September 21st, 2007 by andy
Apparently TrafficClub (Moniker’s parking service) is delaying payment because an upstream partner thinks they smell click fraud.
I’ll tell ya, I would hate to be a parking company these days. Their margins are getting seriously squeezed. Yahoo and Google are taking bigger cuts(why? because they CAN) and there are so many parking services now that domainers will hop to a competitor for a higher rev share.
On top of that, they’re getting slammed for allowing click fraud. I’ve been deep into tracking click fraud for a couple of years because I’ve been an advertiser for one of the most expensive PPC areas. Obviously, the amount of attempted click fraud grows exponentially with the price of the click.
Click fraud drives me insane because it’s such a preventable problem yet Yahoo and Google do so little to really prevent it. Well, I think Google actually does a decent job.
What I find curious is that G or Y may do these investigation and they may find some evidence of bogus traffic. They then withhold payment. But credits back to the advertiser are rare. So, who keeps that money?
September 20th, 2007 by andy
One of the blogs that I subscribe to, DomainersGazette.com, had a post today that hit at just the right time.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday who’s looking at taking some Linux classes. I was telling him about some things that I would like to learn but just can’t find the place to learn it. Through work I’ve taken a couple of those 1 or 2 day seminars on things like Excel and Crystal, but I find them to be pretty useless. Often the scenarios used in those classes don’t lend itself to outside needs. If you can pick up one or two tidbits, you should be happy.
I can’t remember where I heard this, but if you want to add a new word to your vocabulary, you need to use it in speech three times. After that, it’s locked in. So, if you only take a one day class, a lot of those neat little things you just paid a lot of money to learn will be left behind unless you can immediately employ them.
But I digress. Peter over at Domainer’ Gazette posts about his desire to learn a bunch of new things like MySQL, PHP, Javascript, etc… I’ve been feeling the same way. I know tracking. I know SEO. I know PPC. But what I don’t know is the actual code that goes into making these things work. I wish I knew the things Peter is talking about. Just not sure where to go about learning it.
On the flipside, however, is it really necessary for me to learn those things? I have basic understanding and I know people that can handle those things for me. Are real estate developers architects, electricians and plumbers all at the same time? The key isn’t knowing it all but rather having a good team around you that can fill out the pieces you need. Would my time be better used becoming an expert at all those things or establishing relationships with those that already are experts that wish to join my projects?
September 18th, 2007 by andy
The Charlotte Bobcats recently bough bobcats.com from an individual that was using the domain for her bobcat breeding business in Montana.
After silly offers of a couple of thousand, they finally settled on $50k. I wonder if they first tried to claim it by TM?
Anyway, another domain success story for a non-domainer.
Read more about it over on ESPN.
