June 2nd, 2010 by andy
Right now (as of June 2) there is a conversation ongoing at Webmaster World about the declining value of a #1 organic search ranking. The argument is that the #1 position doesn’t attract as much traffic as it used to (on Google in particular) because of the way that Google has placed ads and added ad sitelinks, etc… all around the top of the page. Not surprisingly there is much bellyaching by the SEO community many of whom have staked their pitch to clients on the claim that 75% of people skip over the ads and go straight to organic.
I have been labeled a PPC guy before, but that’s not quite accurate. I’m just lazy and cautious. I go for the most income for the least amount of effort and risk. If that result can be achieved through organic listings, so be it. However, that’s rarely the case in more competitive spaces. And while dramatic algorithm shifts are less likely today than they were a few years ago, I prefer not to put myself and the expense of my time at risk.
Besides, if you really think about it, does Google REALLY want you to get a #1 ranking? Sure, there’s the whole ‘user experience’ spiel from them and it’s true, to a certain extent. If they delivered total junk results, they’d go the way of Alta Vista, Lycos, Alltheweb, etc…. But they do walk a fine line with wanting to deliver quality results organically (where they make no money from the clicks) versus driving the visitor to the paid listings. Their stock share price doesn’t rise and fall by organic click-thrus. Of COURSE Google wants people to click on the ads and not the organic. But can they really be considered ads anymore?
Google has dealt with this tightrope walk by implementing the Quality Score on paid search, an algorithm that works similar to the organic algorithm. The most relevant ads/landing pages show higher. There are other benefits as well, like lower average cost per click. Quality Score has been around for a couple of years and Google is always improving/refining. Through this Quality Score refinement Google is making the paid listings just as, if not more, relevant as the organic listings.
I think what Google is doing is making the organic results supplementary to the paid listings with no decline in the sacred ‘user experience’.
Does this make me sound like a PPC ‘homer’? I prefer to think of it as walking with the wind at my back instead of in my face.
November 20th, 2008 by andy
I bet this would be really cool if it weren’t created by Yahoo…
http://apt.yahoo.com/index.php
September 10th, 2008 by andy
As many of you know, my work is focused on gathering and monetizing traffic. At its root, that’s pretty much what EVERYBODY who does business on the web does whether they describe it that way or not. There are so many ways to accomplish this and I’ve addressed a few of the ways here.
One person I’ve had lengthy conversations with about traffic generation possibilities is Chris Brooks. He’s written some very insightful comments on this blog.
Recently, he told me a competition he’s having as a means to learn more ways to monetize his domain portfolio. We’ve talked about parking and direct navigation, development for search engine rankings, domain sales…. Is there any other way to make money from domains? That’s what his competition is about and he’s going to give 5 of his generic .com domains to anyone that has alternative ideas.
Personally, I think he’s already come up with a fourth way…
1. Park
2. Develop
3. Sell
4. Barter/Giveaway – if parked, these domains might clear their annual registration fee but even if they do, it won’t be by much. There are so many ways to invest that $8 to achieve a better ROI than pure parking. Development is an option but if you don’t know anything about the subject you’ll have to invest time and possibly money to make it pop. You could sell, but I think the market is so flooded with domain sales forums and auctions that unless you’ve got a strong network or know someone to whom this domain would make sense, you’re probably going to have a hard time.
But who would turn down a FREE domain? In exchange, you stand to get some new nuggets of information that can help you with the monetization of the rest of your portfolio as well as possibly giving you new ideas for your business and that information may be worth MUCH more than you’d get from parking or sales.
Check out his domain competition.
Good luck to all.
May 12th, 2008 by andy
Frequently you hear athletes, successful business people, etc… saying, “You can accomplish anything if you set your mind to it” or some similar variation of goal achievement. I find that a lot of people (myself included) frequently just lack the goal. Yes, if you have a clear vision of your goal, it’s a lot easier to figure out how to get there.
I’ve been fortunate to work closely with some very, very successful people. Truly game changing visionaries. Wherever they go, their reputation precedes them. Their bio’s tout about how early on, long before anyone else they saw an opportunity and charged full speed ahead. What I’ve found in talking with them candidly is that often is not completely accurate. I’ve learned that they didn’t necessarily know what they were stumbling on and luck was a large part of their success. Where they are today wasn’t a goal back then.
That’s good news for those of us who fret about not seeing the master plan today. As long as you’re out there making yourself open to opportunity, you have a good chance of something coming your way.
April 1st, 2008 by andy
Everybody is calling for more transparency. Domainers say the parking companies and the PPC ad networks need to be more transparent. The advertisers pull their hair out because it seems that every ad network and publisher goes out of their way to obfuscate data for the sole purpose of driving bid prices up. Yahoo’s Panama was supposed to be the savior for them, right? That program was going to increase revenue for Yahoo and it wasn’t by opening up the ad network to more exposure. And the PPC networks want to put conversion tracking on advertiser sites so they can get an idea of the cost per conversion.
EVERYBODY wants the OTHER guy to be transparent! Yet, nobody wants to let anybody else know their business. After all, it’s in those secrets where you maximize profitability. Gordon Gecko hates transparency.
