Comments on: Arbitrage Defined

By: YouGov

YouGov — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:43:16 +0000

Thanks – a useful and clear post

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:40:37 +0000

Arbitrage 2.0 … anybody with comments on exactly how it works? If the strategy does not rely on organic search engine traffic to then monetize with adsense / yahoo ads, then it must use PPC to get the traffic that is then monetized. Buy low — sell high. I get the sell high part (adsense) but curious about the buy low part–buy from ask.com / msn.com then sell through adsense? Any thoughts?

By: Arbitrage: Made For Adsense (MFA) Web Pages and Poor Quality Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Traffic » Web Design Articles From Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle WA

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:21:01 +0000

[...] This is an example of arbitrage or what is known in the online advertising world as “made for adsense” or MFA websites. These websites have no content, their sole purpose is to drive clicks. You can read more about arbitrage in this article from the Click Fraud Network and in this article from Marketing Pilgrim. [...]

By: NameSlam.com » Blog Archive » Arbitrage Defined

NameSlam.com » Blog Archive » Arbitrage Defined — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:37:12 +0000

[...] cite=”http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/12/arbitrage-defined.html” title=”Arbitrage Defined“>Arbitrage is a hot topic these days. American Heritage Dictionary defines arbitrage as [...]

By: Still much money to be made from the affiliate game? - Page 2 - Affiliate Marketing

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:24:21 +0000

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By: Still much money to be made from the affiliate game? - Affiliate Marketing

Still much money to be made from the affiliate game? - Affiliate Marketing — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:49:07 +0000

[...] site when looking into Arbitrage definitions (after having read the link in the previous post) – Arbitrage Defined Does this mean that sites, however well contructed and useful, fall into the Arbitrage definition [...]

By: Adsense - Online Business Help Google AdSense Basics « Adsense Unit

Adsense - Online Business Help Google AdSense Basics « Adsense Unit — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:23:39 +0000

[...] Arbitrage Defined | Marketing PilgrimPPC / Adsense Arbitrage 1.0 A website or web page which contains no content. The page is filled with PPC ads such as Adsense or Yahoo Search Partner Ads. [...]

By: Google AdSense Cracking Down On Arbitrage » Webomatica - tech, movies, music blog

Sun, 20 May 2007 04:09:38 +0000

[...] So here’s the low down, with images of arbitrage varieties at Marketing Pilgrim. [...]

By: The Lonely Marketer - a discussion for the small business marketing manager » Search Arbitrage Defined

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:29:06 +0000

[...] Search Arbitrage Defined By Patrick Schaber I just came across a good outline and commentary on search arbitrage. Jeremy Luebke at Marketing Pilgrim outlines the different definitions and methods of search arbitrage. If you’re doing PPC search marketing or optimizing your site for search, you’ll want to check out this post. [...]

By: Chris Blagden

Chris Blagden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:08:22 +0000

We talk in terms of ‘cracking down’ and ‘banning’ but really the problem is more with the arbitrage 1.0 style sites. The others can significantly be seen as credible advertising when in the context of a site with a clear business model such as price comparison or a large useful content site.

Equally informational sites such as About.com or Wikipedia can only very harshly be viewed as mfa, do not informational sites reserve the right to recoup their costs via their advertisements.

It is wrong to refer to these sites as a problem, refer to them as ‘the situation’. I feel arbitrage 1.0 is where anyone other than the lead generators will feel put out if they go but arbi 2.0 and the more sophisticated examples listed here will stay for good. Essentally these are the contextual sites or those that provide a useful service, as long as their content is not scraped then its very hard to argue they do not provide good user experience no matter what a user clicks on.

As for the arbitrage 1.0 sites, well the largest sites on the web are doing it, I have spied Excite, Ask.com and Yahoo on Adwords alone pushing their very own links so what kind of message does that really send out? The author is also correct, ban arbitrage 1.0 and it will just evolve and there will be no way to distinguish real content pages from the clever mfa pages that will spring up in their place. In any event evolving mfa will eventually turn into the very thing the engines want, unique content and experience.

The current climate threatens legitimate content sites that want to run ads to recoup PPC costs as they risk getting hit in what ever new algos or policies may come along.

By: what is arbitrage? - WickedFire - Internet Marketing Affiliate Webmaster Forum

what is arbitrage? - WickedFire - Internet Marketing Affiliate Webmaster Forum — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:35:54 +0000

[...] With screenshots Arbitrage Defined | Marketing Pilgrim __________________ [...]

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:08:19 +0000

Thats a good point, clicking on ads only to get more ads is really annoying. I don’t know at what point I am going to alter my behaviour though, those cunning arbitragers can probably write awfully good ads and theres always a sucker or two out there like me.

Once search engines’ revenue from ads decreases I guess they’ll make changes, but I would say that would come quicker due to competition from other ad companies than from changes in user behaviour?

By: Jeremy Luebke

Jeremy Luebke — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:24:31 +0000

The benefit of cracking down? To make sure the end user doesn’t lose confidence in ads. Even end users will only click on crap until for so long they get fed up and completely ignore every ad Google serves up.

Publishers will also move on to other revenue streams since their users no longer click on adsense ads because the users are trained to expect crap on the other end.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:04:26 +0000

Nice post, succinct definitions, thanks. It surprises me that Google hasn’t led the way and taken more steps to discourage these practices – it kinda fits with their ‘style’. They must have an idea of how much revenue is generated from these sorts of sites and it must be a tonne.

I guess the average joe searcher doesn’t appreciate the issues as well as we do or has the power as an individual to diminish their revenue. So in fact, what are the benefits to Google for cracking down on arbitrage?

By: Edd

Edd — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:40:25 +0000

Nice post, It’s always useful to read this kind of posts. Definetly bookmarked…

By: Jeremy Luebke

Jeremy Luebke — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:04:53 +0000

Wow Patrick,

If what she said is correct, and they aren’t just blocking that one site, they should be ashamed of themselves. “Do no evil” HA!

By: Search Arbitrage Defined « Lonely Marketer

Search Arbitrage Defined « Lonely Marketer — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:09:57 +0000

[...] I just came across a good outline and commentary on search arbitrage. Jeremy Luebke at Marketing Pilgrim outlines the different definitions and methods of search arbitrage. If you’re doing PPC search marketing or optimizing your site for search, you’ll want to check out this post. [...]

By: Patrick Schaber

Patrick Schaber — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:00:54 +0000

Jeremy – you nailed it on the head – they’re afraid to lose the revenue. At the company I work for we recently discovered someone bought a url of the misspelling of our company name. They put up a website of basically AdSense – of which our PPC ad was appearing. When I asked my Google Rep about it she said they can isolate the AdSense sites with no content and not show my ads on them. If that’s the case, why can’t they eliminate showing ads there period? There is no relevant content.

By: Caydel

Caydel — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:34:03 +0000

Jeremy – go for it! I’ll happily read and learn about arbitrage all day if I can

By: Toivo Lainevool

Toivo Lainevool — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:33:38 +0000

You forgot one category, legitimate, useful sites that use arbitrage to supplement the income they get from organic traffic.