Forum Moderators: martinibuster
For those likemided webmasters and webmistresses who care about the quality of links that are provided to visitors, I thought I would share a little experience. A couple of weeks ago I thought i would subscribe to one of these sites offering their "secrets" to me using a disposable email account and fake name. There are no prizes for guessing that the so called "secrets" were nothing more than ads in the form of inbox spam. However it's the enormous volume of spam I received which has been relentless that is more of a concern. I have seen this type of ad pitched to different niches, it's nothing more than a scam. Another straw that will eventually undermine the credibility of Adwords/Adsense.
Anybody else noticed similar or different scams to this one? Do you think that they are on the increase?
But correct me if I am wrong:
You signed up, got what you signed up for.
How do you call it spam?
Since I'm a professional in this particular hobby, I subscribed just to see what the secrets were, because it was obvious that he had no clue what he was talking about.
Once I hit submit I was taken to a page full of adsense ads.
This is one of the few sites that has made me mad enough to report it.
You signed up, got what you signed up for.
How do you call it spam?
Firstly because the emails that I received came in at a rate of about 1-2 per day. The initial adwords ad (advertised on my site} simply made a promise to reveal the "secrets" regarding the topics associated with this widget, whilst implying that all would be revealed magically to me if I signed up.
The initial ad didn't mention that I would be constantly receiving emails containing very little of the promised content; instead receiving links to urls containing more ads.
Although I knew very well that this is what would happen, I am putting myself in the shoes of an unsuspecting visitor. I am asking myself if this is what my visitors would want when they follow a link.
[edited by: Scurramunga at 11:47 am (utc) on Aug. 1, 2006]
Since I'm a professional in this particular hobby, I subscribed just to see what the secrets were, because it was obvious that he had no clue what he was talking about.
Same here.
I am a professional within my particular niche and my evaluation regarding the the trickle of information given is that is substandard. In fact except for a few childlike statements, I would argue that the author hasn't revealed any information at all.
Firstly because the emails that I received came in at a rate of about 1-2 per day.
Ah, that's nothing ... based on the research that I've done on some of the "free" "offer" etc. sites (i.e.: MP3 players, laptops, etc.), once you have coughed up your email address you will receive between 100 and 400 spams per week from their "partners"! It's positively insane, and would ruin most people's inboxes immediately...
once you have coughed up your email address you will receive between 100 and 400 spams per week from their "partners"!
Did you expect sth else? :)
once you have coughed up your email address you will receive between 100 and 400 spams per weekActually this particular inbox is receiving a lot of spam from other sources. Because I have had it for a while I don't know for sure if this guy's partners are also jumping in with their garbage too. It might well be.
hunderdown
NOT something I want to be associated with, if it's like the one you describe.
In one sense this type of scam is more clever than regular MFA because it probably gets under many a publisher's radar avoiding the competitive ad filter. It is nothing more than a MFA (or MFPPC) because the emails contain links to various sponsored promotions including ad-sense pages. Sometimes the emails point to a page with a very small paragraph of the 'promised' information which can only be described as either a couple of simple points containing keywords for contextual ads and in other cases the pages contain yet another spiel (complete with testimonials) in order to sell a specific product.
Since I'm a professional in this particular hobby, I subscribed just to see what the secrets were, because it was obvious that he had no clue what he was talking about.Once I hit submit I was taken to a page full of adsense ads.
This is one of the few sites that has made me mad enough to report it.
For MFA webmasters, this may be a brilliant idea. Think about it:
Suppose I know nothing about underwater basket weaving, but I dig around and take some text from a few sites - I've learned on this board that it's OK to do that if you call it "research." I put together a good full page of text on underwater basket weaving.
Then I buy an AdWords ad, make some promise about underwater basket weaving secrets that I know will attract clicks, then I collect email addresses.
I send subscribers links to my page, where they find my underwater basket weaving text and related AdSense ads. If the visitor doesn't click this time, that's OK, since I have his email address, I have many more opportunities to entice him to visit and click at virtually no cost to me.
It would be difficult for AdSense to establish that I am in violation of the AdSense terms because I have a page of text on the topic. Sure I'm not expert on the topic and my information might not be very useful, but it's probably just as useful as the "articles" being generated for a few bucks per 300 words by anyone with a keyboard.
If you found this ad on your site, exactly what would you complain about to AdSense - that the text wasn't useful or was inaccurate? Big deal, the AdSense terms basically allow anyone to write about anything. If inaccurate text is a disqualifier, a lot of the major U.S. newspapers are going to have to remove AdSense.
The MFA folks may be on to something here. It might be time for me to forget this honest stuff where I think I'm contributing something worthwhile to the world wide web and just join the MFA revolution. Click those ads baby!
FarmBoy
For MFA webmasters, this may be a brilliant idea. Think about it:
Exactly
It would be difficult for AdSense to establish that I am in violation of the AdSense terms because I have a page of text on the topic.They don't have to establish anything because they don't have to tell you why you're booted, or smart-priced, or attacked from the traffic acquisition end (adwords).
These sites have a recognizable footprint. Google just has to realize/decide that their shareholder's wealth is maximized by not taking free offer sites' money.
With all due respect, I think you're dreaming.
Google hasn't realized anything about their shareholder's wealth being maximized if they accept money from people with sites showing nothing but ads, so what possible reason is there to believe it would be any different with sites that mix some content in with those ads?
FarmBoy
added- this isn't about sites that just show ads, this is about sites that sign you up for hundreds of promotional emails /week (many of which link to sites with nothing but ads).
[edited by: Powdork at 9:12 pm (utc) on Aug. 2, 2006]
My EPC has dropped by more than a third! In a way, it's not surprising, as this advertiser had the top or second spot on some high-traffic pages. Still, it is surprising that this one action could have such an impact.
I'm going to have to watch this, and wrestle with my conscience. I don't want this advertiser on my site, but I'm potentially losing a lot of income....
I just have to let my visitors take their chances, I only see them now and again. I used to block them but don't have that luxury anymore.
For MFA webmasters, this may be a brilliant idea. Think about it:
I am not convinced this is a brilliant idea.
A) If the advertiser brings the visitor to a low content page, strictly targeted at obtaining the visitors e-mail address, this landingpage will have a low "quality score". Therefore the advertiser has to bid very high for his keywords, thus reducing his return of interest.
B) Making money out of this business model requires the visitor to take multiple steps.
1 - He has to click an ad
2 - He has to sign up at the first landingpage
3 - He has to receive and open an e-mail
4 - He has to click a link in that e-mail
5 - He has to click an ad in the second landingpage
Only after a visitor has performed these 5 steps, the advertiser gets his first few cents in return. If the advertiser wants to make more money out of the same visitor, the same visitor has to go through steps 3,4 and 5 over and over again. How many people would do that? Not much of good deal for the advertiser I suppose.
C) And even if it does work as intented, we all know what Google does with Adsense accounts that show a lot of clicks from the same visitors. They wil discount the clicks, if your'e lucky...
This business model looks like much ado about nothing. But as long as advertisers are trying if it works, I am happily taking them expensive clicks.
concerning, google's facilities: the scam might be undetected as for the landing page etc. but if they check the sent e-mails for
- unsubscribe option
- forbidden links to adsense pages
- delivery frequency
this could be a starting point. since this sort of advanced ad quality control might be considered as extremely unlikely, i think this kind of scammers are on the increase and have nothing much to fear.
Maybe I'll allow them back on but write an article warning about email harvesters!
thus reducing his return of interest
Edit:
"Return of investment" that is of course...
If you choose to sign up and give your e-mail address then as long as they meet the CAN-SPAM act then they aren't spamming anyone.
Basically they want you to sign up so they can send you advertisements/upsell you to their paid products.
