martinibuster - 10:59 pm on Jan 4, 2006 (gmt 0)

It seems pretty hypocritical to run these when they are just as bad if not worse than so many of the MFAs...

Well, stop to think about it a second.

1: These sites are monetizing "type in" traffic. So they are not stealing money from AdSense publishers.

2: Type-in traffic is as targeted, if not more, than regular search traffic. So someone typing in widgets.com has a good chance of converting (since they are looking for widgets), than the average visitor who reaches your site for a variety of three or four word search queries.

3: Type-in traffic is desire based. People typing in domains want to see that specific domain. They are looking to find what is being offered on that domain. Type-in traffic is relevance in it's purest form.

These sites exist for no other reason than to drain advertisers of money.

If AdSense is about delivering targeted traffic to advertisers, then type-in traffic represents the ultimate in targeting. If you were a merchant selling Green Widgets, wouldn't you jump at the chance to monetize traffic from the GreenWidgets.com domain? Of course you would!

[edited by: martinibuster at 11:24 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2006]