.com mollysweightlossjourney.com These people really have nothing to do.
Which is funny since the solutions are free. Eat better, eat less, exercise. There, a winning 5 words web site.
Here is my list so far: annsweightloss.com aprilsweightloss.com barbarasweightloss.com barbsweightloss.com biancasweightloss.com brianasweightloss.com carlasweightloss.com cherylsweightloss.com cindysweightloss.com clickbank.net cutdownbellyfat.com debrasweightloss.com destinysweightloss.com dietplansloseweight.com donnasweightloss.com elensweightlossjourney.com ellensdiet.com ericasweightloss.com erinsweightloss.com fatloss4idiots.com gracesweightloss.com healthyoptionsforwomen.com isabelsweightloss.com jamiesweightloss.com janesweightloss.com jennasnewlife.com jenniesblog.com jessicas-diet.com jillsnewbody.com judysweightloss.com judysweightlossjourney.com kimmysweightloss.com lifeoflisa.com madelinesweightloss.com mandysweightloss.com michelesweightloss.com michellesweightloss.com mollysweightloss.com mollysweightlossjourney.com pachills.com rachaelsweightloss.com rachelsweightloss.com sallysweightloss.com sarahsweightloss.com triplereview.com truthaboutabs.com valtrk.com vickysblog.com weightloss.com wu-yisource.com It includes other types of weight loss ads and some of the syndication sites that are displaying the ads.
An interesting list. While I would say that they're all related in some way, it looks like they've all been registered in the past month or two; registered with multiple registrars, and hosted at multiple hosts. There has to be big bucks involved here.
Gotta love that the AD seperating the last two posts was from debrasweightloss.com. Maybe they are watching this list...