It looks like Google is on the lookout and actively banning MFA sites.
What is MFA
MFA stands for "Made for Adsense Sites." And these are sites created for the sole purpose of making money with Adsense.
- Some of them are mediocre at best using half - assed regurgitated content from the web, republished articles from Ezine and other sites and some of them are really crappy where the ads themselves are placed in such a way that they overlap over the site's written content, these are really bad.
- They offer no real original quality or information.
- Some have 5 pages of content, and some may have hundreds, but the content is poor, and the MFA quality is very evident.
The Banning of MFA's
There has been quite a bit of buzz of late that many Blogger blogs that were MFA's have been getting completely deleted by Google and the Adsense accounts associated with those getting banned as well, or if the sites were self hosted there has been a a complete deindexing of these websites from the SERPS.
Best case scenario is some Adsense accounts were not completely banned, but the sites were from the index.
This recent rash of deindexing of MFA sites and bans all seem to come from a particular network of bloggers that followed an MFA model that was widely taught and blogged about on some popular make money online blogs. Many of these sites even used the exact same "minimalist" blog theme, Blogger blogs and duplicate layouts.
The end result is that only did the weak MFA sites get hit, so did some of the MMO bloggers that were blogging about these kinds of techniques got hit with some sort of penalty as well.
In reality, the "get rich quick" and the "easy" ways to make money online for beginners are very attractive to most newbies, and so of course, many jumped on the MFA bandwagon, which in turn attracted the attention of Google.
I don't really want to get into the who's and what's, as the purpose of this post is not that, but to warn all of you to not waste time building crappy sites for the purpose of making money with Google Adsense.
Make Money Online with Adsense Properly and 6 Valuable Lessons We Can All Learn From This
1. Don't Make Google Look Stupid
Look, it's simple, monopoly or not, like it or not, Google is the cornerstone of any online business, they can make or break you, so play by their rules and follow their webmaster guidelines- it's really that simple!
Google's rules are really not so bad, all they want is quality for their customers the searcher, and if they are gonna pay you money for clicks then they have a right to dictate the kind of sites those ads are placed. Most any valuable ad network actually monitors and evaluates websites where their advertisers ads will be placed.
Google, has, does and always will protect their interests and market share as they should, and if you think they don't monitor the popular MMO and IM blogs to see what kind of teachings and information is being spread then you live under a rock.
2. Use Adsense Wisely
Adsense can be a great income stream when used properly. It should be used to compliment the website as just one revenue stream, it should not be sole purpose of building the website, this is the hallmark of MFA's.
This is actually true for any affiliate site as well, there has to be value for the traffic over and above the ads and affiliate links or else these type of thin affiliate sites will suffer in the Google SERPS or possibly get completely deindexed all together.
3. Don't Waste Time
Don't waste valuable time launching 100 crappy sites sites just to make money with Adsense. Provide value and quality to users and build good sites that will bring long term revenue and a solid business model that doesn't possess the risk of getting banned and wasting months of hard work.
4. There are NO Real Long Term Get Rich Quick and Easy Schemes Online
This business takes work and a lot of it in order to see long term and permanent results of your labors. Taking shortcuts that can get you banned are never wise choices, they may work for a little while or even some time, but eventually they only lead to problems.
In reality, in the world of Internet Marketing and Making Money Online you get back what you put in, and while building 100 MFA sites with crappy links and no quality may take some work, it doesn't compare to the real work of building quality sites that endure and bring revenue for years to come.
5. How To Get Your Sites Banned
If you really want to get your websites banned, then build a site that uses the same theme, republish a few articles on it from Ezine or Article Dashboard, add some Adsense ads and place them in a way that they overlap and block your site's content: rinse and repeat a lot of times over and I guarantee that you will get your sites banned very quickly 
.
6. Learn From Others - Don't Make the Same Mistakes Yourself
I am now going to refer you to a very educational and comprehensive post from Ben, one blogger who was hit very hard with this Google MFA banning - I’ve had my last 4 months of work knocked out in an instant by Google – hundreds of sites completely deindexed last week .
It is a 4000 word synopsis on how NOT to make money online in 2010 and really hits home about the experiences of someone who within a day of reaching the $100 a day Adsense revenue mark had all his Adsense sites deindexed.
I appreciate Ben's honesty and clarity as to what he learned, and I truly believe that some of the most valuable lessons in making money online and Internet marketing are learned from the negative experiences AND we can learn from others, like Ben and not have to suffer the same fate!
There are two things from this post that I just could not imagine:
1. Actually making $100 a day in adsense
2. having all of my sites (only a few – but still…) deindexed
I make it a very strong point to offer original content and fortunately adsense is not my only monetization. Also I seem to rank better on Yahoo, but still, if I was deindexed I would be very distraught.
@ houdini
Well, that’s the thing that the $100 a day only lasted for 1 day, and then bam Google came and wiped out everything. I think making that kind of money and more with Adsense or any publisher ads is definitely possible, but you gotta start with a clean site. I too could not imagine losing so many sites, and I think Ben learned a hard lesson, but sometimes that’s what it takes, I certainly am going to learn from his very long and expressive post about how NOT to make money online.
LOL, everyone ranks better in Yahoo, Google is somewhat tougher and seems to be getting tougher each day. Just keep getting quality links and build slowly!
Follow Me on Twitter @: Boomajoom
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Just blog about mesothelioma
Follow Me on Twitter @: colleenlane
(9 comments)
Frankly, I hope Google comes down on MFA sites. There is nothing more frustrating than to be researching some product or service and click on a few of these sites.
Google’s algorithms have gotten pretty darn advanced whereby a lot of the things done in the past will be picked up by a filter. We’ve had a few penalty’s before and they are no fun.
.-= Colleen´s last blog ..West Pasco Washington Homes For Sale =-.
@ Colleen
I agree with you, I hate those awful MFA’s as well, and I too think Google is getting better and better and definitely looking and watching very closely at everything that happens in their search engine and their ad network.
What’s really interesting is that all this spawned because of some top MMO ranking bloggers for the make money online keyword, and their teachings which yielded literally hundreds of these almost duplicate sites, so Google is watching and reading blogs that rank for such related terms.
Follow Me on Twitter @: sallyneill
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Hey JR,
This will certainly ruffle a few feathers, luckily I don’t use those premade adense sites I just write original content on my blog trying to share tips and information with other people that I know work for me, great post looking forward to reading more.
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It And Need YOUR Help =-.
@ Sam
RE: ruffling feathers, it allready has, big time! Thanks Sam and welcome!
Is there any niche seriously available OTHER than teaching about internet marketing? NONE of the so called gurus ever disclose money making niches. They are all peddling how to get rich on the net!
Come on people, get real, show us where the money is.
@ Steve
LOL, believe it or not there are other niches available.
Well why are the Guru’s not saying?
What are they, I’m not LOL
@ Steve
Well, when one finds a really good money making niche and they post it for instance on their blogs, in about five minutes tons of people will go for that niche and flood it with competition and virtually make it useless.
The key to finding profitable niches is to learn the proper methods to do so, so that you never have to rely on someone to provide it for you, you can find your own over and over again. The keys to profitable niches are effective keyword research, learning the market, evaluating the competition that exists and then deciding if the work involved is worth the potential money to be made in that niche.
You can hire competent people to do that type of research for you as well, but you will rarely find respectable marketers who just give them away, that would just not be smart.
The make money online niche is one that is very attractive to the newbies in this business because it is such a popular market, with tons of daily searches, but in reality, it is not the best niche as it is very difficult to rank for and marketers are not the best buying audience, yet newbies who don’t really understand the MMO market or the target audience still chase that dream and many fail completely because anyone who knows anything about MMO can see through their total ignorance of this business.
Also, blogging about making money online in too much detail and teaching not so kosher techniques can be detrimental to the bloggers themselves, too much transparency can lead to disaster, as the case discussed in this post.
The best idea is to follow the guides that show you “how to”, there are lots of those, I have written several myself, and then put that learning to work, and experience will teach you all you need to know.
Make sense?
You really can’t blame Google. They are in business to provide good quality search results. This is what they do. If they begin to provide junk everyone will begin to use another search engine and they’re out of business.
.-= Anthony´s last blog ..Learn Affiliate Website Marketing =-.
Follow Me on Twitter @: SmallHouseLife
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I made a decision this week that while I will continue to practice SEO techniques, I’m going to step it up with social marketing. If we don’t folks, we are literally at the mercy of Yahoo and Google.
So, my plan is to take back a little control over my sites (ie income) and diversify.. Besides, the social media is more fun! Kinda like getting paid to talk.. My favorite thing.
.-= Dee – Austin Concert Diva´s last blog ..Paramount Theatre Austin =-.
Google cleaned house a while back, it sounds like they are back at it. I wonder if it goes hand in hand with there recent disclosure. Seems things with Google goes in cycles.
.-= Logo Design´s last blog ..Spider with Web =-.
It’s true that black hat SEO will NOT make you money online in 2010 because the search engines are to smart now a days. I have read that sites with PR 2 and 3 are making well over $100 a day on average with Ad Sence. I have applied for Google Ad Sence about 4 times and every time I was denied for one reason or another. However I take advantage of this by optimizing my site better because I belive that if your website can be approved by Ad Sebce than it must be SEO friendly and in turn you will rank higher in the organic search results as well. I just don’t understand how a poorly made website or blog could even be approved for Ad Sence in the first place.
@ Tony
Well it’s not the website they approve, it’s the person, so once you get approved you can add any site you want to get ads for, they don’t check individual sites, and the guy in my post had over 200 sites in his account, some good some awful, the awful ones got deindexed which in turn killed all his click earnings. I think Adsense used to approved people much easier than they do now, might be the initial site you are submitting is not somehow meeting their standards, they never tell you the reasons for denial though do they.
Follow Me on Twitter @: SmallHouseLife
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OK.. I’m going out on a limb here. I don’t get why sites use AdSense instead of affiliate links?
For example: If visitors click the Adsense for a weight loss product and site owner gets .. say 25 cents.. doesn’t it make more sense to be a Medifast affiliate (or whatever) and make $20. for same click?
So, I guess one reason is that it’s kinda a hassle to set up all the affiliate links but the payoff is such a huge difference.
I am not here to state a position; I’d really like to know why people use Adsense. I must be missing something. Thx, Dee
@ Dee
I think Adsense is just one more form of adding some monetization to a site, in addition to other things. For some sites Adsense performs better than anything else, like various affiliate links. Also, not everyone can qualify for the higher paying PPC add sites. Also, Adsense is attractive because you don’t have to worry so much about the clickers conversion on the other end, since you get payed for just the click. Overall, if you have a lot of traffic a strategically placed Adsense add can yield thousands per month.
Yes I have been reading quite a no. of such posts lately. The one page MFA website used to be very popular a long time ago because many people made lots of money just by creating 100s of them. I am not surprised Google has taken such strong stand against them.
Even now there are many people using this method, build a 4-5 pages website, throw in some keywords and adsense and then get a couple of backlinks and after that they make some nice money out of it; of course that if you use the same type of website, sooner or later they will get the accounts banned or in the best case the websites will be out of index, but just as u said getting rich quick idea…is so attractive for people…
@ David
Of course it is attractive, and people will continue to try these short term tactics, over and over again.
Sometimes it is difficult to see how Google is acting. I’ve had sites that worked well for years but after a small change Google does not like my site any longer. The only way to get Google to like the site again is to start from scratch. That is my experience.
Dennis recently posted..Ladies Summer Dresses – Long & Cute Sundresses
@ Dennis
I agree once a domain is marked it’s pretty much over. I personally really hate being at the whims of Google.
Follow Me on Twitter @: myadsenseguide
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It is amazing how many people think they can use blackhat techniques such as MFA to get the better of Google. Google has the expertise, money and resources to stay ahead of such “geniuses”. Why you might get away with some techniques for a certain amount of time if you are good it is inevitable that Google will catch on to at some point and usually sooner rather than later. Thanks for the interesting article.
Follow Me on Twitter @: buzzduit
(7 comments)
Hey. It looks like your post, my post and Griz’s post are all getting talked about on forums. It seems we are afraid the “sky is falling”. I guess it’s good when the word gets around. My post was http://internetbusinessguide.info/online-earning-with-thin-mfa-sites-be-careful/.
Keep up the good fight.
Steve
Steve recently posted..Earning Online | Link Building Strategies
@ Steve
Seems indeed the sky is falling for MFA’s, will go over and take a look at your post, wondering where Grizz will go next as well.
Follow Me on Twitter @: buzzduit
(7 comments)
JR – That’s a really good question. He mentioned that he has another plan or something, but, so far, has not mentioned any details. I will be interested to see what his next move is. On a side note, I was wondering, are you a TKAer?
Steve recently posted..Earning Online | Link Building Strategies
@ Steve
Well I am not a paid member there, once Court and Mark launched I was all ready way into this biz and their course is geared more for beginners, but I do read all their posts, and follow the site, and also use the tools. I learned a lot from Court at his IM blog back in the day.
I hope the people over there are watching their sites, and making sure they don’t get hit like others have in this recent MFA blast.
Are you there?
Follow Me on Twitter @: buzzduit
(7 comments)
Yea, I have been since Sept. I stay in for the tools – niche refinery and postrunner. Not wanting to advertise here or anything, but just the ability to guest post at will to any one of over 700 blogs is worth the price by itself. Yea, the course itself is beginner oriented. the webinars are for more advanced members though. I have been doing IM since 2003, and always though of myself as pretty good with SEO and such, but I still learn stuff there.
Thanks for dropping by my site and saying hi, BTW. Feel free to comment there any time.
Steve recently posted..Earning Online | Link Building Strategies
@ Steve
Thanks for commenting here, and come back anytime as well. Maybe we can network for guest posting as well, I am considering taking some guests posts from knowledgeable people.
Follow Me on Twitter @: buzzduit
(7 comments)
Absolutely. I have three blogs where I accept guest posts. One of them is a niche marketing site that you can post to any time. the other two are in different niches. I am also looking for guest posts whenever I can get them. Hit me up. You have my email addy.
Steve recently posted..Earning Online | Link Building Strategies
@ Steve,
I will, thanks!
Follow Me on Twitter @: danielsharkov
(8 comments)
Lately I have been stumbling upon many such sites. It seems that there are a lot of people that try blogging solely to make some cents through AdSense, which really ruins it all. In most cases the design and the quality of content are both on a very low level. People tend to leave such sites just seconds after loading them, which assures that they won’t be profitable at all.
Daniel Sharkov recently posted..Auto Links Pro – An Effective Link Exchange Software
I absolutely cannot blame Google for cracking down on MFA sites. There are too many spam sites being created with about 1 post and 15 ad unites slapped up! If a site doesn’t continue to provide valuable content to it’s readers, I say they don’t deserve to be paid by Google! Many of them are also doing “click for click” where they join some sort of community online and go around bargaining for clicks with other members. That is definitely against Google’s Policy and I think they need to crack down on this as well!
TriNi recently posted..How To Make Money Online With Google Adsense
@ Trini
I agree with you, I hate those sites, at least offer some useful content, it’s not that hard. Those types of sites ruin Adsense for the good publishers.
I hate those sites too! They waist your time and take no creativity to make. If a person want to make money with a landing page, he should at least make it useful and valuable to the consumer.
Jason recently posted..The Greatest Resource In The World – People!
Its good to see that Google is starting to crack down on these sites that are just made for Adsense, they don’t contribute to the community and have horrible content. If you offer good content and have ads on the side people will click. If you do it correctly you can make a lot of money using Adsense
You have written very Good and well-researched article about Make Money Online with Adsense Properly. Thumbs Up
It is very impressed post.. I know they are affiliates that make websites for google adsense.. I think they are missing out on the concept..
Geoffrey Awunyo recently posted..How To Make Money Online
great post i love it and thanks for the info or yaa your blog design is also cool
mithlesh singh recently posted..Promote your clickbank product on twitter and earn more money
@ mithlesh
Thanks!
Good point, and thank you. I HATE MFA sites and they’re all over the internet. Yes, I’ve made a couple myself, but they don’t look like MFA sites. They have many pages of good, useful content that helps the reader. This is how people should do it i think. If the site is less than 5 pages then it’s pointless. Google should only allow ads on sites of 20 pages or more.
James Rollins @ make money online recently posted..How To Make Money With E-Books
It is very impressed post.. I know they are affiliates that make websites for google adsense.. I think they are missing out on the concept..
I would like to make some money using Internet but I have a problem on how to get approval from Google Adsense. Can you share with me some useful tips ?
People should remember that too many ads…
1) decreases user experience, which decreases revenue
2) decreases CTR which decreases the cost per click
John @ Sacramento SEO Services recently posted..Hello world!
I really like the point, “Don’t Make Google Look Bad”. No Sh*t. Google is allowing people to be ‘in business’ with them and yet the people that have that opportunity just do a bunch of cr*p with the opportunity.
I really hope the Panda has a big lame website sandwich.
I remember reading a post which advised not to pick a fight with Google
Google has set down set of rules for the users and if we want to continue enjoying Google’s service its better to follow the rules.
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