Greedy Google - Maybe the Press and TV would be interested

[Riddys]

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Given that most affiliates have experienced a whopping 400% to 4000% increase in Google CPC fees this week, I wonder if the press and TV might be interested in covering this story.
The fact that this change will almost certainly close a large number of businesses and highlights the 'big brother' attitude of Google must make it newsworthy. It seems to be an attack on affiliates, as simple as that.
Also Googles claim that they are improving the quality of search results but will still include yours if we pay enough money makes a complete mockery of the statement and highlights their increasing greed. The fact that a high percentage of click throughs are leading to sales also shows the results are totally relevant.
Does anybody know how we could go about notifying the press. I am sure a poor exposure in the national media will do more to harm them than we could muster individually.
Paul

[Stuartc]

I think this could be the type of Story ITV looks for to use on the Tonight program.

Considering they use Yahoo search on there site might make then take the story up!!!

Try looking here.

http://www.itv.com/news/programmes_8...15d5603bc.html

[drivetowin]

I do wish people would stop the sob stories - sure it's a blow to a lot of people, but business is all about being able to adapt and survive - the businesses that go to the wall because of this probably weren't sustainable long term anyway - and if it drives more people to realise that in business you simply cannot afford to have even half your eggs in one basket, let alone all of them, then it will have served as a valuable lesson.

[OLBG]

I agree Keith although I do have some sympathy. Sort of reminds of the first major Google Dances like Florida where the organic search people got a major wakeup call. Many people fell back on adwords then as a safer more stable option and now its turned out to be similarly volatile.

For a long time and even now to some extent you have been able to make a lot of money online without having a good business model. Things do seem to be changing now.

[Shane]

yup agree with you keith.. adapt and survive..

basically even though it's predominantly profit motivated it is ultimately beneficial to the user (as much as it reaslly does sting to say it) too.. any sites left will be relevant to the search terms and run by people keeping a closer eye on things than they may have done in the past.

the cpa for some of my clients with quality sites and focussed landing pages has remained unchanged or risen by less then 5% at worst, others with lower quality pages have been hit harder, some of my personal stuff has been spanked but it was mostly image based and not text based landing pages which looked real pretty and converted really well but spiderable text is zilch

ultimately for those that get stuck in and take the time to create mini sites landing pages that comply with googles "ideal" there should be some positive movement in the bid price downwards .. I guess the trend will have to be towards targeted mini sites or huge subcategoried sites with well focussed sections... the day of the flimsy landing page has passed

but I'd guess it's only a matter of time before things change again.. PPC is constantly evolving, google is constantly evolving.. two dynamics that big means that change is always on the horizon.

personally I think google is heading towards the buffers they scream about relevancy for the user but continue to escalate the bid price.. it's creating a void for someone to fill...

the tracks are narrowing .. regardless of what business model it employs PPC, CPA, CPM, whatever .. it want's the max dollar for every action, it knows via analytics that a loan app is worth say £50 and it wont rest until we are paying £49 .. everyone making a thin sliver of profit except google who are making a fortune ... it's simply not generating the ROI it was in many instances yet google is shovelling the cash in

fank feck it's friday is all i can say.. what a week