Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I went to half a dozen sites while searching for a particular widget. All of them displayed adsense ad blocks, that contained ads for MFAs mixed in with the real ads.
Then I went to look at the google search result page using the same search that found me those sites.
The google ads displayed on the page were the same ones as seen on the publishers sites. With one very big difference. I could not find a single MFA ad, and I went ten pages deep on ten different searchwords.
Am I wrong? I hope so! It seems they dont mind displaying garbage on our pages but wont have them on their own! Maybe they dont want to piss off their searchers...
Usually, CPC on search results is higher than on contents network, and it would be difficoult for an MFA to earn on Adsense arbitrage buying clicks on the search network just to sell them on the contents network...
So, MFAs select "contents network" only to maximize their chance of earning on Adsense arbitrage
MFAs pay
I keep repeating to myself: my content will be still there in 5 years, MFAs won't.
Hopefully :-(
hasn't it been just recently that adwords advertisers were given the option to choose between content or search? and how many premium partners have you ever seen that displayed mfa's? how about adwords resellers displaying mfa's?
my content will be still there in 5 years, MFAs won't
If they're not there then, probably, there will be something else in their place (or, perhaps, we'll all have gone down the pan).
Whilst not wanting to defend the money grabbling, blood-sucking monsters-from-hell who operate MFA websites, one has to be honest and recognise that they have a remarkable talent: they understand how the market operates and they know how to exploit it to make money (better than most of us content webmasters).
What distinguishes us really nice, cuddly people from them is not that they are trying to make money (is there anyone in this forum not wanting to grow their Adsense income?). It is that their sites either do not add any real value - just getting between us and the advertiser and siphoning off money that should be ours - or that they are crossing what we think are important ethical boundaries - eg: stealing content off our sites and putting it on theirs'. The current modus operandi of the Adsense/Adwords game means that they can do that with impunity, it would seem.
However, when the rules of the game change, and it becomes much harder for zero-value/copyright-infringing sites to make money, then these 'motherless blood-sucking leeches' who pose as webmasters aren't going to become an extinct species. They will apply their brains, which in all probability are actually bigger than ours, to the task of making money in other ways and they will likely succeed. Maybe some of them might even turn to legitimate means.
It's not, as Frazier used to say from Dad's Army, that we're all "doomed". But I think threats to our income as content webmasters are always going to be there, in one form or another.
Google doesnt care because they get two (or more) slices of the advertisers budget. We get half or less of whats left. Now since they do this on the back of our content I (we?) dont like it. And it reduces our income directly. Even if it didn't we should still ban them all because people will become sick of the google ad merry go round and not click in the future.
I watched my GF looking for something on the net the other day. She knows what I do. She ignores the ads totally. Why? "because they just lead to more links" (her words).
I watched my GF looking for something on the net the other day. She knows what I do. She ignores the ads totally. Why? "because they just lead to more links" (her words).
Just asked my wife if she clicks on Google ads. Same response "They aren't what I want - just loads of junk. I only click on them if I can't find what I'm looking for on a search engine and I'm desparate. Even then I never get the info I want".
I personally only click on ads on very rare occasions. You can just see from the ad they are MFA.
I think we are "All doomed" unless Google sorts it's act out and the ads become worthwhile clicking on.
Search on
[google.com.pr...] or
[google.com.bd...] or
some country specific
You'll be surprised at the amount of MFA sites that show up at top positions in google results.
Its because of what Frox mentioned in the earlier post.
Coz I'm seeing tons of them at my end.
Me too. Still there in all their glory for the kinds of things I search for.
Why so few on normal searches?
I'd say about 80% of the ads that appear when I search for rare gold coin are MFA ads. But it's probably because I'm in Malaysia, and most "proper" ads would target the USA and the "recommended list" of Western countries. So, a surfer from other parts in the world would see a higher proportion of MFA ads than their, say, American counterparts.
real ad
ebay
real ad
mfa
mfa
mfa
ebay
real ad with ad copy like an mfa.
And Google wonder why we moan about tarteging?
A search on my keyword on google UK gives me 2 real ads at the top and the rest are MFA's.
ebay
MFA
MFA
real site
real site
MFA
