Those rogue websites that do not engage in direct financial transactions with customers may rely on online advertising placement to fund their illegal activities.

Google, Yahoo, and other major mobile content providers have been selling advertising placement on their properties for years already as of the time of this writing.

By pasting a few lines of free Google code onto your Web site, you can get information about who visits, where they come from and which advertising placements are most effective.

Individual journalists are, in effect, "paid" for advertising placements by greedy physicians.

Circulation audit findings are compiled and released in audit reports, which advertisers use to make decisions about advertising placements.

Mr. Kelley said the ad sales staff had been reorganized to sell more traditional short-term advertising placements to smaller clients.

Those sites bid aggressively to secure the top advertising placement when consumers type in specific search terms, he said.

"They have 40 different advertising placements on their home page," he said.

"We had to decide in August on advertising placement," Mr. Sabot said, noting that recent ads in magazines essentially committed the site to rolling out soon.