Findwhat to terminate grandfathered penny bids soon

[androidtech]

This is for those of you that have below 5 cent bids with Findwhat, which were supposed to have been "grandfathered in" (allowed to stay below 5 cents if you didn't change them); if you obtained them before Sept. 2003.

I just got off the phone with their support staff while talking with them about one of our ads. This particular ad had keywords whose bids were below 5 cents. The person I spoke to said that I should be aware that two months ago, discussions had begun to terminate the penny bids; ending their grandfathered status. Their immediate supervisor confirmed this. The termination hasn't happened yet, but that is latest news.

Just an FYI.

Thanks.

[Tropical Island]

This would end our relationship with FindWhat.

We've been looking for an excuse to dump them anyway.

[shorebreak]

Anyone know what % of total Findwhat keywords are <$0.05 grandfathered ones?

[GameMasterM]

My two main sites are now showing well in SuperPages through FindWhat. I get lots of traffic from sites in Hawaii and Samoa for some reason but no business from those. Despite that I do well for my category.
I am waiting word on when and how I can get in the pay per call program.

[1Lit]

Thanks for that (terrible) news.

Their control panel is terrible, as is the quality of many of their partner sites, and we've already cut down on our usage of FindWhat. Even at 1 cent, I wasn't sure if there traffic was worth it. At 5 cents it is not cost-effective for us.

[bostonseo]

FindWhat has declined so rapidly in terms of quality clicks; I've removed all clients from this programs. Shame too because I used to like FindWhat.

[1Lit]

I have just done a detailed investigation and we are now receiving something like 3/4 of our Findwhat traffic from low quality partner sites. I won't link to them here because it's against the rules.

When such low quality Findwhat partners send us visitors, it is no wonder the company is making so much money.

[bostonseo]

Findwhat is already starting to lose revenue; legitimate advertisers' have seen the dramatic drop in click quality and have 'pulled out' of Findwhat. This trend will continue and they'll have only small time advertisers that that don't that much per month online. Even the majority of them will in time pull the plug on Findwhat.

Their days are numbered if you ask me.

[1Lit]

Am I allowed to post the URLs of some of their 'partners' here from we receive masses of traffic? It would be useful for other webmasters who spend their hard-earned money with Findwhat. I assume not. The URLs have the words such as "nude", "porn" and "women" in them.

Don't understand how we receive such enormous amounts of traffic from these low grade sites to our family-friendly portal.

[Tropical Island]

Has there actually been any kind of official release on this 5¢ thing other than the phone conversation?

[androidtech]

Tropical Island,

No. In fact, when I spoke to them again yesterday after a long weekend, they changed their position and told me that maybe they won't. It's hard to "relax" with that kind of uncertainty floating in the air. I guess I have to assume that at any moment, the penny bid ads could be dropped. It would be nice to have a firm policy statement on this one, but I don't think I'll get one.

Thanks.