Everyone in the business knows the secret but its like heresy to speak of it for most people in the SEO industry. The mastermind search engines have orchestrated one of the worlds largest (un)organized syndicate scams in history and here is how it works (the simplified version):
- Search engine sells PPC (pay per click) advertising to consumers (generally through SEO firms).
- Their ads are placed not only in search results pages but also throughout the Internet .
- Webmasters place advertising blocks in their websites from the search engines (via keyword analysis mostly) and get paid when people click on the ads.
- Webmasters buy PTC (paid to click) traffic from wholesale PTC vendors who direct their associates to click on ads on the webmasters website.
- You get charged for clicks on your ads, webmasters get paid to run your ads and YOUR SEO company takes a cut out of every dime you pay out and even double dip (most of them own whole networks of websites that run your ads as well).
Search engines make a killing because they reap 90% of the payoff.
Through extrememly diverse and seemingly un-affiliated sub culture of organizations, privateers get paid to sit around and click on provisioned ads knowing full well that they are not interested in your product or website, etc. – they just click on your ad, close the window and then click on the next ad, close the window and so forth. It has been proven over and over that people who buy into PPC campaigns get a ton traffic yes – BUT they also get little to no sales from that increase in traffic. Sounds illegal right? It probably is but then it would be impossible to track down as these people who get paid to sit around and click on your sponsored result are working from behind dynamic and proxy IP’s in foreign countries that change every single time they click on a new ad.
Do you think this is a conspiracy theory?
You have a brain, Look for yourself! This has been going on forever! They openly sell their services that rip you off right in front of Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL! And yeah, anyone that is trying to sell you Adwords or any other type of PPC (pay per click) advertising knows this to be true, and if they deny it – they are either lying or just plain ignorant. So who are these unscrupulous SEO firms ? If you own a website, you get their email SPAM daily, you get weekly telephone calls from them! There are thousands upon thousands of websites that sell “PTC (paid to click) Adsense Safe Traffic” They even buy advertising on the same networks that they are helping to scam from.
So why would an SEO company promote such an incestuous, low class, bad business model tactic?
Easy money! Mix it up in a big bowl with a heaping tablespoon of “no-skill” and a 1/4 Cup of ”unethical business model” and you got yourself one heck of a highly profitable bottom line. These people can and will show you a super high volume of new and unique traffic. They will also show you how your site is showing up at the top of the search results page (in a sponsored listing of course) and as long as you are paying, they will be happy for you to assume that no one wants your product or service. Remember though, you pay and they play! Not only are your sales the same now as they were before you started buying PPC advertising, but now your expenses just went through the roof. Statistics show that almost 70% of all web site owners that participate in the PPC scams go out of business in their first year and another 20% only participate for less than 3 months.
Why and how does this happen?
You bought Adwords and now you are at the tip top of the results page (in the sponsored section) for your keywords. Your SEO company is showing you how you have hundreds or even thousands of new unique visitors each month but for some reason, your actual sales volume has not increased at all. You have spent thousands of dollars for all this new traffic so what gives? Is it that all these new visitors (whom are really children from India and Pakistan that live good on pennies each day) don’t like your product or service? Don’t believe that! Your product is great and so is your service but your Ivy League Educated, Fancy Dressing, BMW Driving, Big Word Talking SEO Firm is Ripping You the Blank Off!
Enter “Surf and Search”
Think about how you yourself search the Internet for what you’re looking for. Like you, most savvy internet consumers are blind as to the sponsored listings. You yourself have learned through experience that most sponsored listings have nothing to do with what you are actually looking for and you know it’s usually a big waste of time to click on the sponsored listings. You know that whatever you are looking for will most likely be found in the organic listings below the sponsored listings.
We Dare!
I challenge all SEO firms to take a stand against the scammish PPC business model and take the time to actually learn the skills of the trade they wish to be in. As for consumers, ask them about their “proof of work“; What sites did they work on and how do they stand in the organic listings for their keywords. You will probably get a bunch of blank stares or they will babble some gibberish about how they keep that type of information “ guarded for client privacy”, BAH! There is one thing that they all have in common, and that’s how much money they make. There are even industry websites dedicated to tracking the top earning SEO companies that sell PPC, the who’s who of money makers so to speak. They never brag about how they took some small time plumbing business website to the #1 organic listing placement in “x” amount of days.
PPC Advertising is just another way to say “Trickle UP Redistribution of Wealth” so when they say they are “Adwords Certified”, grab your checkbook and RUN!
