Another AdSense Tip

[WallyWorld]

I ran across this tip in another forum. I'm not sure it is TOS compliant and it certainly isn't ethical but here is the basis of it.

Step 1. Create a top 10 website list page. Give it a name relating to your niche and include some relevant content lower down on the page.

Step 2. Place your AdSense ads into 3 of the spots of the top 10 list by using an AdSense ad design that looks closest to a single line of text.

The original poster says that visitors click the ads like crazy checking out the top ten sites. And, thanks to Google, the the AdSense ads are relevant to the top 10 theme.

[lammert]

I have seen this type of sites for more than a year. AdSense is still displayed on most that I know of, but almost all of them are banned from the search engine. So be sure to use a disposable domain, because traffic might stop suddenly in the middle of the night.

[incrediBILL]

It sounds slimey to me, not exactly a well qualified lead and tricks like this are what cause advertisers to pull out of the content network.

IMO it's short term gains with long term damage to the network

[div01]

Classic scraper page.

[Heartlander]

It definately sounds like a slimey tactic- but here's my food for thought....
If the visitor is interested in a given niche and is clicking to see those "Top Ten" sites, who's to say they aren't going to be interested in the AdWords adertisers' sites enough to make it worth their visit to those sites?

That's where the fine line exists, in my opinion.
The publisher is driving traffic to the advertisers' sites- traffic interested in that niche.
Hmmmm.....

[Alioc]

This isn't an AdSense TIP. This is the first spark of a forest fire. With posts like this, some people are encouraged to beleive in the dream of making easy money and wasting their energy to produce copied material as long as they are allowed.

Another point of view aimed on legit AdSense addicts:
I ask myself, what could I have produced in all that time I spent to create web content. I don't feel great when I find myself working on AdSense more than on what I feel I'm born to do. But then there are always choices huh.

[Meike]

I've seen these sites -- lots of them -- as a web user and I find them highly irritating. They rarely have any of the information I'm looking for. The great wonder is how they ever rank so highly in the SERPs.

[fromholland]

I'm using it with my own content and it's working very well. I even asked Google if it was allowed. It was, if there's a separation between the google ads and the normal links.

[Eltiti]

If Google explicitly says that it is allowed, I guess I shouldn't have too many "moral" problems with it...

Now, will those pages rank well? Is building them a good use of my time? Will the ads get a decent CTR/eCPM? --Is it something I want to do? These are different questions altogether!

[jdvjdv]

Um, since when did google become a moral authority? Just because they say its ok for them, doesnt make it a moral act.

[John Carpenter]

Step 1. Create a top 10 website list page. Give it a name relating to your niche and include some relevant content lower down on the page.

Step 2. Place your AdSense ads into 3 of the spots of the top 10 list by using an AdSense ad design that looks closest to a single line of text.

It must be a great feeling to create such web sites. I'd feel like a parasite...

[dougs]

Talk to many of the ppc companies, this has been going on for ages with overture, espotting and now adsense. The quailty of the traffic from some of these sites can be great, as the browser has double clicked, hence already self certified themselves as valuable.

DougS

[sailorjwd]

I have similar pages but not 'top 10'.

I create and sell software for specific tasks and with each type of software I have links to 'additional resources' or '3rd party products' pages which lists several competing companies/products (with links). Adsense ads are at the top and produce a nice income.

I would think the advertisers would be happy with the visitors they get with this method.

I use the Chrysler theory - if you can find a better software buy it!

Do you think this is slim-ball tactics?

[WallyWorld]

Do you think this is slim(e)-ball tactics?

I think it is just a way to get visitors to look at the ads. If they don't like what they see they don't have to click on the ad but at least there is a better chance that they read it.

[Eltiti]

jdvjdv:

Um, since when did google become a moral authority?

Oops, what I wrote was not what I meant to say! (In fact, in my 2nd sentence I indicated that I would have some "moral" concerns.) Thanks for pointing that out, I'll update my post!

[added]Hmm, apparently I can no longer edit the post. Just pretend it reads:

If Google explicitly says that it is allowed, I guess I shouldn't have too many "legal/TOS" problems with it...

[/added]

[jdvjdv]

Gotchya. :)

[incrediBILL]

Let me rephrase, I think misrepresenting a randomly displayed ad purported as "a top 10 website list page" is as slimey as it gets. You have no clue or control over what's going to be displayed in those spots so claiming they are "top 10" anything is misleading to say the least.

If it were a list of affiliate links to say the top 10 products from a consumer magazine evaluation, something with some substance, and a little information about why those 10 items were in that top 10 list at least it's a little more credible and not random.

[Metaphorically]

Wow. Has anybody here ever used google?

Search for "potato peeler", "shoe horn" or pretty much any product. When I do this I see the top two results - *under* the heading that says "Web ... Results 1 - 10 of about ..." - are Adsense advertisements.

Yes, they are separated by a slightly different colour background (it's pretty much indistinguishible on this LCD screen, but I know it's there) and it says "Sponsored Links" way over on one side. Similar distinctions are there for Adsense on content sites. The ones on the content sites at least have a very distinct font - the ones at the top of Google are styled identically to the rest of the results.

The point of Adsense isn't to trick your users, it's just to get useful advertisements in front of them. The OP might have phrased this so that it sounds like shennanigans, but it's very very close to what Google demonstrates on their own site.

It's all in how you look at it.

If you're trying to make your users click on something they don't want, you're hurting them and yourself.

If they've found your site through search, and the ads match what you're talking about on the page, then you're just giving them something else they might be interested in.

[moTi]

a user doesn't click on something he doesn't want. except for the click was unintentional.

question is: do users have to realize, that they are actually clicking on an ad?

and we all know: the better you disguise your ad as content, the more clicks you get.