Blogs: M&M’s --- Part I - This stands for Marketing and Money
Blogs: Sometimes not making money is ok....
News: SaaS Software Licensing with Insight
News: Managed Email Security Services Trends with eleven and Variomedia
By Jay Lyman
May 25, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosts had a lot to say about Google's AdSense and AdWords on hosting forums this month, discussing the illegitimate generation of traffic and what hosts should do about it, as well as effective use of the search engine's services to generate traffic and revenue.
The first conversation came out of a SitePoint (sitepoint.com) discussion, in which the original poster spotted a Web site with Google's AdSense ads marked with the phrase "Clicking These Links Supports the Operation Of Our Forums."
"I just wondered if this is allowed," the poster asked. "Should I report it if it is illegal and where can I do that?"
Others chimed in on the practice of labeling AdSense ads in such a manner, with the first response questioning AdSense vigilantism.
"Well, it may be illegal or may not, but why would you report it?" said the second post. "Maybe, the webmaster was just a little anxious to get going, and didn't pay real close attention to the Google (terms of service) TOS, as I see you haven't either. Why not (if you're really that concerned about it :/ ) email the website owner, and be kind and mention that you think that it might be against the TOS? Or better yet, let Google handle it in their own time, and believe me, they will."
However, most others - including some pointing out the fact that labeling Google AdSense ads as anything other than advertisements is not allowed - felt the opposite, and indicated legitimate AdSense advertisers were being cheated by such practices.
"Thanks to stupid opinions like this one advertisers are getting screwed every day," said one poster. "What they are doing is called stealing. Of course you should report it, these kind of crooks should get kicked out of the program."
There was some debate concerning a rush to judgment and AdSense banning, as one poster told a story of being locked out "because of some unknown idiot who generated false clicks on my account."
But even those who endorsed a warning before barring such a site owner from AdSense urged Web hosts and others to take some action against the practice, which was described in other posts as "forbidden" and "ridiculous."
"If I see something like this, I prefer to tell the webmaster and warn them that if they don't remove it immediately, I will report them," said another post. "Yes I'm soft, yes I agree that if they get kicked out it's their own fault, and most importantly I agree that these twits are ruining affiliate programs for all of us. But in the end I think it's a quicker and more effective solution to give them a fair chance. By a fair chance I mean 24 hours. If they haven't fixed the problem by then, they get reported. Whatever you do, make sure you do something. We all need to be proactive about this and help stamp it out."
Google's services and their use by Web sites and hosts also came up in another, older HostHideout (hosthideout.com) discussion that had some more recent talk of submitting sites to Google aside from AdWords.
The discussion was directed to a Google site for adding URLs, but one of the posts pointed out that service would not guarantee inclusion.
"Pay inclusion is probably best," the poster said.
Other advice on getting in Google's index included getting links from others already indexed. There was also debate over reliance on spidering for Google indexing. One post indicated that having a signature and/or posting threads in forums might do the trick since many are spidered by Google. Another poster downplayed the technique, insisting that Google does not take such links as valid ones. The last word on the matter, however, indicated the spidering effort does work.
"Actually, I've found that Google (and others) do spider your site if you use links in your signature," the post said. "I get tons of search engine traffic that way on at least one of my sites and when checking link:yoursite.com, it shows those results as well."
Yet another discussion on WebHostingTalk (webhostingtalk.com) centered on whether Google's AdWords are "good for the little guy."
There was some consensus that AdWords can help smaller players promote themselves effectively, but there was also caution that finding the right techniques and keywords can be expensive and time-consuming. However, one post gave actual numbers and indicated an AdWords effort was worthwhile.
"Last month, AdWords sent my web hosting campaign 200 clicks at an average of $0.06 per click," the post said. "The site being advertised is a hosting directory, which is why volume is not important to me, but it shows that there is dirt cheap web hosting traffic to be had if you look hard enough. And I can tie regular affiliate sales directly to the AdWords campaign."
 |
PREVIOUS: Rackable Solves Data393 Data Center Dilemma | | | NEXT: Register.com Gets Personal With Site Design |  |
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
Comment anonymously or log into your WHIR account
Logging in allows enhanced commenting features (such as external linking) in news, features, blogs and more.