The Dark Side of Display: How “Fake News” Sites Monetize their Content

The 2016 Presidential Campaign was littered by fake news stories. They gained steam on social platforms before being erroneously reported left-and-right by the real news media who didn’t want to miss a scoop. When in reality, this nonstop media frenzy was being fueled by people with zero political ties (many times, from outside US borders), who were just looking to make a quick buck. It got so bad that Google said they’d ban these websites, and Zuckerberg himself shared...

Bradley Nickel

Ad Arbitrage - 5 min read

The Business of Display Reloaded: Niche Viral Sites

How long will it take until people are sick of reading articles about Kim Kardashian’s weight fluctuations? Or articles that list the “10 Signs You Know You’re a Millennial”? Or the once-loved-but-now-hated, “She Walked Her Dog. You’ll Be Shocked At What Happened Next”? A really long time, apparently. One of our most popular blog posts ever was The Business of Display Part 2: Viral Quiz Sites and Click Arbitrage. That post showed how advertisers were making money through ad arbitrage...

Bradley Nickel

Ad Arbitrage - 4 min read

How Answers.com Uses Native Advertising To Make Millions in Ad Revenue

Looking for ways to drive more traffic and bring in more ad revenue? Look no further than Answers.com for inspiration. Answers.com is a large Q&A community that was created back in 1999. Originally called “GuruNet”, the company went public in 2004 and later changed their name to Answers.com. Although they’ve been around for close to two decades, much of their recent growth has been fueled by content promotion through Native Ad networks. Answers.com is one of the largest spenders across...

Bradley Nickel

Ad Arbitrage - 4 min read

The Seven Deadly Sins of Native Content

According to Statista.com, Native advertising spend is expected to reach nearly nine billion U.S. dollars by 2018. Who’s spending all this money? You might be surprised when you find out. It’s not the big brands. It’s not the direct response advertisers. Although both continue to direct more ad spend toward native.) Some of the top spenders on networks like Outbrain and Taboola are ad arbitrage sites. These are the viral content, celebrity gossip, and sports news sites that make money...

Bradley Nickel

Ad Arbitrage - 6 min read

The Business of Display Part 2: Viral Quiz Sites and Click Arbitrage

The funny thing about business models is that the ones people usually complain about and hate the most are the ones that actually work. And oftentimes you don’t have to look any further than your Facebook Newsfeed to see what people share to discover new, working business models. One model that gets a bad wrap is click arbitrage — also called pay per click (PPC) arbitrage. This is when you buy cheap clicks and then sell them to make...

Bradley Nickel

Ad Arbitrage - 12 min read