Home

Google's Premium Publishers Are Getting Out Of Control!

OK Google says you can have AdSense "blend in" with your content but clearly some high volume publishers are pushing the line(s) with that. Now I know these are premium publishers. I was a premium publisher for over 7 months and I know the deal with them... You do not get any special "I get to violate AdSense rules", get out of jail free card.

On Google's official site it says you can blend in ads as long as there is a clear border. HRMMMM.... Anyone looked at Ask.com search results lately? Notice the AdSense there? Notice a border ? Is this "blending in" or is this just plain "tricking the user to click on AdSense".

OK so enough about blending in Ads lets talk about clear violations.... Check Out IMDB and there "About Sponsored Listings"

Sponsored Links are contextually relevant advertisements that IMDb provides to you. We receive Sponsored Links from Google's AdWords service, and generate revenue from your clicks. The selection of Sponsored Links that are displayed are customize to what we think may interest you.Sponsored Links are always clearly labeled.

Generating additional revenue from Sponsored Links allows us to offer new features to you. Thanks for your support!

Wow... I thought you were not supposed to drop hints to entice your users to click on your ads. I guess it just depends on the $$$$$ you are bringing in!

check out this DP thread.

- Y! MyWeb

On Kind

of the same theme. This kid here wanted to sell this website...I was going to try and sell it for him, but because Yahoo contextual ads are so untargeted I could not arrive at what a "fair" price would be based on the monthly revenue from the yahoo ads.

As you can see they are highly NOT targeted (Yahoos fault, its been months and their ad targeting seems to get worse, way behind google)But, very much "blended in". This kid's (19)income from these untargeted ads was in the thousands a DAY and growing as of Feb06.

You would think the adverisers conversion ratio has to be well below .005%.

Just does not make sense what Yahoo is doing to its adverisers.

Site: [removed]

By streamline at Apr 12 2006 - 01:01

Since when does there have

Since when does there have to be a 'border' ? I thought the word "blend" meant there was no border?

By Andy Hagans at Apr 12 2006 - 02:16

you are correct... The

you are correct... The borders I had in my head from this jenstar post that was referenced in the digitalpoint post

http://www.jensense.com/archives/2005/08/images_above_ad.html

which it seems only applies to images.. I guess the text ads are fair game. I think I need to lay off the cought medicine.

By shoemoney at Apr 12 2006 - 02:23

Even with images there is no

<pun>Even with images there is no clear line in the sand.</pun>

By webprofessor at Apr 12 2006 - 02:26

@streamline

Ah... "...what Yahoo is doing to the advertisers..." Come on guy!

How about what Terry is doing to the advertisers. Tricking users to click contextual advertising? I'll admit the line can be a fine one, but that's flagrant disregard for TOS.

By enndot at Apr 12 2006 - 02:36

there is no spoon

sheesh you guys think so linearly, there is a border it's just a blended border

By graywolf at Apr 12 2006 - 02:36

enndot...

Your telling me Yahoo is paying $80,000+ a month to this kid and they don't know what ads are being displayed and how they are being displayed on his site? Its not like he is "flying below the radar" with a site making a few hundred dollars a month.

This kid is not doing anything to Yahoos advertisers that Yahoo is not aware of...or at the very least should be aware of. I cannot put all this on the kid. I say 90% Yahoos fault...10% kids fault.

If you look at almost any website with Yahoo contextual ads...there is almost no targeting of ads. 90%+ are "mortgage" and "vonage" ads. Its been that way for months and getting worse. I even try to target Yahoo ads using their "lame" category system. Did this for a couple sites and they still come up with mostly mortgage and refinance ads.

BTW: Heres a differnt "myspace" type site...This guy might be making as much as twice what the kid is making with his Yahoo contextual ads.
[url removed]

Best,
Dan

By streamline at Apr 12 2006 - 03:26

The crazy thing about these

The crazy thing about these myspace sites is they convert like... well they dont convert. Its all underage kids with zero money. I bet these Debt Colsolidation and Mortagage Loans Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers LOVE showing there ads on these pages =P There was actually a recent thread about it on digitalpoint for high traffic sites like myspace ones to use ypn tool to target debt and mortgage phrases cause it pays out so much higher.

I agree with enndot above though... The publisher is just playing the game. Yahoo!'s game.
Dont hate the player hate the game ;)

By shoemoney at Apr 12 2006 - 04:01

I am sure some of the major

I am sure some of the major major major AdSense publsihers (ie: those owned by companies that have around 1% of commercial traffic) are far more lax than most the publisher ads.

I don't blame Yahoo! or high traffic sites for showing high priced ads. It is the advertisers that are idiots. We should look at the dumb advertisers as an opportunity for all of us. And in the longrun Yahoo! is only making their marketplace less efficient. When those big advertisers back out of Yahoo! they will be far worse off than if they optimized for relevancy instead of revenue.

I really don't see the need for dropping the MySpace customization site URLs either.

By seobook at Apr 12 2006 - 05:24