Zango - the payoff - are we being screwed?
 

It strikes me that pernicious though Zango may be, the knock-on effects are more costly.

My own server stats predict a less than 1% zango-effect, but my recent stats sponsor-wide would suggest that the problem is much greater.

My question is this - are sponsors who are otherwise unaffected by zango using this opportunity to screw us?

who cares, all i know is that the amount of infected computers are HUGE... its utterly amazing..... due to stuff like bearshare sharing music/etc
and then you all other forms of install fraud and game sites.. it's insane how many users put this shit on their system and dont have a clue

"Who cares?" - I care.

This forum gets lots of traffic. It would seem to follow that that traffic is somehow representative of the WM community.

Has nobody else noticed a slump in sales just lately? A slump which is above and beyond the "zango-effect"?

Or is it just me?

Zango sucks :2 cents:

I'm with elasticatedman...... Zango is the tip of an iceberg that is going to ruin this whole business.

The sky is falling...

3rd time this year.

Titanic would be a hell of a lot safer steaming across the Atlantic these days, with all this global warming.

Webmasters, make your own mind up.

I've noticed a traffic drop reflected in my PPC impressions. These are displayed whether a surfer clicks or not. So even Zango(or other shitware) wouldn't account for that. Even Overtures keyword inventory tool shows about a 10% drop on some of my major keywords.

I'm wondering if maybe some of the surfers didn't like the DOJs snooping with the large SEs, and are finding other less known places to look for porn.

Most estimates seem to be between 0.5% and 3%, but first bear in mind that Zango is just one of more than 20 scumware programs.

Secondly, the impact of whatever percentage of surfers are infected is going to vary according to the type of sponsor you are promoting. If you install scumware on a spare PC and check your sites, you may be lucky and find none of your promos affected. On the other hand they could all be.

jayeff, you hit the nail on the head... Zango is, say, 2.5% of surfers... but there are literally hundreds of other toolbar, scumwares, asterixwares, and bullshit services out there that are nibbling into the traffic flow.

With the upcoming release of vista, I think some of these companies realize that their current "install vectors" (nice term for "security breach" or "know issue" from microsoft) will be mostly lost, as many of the basic security issues of XP will be gone, and a new set will have to be found. I would expect to see that February will actually show some improvement for webmasters as people come online with Vista and help to stomp out some of the real bullshit out there. It isn't an entire answer, but it will help.

With all the different toolbars and things out there, it is clear that many companies and many people have a finger in the pie.

It is really too bad that some companies insist on giving companies like Zango so mch money for advertising, encouraging this ongoing dilution of traffic sources.

global warming a wonderful thing

Like Zango is the only company in the world doing this.

Traffic actually has gone up, while conversions are like, 1:2000 now on all my major sponsors.


It's really noticable on the BIG programs. On my own cash program the ratios are still tight. On some of the smaller programs the ratios are pretty tight still too. Topbucks, traffic cash gold, bangbros.... conversions are much worse than a few months ago!!

Don't be dense... we all know that there are a bunch out there, and this isn't just about Zango... Get over it. They are stealing your traffic too (or haven't you got any?)

so many zango threads these days...

Zango is just part of the iceburg that you can see above the water line. This is serious shit!

But don't worry too much about it folks..... because some of you will be moving into a new career pretty soon. :)

Does it only affect IE users? Use Google's Adsense Referral program and promote Firefox with the Google Toolbar. Don't let Zango users access your site and educate them on removing scumwar instead.

http://www.adwaresucks.com/zango/

http://www.adwaresucks.com/zango/zangohtaccess.txt