Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Search / PPC (Adwords, Bing, etc.)

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Dating Review Sites (40)

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Dating review sites seem to be killing it on Adwords/Adcenter. top10bestdatingsites.com has the top spot for almost every high traffic query. There are a few others right behind them.

Seems like they all just take offers from CJ mostly and are somehow able to outbid all the dating sites. Anyone know how they are managing this consistently?

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I've been wondering the same thing...I understand how it would work as an SEO play with free traffic, but with the usual dating payouts it seems like a weird model to make work with paid traffic (especially Google's expensive PPC). But they have been paying for ads for months so obviously they are making it work somehow.

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Maybe they have get paid CPM, and then it's about doing the math.
Or they have very very very good SEO data and know exactly which phrase converts, use that info on their content and their Quality Score is 10.
Then they pay a lot less

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my main concern is how do they even keep the ads up on top for such long? review sites are a no no on adwords as far as i know... i had a couple accounts banned due to that same reason wayyy back. if someone can clarify this for me?

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i never understood this myself... i mean its just a "thin" affiliate site.... and from what i read, google got rid of all them on adwords etc.

so i don't get it.... perhaps someone here does?

only thing i can think of is cloaking?

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Unlikely to be cloaking, I saw these 6 months ago already, I don't think they would have lasted that long...

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I don't think so because they are top spot for every major generic term. Type in dating, dating sites, online dating, top dating, best dating, etc...

Not sure how they can convert that good. The sites aren't even that good looking. Not sure what I am missing here.

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the page might be ugly but it delivers some "useful" content for users that are interested in dating sites....i guess thats the reason. they are not promoting just one offer..they offer "reviews" that help the users to pick a dating site that fits their needs.

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I think there is more to it. I built a very close copy of these pages with the same offers and got it approved and tested it. It did not perform even when I bid low and took small volume at low price.

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These guys also own the following:

top10bestcheaphosting.com
top10bestonlineuniversities.com
top10bestwebhostings.com
top10bestwebsitehosting.com
top10domainhosting.com
top10freewebsitebuilder.com
top10freewebsitehosting.com
top10webhostingprices.com
top10webhostingtoday.com
top10bestcasinosites.com
top10bestwebsitebuilders.com
top10adultdating.com

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anyone knows what script those sites are using ?

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That makes it even more weird...how can they be profitable?

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Yeah these sites have been around for ages! I've always wondered how they go in terms of ROI lol, they are always listed in dating ppc results haha

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Maybe they are the ceo of google sites ? i ran a test in one of those niches and cant seem to make it work with ppc

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Hmm, google must have changed in the past few years. They use to call something like this a "bridge page" and decline it.

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Those websites are not "bridge pages" or "thin sites" by default. When you try to do legit stuff you will see that google actually accepts quite a bit as long as it adds value to the user. Quickly looking at those pages they do seem "thin" or "bridge pages" but they also offer some value to the user. Determining what google accepts as adding value to a website or providing a good user experience is a difficult thing, but you'll see with a legit account you're able to pull off much more than you might think, especially if you are in communication with adwords support. Read their advertising policies and you'll see that when you provide unique content, original user reviews etc those websites are acceptable.

Of course a possibility is that they partially cloak the pages, haven't checked that. About the comment on how they are profitable above. If your campaign is good theres still plenty of room on adwords to get very cheap clicks, in whatever country. Its all about trying a big enough amount of ads, ad copy, landing pages, multivariate testing, ad performance, placement performance.

They seem to be direct (at least on the zoosk offer) so payout wise, you dont really know what they are getting or what the quality of the traffic is.

Also cloaking in non diet/skin verticals is much more sustainable in general on adwords.

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They are not cloaking as far as I can tell. Also, while they are direct on Zoosk, most of the others are through CJ.

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In any case, they probably are profitable, and their business model is accepted by Google (as far as ive looked, they have actually put in every "requirement" adwords states in their policy to make sites like these acceptable, in order to avoid bridge paging slaps). Also very possible a single visitor subscribes to multiple websites in the list.

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I never said they were bridge pages or not acceptable to Google. I was wondering how they are profitable. As I said I had a similar page made and also got approved by Google and had ALL the same offers. It did not even come close to being profitable even bidding low on Google. They are in top position and somehow profitable. Maybe they are PPC masters and I suck. Although I have plenty of success on Adwords with other dating campaigns.

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I think its just the fact that they are optimzed on cheap clicks getting the cream of the traffic in top position. Plus premium payouts ect.

So they're buying better traffic for less and getting paid more. Seems simple.

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When you had the similar campaign on Adwords, did you have QS 7 or higher?

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Lets add some more to that list:

top10bestpokersites.co.uk
top10bestdatingsites.co.uk
top10australiandatingsites.com
top10bestonlinecasinos.co.uk
top10bestbingosites.co.uk
top10domainregistration.com
top10bestregistrycleaners.com
top10flowerdelivery.com
top10jobsearchsites.com
top10flowerdelivery.com


These fuckers have a monopoly, somethings fishy..

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Haha.. definitely a monopoly

No way these guys are running the gambling review sites legit! there is no way you can run casino ads in the uk and paying the ridiculous click costs.

Oh, not to mention your accounts + sites will get banned in no time.


These bastards cloaking the hell out of Google


@snipe - Did you find it on Adwords..? lol

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Unless I'm missing something, cloaking won't reduce the cost of your clicks on PPC though...you still have to bid on the same expensive dating/poker/casino keywords...

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There's no way they're cloaking with that volume and it's very unlikely a internal Google operation, they could do a lot better.
I'm thinking an agency has built up a good relationship with them over the years, then gradually slid the shadier stuff in.

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let's just say it's a conspiracy.. maybe they prepaid a million upfront?

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I can't prove this, but i have this theory for the past 5-6 years, that Google employees are running those sites and many many more.

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Cloaking can definitely reduce the click costs as long as the CTR will STAY high. You'll have to start with high bids (really high!), but than you'll get a decent amount of traffic for relatively low costs.

Even if you're running poker/casino/betting ads

I've been seeing this many times.

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Cloaking is much more about lowering CPA instead of click cost. Landing page can be more relevant and decrease your CPC, but in general its about showing something much more objectionable to the user which in turn decreases your CPA. Cheap clicks on adwords is high ctr, high budget, good history.

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Yep..true

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I don't think these guys are cloaking... A crude way of checking is to run the website through Google Translate. Seems to be more of an optimization game and these guys are on top of it.

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Hi,

This thread really intrigued me as I came across these guys last week.
They do advertise in multiple other countries using a translated versions of their websites.
As you can't hide your identity with some foreign domain name extensions I had the opportunity to learn more about them.

Here is the result of the whois lookup:

TheFlyingMedia
81, rue Reaumur
75002 Paris
France

phone :+33 1 83 62 30 29

contact@theflyingmedia.com

I double checked, this company really exists and has been officially registered in France.
Here is the name of their CEO Emmanuel HARRAR

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just shot them an email.... who knows if they'll reply.

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maybe it's just money laundry

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The guys who own top10bestdatingsites.com and and a ton of others are called Natural Intelligence. They are based in Israel...www.naturalint.com

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^^^^ i'll try contact them and ask a few questions, maybe something will turn up? sherlock holmes at your service

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Good luck with the Holmesing!

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Sorry to bump this thread but it's too interesting to pass up. Any updates, Sherlock Holmes?

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I built a similar website and run a campaign on Adwords. For $1 spent I got $0.20 of revenue, thus loosing $0.8 on each click basically.

We had 3 websites : 1 french, 1 in the US and 1 in the UK. Same thing.

I guess they have a very good payout from Zoosk (which I don't, I'm not even their affiliate).

But still, dating ppc is expensive. It remains a mistery for me, but this guy are making a lot of money. Just check ouf their Facebook page : many employees lol https://www.facebook.com/NatIntelligence

@delaforet : Emmanuel HARRAR is not the CEO, it's the lawyer that closed that french company (I guess Natural Intelligence bought them).

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These dating review sites have years of history, high payouts, great quality scores, and thousands of dollars poured into keyword optimizations.

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