Bid Directories and Fake Bids, Fake PageRank, Dropped Domains

How do you know which bid directories to trust? Should you really bid on that brand new PR 8 directory? These are important questions when you're submitting to a bid directory. This guide shows you how to spot the signs of a bogus bid directory, and explains how directory owners can build trust with their users.

Fake Bids

Fake bids are the nastiest scam around. The great appeal of link bid directories is that an advertiser can control their position with their investment. When bid directory owners falsify bids on their own directory, they are greatly misleading advertisers. It is generally frowned upon to place a bid higher than your site's minimum bid for your own links, and it is totally unethical to outbid a real customer with a fake bid. There are a few ways that directory owners use false bidding in an attempt to increase their profits.

Some bid directory owners will launch a new bid directory and place artificially high bids on their links. This gives their own links a position advantage from the start, and forces advertisers to pay more for a high ranking position. Some argue that it's acceptable for a Webmaster to set whatever bids they want on a  new directory. The problem is that advertisers can't tell which bids are real and which aren't. We strongly recommend that directory owners stick to the minimum bid.

The worst kind of fake bids are when a directory owner outbids a real, paying customer of the site with a fake bid. If you get outbid and aren't aware it was artificial, you might even respond with yet another bid. These types of falsified bids are completely unethical and fortunately not very common.

Spotting & Avoiding Fake Bids

Look at the top bids on sites you submit to. If you're suspicious at all about whether they belong the owner of the directory, do some research first.

1. Look for other sites that may be owned by the same person - especially in the sidebar links.
   
2. Check the submission and last bid dates of suspicious sites. If several suspicious listings share the same dates, they may warrant further research.
   
3. Do a ping and whois lookup on the directory and the suspicious sites to see if it's the same owner.
4. Check the phpLinkBid sites list to see if the directory is registered.
   
5. Search the phpLinkBid forums for any information (good and bad) about the directory.
6. Check with other advertisers who have listed there about their experience.

While there is no perfect solution, doing your research can erase nearly any doubt in most cases.

Fake PageRank

Yes, PageRank can be faked. If you're sceptical about a site's true PR, don't trust the little Google toolbar.

This is one of the most blatant scams, and one of the most deceitful moves a directory owner can pull. If a directory owner is promoting a bid directory with faked PageRank, they're most likely trying to get as many bids as possible before they pull the plug or get caught.

Use a Fake PageRank Checker to validate a site's PageRank. If the PageRank Status reports NOT VALID there is a very good chance the PageRank is being faked. You can investigate further by typing the following into Google (replace example.com with the domain you're checking):

cache:http://www.example.com

Google should show you the cached copy of the page. At the top of the cached page you will see the phrase This is Google's cache of http://www.example.com .... If the URL here does not match the URL you typed into Google, this is a fake!

If you have found a fake PageRank directory that's listed in the phpLinkBid Sites list, please report the site. You may also bring it to the attention of other directory owners in the phpLinkBid forums.

Dropped Domains

Some Webmasters launch their bid directories on a previously dropped domain. A dropped domain usually belonged to someone else and wasn't renewed. It may still be listed in search engines and have PageRank, Alexa ranking, traffic, etc.

Launching a bid directory on a recently dropped domain isn't necessarily a bad thing, but some directory owners may promote statistics like PageRank and Alexa to get more bids. The problem is that dropped domains often lose their PageRank, search engine rankings, Alexa and other stats within a few months.

Dropped domains are one of the grey areas of bid directories. If the directory owner is dedicated to their new site, continues to promote it, and is honest about the history, there is no real problem. If the directory owner is not active with the site, is misleading about the history, or simply flaunts these unreliable stats for more bids, you should be very sceptical.