Well this one wasn’t a shock or news to me at all recently launched ppc company Widgetbucks is now having problems with its publishers due to no payments and suspension of accounts based on the reason of invalid clicks and in some cases no reason at all, so far today there was 1 publisher that was suspended by widget bucks with the reason of invalid clicks when he was earning nearly 100$ a day, yea thats a big chunk of change to loose.
As if that wasn’t enough people are deceiving publishers as well by making these landing page sites on domains that are typos of widgetbucks.com with their own affiliate id and promoting it as the original widget buck’s site, thats just wrong in my opinon any marketing move that decieves the audience is morally and ethically wrong.
I guess i can’t defend widgetbucks in this post as well because they are being unfair to their publishers as well.
Guess this is one for the ages, marked as a trend because of the most unique case in ppc that i have seen, ther were times where the publishers were shady, sometimes the company itself was just a scam, but here the company its publishers and most people around it are shady..
Many advertisers that are just beginning to promote their websites, begin to consider pay per click advertising. Usually whenever they discover pay per click advertising, the most obvious choices are Yahoo Search Marketing or Google AdWords. However out of hundreds of choices for pay per click companies out there on the Internet, these are only two. There are many more options for pay per click advertising. And often enough, advertisers will realize that as popular as Yahoo and Google both are, they do not fill the advertiser’s needs. It is important for advertisers to remember that there are alternatives out there for Yahoo and Google, whether they are new and just now emerging into the pay per click advertising market, or veteran supporters of smalltime business advertising. A couple of these choices are reviewed and described below.
ChaCha.com
In the beginning of September in 2006, ChaCha.com was released as being significantly different from the typical search engine advertising company. One of the things that make ChaCha.com so different is that they incorporate actual human beings into their company, as search guides. This service is free of charge and applies to users and advertisers that might be having trouble finding their target audience, or what they want through organic search engines. But what makes ChaCha.com truly unique is that there are two different ways to use the search engine. An user can do the standard search, using a keyboard. Or they can do a search with the assistance of a real live, –human, guide to assist them in finding the right links to solve their queries. Also, the guides are specifically trained in different types of knowledge, this way the user making the search has high chances of connecting with the researcher that actually knows what they’re talking about and want from their query. A user can even request a specific search guide to help them with their search, for a guide based on their areas of knowledge in what’s called the “ChaCha Underground.” There were about 2000 ChaCha search guides in 2006, and at that time there were 5000 more ready to be added; so by now, there has to be around 10,000 search guides willing to assist customers and users and their queries. Search guides are paid for every search, they assist in and are able to cash in their payroll at any time they choose, after any period of which they been working, no matter how long they have actually been working, whether it’d been an hour or a week.
One of the great things about ChaCha.com are that the search guides are very polite and they ask pertinent questions in order to help the user find exactly what they’re looking for, in a fast and efficient manner. There are also plenty of cost per click and cost per action advertising opportunities available with ChaCha.com, but they give no actual details, unless whomever is interested in advertising contacts the sales area of their service. This can benefit an advertiser in a lot of ways, for instance, there won’t be a lot of competition, and they can be assured of a certain amount of professionalism within the company.
Some of the negative things about ChaCha.com, although they are a great search engine, with great opportunities available for advertisers, for instance, is that even if the search term has already been searched thoroughly by a guide, the user making the query may be presented with that search even if they’ve chosen to search without the assistance of a guide. Also, some standard searches that are made generally show, sponsored links that are generally pretty relevant to the query, but when searching with a guide the sponsored results can show completely unrelated paid ads.
RedZee
The pay per click advertising program offered by RedZee.com, is equally as inviting as the animated red striped zebra that is its online mascot. They also use the clean screen interface, that was made famous and popular by Google, and initially they were famous for the fact that they were a family-friendly search engine. Compared with search engines that have been operating since the late 90s, RedZee is fairly new to having begun operating in 2002. The founders of the search engine have strived to keep any kind of pornographic influence away from their search engine, and in order for adults and their children to be able to safely search the web, without encountering any ads that incorporate adult themes. However, by way of controversy RedZee.com offers a certain custom toolbar download for searchers, that many forum threads claim, hijacks your browser. Although this hasn’t been investigated it hasn’t exactly been substantiated, one report claimed that the toolbar disappeared from view when a spyware scan was ran after the installation of the toolbar. Following the claim, the suspect item had a different name than that of RedZee, and was afterwards removed from the registry.
The more positive aspects about RedZee.com, is that they do filter out a high percentage of pornographic sites in order to keep their search engines “kid friendly.” They can also check for the availability of a search term without the users having to open an account with the site first. The highly pertinent and organized information provided within their results, also highly appeals to consumers and visitors.
However, there is still a large amount of concern revolving around the toolbar. Advertisers choosing a program want real results; not PPC programs that offer damaged and unsafe tools for their visitors. Also, there are many concerns from the advertisers who are using the program, that the majority of visitors are not making it past the home page, or landing page. Both of these factors are very bad for prospecting advertisers. Although, there may have been significant changes made; in 2006 the site was still in Beta, so there may have been some modifications made for the better. Hopefully, the site will improve itself to a more efficient degree, making it more popular for users and advertisers alike.
On the Internet right now there are over 500 smaller and less known PPC advertising programs operating, and serving advertisers quite well. Small business owners, and webmasters are appreciative of the smaller programs because they provide lower costs in advertising for their products, services, and websites, than the competition of the larger PPC advertising programs. Many of these smaller companies have great reviews from different sources throughout the Internet, are popular, have great usability, and excellent features, as well as many other factors. Small business owners, and others are encouraged to shop around for a pay per click program that is right for them. Instead of automatically choosing the most popular; because this can be more costly, and can eat up a budget faster than it can make them money, in the long run.
ePilot
EPilot debuted in 1999 as the search engine arm of Interchange Corporation of Laguna Hills, California and has since made quite an impression on the pay per click advertising market. EPilot is centered around a very user friendly interface that is easy to use and manage for its customers and advertisers. EPilot has also managed to gain partnerships from numerous other PPC advertising programs such as LookSmart, FindWhat, 24/7 Real Media, and Enhance Interactive. These companies it was able to expand in a very short time. And ePilot still may be expanding today, as more and more search engine channels emerge and are used by developing pay per click advertising programs. Back in 2003 it had already added numerous others such as Ask Jeeves, Business.com, and Search123, and was already able to completely remodel their website.
Some of the great things about ePilot is that for one it has a very professional look and atmosphere. The Interchange Corporation has invested a lot of funding in ePilot, when one considers the size of the company within the pay per click advertising market. But they have paid particular attention to how it enters the local search market with its new feature called, Local Direct search, which is also an advertising platform. Local Direct for sure is the advertiser that there will be an extremely quick search result, which is also great for the visitor making the search, and uses what is called “Keyword DNA.” This feature uses language in search results that the average user is familiar with and can identify with more easily. EPilot had a partnership with 290 different search engines and websites in 2006. This included large properties, and over 300,000 advertisers for a very large market reach; and this number may have grown by now. They also employ a very thorough screening of relevancy factors, when they’re taking on new ad campaigns.
The negative aspects of ePilot are that, for example, the Local Direct feature actually only includes local results from within the United States and excludes results from that of other countries. Also there is a minimum bid price of seven cents, but all things considered, this is still a very low price and should be taken into account. Also, although it can be used towards the advertiser’s ad campaign, all advertisers are required to make a $100 minimum credit card deposit for quick activation. This for some is still a very large commitment especially for small businesses, and advertisers that are on a budget. The support service for ePilot is also only open and available Monday through Friday during business hours, for anyone who may need live contact with an agent of ePilot for some kind of assistance.
AdOn Network
Founded in 1999 AdOn Network, was formally called myGeek, until it evolved into a shopping site. After it dropped the majority of the shopping model within nearly a year, it began spending the next two years helping other smaller websites, visitors, and general users with search engine optimization. MyGeek was based in Phoenix, Arizona before it changed its name to AdOn Network in August of 2006. The company changed its name because of the confusion, spanning between their company online, and the name of the popular computer repair company “Geeks.” There were a lot of benefits about the confusing circumstances around the name issue with their company, versus the other company, but there were more than enough negative aspects of the confusion, which were the cause of the name change. There are many advertising options with the AdOn Network pay per click program, such as “pop under” ads that makes keyword targeting with the cost per thousand or CPM view, that display the advertiser’s website and not just an ad. Another option is text-based display that is keyword targeted and also sold on a cost per view basis in a bid format. There are also search listing ads that fit into the basic pay per click model, and they start at only five cents per click.
There are also many other great aspects of AdOn Network, such as the Max Bid feature, which allows an advertiser to set the cost per click amount according to what they were willing to pay for keywords instead of a default balance that is set by the program. Afterwards the prices are adjusted by auto-settings down to the pricing that is set by other advertisers. This is a somewhat questionable feature, but although one advertiser might not have access to the keyword bids, they can always remove their ad from an affiliated network depending on whether or not they were satisfied with the traffic received to their ads on that partnering search engine or website. The advertisers using AdOn Network also have the option to block a maximum of eight websites from seeing their ads, and AdOn also protects against and detects click fraud. There is also what is called a day parting feature, which is offered in search listings to help the advertiser to select specific times of the day to run their target ads, for instance, a late-night browser depending if their product is aimed at that target. There is also very in depth reporting in order to help advertisers analyze their traffic in their cost per keyword. This helps ensure the advertisers that they’ll get the correct targeting, and also AdOn Advertiser Services representatives will assist advertisers in maintaining their campaign accounts to their best needs.
One of the less reputable factors about AdOn Network is that they do allow adult sites to campaign advertisements through their program. However these ads are monitored to ensure that they are only using adult oriented keywords, and are targeting the right audience. Another somewhat negative factor is that the advertiser cannot directly view the keyword bidding but as a productive alternative they are in courage to observe and estimate their own traffic to determine the factor in what to bid for keywords. Unfortunately AdOn network also has very limited geo-targeting. Keywords the deal with location can only be used by advertisers when their websites contain a decent amount of content that is relevant to the particular location.
Well this one wasn’t a shock or news to me at all recently launched ppc company Widgetbucks is now having problems with its publishers due to no payments and suspension of accounts based on the reason of invalid clicks and in some cases no reason at all, so far today there was 1 publisher that was suspended by widget bucks with the reason of invalid clicks when he was earning nearly 100$ a day, yea thats a big chunk of change to loose.
