As I suspected, there’s already at least one advertiser trying to capitalize on swine flu mania – see screenshot below!
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Phishing for AdWords Logins . . . By Advertising on AdWords
This is perhaps the most brazen or stupid way to try to phish for AdWords logins – you decide! Check out the first ad on the right frame below:
Spam Poetry Volume ???: Non-Kosher Male Enhancement
Short and sweet (the antithesis of what they promise). I often wonder whether these things are literal translations fo some foreign slang:
She will learn once and for all
that your pork steeple is the best!
One Free Ticket to ADSPACE ($450 Value!) Up for Grabs!
A few months ago I ran a “identify the mystery client” promotion on Blogation. Mike from LA ended up winning the grand prize – a free ticket to ADSPACE. Well, sadly, Mike had to decline the ticket due to scheduling conflicts. But hey, Mike’s loss is your gain! I’m putting the free ticket up for grabs again. Here’s the new contest. There are eight questions below about ADSPACE. First person to comment back with all the correct answers wins the ticket!
Reminder, the show is April 22 in San Francisco, so make sure you’ll be here on that date before you win the ticket!
Here we go!
- Name one sponsor of ADSPACE.
- Name the Google team member(s) speaking on the Advertising track.
- Which of the following companies is not speaking at ADSPACE: Facebook, MSN, Yahoo, Amazon.
- Which panel am I speaking on or moderating? (Who am I? Why am I here?)
- What’s the 20% off discount code for ADSPACE?
- What is the profile name of official ADSPACE twitter account?
- Does a ticket to ADSPACE get you access to the AdTech exhibit hall and keynotes, or just the exhibit hall?
- How much will it cost to register for ADSPACE on the day of the show?
A New Breed of Contextual Advertisers
If past performance is indicative of future success, DOCLIX should be a winner – the founder, Oded Itzhak, also founded Quigo, which ended up getting acquired by AOL for over $300 million and was also the company primarily responsible for Google’s eventual entree into “placement targeting.” Here’s a description of DOCLIX’s session at AdSpace! Ad-tech San Francisco this year will offer an exciting insider’s view into the world of performance marketing, and in particular into a new breed of advertising: Brand Performance.Editor’s Note: Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll feature some guest contributions from speakers, advisors, and exhibitors participating in AdSpace (April 22 in SF!). The first one is from DOCLIX, a recently-funded contextual advertising network. The company is offering publishers and advertisers a “premium contextual network” called AdSide. As they note in the company description, “AdSide places non-intrusive user-activated, expandable text ads on premium sites. It expands publisher’s ad real estate, without diluting the user experience.We serve high cost per click text ads to premium sites, and deliver search-engine grade targeting and relevance to ads placed on content sites.”
Performance-based advertising and brand advertising have traditionally been regarded as two separate entities with very different sets of goals and budgets. Many times they are handled by separate teams, agencies, separate metrics and KPIs. However, as advertisers demand more results-oriented accountability, a new type of advertising is getting more attention–one that combines ROI-focused quantifiable objectives with branding goals. This shift in advertiser strategy is gaining rapid traction, especially now when CMOs are required to justify every dollar spent.
Brand performance is a new class of PPC advertising. It allows brand-conscious advertisers to meet their ROI objectives, while maintaining proper brand visibility. It also requires high click-through rates at a viable cost, on contextually-relevant content sites.
Join us for a unique AdSpace workshop: Performance Branding on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 03:00 PM – 03:30 PM.
If you are a brand advertiser, this session can help you utilize text ads on content networks, in a manner that extends and supports your brand initiatives. The panel will be moderated by Josh McFarland, Entrepreneur in Residence at Greylock Ventures. Josh will be joined by Oded Itzhak, founder and CEO of DOCLIX. Oded was previously co-founder and CTO of Quigo.
If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, you can take advantage of a special 20% discount by entering the code ADSPACEB here. See you at the show!
Kudos to Clickbooth – Leading the Fight Against Flogs
Got an email today from Clickbooth announcing their new policy against fake blogs (flogs). I suspect that this move may be led by a desire to reduce their legal liability for fraudulent marketing practices, but regardless of the intent, I applaud them for being ahead of the curve on this.
By the way, I was disappointed that no one seemed to pick up the fact that my most recent post – dated at midnight on April 1st – was a collection of fake-fake blogs!
Here’s the complete posting from Clickbooth:
Blog/Review sites guidelines Clickbooth does not allow Fake blogs, FLOGS or fake review sites as a marketing method, publishers taking part in these activities will have their accounts terminated immediately. All Blog and Review webistes must comply with the following:
- Each such Publisher Website must contain distinct and legitimate content, substance and material.
- Each such Publisher Website must not contain information that is misleading or deceiving
- The Content appearing on each such Publisher Website must be entirely an accurate representation that is truthful and verifiable.
- Any testimonials appearing on such Publisher Websites must be accurate, truthful, verifiable and from individuals that have given their permission for such testimonials to be used by the Publisher in the manner so used on the applicable Publisher Websites.
- Where You have paid an individual for the use of his/her testimonial, that fact must be disclosed, prominently, on the applicable Publisher Website immediately below or adjacent to the subject testimonial.
- Blog created solely to advertise one or two specific products are not allowed
- You Cannot use the word “Free,” or “Complimentary” or other similar terms in connection with marketing any Advertiser products/services does not state such language without the prior express written consent of Clickbooth.
- Must post a privacy policy on any and all website(s), landing page(s), confirmation page(s) and/or other web page(s) upon which you collect consumer information in connection with a Search Marketing Program. The privacy policy must comply with all federal and state privacy laws and meet the test of reasonable commercial best practices applicable to privacy policies. Your data protection, use and privacy practices must adhere to Your applicable privacy policy, in both letter and in spirit, in all respects and with no exceptions. The privacy policy must be available for viewing via a clickable link. Such link must include the term “privacy” or “privacy policy.
- Website cannot: (1) utilize any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other similar intellectual property right of any third party without their prior written consent; (2) otherwise violate or breach any duty toward, or rights of, any person or entity including, without limitation, rights of privacy and publicity; or (3) must not result in any consumer fraud, product liability or breach of contract to which You are a party.
- Each such Publisher Website must contain a clearly worded disclaimer disclosing the fact that the proprietor of the Website has a commercial relationship whereby it receives compensation for referrals that result in sales of the product(s) featured on the Website.
- Review websites must disclose review process and steps taken to ensure a fair review
- Each such Publisher Website Must have disclaimers for images that do not represent the consumer that is portrayed
- Each such Publisher Website Must have disclaimer for use of celebrity or trademarked logos
- Each such Publisher Website Must have disclaimers for substantiated claims
- Links to products must have an asterisk leading to a disclaimer that discloses affiliations and compensation
- Each such Publisher Website Must disclose fact that products were tested
- IP address of user comments must be retained and verified for authenticity.
- Any search engine copy used to drive users to website must be accurate and cannot mislead or deceive users
- Each such Publisher must otherwise comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, as well as the terms and conditions of the Clickbooth Publisher Agreement and any and all additional Clickbooth Acceptable Use Policies, and other applicable agreements, operating rules and/or documents.
Clickbooth will ensure Blog and Review websites comply with these guidelines by reserving the right to review each such Publisher Website randomly for compliance. At Clickbooth’s request publisher must provide copy of Driver License or other form of Government ID of consumer depicted on website as well as confirm or authenticate facts stated on website. Publisher must respond satisfactorily within 5 business days of an audit or account will be terminated.
Fake Blogs: Now Moving Into More Categories
As if it wasn’t enough that fake blogs (“flogs”) had taken over weight loss, wrinkle cream, and teeth whitening ads across the Internet, it’s now apparent that the trend is quickly spreading into new markets.
First, for those of you who have not seen a fake blog, here’s how it works. Check out the ads (powered by Quigo) on the homepage of AOL.com:
As you can see, the entire inventory of text ads is being controlled by people claiming to be individual bloggers who are somehow willing to spend $3 a click to ‘share their story’ with the masses. Of course, once you click through the site, it’s obvious that the success stories are nothing more than cut-and-paste templatized sites that push unsuspecting readers into affiliate continuity programs – the kind where you get billed for months on end for a product you don’t really want.
I’ve written extensively about this scam, but if you want to see an example in action, here’s one of the top click buyers on AOL:
What particularly surprising to me is to see that these fake blogs are rapidly expanding into areas that I would have always assumed would avoid their wrath. Two examples come to mind. First, I was recently helping a friend out who was doing some research to buy enterprise servers for his rapidly growing Web site. So, naturally, I did a search on Google for “enterprise servers.” Check out the first listing:
Pretty shocking, huh? And sure enough, when you click through on the ad you get the same fake blog experience I’ve come to dread:
But wait, it gets worse! It turns out that corporate marketing departments are getting into the game. I did a search on “debt consolidation” recently (again, not for me but for a friend) and look at the #1 result:
And then the landing page they are using is absolutely ridiculous (another bad flog design):
Where will these flogs go to next? Also, if someone creates a fake-fake blog, does that make it a real blog? What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Is today the first day of April? 
