Craig Mcdaniel

Articles by Craig All articles by Craig

• The New Challenges In Search Engine Security in Search & Performance Marketing Daily on 11/05/2018
  

  The bad guys who hack and scam websites have become a source that distributes viruses and other malicious infections picked up by search engine crawlers.

Comments by Craig All comments by Craig

• Clicks Are Dying, And Measurement Needs to Catch Up by Ayse Altunisik (Marketing Insider on 10/02/2026)
  

  I have been tracking click-through sweepstakes entries for over 20 years. I will say 2026 is different and has been lower.  We have seen a increase in ad blockers but there is more.  Advertisers are holding back in higher quality prizes. Could it be an election year? Maybe. There is a degree of caution in the market place.

• Purging Programmatic: Publisher Tries To Live Without It by Ray Schultz (Publishing Insider on 05/28/2026)
  

  Ray, nice article.  I have posted on MP many time about placing sweepstakes and contests on Sweepstakestoday.com. In 23 years, I would prefer to earn revenue from this form over programatic. I have several major brands who I work with directly on their sweeps and expect more in the near future. The bigger problem is some of the agencies don't want direct buying desk anymore and would prefer to spend $5,000 to $10,000 on a PR agency. They can work with me for a small faction of the price. I receive somewhere up to ten PR agencies per week asking for me to place their offers. When I ask for money, they say we don't have the budget. What a joke. I am sure thei clients would choke on that joke if they heard from me directly.The point is, my search engine for sweeps is far superior to Google and the AI programs because we micro target on one category. I plan on building mutilple micro search engines based on all new programming so the Columbia Journalism Review and others can build their hand places ads.

• Google AI Search Scours Social For 'Experts' by Laurie Sullivan (MediaDailyNews on 05/06/2026)
  

  It's nice that Google went to confessional to admit for their failures. They still have many chapters of the advertising and search book to be fully healed by the holly water of honesty.

• Stressing The Press: New Types Of Actions Are Taken Against The Media by Ray Schultz (Publishing Insider on 05/06/2026)
  

  Ray, I read both Sara article and those who differ with her article. What is missing from Sara is multiple sources for the article. I really think she pulled things out of thin air at best. Facts were ignored. If the article was truthful there would be a problem. Don't you agree?

• It's A Social Dilemma by Laurie Sullivan (Performance Marketing Insider on 11/24/2025)
  

  These numbers can be manipulated with fake click and false accounts. I was removed by one of the above when I complained about Chinese click farms and a group of online hookers. These were not small attack.  I will further say X might be the best at clearing out fake accounts that create false views. For this reason, they should be rated higher in this poll. 

• Lost In Data: Why Marketers Don't Trust Attribution And Measurement by Laurie Sullivan (Performance Marketing Insider on 09/22/2025)
  

  I have been collecting data since 2003 from over 111,000 sweepstakes and contests. Our click-through entry count is in the billions.  However, the agencies are unwilling to pay pennies on the dollar for the vast data we collect from their promotion. Then we also include survey information.  The reason for not paying? They think we are either not professional or stupid.

• Why AI Is Eating the Legacy Agency Model Alive by Kate Dohaney (Marketing Insider on 06/18/2025)
  

  Having published over 100,000 sweepstakes, I can say that humans are still superior verses AI. We hand place 100 percent of the promotions. Further, there is no AI program that can show over 700 sweepstakes in the AI presentation format. There is a place for AI but not in advertising other than a expanded bean counting program. 

• Google, Play Fair: Tech Giant Accused Of Anti-Competitive Conduct Toward Publishers by Ray Schultz (Publishing Insider on 05/29/2025)
  

  In your quote - Google adjusted its ranking algorithm to de-rank, and in some instances delist entirely, portions of publishers’ websites", the truth is, I was placed into the "Gambling" category many years ago. This was in writing within my Google Adsense acct. My business had nothing to do with gambling, whether class 3 or 4. I further found that there was a file showing massive number of different categories. I beleive this was the basis for both AdSense and Search on how companies and pages are ranked. What Google done is to hide this data categories selection process from their clients and now AI will futher control what can't be seen.

• Microsoft: AI Agents May Replace Ad Tracking by Laurie Sullivan (MediaDailyNews on 05/19/2025)
  

  Microsoft, you are trying to put 6 full size adults in a 4 seat mini car. In short, your approach is wrong.

• Marketing, Programmatic Ad Tech Merge by Laurie Sullivan (Performance Marketing Insider on 05/06/2025)
  

  I see this as very wrong. The consumer has increasingly said they want more privacy. This is nothing more than a new mouse trap to capture more data from the consumer through AI trickery. If you want more data, buy it.

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