dogboy - 4:26 pm on Jul 28, 2002 (gmt 0)

AOL is all about b2c and asymmetrical information.

...think big generic keywords, and be #1 for your term, and the $ will pour in... 'Golden Traffic' we call it because it can convert like mad. The key is to have really simple sites that are 'pretty'.... (more important here than anywhere else.) Say you wanted to sell 'coffee mugs'... land them on a splash page which, in the first fold, shows your best 3 sellers... show them the price (shipped to their door with a bow on top) and put a big ORDER button on the page (where they will almost trip on it) that takes them to one simple order form... then be #1, not #2, #1 for 'coffee mugs'... and you'll rake it in.

Basically, if you didn't notice, I think being ranked #1 here makes more of a difference than in other engines.... in other words, the #1 conversion rate here will beat any of the other big boys' #1 conversion rate... but note, I'm NOT talking about QUANTITY... I'm talking QUALITY... defined by RATE (again, NOT total sales) and I think this conversion rate, for top placing sites, is what makes this engine special..... the users aren't 'web savvy' yet;)

but, yeah, if you are #4 for 'industrial widgets', I doubt you are going to see a noticeable increase in either in traffic OR sales