Here is a recent discussion / case study I had with someone, and I want to see what other thoughts people have on this issue. Thanks! .................... I am happy to see a site like adsblacklist.com because I agree that the integrity of the AdWords / Adsense system must be defended and upheld. I'm sorry that you don't consider my pages of benefit to your site's users. I will try to explain my site's goals for you, and see if it helps any. Perhaps a page such as http://atood.com/how_to_clean.html is indicative of Atood.com's mission. The goal is to bring people from pages of content (perhaps yours) to pages of search (perhaps mine). The atood.com search assistance pages provide quick, simple, easily digestible tips which we hope will help users refine their web searching in a small, helpful way. The page also gives access to our search platform (which is powered by Google's Custom Search Engine) and has advertisements. Here is the potential path of an atood.com user of the page "how to clean": 1. User is looking at a web site about cleaning products and can't find one to clean a specific surface. 2. User sees the atood.com ad, clicks it, and is brought to our page offering general, surface level help or advice about searching for how to clean. 3. User absorbs our quick tips, and has the option to channel their query toward an Internet search through our search bar on the right, or consider the market of advertisers interested in his/her topic (for which we have an ad link unit and ad box), or leave the page without doing anything. We think that such a page does add value to an Internet user's thoughtful search for what he seeks. As Google says, not all Internet searches are successful. It's our hope to help make more of them successful. In addition to these pages we take pride in the character of our search engine / platform as one with frequently changing doodle logos. Perhaps the atood.com pages you saw are too ad heavy and do not focus enough on the act of conducting a search? If this is the case, I consider that valid criticism and will use it in crafting all of our search assistance pages. ................. This is a very interesting discussion. I had never looked at this from the point of view of a MFA site owner. Actually no, I don't consider "the best sites cover a lot of cleaning topics look for people who have expertise in a cleaning area, like a former specialist keeps a focus on the stuff you want to clean demonstrates a dedication to the user (that's you!)" as quick and easily digestible tips. It does not offer help or advice on surface level, general level, or any level for that matter. Neither does it help in any way to make a better, more result targetted search. To be honest, I think all that these sentences do, is to target the google mediaparters bot to display ads about cleaning. This is from Adsblacklist.com's FAQ page: "Made for Adsense" a.k.a. MFA is specially made site for purpose of displaying google ads and gaining revenue by sending traffic using AdWords." "By providing you with list of most commonly filtered websites whose webmasters use AdWords to attract visitors for low price click so they can convert it to high price click on their own MFA (Made for AdSense) or Low Cost per Click site(s)." "MFA is short of Made for AdSense - a pretty much worthless website with some or no real content at all. Its content are its own, in most cases Google ads." I am sure you will agree that atood.com fits these definitions perfectly? Now, I have a question for you: Don't you think it will be simpler for me as a webmaster, my site's visitors and for the google adsense/adwords team, if I just put a google search box on my own website, thus cutting out the middleman (in this case, atood.com)? By displaying an ad to atwood on my site, and sending my visitors there, I am earning less. I can only guestimate this. But since atood gets its visitors thro adwords, and makes money when these visitors click on adsense, it stands to reason that you are paying less than you earn. Plus, I am abusing the trust my visitors have in me, by sending them to a site which does not offer them anything of value. A site where there is much more ads than content. There is a lot of discussion going about MFAs and the benefit of blocking these sites from displaying, at digitalpoint.com forums. Your mail has given me food for thought, and I would like to see a wider discussion on it. How about posting this at digitalpoint? ................ I think that defining what makes an MFA site is a little more fuzzy than what most will have us believe. The obvious cases are easy (maybe mine is obvious in current form, but I still maintain that people who express an interest in my ads can find the format and content of my pages useful). If I worked a little more and made the short bits of content on my web site better, you might say that it's no longer MFA (since it's seen as useful). Others might still disagree because maybe they already knew the tips / help. What makes a site valuable and useful is left to each individual site visitor, and there is a lot of gray area in that regard. How do you measure a site's aggregate usefulness? You mentioned the merits of "taking out the middle man" and putting a Google search box on your site. I think that this is a fine strategy, but it eliminates the potential value that an adsense advertisement would bring to your visitor. There is more to search than just having the opportunity through a search bar. There is the process of showing an interest in a topic (which is what your page's content and the ads are for). There is the process of thinking about the search (which is what a "framed-search" site like atood.com is for). The process of carrying out an Internet search is very involving (as Google has shown us all), and we should be sensitive to that.
Does anybody have a side to take in this conversation above? Does it provoke any ideas or perspectives you hadn't considered before?
LOL yes I have a side to take - www . atood . com/how_to_clean.html - is a piece of crap spam MFA site that serves no high purpose than wasting someones time having to view the site - AND NO, 10 - 20 words attempting to justify not being an MFA is not VALUE - it is your half assed attempt to convince people you really are looking to do more than just make money - which is a completely lie and you know it. Honestly you had to expect this sort of response when you comes to a site like this, as for trying to push your "insightful thoughts on MFAs" - you claim to offer value - but you don't - your PRIMARY purpose is to generate revenue NOT provide value - therefore your site is still an MFA. There may be a lot of cases where people have sites and making money from their site is often on par with providing value - but for the large part there is genuinely valuable content on their site, even if the content is slightly doctored by some simple SEO techniques to improve traffic and integrated with some fairly tidy ad integration - the fact remains that there is genuinely valuable content for the user. At the end of the day the internet for the large part is just the next business medium - and most sites for the large part are in the business of supplying information and content, and our goal should be to produce: "profitably satisfied customers" How do you do this? You provide the content that users are looking for that "satisfies" their needs and in the process you make a few dollars from the advertising on the site. This is how all long term businesses work - providing good quality products that satisfy consumers needs for a cost (price of the product) and create the product at an expense that is less than the price of the product (profit). You have the "profitably" aspect covered but not the "satisfied".