The Internet is a dangerous place at the best of times, but since Facebook started allowing adverts to appear on its interface, we have been noticing a prevalence of similar ads saying you could earn $5000 per month by using Google.
If you click on one of these ads, they link to similar pages, apparently run by different people saying the same thing, and often showing the same pictures of $5000 cheques paid out by Google. If that doesn't put you off, then the website of the so-called eMillionaire Institute (or similar) may convince you that this really is a genuine opportunity.
Using a domain name that seems to have been registered only in December 2008, it's hard to see how these people can have been making money since January 2008 (the date on one of the cheques in the photos). The website itself looks slick - with logos of major TV networks and a fancy 10-minute countdown, implying you only have ten minutes to fill in a form to start making money.
But what happens if you pay the $1.95 to order your kit that tells you how to start making your fortune? There are reports appearing on the web from people who have tried it. One says you will unwittingly be signed up to a $39.95 per month subscription fee if you don't cancel. Another reports that not only the $1.95 was taken from his credit card, but a $197 fee was also taken out at the same time and he didn't know why.
Can you really make money out of Google? Yes you can, if you become a Google Adsense affiliate? I am sticking my neck out though and suggesting that this heavily-promoted "make money from Google" scheme being advertised widely across Facebook looks like it may be more of a classic pyramid scheme. Rather than making your money out of Google itself, I hazard a guess that the money you make will come from you setting up as an affiliate of this scheme, earning commissions if you get people to sign up, and you have to spend money to advertise on Google. Hence, there is a Google connection but Google is not actually employing you.
I could be wrong, of course, but I am not taking the risk of trying to find out, and I advise anyone who sees one of these enticing ads to leave well alone. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. If anyone knows different about this scheme, feel free to let us know.
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1:11 AM
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Google search can be found integrated on tons of sites across the Web, including this one. Now, Google is extending that functionality to the mobile Web, where publishers can now integrate Google search and earn money on the revenue generated from clicks on mobile ads.
Much like Google’s custom search for websites, the mobile version can be branded with your own logo and design to make it feel for like your property. From there, users can search the Web as well as Google’s local, image, and news content.
Much like Google’s custom search for websites, the mobile version can be branded with your own logo and design to make it feel for like your property. From there, users can search the Web as well as Google’s local, image, and news content.
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10:55 PM
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Users of the Google Affiliate Network can now access the network through a regular Google account. This means uses will be able to access Google's other products like AdWords, AdSense, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc. with the same log-in.
For now, Google Affiliate Network users still have the option to continue using their existing log-ins. In fact, Google will not be updating the Affiliate Network Sign-in pages until all users have updated. Once a user updates their Account, they'll no longer be able to use their old Google Affiliate Network username and password.
It seems like an interesting way to get more people signed up for real Google accounts. It could prove to increase the amount of use of other Google products, as I'm sure that's the idea.
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11:54 PM
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I don’t write this to brag, I write this to inform my referrals, and educate others on the true blessing that Informative Post truly post is.
The superior blessings of IP to start with, is there is no guess work on what you are going to be paid for your work, so like on Associated Content you have to sit around waiting for a content producer to look over your work, and screw you on payment. IP lays it all out there for you, take it, or leave it.
IP isn’t covered with Google Adsense, or any other kinds of spammy ads. Informative Post web design isn’t ever changing, and full of glitches like Associated Content is. Everything is right up front when you log into your Informative Post account. There is no guess-work involved.
Many of IP’s “Jobs” are above AC’s average payout, and even Associated Content’s “Calls for Content”.
Informative Post is superior because each account has an “affiliate link”, Associated Content places one in your account but you get no credit what-so-ever for their sign ups. I posted about this in AC’s forum once after I received a $5 referral bonus credit. They were all shocked and amazed claiming AC had dropped that a long time ago. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut and I would have still been getting paid for it.
Douglas Brown who owns and operates IP is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever come across online. Though Associated Content has a massive staff, their support replies can take upwards to a week to receive (if you even get a reply at all, which they are famous for ignoring messages). Doug has always replied within 12 hours of contact, thus making IP superior. AC will never be able to say that, because their support is horrid. If you don’t believe me, do a test support contact, and see if your reply has anything to do with what you asked.
Informative Post is superior because they don’t run surveys, or contests with promises of prizes never handed out. Many others I’ve spoken to in the AC forums, admitted none of them ever get anything Associated Content has promised them, even simple things such as stickers.
Associated Content promotes defamation of government property, and private property with pictures of the stickers on mailboxes, and other items. It’s shocking they haven’t been slapped with a lawsuit. AC awards prizes for such things, or at least they use to. Informative Post is superior because they run no such promotion.
Yes there is two things that AC is superior over Informative Post and that is the personalized RSS feed, and webpage listing all our articles. No harm there though, I created my own, and who knows perhaps in time this will be implemented so everyone, not just me can advertise their articles.
Considering Associated Content is ran by hundreds of people, and Informative Post is ran by one, I’d have to say I’m overwhelming happy to admit that Informative Post is superior to Associated Content.
The superior blessings of IP to start with, is there is no guess work on what you are going to be paid for your work, so like on Associated Content you have to sit around waiting for a content producer to look over your work, and screw you on payment. IP lays it all out there for you, take it, or leave it.
IP isn’t covered with Google Adsense, or any other kinds of spammy ads. Informative Post web design isn’t ever changing, and full of glitches like Associated Content is. Everything is right up front when you log into your Informative Post account. There is no guess-work involved.
Many of IP’s “Jobs” are above AC’s average payout, and even Associated Content’s “Calls for Content”.
Informative Post is superior because each account has an “affiliate link”, Associated Content places one in your account but you get no credit what-so-ever for their sign ups. I posted about this in AC’s forum once after I received a $5 referral bonus credit. They were all shocked and amazed claiming AC had dropped that a long time ago. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut and I would have still been getting paid for it.
Douglas Brown who owns and operates IP is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever come across online. Though Associated Content has a massive staff, their support replies can take upwards to a week to receive (if you even get a reply at all, which they are famous for ignoring messages). Doug has always replied within 12 hours of contact, thus making IP superior. AC will never be able to say that, because their support is horrid. If you don’t believe me, do a test support contact, and see if your reply has anything to do with what you asked.
Informative Post is superior because they don’t run surveys, or contests with promises of prizes never handed out. Many others I’ve spoken to in the AC forums, admitted none of them ever get anything Associated Content has promised them, even simple things such as stickers.
Associated Content promotes defamation of government property, and private property with pictures of the stickers on mailboxes, and other items. It’s shocking they haven’t been slapped with a lawsuit. AC awards prizes for such things, or at least they use to. Informative Post is superior because they run no such promotion.
Yes there is two things that AC is superior over Informative Post and that is the personalized RSS feed, and webpage listing all our articles. No harm there though, I created my own, and who knows perhaps in time this will be implemented so everyone, not just me can advertise their articles.
Considering Associated Content is ran by hundreds of people, and Informative Post is ran by one, I’d have to say I’m overwhelming happy to admit that Informative Post is superior to Associated Content.
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8:17 AM
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Brent Csutoras published results of his Microsoft ContentAds test by accident. I wasn't able to see all the results because he pulled them after being notified that he is not allowed to share any stats because he is in a private beta. I can tell you that I tested the ads on my personal blog and actually removed them about a week ago, due to the poor results in revenue making.
That being said, what I did see Brent post in his MSN Adcenter’s Publisher Beta vs. Google Adsense, which is now 301 redirecting to the home page. He said that the CTR (click through rate) was a fraction of what he noticed with his Google AdSense ads. I believe it was less than half, but possibly even worse.
Clearly, a publisher program that gets paid out by click and not impression, with a low CTR is not a publisher program that publishers want to participate in. MSN Content Ads is still very new and in very limited beta. I suspect it will do much better in 2009, but it appears they still have a long way to go to earn the trust of publishers and take market share from Google AdSense.
Note, if anyone has a cached copy of the post, please share it with us. :)
Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Update: I received a screen capture of the original post and posted over here. You can see that the CTR with Google AdSense was .11%, but with Microsoft Content Ads it was .01% - huge difference and it showed in the earnings.
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8:17 AM
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In this week's recap, I wish our readers and viewers a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009. Google updated the toolbar PageRank scores, but it seems like the search results both here and internationally were updated also. Live Search is using MSNBOT-Media to crawl JavaScript files. Google got hit with wildcard domain issues. Google Alerts is trigger happy. Google shows a did you mean answer for a child day care service, leading to a porn site. Google's strict image search option shows more porn than the moderate search. Danny Sullivan slaps Microsoft on their search initiatives. Microsoft's Content Ads program is doing poorly. Google AdSense is offending overweight people. Happy 2009 everyone!
Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):
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10:55 PM
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According to this release today, sent to Adsense publishers, Google is experimenting with different formats for ads. I think this is good news...
...for advertisers and publishers - anything that calls attention to the ads is helping both.
See the release below, and below that, the detail they reference:
Readers with sharp eyes will notice that on some rare occasions, your ads may appear or act slightly differently than what youre accustomed to. Rest assured that this is normal behavior that results from our efforts to improve the experience for all members of the advertising ecosystem. (You may have noticed a similar post about our search results on the official Google blog.)
One way in which we achieve this is by making continued tweaks and innovations to the user behavior and appearance of our ads. In the past, these experiments have included changes to the font styling, coloring, spacing, and other aesthetic components. More specifically, changes such as redesigned ad units and arrows to show additional ads have stemmed from these tests. The purpose of these tests is to identify changes to our product that can bring long-term benefits to our publishers, your sites visitors, and advertisers.
Before rolling out a change to our ads, we test performance for a limited number of ad impressions, which may not apply to all publishers. Although we dont notify publishers of these specific changes in order to prevent bias, we closely monitor the performance of these tests. We also welcome feedback from publishers, users, and advertisers, so feel free to drop us an email.
A fresh, new look for AdSense ads
You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately " were happy to announce that, just in time for spring, weve given our standard ad units a fresh makeover. After extensive testing and research, weve found that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers. Were in the process of rolling out this change to all ad units, and you should see that your ad units are automatically updated over the next few days. But, before you rush to make sure all of your ad units still match your site, please be assured that the fonts and colors of your ads wont be changed.
...for advertisers and publishers - anything that calls attention to the ads is helping both.
See the release below, and below that, the detail they reference:
Readers with sharp eyes will notice that on some rare occasions, your ads may appear or act slightly differently than what youre accustomed to. Rest assured that this is normal behavior that results from our efforts to improve the experience for all members of the advertising ecosystem. (You may have noticed a similar post about our search results on the official Google blog.)
One way in which we achieve this is by making continued tweaks and innovations to the user behavior and appearance of our ads. In the past, these experiments have included changes to the font styling, coloring, spacing, and other aesthetic components. More specifically, changes such as redesigned ad units and arrows to show additional ads have stemmed from these tests. The purpose of these tests is to identify changes to our product that can bring long-term benefits to our publishers, your sites visitors, and advertisers.
Before rolling out a change to our ads, we test performance for a limited number of ad impressions, which may not apply to all publishers. Although we dont notify publishers of these specific changes in order to prevent bias, we closely monitor the performance of these tests. We also welcome feedback from publishers, users, and advertisers, so feel free to drop us an email.
A fresh, new look for AdSense ads
You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately " were happy to announce that, just in time for spring, weve given our standard ad units a fresh makeover. After extensive testing and research, weve found that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers. Were in the process of rolling out this change to all ad units, and you should see that your ad units are automatically updated over the next few days. But, before you rush to make sure all of your ad units still match your site, please be assured that the fonts and colors of your ads wont be changed.
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