soram

I was surfing the web and found this Fake TV News Site (www . ws6alert . com / index2C . php) promoting a CPA Teeth Whitening product! It's pretty clever with its use of MR (META REFRESH) to update the real weather and other live data further reinforcing its seemingly "real" status as a TV News Website!

Thoughts? Comments?

It's the first one of its kind I came across. I wonder how it converts! Its pretty smart and clever if you ask me (although somewhat unethical and misleading).

Please discuss...

Ross

P.S. I can't post links yet ;-( Just take out the spaces to see the site

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krishnaGopal

my immediate thought is conversion rates too ! unless it's some kind of hypnotic message that says you should buy teeth whitening in time for chrristmas and its white snow... :-S !

p2y

They convert VERY good (EPC's as high as $15 for teeth whitening, $20 for acai) but when you run a landing page like that you leave yourself open to a lot of legal liabilities. Not sure it's worth it.

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Tom Brite

It's not a meta refresh or anything but simply a copy and paste code from a weather site that does all the hard work for you!

Anyone can do it... just click on the weather picture and look!

This would be impressive if it gave my local area weather.

Tom Brite

InternetDollars

The fake news pages are completely legal. This is nothing new guys. I remember seeing full page articles in magazines and newspapers with fake doctors writing product reviews and endorsements. Look up 'Advertorial' on Wikipedia.

Anyway, on media buying. I personally have run affiliate campaigns on various ad networks doing 20-30% ROI. now THAT is serious money, especially with an optimized campaign, dominating your sources and spending $75k/day. But not overnight and requires a lot of up front investment to get started, lots of testing, optimizing, etc. Not for beginners.

BTW, we start campaigns at $5k/day testing and bid high

Zach Booker

Take whatever EPC info your network gives you and cut it in half and you'll have roughly the correct amount.

Theys lie.

Zach

Charles Washington

How is 20-30% ROI serious money? Shouldnt you be trying to get 150-200% ROI?

InternetDollars

ROI is expressed in different ways depending on the situtation. But say you spend $75,000 and make $15,000 profit. That is a 20% return on investment. 150% ROI in this case would be $112,500 profit, that is simply not possible.

Tom Brite

Anything is possible!

Tom Brite

tmedocianis

Actually being a fake doctor can get you jail time. Just ask Perry Belcher. Perry Belcher – The Arrest of an Internet Marketer : Internet Law and Business Blog

Second, being a fake new organization is another very touchy thing. This is why they advertise these in very strange places. If they put those crappy pages somewhere where people would really see them, they'd get BUSTED!

I'm not even going to comment on the new media buying stuff. It's one of those, "Do what I say, not what I do" models. Those that can DO, and those that can't teach those that don't know.

Oh, and let me not forget, going to wikipedia for legal advice is like sticking a knife in an electric socket. STUPID! That's what lawyers are for.

tmedocianis

Anything is possible, but some things are very unlikely!

soram

I agree the conversion rate is probably pretty high. As for the legality, I think they got that covered. The word "Advertisement" is clearly visible at the very top of the page; and, that rather lengthy disclaimer(albeit nearly invisible-you have to highlight it to read it) pretty much covers everything else.

Also as InternetDollars stated:
I again thank you all for the spirited discussion!

Ross

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ChrisBa

These sites are right up there with Flogs

Johnaxe

These fake news pages are the new flogs. I have been running in to them for months now and they are advertised all over the place. (not strange places) Not quite as much on google but yahoo, msn & almost any sort of banner network or media buying agency have no problem blasting these things all over the internet.

Also considering this domain has an alexa rank arourd 12,000 I'd say he/she is pushing some serious volume and this thing is definitely "where people would really see" it.

As for them getting busted...

it will happen eventually.

John

InternetDollars

Wow, you obviously don't know anything, and are just jealous, so I won't spend much time with you. Here is a short list of some sites where the fake news sites are advertising. Are these "strange" places, where no one would really see them? These sites get millions of impressions daily, you are a fool. And I never said wikipedia is legal advice, simply pointed out this method of marketing is nothing new and can be completely sealed legally. Leave the media buying to the big boys....

• foxnews.com
• nypost.com
• politico.com
• forbes.com
• abc.com
• All AOL news and all sites owned by AOL
• TMZ

soram

Thanks, I didn't realize these sites were so rampant! Like I said when I started this post (for honest level-headed discussion, BTW-NOT to start any flame wars ::hint, hint: ), I have never seen one before.

I just knew it converted well because I found it on www . sfgate . com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/07/MNGAFHJJL91.DTL which has an Alexa Ranking of 747(!) as of now. That certainly is NOT an "out-of-the-way" place. lol

Ross

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InternetDollars

Yes, they do convert well. I've seen CPAs low as 25$, which is very good considering the average acai payout of $42. The sites I mentioned are all running the same network, "Quigo" as some might know it. It is very competitive and unless you are willing to spend $5k/day in testing you won't succeed.

PPC-Coach

These have been around for awhile. They work too. But it's an individual choice in using them or not.

As for them being advertised on big sites, big deal. Those sites are way more flexible in what you can run then what you're used to with a ppc engine. You can run tobacco stuff if you want, can't do that on google. The site running the banner normally does not care, (besides some of the social networking sites). As long as the banner is not vulgar and doesn't do anything that crosses the line, the sites are VERY flexible.

tmedocianis

Nobody said that it was new. You said it was legal and used wikipedia as your proof. Strike one.
Jealous, of what? There are honest ways to advertise and dishonest ways. I chose to concentrate of the honest ways and build real value in what I do. Strike two. As far as your list of sites. They do get millions of impressions, so what, it doesn't mean that it converts. As far as me being a fool, sorry Charlie, I choose to develope a real business and trust me when I say that it runs well. No fraud, no fake anything, just good business. I actually have people asking for more stuff. Strike three.

As far as leaving media buying to the big boys, here's a paraphrase from Mike Hill, who by the way is a 7-8 figure big boy when it comes to media buying. Make sure your read it really well. "Fake crap is not marketing, it's lying and it's not necessary!" That's not a direct quote, I paraphrased alot. :-) If you're a faker or are here to support fakers, then I repeat, GOD bless you. But, don't tell me how great of a marketer you are when all you're doing is lying. I could sell anything if I chose to lie. Also, when it come to media buying, trust me when I say that I know what I'm doing. I actually went to class for it.

InternetDollars

Reading that blog there is absolutely no good information. 90% of these 'super affiliate' bloggers are a joke, it amuses me at how there is an entire niche of idiots trying to learn how to make money from supposed gurus selling videos and ebooks. People who buy into that garbage are uncreative, unmotivated, afraid of risk, and most of all suckers.

tmedocianis

Read the last line. I didn't say that I read an ebook, took and e-class from some supposed guru. I went to a real marketing course on media buying from real professionals in the business. Yes, if you search, you can find real people who work or have worked for real advertising/marketing agencies who provide real course on these topics.
As far as Mike Hill, I loved his course because it rare to find such honesty. Having already been in the business for years and been successful, I already knew most of what he talked about do to my own experience, it wasn't garbage.

Now it's time to do some research, because you're obviously not good at it. When did I register? In 2005. The reason I don't have alot of posts is because I'm usually too busy out doing, not like those people with 5000 posts who have nothing else to do. When you really get a media buying machine up and running, you're too busy to do anything else. So the fact that you've been here soooo much means that you're probably not the big boy you think you are.

You sound more like a newbie talking big dreams. Sorry, but I've gotta call them as I see them. Keep reading those ebooks, else you wouldn't know they were garbage. You tell alot about yourself, maybe you should stop talking.

SamKane

[QUOTE=tmedocianis;1212205]Actually being a fake doctor can get you jail time. Just ask Perry Belcher. Perry Belcher – The Arrest of an Internet Marketer : Internet Law and Business Blog

QUOTE]

Stories of Marketers that get taken down by the law are some of my favorites to learn from.

Guys like Vincent James, Gary Halbert, Kevin Trudeau, and Perry Belcher www.PerryBelcher.com amass fortunes and make themselves big
targets.

You can learn so much from their mistakes.
1. Try to avoid product's with health claims.
2. Don't piss of too many customers.
----TIP: As you get larger and larger it's inevitable for the amount
customer complaints (with the ABC agencies) to rise.
One solution to this is to control growth.... by making
several smaller companies. Also there are advanced strategies
for setting up multiple corporations to do business. When you
see potential problems coming up.... isolate the corporation
and bankrupt it if necessary. (you can learn about this from
Ray Reynolds advanced corporation strategies... I'm surprised
how many marketers run million dollar online empires under a
simple LLC or S.Corp...easy targets for the feds)

One thing you do know about them is:
they generate sales...So devour any
information they give on sales generation.

STAY UNDER THE RADAR...

Sam Kane

bozz723

These sites convert amazingly well. Facebook has these ads constantly.

Coaching - $10k Per Month - BH CPA - Combined With WH CPA = Unstoppable. Serious Inquiries Only - FIVE New Spots After Excessive Requests So Hurry.

tmedocianis

[quote=SamKane;1212729]I repeat, it's easy to make sales and grow large if you claim to be a doctor with cures. If you were forced to tell the truth and market honestly, you'd make much less sales. In that case, what's to learn that honest marketers aren't already doing. I repeat, if you lie, it's easy to make a sale. Get over it! He lied, he got caught, now he makes much less sales trying to be honest. You should expect the same. Simply being big does not make you a target. What makes you a target is people proving that you are dishonest in your sales.

Robyn8243

On what planet are they legal?

I have no doubt that these pages convert, but what they are doing is Fraud. Just because some people get away with it for some periods of time does not make it legal or ethical.

Just because others are getting away with it does not mean you will either. Many of these people use multiple corporations and keep their money offshore. They also keep attorneys on retainer because they need them on a regular basis. Even then, they are not always completely safe from legal troubles.

Aside from the obvious Karma issues, the typical person who tries marketing using these methods is asking for trouble.

Robyn

Cash37

If you are too scared to use flogs then by all means, dont use flogs! But I will tell you this... the guys doing $10k/day are almost all running flogs in some form shape or fashion. Just go to a website with tribal fusion/double click, etc ads and tell me what you see? And why have we seen these ads for the last year? They work. Period.

davemiz

I agree but obviously these pages are working, because they're popping up all over.... whats interesting is that mike gives you a fake blog template in the course...

Dave Miz

“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

InternetDollars

You are not a lawyer. You have no idea what you're talking about. End of story.