Webwork - 3:59 pm on Dec 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

One always has to fear what isn't being said out in the open when it comes to making money.

In the affiliate marketing realm there appears to be tolerance for BHO, cookie stuffing, hijacking, etc.

Why? Money.

In the contextual advertising realm there appears to be tolerance for scraper scum, etc. Why?

I'm afraid the answer is the same: The publishers who are complaining aren't likely to quit the program and those who are advertising aren't complaining in large enough numbers to outweigh the profit to be had.

Like EFV and others soberly observe: The crux of the problem for publishers is that IF the AdSense ROI for advertisers is dragged down by the low quality publishers then, implicitly, that drags down the number of advertisers and the amount they are willing to pay - which in turn hurts all publishers.

Publisher fear: Factor weighing in decision making algo: For driving revenue of X$ quality of content < or = sheer volume of ads served.

Contextual Adsupplier's fear: If their program drives down the ROI for publishers then other companies will enter the market to cherry pick the better publishers and offer them better deals on better targeted, better converting contextual advertising.

The business of advertising is competitive market in which all manner of weakness in any given program will be exploited by a competitor. There is at least the appearance of a weakness in AdSense with its appearance on minimalist sites, which are not far removed from straight PPC domain parking sites such as DomainSponsor, Fabulous, Sedo, etc. Maybe all AdSense needs to do is to draw this distinction by creating a few more tiers with related/defined programs.

<Edit: Replaced one fluffy final sentence with a fluffy paragraph. ;0)>

[edited by: Webwork at 4:36 pm (utc) on Dec. 23, 2004]