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EdenWeb

Member
Just curious if anyone has any experience of buying an established site.

I came across Websitebroker.com and it's interesting stuff. I'd take the Adsense earnings on some of these with a large shovel of salt and I saw some guy trying to sell a domain for about 15 million dollars last month.

Have you bought a site before with proven adsense revenue. Did it work out for you etc? Any nasty suprises?
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
I've bought one or two sites, but they weren't bought based on their adsense
 

Redfly

New Member
i knew someone would mention that ... I'll reword it

do you think Google would ever actualy notice?

Yes. They would and will. Advertisers pay for that click because it is supposed to be relevant. You asking someone to click for the sake of it is fraudulent. I know you changed it but it really grinds my gears seeing this.

Advertising on the Google content network is ruined because of this activity. 90% of all my adwords campaigns are now search network only because of the low quality traffic sites asking to click adsense ads are generating.
 

Redfly

New Member
Oh, and on topic :)

Yes, I have bought over 20 sites and sold about 30. I think all of them were on Sitepoint.

Also, some of the biggest sites I own were as a direct result of me watching the marketplace, seeing what sold for a large sum of money and creating something similar.

Sitepoint Marketplace is a GOLDMINE of money making ideas.

No nasty surprises either. In fact, the only way I got into the top CPM advertising networks was by buying a site that was already approved.
 

webdream

New Member
fair comment redfly. the site's just for a 12 year ol lad uno, no harm intended. I think he's going to get all his mates clicking on them anyway.

Actualy, i must say I'm not a huge respecter of google ads, I click loads of them all the time on google.ie just to waste the money of the advertisers... no law against that & sure google have no objections .

quite often I search for 'web design ireland' or something simlar and then click loads of the google ads to see if I can use up their daily spend.

is that iresponsable ? I don't think so ... just a free market
 

paul

Ninja
Publicly saying these things webdream, won't make you friends here that's for sure. I certainly wouldn't recommend the services of someone who does such under handed tactics.
 

webdream

New Member
Hi Paul,

You're probally correct that saying such things won't help me make 'friends' on this forum, although it would be a fairly boring place without diversity of opinion or personality.

It's not underhand tactis or anything else to be clicking away on these ads, but just demonstrates a weakness of the 'pay per click' system.

I think redfly said he had experience with the low quality of traffic from ppc campaigns and let's be realistic here... it makes no sense at all to rely on the 'good nature' of internet users to only click on ads where they have a genuine interest or intent of buying services.

I'm sure you are well aware of the exploits and vunrabilities associated with ppc. If weaknesses are there they need to be addressed and debated.
 

webdream

New Member
no, and why would they anyway - the're earning billions from it.

Remember, Google is not a public servce , it's a billion $$ US corporation.

I have found it amusing over the time that so many people are anti Microsoft, because they percive it as a monopalistic corporation, and yet they sing the praises of google at any chance......
 

effect

New Member
not praising google at all, i'm just making the point - u stated problems need to be debated and fixed, and i posted the reply - its not a problem or exploit if someone is bored and keeps clicking links
 

Trojan

New Member
Actualy, i must say I'm not a huge respecter of google ads, I click loads of them all the time on google.ie just to waste the money of the advertisers... no law against that & sure google have no objections .

quite often I search for 'web design ireland' or something simlar and then click loads of the google ads to see if I can use up their daily spend.

is that iresponsable ? I don't think so ... just a free market

Actually, since you're in the same business it's called click fraud.

You've done a solid job making sure I and plenty others here will never work with you, that's for sure.


webdream said:
I have found it amusing over the time that so many people are anti Microsoft, because they percive it as a monopalistic corporation, and yet they sing the praises of google at any chance.

And there are plenty of us, particularly in SEM, who find Google's hypocrisy quite galling.
 

webdream

New Member
Hi Trojan,

It would indeed be click fraud if I were clicking ads on my own sites, or those of associates of mine. However, to click ads. returned on google by way of search query is not the same thing.
 

Trojan

New Member
Hi Trojan,

It would indeed be click fraud if I were clicking ads on my own sites, or those of associates of mine. However, to click ads. returned on google by way of search query is not the same thing.

Click fraud is not defined soley as clicking ads on your own site - clicking on them "just to waste the money of the advertisers... no law against that & sure google have no objections" isn't quite true.

Overture defines click fraud as, "clicks arising for reasons other than the good-faith intention of an Internet user to visit a Web site to purchase goods or services or to obtain information," according to spokesperson Dina Freeman.

Google is a bit more specific, defining click fraud, "or invalid clicks, as any method used to artificially and/or maliciously generate clicks or page impressions," according to Salar Kamangar, director of product management.

Examples of invalid clicks, according to Kamangar, include: manual clicks on an ad to purposefully increase the ad spend; deliberate clicks on an ad to increase profits by site owners hosting the ads; and automated clicking tools, 'bots, or other deceptive software.

Google and Overture Define Click Fraud
 

webdream

New Member
well, i stand corrected on the issue of click fraud.

Thanx for the links redfly. It is certainly an interesting topic of discussion.

I was realy just trying to make the point that these ads are very suseptable to abuse, and I imagine that the level of abuse will only increase over time. Certainly the awareness of click revenue (or belief that there is easy money to be made) is increasing as ppc ads. become more and more prevalent.

It makes you wonder where the future lies for ppc ads. I can only assume that Google will have to introduce a more selective policy of where the ads are shown if they are to survive in the long term.

I am a member of the IIA, and no I'm not ashamed of myself. The fact is I am playing Devils advocate to some extent. If the ppc system is so open to abuse, perhaps I am infact making a positive contibution by provoking discusion.

The members of the forum may disagree with me on any number of issues, but at the end of the day my personal merit is neither the topic of discussion, or of any consequence in the bigger picture.

The article Click fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you refered to states that 'Click fraud is the subject of some controversy'. I would agree that the topic is contovercial, and would be interested to discuss. I have a suspicion that not everyone is so eager to discuss the vunrabilities or level of abuse, perhaps those that promote ppc or those that benifit from it (Google etc.)......

I would also like to point out that I am only marginaly involved in ppc networks etc. My own google revenue probaly just about covers the spend on instant coffee in the office.
 

Kieran H

New Member
well, i stand corrected on the issue of click fraud.

It makes you wonder where the future lies for ppc ads. I can only assume that Google will have to introduce a more selective policy of where the ads are shown if they are to survive in the long term.

This has - eventually :) - raised a very interesting point since as PPC grows in popularity, direct competitors will find themselves bidding their key words and phrases ever upwards to the benefit of Google, the website that may host ads but certainly not to the PPC purchasers' benefit.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile PPC with a proper strategy for some clients, especially those with low priced items or services where the cost of online marketing can not be easily absorbed, or where there is no expectation of return sales and thus no chance to defray the cost over several purchases... any opinions out there?

FWIW...
 
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