http://www.50statesclassifieds.com/Classifieds/MissingPersons.php

http://www.50statesclassifieds.com/Classifieds/view_items.php?id=10420

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My formerly beloved Google seems to be turning towards the dark side…

Google Wants to Tell You How to Run Your Website - SEO Class.com

The blog entry above pretty much sums it up, but I would just like to add the following thoughts to this discussion:

I run a network of paid advertising websites (Classifieds websites, one for each state). My Online Classifieds are a fantastic way for people to declutter their garage and make a few extra bucks, or to let my customers have a low cost long term advertising solution from someone they trust, or in some cases, my customers even run their online business without having their own website, simply by using the “Buy it Now” buttons in their ads, and having a featured storefront to showcase multiple items, etc.  It’s much cheaper than having your own eCommerce website, and much easier for them to use.
I would guesstimate that at least 50% of my customers put links up in their ads that point to their websites. This technically construes “paid text advertising”, as their ad is mostly text, and can contain one link to their site if they have one.  They are paying for a classified ad, which includes 1 free link to their website if they have one.
So, Google, riddle me this: Is this new policy going to put people like me out of business and destroy our livelihood? Or are you more so targeting just the spammy kind of text ads such as people who buy a domain name just so that they can use things like google ad words to try and make money? And who decides what is considered spammy?
If Google is the only one allowed to sell paid advertising on their website, aren’t you hobbling most of your customer base? In the past, I have paid for Google ads for several of my classifieds websites, as well as several of my web design clients’ websites. If I were to be De-Listed because I run a site that lets people add their link to my site, I can guarantee that I would never again purchase another google product, or purchase anything from you on behalf of my clients.

I used to run my classifieds for free (it cost me over $200 a month to consume the huge amounts of server space and bandwidth it takes to host my classifieds site) but then I was so bogged down with free SPAM ads (wasting at least 5 hours a day deleting “bad” users, which took me away from my paying work of website design) that I finally gave up and decided to charge a nominal fee just to weed out the SPAMMERS. Since I am allowing them to put a link up in the ad they purchase, do I fit into the “paid text ad” or “paid link” category then? Their classified ad costs $4.95 for 1 year and the link is free - basically paying for the hosting and domain names needed to run the sites - by your definition is that doing something wrong? If so, what is wrong with trying to own a business and make it pay for itself after 5 years of running it at a loss as a gift to my clients?

Get the point? If you start de-listing sites that offer paid advertising, you risk alienating these people whose business will be severely hurt by this policy.

Also, not to sound melodramatic, but have you ever read a little book called 1984? Or heard of the McCarthy witch hunt? When I heard that Google was encouraging people to “turn in” websites who offer paid advertising, I immediately thought of the tactics used in 1984, where children were trained in school to tell on their family members and neighbors for “talking against the government”. Or during the witch hunts, when people turned others in because they would gain if the other lost their credibility… Well how do you propose to ensure that people won’t “turn in” their competitors just to try and gain a little extra rank for themselves by “killing” the competition? Are you going to demand bank records to make 100% sure that it actually WAS a paid link before you de-list the sites that you *think* offer paid advertising? And don’t you think that it’s all a bit “big brother is watching”?

Well, that’s my 2 cents worth, for what it’s worth. I hope it doesn’t get me de-listed.

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