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Adsense Arbitrage - Worth It?

by notomorrowonlytoday
11 replies
Hi All!! I've been reading a lot about this and I've seen that it is frowned upon by google but not technically against their TOS. And as long as the traffic is clean, filtered and no one is forced or incentivized to click, it should be safe.. Or that's the way I understand it. I have given it a shot and I'm seeing great profit. I've had a site up for about a month and I've made almost $2000 in profit.

My question is, is there resale value here? I know generally you can sell a site for up to 15x it's monthly revenue. Does this apply for sites earning using purchased traffic? Of course I would have to reveal my traffic source to the buyer. Or would people steer clear and be afraid to invest in something like this.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
#adsense #adsense arbitrage #arbitrage
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshDylan
    Well honestly, if I saw your site listed on Flippa or a similar sale site, I wouldn't buy it considering everything about your traffic is fake. I can guarantee that Google will find a way to ban you eventually. They look out for their advertisers and if I was an advertiser and found out they are spending my money paying a site owner who is using fake traffic, I would most likely not be to happy. I'd suggest rackin it in personally until it gets banned and call it quits. I really don't think a serious buyer is going to take up a site like that.
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    • Profile picture of the author notomorrowonlytoday
      Why do you assume it's fake? People buy legit traffic all the time. People send FB traffic to adsense sites, last I heard FB traffic was very real. I'm buying traffic from a legit ad-network. not a garbage traffic exchange, click farm, no bots. They use very well known companies to prevent bots and other invalid traffic. People are clicking on an ad, going to my site, and willfully clicking on adsense ads. they are not incentivized or forced in any way. I just happen to get paid more per click than I'm paying. My clickthru rate is between 1 and 2%.
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshDylan
        Allow me to rephrase, the traffic may be organic technically, but in the eyes of a web investor, unless that site gained a following and the traffic came in naturally, with out the means of a ad-network, most would not be interested. Regardless, Google has their ways of screwing over sites that use such methods in the long run. The will eventually find a way to stop paying. I've used ad-networks in the past to drive traffic and was burned as well, im not saying all of this to put down your site, just keeping it real and setting realistic expectations for you.
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        • Profile picture of the author notomorrowonlytoday
          Gotcha, sorry. I thought You were saying that the traffic was fake. I do appreciate that. And that's why I'm asking before I spend money posting it. I've seen arbitrage sites go for lots of money on flippa, but I also see alot going unsold.
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshDylan
        Hmm thats odd, my last reply was deleted for some reason. As I mentioned, I didn't mean "fake" as in bot traffic, just traffic that didnt come from for the sake of argument, making a site "viral". I too was burned in the past with using an adnetwork to drive visitors and it back fired completely.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Regardless of the source of traffic, no serious buyer would consider paying anything like 15x monthly revenue for a site that's only been trading for one month. You'll need a lot more history than that.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by notomorrowonlytoday View Post

    Hi All!! I've been reading a lot about this and I've seen that it is frowned upon by google but not technically against their TOS. And as long as the traffic is clean, filtered and no one is forced or incentivized to click, it should be safe.. Or that's the way I understand it. I have given it a shot and I'm seeing great profit. I've had a site up for about a month and I've made almost $2000 in profit.

    My question is, is there resale value here? I know generally you can sell a site for up to 15x it's monthly revenue. Does this apply for sites earning using purchased traffic? Of course I would have to reveal my traffic source to the buyer. Or would people steer clear and be afraid to invest in something like this.

    any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
    Years ago this might have been a good idea. IMO now a days it's just a waste
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  • Profile picture of the author affishv
    I think you should get 5x-10x times. I have used the same methods but its really difficult to find good traffic at a minimum cost especially if your CTR is low. If you don't mind, could you share your traffic source in a PM. I am always looking for new legit traffic sources. Sharing is caring. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    This will never work for paid traffic. Adwords and Adsense isn't a fixed price on anything.

    You're working with a moving target that you can't see.

    Arbitrage is only realistic when you know both the buy and sell price before the transaction.
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  • Profile picture of the author ugbud05
    I'm a publisher too who uses this method, but I'm struggling still with the CTR which is 1.15%
    If you allow me to ask, have you found a way to increase the CTR of your articles?
    And how do you control the CPC also? I hope to hear from you and which you success!
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by notomorrowonlytoday View Post

    Hi All!! I've been reading a lot about this and I've seen that it is frowned upon by google but not technically against their TOS. And as long as the traffic is clean, filtered and no one is forced or incentivized to click, it should be safe.. Or that's the way I understand it. I have given it a shot and I'm seeing great profit. I've had a site up for about a month and I've made almost $2000 in profit.

    My question is, is there resale value here? I know generally you can sell a site for up to 15x it's monthly revenue. Does this apply for sites earning using purchased traffic? Of course I would have to reveal my traffic source to the buyer. Or would people steer clear and be afraid to invest in something like this.

    any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
    If it's frowned on by Google, I would personally stay away and I believe most others would too.

    Also if you've only had the site up for a month, you would likely need to establish more of a record of earnings before getting much in return for selling.
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