Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Checking my site recently, I noticed an ad for a directory site, with a focus that seemed to be exactly right for that page.
I typed the URL into my address bar, and landed at a site with an attractive green header bar, incorporating the site name and a search box, a stacked menu with about twenty related terms under it on the left, a large blank space on the right, and then at the bottom a short nav bar with a few of the related terms. No content, in other words.
Why the blank space? That's for the ads, and no doubt would have had them if I'd clicked on the ad on my site instead of typing in the URL. AND type in anything you want in the search box, and you not only get a long list of related ads in what had been the blank space, but the name of the site changes too!
I typed in widgets (literally), and was greeted with widget ads and this in the header: widgets [large type]--Your widgets directory .
Whatever I searched for, the site renamed itself. I stopped when it came up with:
flushbags
Your flushbags directory
That's a keeper for the filter list.
And he is a premium publisher.
I can't imagine that the average visitor who sees an ad, and is tricked into visiting what is essentially a worthless site, will be likely to click on any more Google ads in the future. I for one, am not happy with things that waste my time when I am looking for information.
If I didn't know anything about Google ads -- and my first few experiences of checking them out, led me to some garbage sites like this, I would never click on Google's ads again. The big problem with these ads is that they are just plain misleading to the majority of users. The user thinks that there is something of pertinent value to them at wherever those ads lead -- they are not expecting to go to more ads, let alone a labyrinth of ads in some domain parked portal mock-up.
The big problem with these ads is that they are just plain misleading to the majority of users. The user thinks that there is something of pertinent value to them at wherever those ads lead.
Exactly. I don't care if it's a parked domain or not. It's crap, and even if Google doesn't care, I don't want my visitors to think that I have crap ads on my site. When they click on an ad, I want them to land on a site where they will find the product or service the ad promises--otherwise it's deceptive advertising. In this particular case, the ad promised a directory of book publishers. What I got was a labyrinth of ads.
Exactly. I don't care if it's a parked domain or not. It's crap, and even if Google doesn't care, I don't want my visitors to think
Really, no one cares what do you want.
Even google...
Domain Parkers - is great program.
Littering the Internet with domain parked MFAs and making money off of them is analogous to encouraging littering on our highways and roadways, just to make money off of cleaning it up afterwards -- to the majority of people in both cases, it is an eyesore and useless garbage. And even worse than that, it is something that affects the usabilty and credibility of the Internet, which is something that all of us, including you, should be worried about.
Remember, contextual advertising is still pretty much in its infancy, and things that risk turning people off of it and making them adverse to it, cannot be good in the long run for all of us - publishers, advertisers and search engines.
domainpark traffic comes mostly from type-ins. Some domain park programs even prohibit the use of ppc to drive traffic to the parked domain.
I guess this site could have been an exception to the rule though.
Google is ruining the credibility of the Adsense program with this useless rubbish.
Not to mention adwords program, because they allowed these types of people to use adwords to promote their site.
I know of another site that uses these tactics, but in this case they have hidden keywords, a photo in the center of the page and adsense ads all around the photo.
Despicable!
kz
