Drastic measures to shore up user base

Herein is the long and sad story of how spam and online crime have driven some ISPs to blind, extreme measures which threaten the very usability of the internet. AOL, one of the world's longest trusted providers can no longer be trusted. Their overzealous quest to sell accounts by offering "spam blocking" is having the effect of isolating their user base from other web users. The following is a saga I've followed first hand -- so I know it's sad but true.

Drastic measures to shore up user base

 

BIG CHANGES ARE AFOOT IN THE WAY THE INTERNET WORKS

BIG CHANGES ARE AFOOT IN THE WAY THE INTERNET WORKS and 'net neutrality' is a conundrum with so much misinformation, confusion and media lip service floating around that no one seems to really know what's going on. Two things are for sure: it is NOT going away, and it IS going to be a media feeding frenzy.

Upside-down pros and cons

This is going to be a long, miserable, and potentially damaging struggle; primarily because the two sides of the argument have gotten themselves upside-down. Those in favor of neutrality are crying: please don't regulate so the 'little guy' and everyone else can be free to do as they please. Yet those are the ones currently exploiting and profiteering off 'the little guy.'

More Tips To Survive The Google Pagerank Breakup

All those who wanted to monetize their web sites had a big boost a couple of years ago when Google rolled out their AdSense program. I jumped on board, just like I jumped on the new upstart named "Amazon" when they first appeared on the scene. Amazon has cut its affiliates commissions back to near-oblivion, in the interest of their profits -- why did we think Google wouldn't do the same?

But, as it goes on the web, most players weren't content with running an honest web site with honest content. I've complained and complained to deft ears about how so many sites are 'cheating' by stacking their links and all manner of other tricks to increase their clicks. Google finally caught on.

It's actually been happening over the past year. Page rankings dropping, along with Ad Sense revenue. I first became aware of it back in April -- but no matter how hard I tried, I could not get to the bottom of the problem. Unfortunately there are many sites who are caught in the web who shouldn't be -- like ours. We run an honorable web operation, and have resisted "selling" links, or engaging in link-exchanges, 3-way link schemes and any number of other schemes the underworld has dreamed up. We get requests each and every day from sites ranging from travel vacations to home appliances to pet care and even a number of 'illegal' operations -- all wanting to "exchange links" with us to "enhance" our Google rankings. It's a sad note that once again, the corrupt element of the web drags down good people too.

 

Giving Up on AdSense

[Fred says: If you've surfted to web sites that seem to be only Google links, or clicked on a link that took you somewhere you didn't want to go, then welcome to the club. Google's reach has grown to astronomical proportions. With their recent 3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick they are poised to be one of the biggest players in the internet advertising business. But not all is well in paradise... ]

Giving Up on AdSense

by Sramana Mitra

I am a painful critic for Google's AdSense program, as it pertains to Content (not Search). My beef is that it doesn't take into account any understanding of the target audience of a publisher, nor does it take into account Context or Intent.

As a result, it pushes out-of-context Ads, which have little chance of being clicked upon, and attempts to monetize on a CPC model.

Instead, what I want is a CPM-based ad network that DOES take into account audience segmentation, context, and intent. And one that shares the revenues with me, the publisher, rather than Google, who is basically following an extortionist policy on its AdSense strategy.

Is this too much to ask?

I cribbed about it earlier, by serving as exhibit a Hardwood Flooring Ad that was served up to my site.

Here's another one that has no synergy with the Context (picture). It offers low-cost treatment at hospitals in India.

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