Who would have though click arbitrage would be a topic worth of being covered by Forbes?
The magazine looks at how Google’s attempt to prevent click arbitrage is not really working and instead, many legit businesses find themselves no longer able to afford the CPCs.
Meanwhile, Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker is living like a king off his arbitrage efforts.
Two years ago, Shoemaker says he was living on unemployment checks. Since then, he says he’s made more than $2 million by arbitraging search terms related to cell phone ringtones, teeth whitening and mortgages. “I love Google,” Schoemaker says. “They changed my life.”
I knew Jeremy had made good money off of AdSense, but TWO FRICKIN MILLION DOLLARS!!! And there was I, buying him a drink in Chicago! 😉
Shoemoney also goes on to explain how he’s able to stay under the radar of Google’s quality scoring system.
Schoemaker insists he and others have in fact found a way to circumvent the crackdown. He says he uses techniques like “cloaking” to fool Google’s algorithm. Arbitrageurs know the search engine’s IP addresses, the fingerprints that reveal the source of any Web page visitor. So Schoemaker says he sets his web pages to automatically display legitimate content to the Google spider, while giving other users the ad-filled arbitrage page. Schoemaker says that makes him virtually immune to Google’s quality-regulation measures.
I’d ask Jeremy to stop by and tell us how he does it, but I know his response will be similar to the one he gave at SES
“If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for life. I believe differently. If you teach a man to fish, he’ll steal you fish!”
Good advice and explains why he’s always smiling.
UPDATE: Jeremy responds to the way the Forbes journalist presented the facts.
Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.
You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.
