Search engine shenanigans
Do you own your own name and reputation?
The new world of internet advertising has this week raised this question for me.
Our sharp-eyed development editor Richard Browning spotted on Google what appeared to be myself and several colleagues on Financial Mail posing as experts for the 'Property Network Club'.
Search 'Andrew Oxlade' on Google and you get the usual This is Money stuff in the centre, but on the sponsored links on the right, bought by anyone who wants them, you get this...(although it's been removed now)
You get the same if you search 'Lisa Buckingham' (Financial Mail Editor), 'Jeff Prestridge' (Financial Mail Personal Finance Editor) or 'Richard Browning' (This is Money).
I can assure you I have no connections with any property investment network, company or club. And I suggest you treat all offers of property riches with a healthy dose of cynicism. Read our property expert Simon Lambert's appraisal of property investment seminars (strangely they haven't 'bought' Simon's name yet).
I spoke to Vamish Patel who runs the Property Networking Club who insists he has stuck to the Google rules and merely 'bought a search term' that happens to be my name. 'There's been no attempt to make people misconstrue anything,' he says. He also says the 'financial phrases' are picked for him by a marketing company in India. 'It's just like buying a search term like Richard Branson.'
Now now, Mr Patel, flattering me with billionaire comparisons won't wash - and especially once he told me how little I'm worth...
Mr Patel said: 'Seventy people have searched "Andrew Oxlade" in the past year and six people have clicked through on the advert, and no-one has signed up. I pay 10p per click so that's cost me 60p.'
So with revenue generation of 60p a year, I won't give up the day job.
- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, thisismoney.co.uk
Useful link
Comments