Following up on my last post about choosing affiliate programs wisely, today I wanted to warn any of my fellow promoters out there about a few programs that are to be avoided. If you read my previous article about Google sending me an email that one of my blog categories here was suspected of delivering spyware or scumware and although I was a bit peeved with Google for trying to be a virus or spyware protection agent instead of focusing on search, the actual incedent caused me to act as a responsible webmaster and investigate the possible causes in case Google wasn’t finding a “false positive”.
Considering the fact I serve dynamic ads through several providers, I had to take each one into account and analyze them one by one. Start at the top… The 728×90 banner at the top of this blog was served by a combination of providers. The main fill source is ADSDAQ (by ContextWeb) which is a CPM network and if my available banner space is unable to be filled by ADSDAQ, my backup ad provider was Google Adsense. I had believed ADSDAQ to be a very reputable source for my primary source and I’d even wrote a favorable article about them.
While I was checking for the source of the potential “spyware”, I reloaded the page several times and all of a sudden an Adbrite interstatial ad popped up and completely froze my browser and I had to to close and restart it. I don’t use Adbrite on this blog and I certainly have never used their interstatials (those annoying ads that pop up as you land on a page that say “this page is sponsored by”). I find the concept barbaric and akin to pop-ups or pop-unders. However, I did have an Adbrite publisher referral banner on the sidebar of the blog. I got rid of that thinking Google must have counted what Adbrite pulled as malware plus, I wasn’t too thrilled that an Adbrite referral banner caused an interruption to my site’s loading. In fact, I was so upset with Adbrite, I went to remove their ads from the few sites I run them on and I found several cases of Adbrite ads causing pop-ups or pop-unders and interstatials. Goodbye Adbrite.
Unbelievable what you catch when you’re serving third party CPM ads such as I was doing with ADSDAQ. I thought my findings with Adbrite were upsetting enough but when I reloaded this blog to make sure the Adbrite referral button was gone, bingo !! Another pop-up, this time an ADSDAQ banner was showing for a company called Polycom and the pop-up window took me here (http://www.nomorebuzz.com/Register.aspx). The banner matched the popped up site so I was more than certain that ADSDAQ had use the javascript code they deliver to mess with the visitor’s browser. Not on my site. Goodbye ADSDAQ.
I don’t appreciate these type of ads being served on my website without my permission. I have far too much respect for my blog readers and website visitors to slap them with pop-ups or spyware, malware, etc…
I’ve removed both Adbrite and ADSDAQ from my advertising space inventory.
[…] Collin LaHay wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFollowing up on my last post about choosing affiliate programs wisely, today I wanted to warn any of my fellow promoters out there about a few programs that are to be avoided. If you read my previous article about Google sending me an email that one of my blog categories here was suspected of delivering […] […]
Unles you choose to, AdBrite does not show interestial advertisements on any of your zones. Are you sure the problem was not with that other XXXX network I never heard of?
Thanks. I’ve only been using Adbrite for almost three years now and there has been a constant issue with interstatials being shown when they shouldn’t. It’s not an issue of the interstatial as much as it is the content delivered by it that was deemed malicious.
Honestly, it’s no suprise to see these “advertising agencies” accepting questionable content right now after Google has given so many the boot and the general economy is poor, so of course, advertising suffers first. I thought ADSDAQ was comparable to Azoogle Ads. I had a rep contact me by phone, etc when I setup my CPM account with them.
I’ve always liked AdBrite, they’ve always paid me on time and I hoped they would grow but it seems their network is drying up. I used to get at least 10 “paid advertisers” per month with AdBrite, over the last year that number has just kept declining.
Wow…This articles make me shock. I never heard before that interstatials being shown when they shouldn’t. At this time I only use text ads from adbrite, because my Anti Virus software was detecting a virus from adbrite banner.
I have heard similar things like this too. I only use Adbrite for text ads and haven’t had a problem but I admit I have heard some things about Adbrite so be cautious.
Tristan