Google Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up

[Vin DSL]

Well, they've done it again...

http://www.google.com/services/oasu/

Anyone else noticed the 'Advertise on this site' link showing up in their Google Adsense ads?

[Vin DSL]

Looking around... this is the best explanation I've found:

http://internetstockblog.com/article/4703

In a nutshell...

This is a critical development for publishers like Seeking Alpha. We get emails from advertisers every week asking to advertise on our site, but we don’t have the resources to negotiate, accept, implement and bill for their ads, so we turn them away. Now, advertisers can come to our sites and quickly decide to advertise on them. We do nothing.

Heh! Ever had this situation happen to you? I have...

Sounds great!

[Ron]

I turned mine off immediately, within an hour of it being announced in my account pages.

Most people's experience with getting targetted ads is negative.

#1) Most if not all reports that I've read from people who have been targetted for ads report a drop in income.

#2) It allows people to target accounts, not sites, so ads that might be appropriate for my gadget site might not be appropriate for my widget site.

#3) Once an advertiser targets your site through that link, there is currently no way to block them.

#4) Most high value keywords are being arbitraged on AdSense, meaning cleverly written/enticing high CTR (low paying) ads will be placed on your site, leading to their own made-for-AdSense (MFA) site with the higher paying ads for the same keywords.

I spend a whole lot of time weeding out ads that say things like "Widgets! Compare ALL of your options for free! Click here!"
and
"Widgets! Get Widgets 75 - 80% off Retail Prices Click here!"
You follow these ads, and invariably they lead to MFA sites.

Real advertisers want quality traffic wanting to buy something, not quantity traffic they can get to click on real advertiser's high paying ads.

But good luck to ya! Maybe it will work for you.

[Vin DSL]

Ron, I don't mean to call BS on what you're saying, but I'm over on my Google Adsense account page right now, and I don't see anything that would allow 'weeding out ads'. Would you mind explaining how you do this, especially since you opted out of OASU within an hour?

I do see a lot of things I never saw before, like competitive ad filtering of Adsense for search, but ad filtering for content draws a blank. Perhaps you could elucidate...

Edit: Nevermind! Found it: https://www.google.com/support/adsen...9716&topic=139

Odd! This is what I see when I click competitive as filtering for content...

[Vin DSL]

Omg!!!

They have two publishing numbers now -- one for content and one for search! When did they start that?

Craps! I have a lot of code that needs changing...

[Ron]

Yes, I weed them out with the Competitive Ad Filter.... on freaking URL at a time.
The limit is 200.
You don't have to change your code as far as I know.

[Vin DSL]

LoL! Hey, Ron, I (evidently) picked up Ford (Explorer) as an advertiser. That's all I've seen on my homepage for the last day...

Hahahaha! Well, it's better than ads for hotels in Prague, like I used to get!

[jason]

Yes, I'm seeing a lot of Ford Explorer ads on my site, too. The homepage of my blog is still getting content related ads, but everything else seems to be for Ford.

--Jason