Is Ebay a Glorified MFA Site?
posted in Affiliate Marketing, Ebay, Google |
As you are aware I firmly believe Ebay UK and/or their associates are in collaboration to bid on a vast number of urls of major retailers & organisations, basically infringing on their trademarks or intellectual property rights. And quite possibly using the reporting on CJ for their own campaigns.
So here is an example of one of literally hundreds: On Google UK, Ebay UK are bidding on the url “www.rspca.org.uk” which is an animal charity site known as the RSPCA which stands for the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Click Here : Note Geo-targetting may effect what you see so we shall put the screen grabs up soon.
Now you may have read my previous posts & comments about Ebay UK
Click Here for The Ebay Challenge
Beforehand they were using CJ (Commission Junction) links, now are they are doing it themselves with Ebays own rover technology (i realise this is also available to their affiliates as well & is currently compatible with the CJ system). When you view the link properties it reads as follows:
By the way, will the real PID=2021892 please stand up
www.rspca.org.uk
SID=r_uk156_39883 suggesting someone is tracking a lot of keywords
Ascertained from:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=L&ai=…zQmLpZuPAvv4hp
QF0IYDEAUYBSC2VCgFMAE4AFCz-bJgYLsGmAGHiAGYAcyeBqoBGm9yZy5tb3ppbGx
hOmVuLUdCOm9mZmljaWFsyAEB2QNQpQUqIqSdl-ADCA&num=5&q=
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1%3F
SID%3Dr_uk156_39883%26AID%3D9479574%26
PID%3D202189 2%26loc%3D
http%253A//search.ebay.co.uk/search/rspca.org.uk*_W0QQfclZ4Q
QfnuZ1QQflocZ1QQsaslcZ3&usg=AFrqEzcJtdJdwnCBAg7cgkyJtILSp-9KPg
However, analysis of other links might suggest it’s Ebay own paid search activity, once the full database is compiled is presentable enough, we should be forthcoming with it.
eBay Announces their own affiliate infrastructure
I do wonder if CJ are still reluctant to pursue any further because of Ebay being one of their main clients.
Anyhow, back on track .. this is the landing page
As you see there is no relevancy, which illustrates another of non-existant Google’s Quality Score Algos. Plus Google have declared in communication by email & telephone that in their opinion there is nothing wrong with Ebay bidding on other organisation url’s and don’t see anything wrong with page relevancy, when all its displaying is yet another bunch of Google Adense. Hence, an MFA.
We have come across not only numerous url’s but many other obscure terms, some so strange maybe only one or two people bid on (where did they acquire this data from?) Whereby all of these simply point to Google Adsense Ads.
Now I have no objection to MFA sites and as for ourselves we don’t use Google Adsense. They have contacted me intermittently to try and persuade us to adopt it on our sites which we have always declined .. in the current climate there is no chance when there are better & more flexible options available … however examing the vast number of keywords we are aware off … Ebay seems to be a Glorified MFA Site!
The brand intrusion is my biggest gripe when “some” networks and merchants are too yellow to take on or question Ebay, yet they will happily yield a big stick & ride roughshod over affiliates, whilst Google simply permits the big boys to do as they please whether ppc or seo.
Here is a related thread from KirstyM, which may eleviate part of the problem.
No More Blue Bums & Fanny Magnets For E-bay Affiliates
