Forum Moderators: open
No comment other than they are using FAST for their secondary ressults which is good for FAST.
Steve
Was just checking them out. It seems they have some sort of deal with Britannica.com as they are either #1 or 2 for each search I did :(
Could not find the fast listings at all... Maybe I was not looking too closly
Not enough traffic to worry about the account admin.
imho
I haven't look close at them yet. Is your post to say they are selling impression like the junk over at google and not pure click-thrus. Or a combination?
You'll never catch me doing impressions after wasting my money on Google...
Pay only for click-thrus (customers to your website).
Pay for click-thrus (customers to your website) and the LogoLink graphic, which offers you a
great value in branding - only $9.95 for up to 15,000 impressions, a $150.00 value (Automatic Defalt).
Edited by: hokie
First - welcome to WmW and the ppc forum. Your post seems honest not negative to me.
I'm posting in reply to the topic of new ppc's being everywhere. While I agree there are many more ppc's than a few months ago there are still very few pay-per-clicks when you consider the number of regular search engines and directories. I think that is due to the time and effort and constant manning that a running a ppc demands.
Well, my post is related a little to what has been mentioned in another topic regarding the pricing of Goto.com UK. First I would like to say that I am posting this as a person who runs a ppc, [UKSprite.com...] and so I hope you will understand my bias with this situation.
Well, Goto UK is charging 5p minimum to place a bid. I think the main reason they are doing that is because they know they can get away with it. If there was a ppc in Europe that could match their audience then Goto would have chosen a lower price.
This leads on to my main point, Goto.com is pretty well a monopoly in the pay per click market and they gain all the attention, but there are other options. I'm not suggesting that we should ignore Goto but I do think that webmasters, especially those outside the USA should support their own local pay-for-position engines.
At the same time, I'm not talking about charity, because if you place some terms and bid 1, 2 or 3 pence (or francs, etc) for a listing then a ppc might send you anywhere between 1 or 50 or so potential customers each week - and to me that seems a small figure to invest. Over the years I have placed many ezine ads for several sites, most of the ezine ads performed very bad, sending very few prospective customers... and they charged me anywhere between $25 to $50 for that performance. Ezines that could deliver better performance charge such high rates that they rule out the smaller webmaster - which is where I think ppc comes into play. What I'm saying is that if you place an ezine ad for $25 and it fails then you have lost your money. If you place the same ad (listing) at a ppc then you have lost nothing. Either your listing is worded wrongly or the ppc has little traffic for the time being, but your money is still there - it can still send you visitors.
So what I'm saying is that starting a 10 or 20 pound account with a European ppc seems like very good value for money. Even if small ppc's only send 5 or 10 visitors each week it's still at lot better value than many ezine ads.
At the end of all that, what I'm basically saying is that the survival of European ppc engines depends a lot on webmasters who are willing to spend a small sum to achieve top-spot listings, just as Americans were willing to do when Goto.com first launched. Many small European ppc engines will become important over the next few years, but only with the support of webmasters.
At the end of the day it's not easy or cheap to operate a ppc search engine; most webmasters need little or no support, but some need a lot - and the £10 or £20 deposit goes a long way to helping to maintain our smaller engines, not fill our pockets with gold!. We are in a struggle just like the webmasters who advertise with us. The important difference is that a ppc will charge you for each click they send to you, not for each reader using their ezine or website. I think think that's great value and I use many pay-per-clicks myself. I think it's important to provide Goto.com with some competition as we surely can't prosper with just one major pay-per-click engine!
Simon
[edited by Brett_Tabke - reason:sig url removed per usage agreement]
Regarding partnerships, as we are very new we have only begun to approach this by building an affiliate program for client and searcher referrals. At this moment the affiliate program does not have an integrated search option but we are working on that now.
We'd like to go down that route because, as far as I am aware, most ppcs began their partnerships by offering integrated search - is that correct?
As far as more formal partnerships go, I think we are quite away from that as we would not be able to supply many results.
So I'm probably the wrong person to ask, but if would be great if someone with that experience could share what they know.
I'm glad to see that people who run and work at pay per click search engines actually participate in these discussions. It helps us see the other side of things.
I see the partnerships pay per click search engines are making as a definate plus for advertisers but, too many could be a drawback.
The partnerships that GoTo has developed will definatly bring advertisers more traffic, but I think that only to an extent will this traffic be as targeted as it has been in the past.
Also, it's good to see that other are some more UK based pay per click search engines available. I'd hate to see people advertise with GoTo UK because they aren't aware of the 4 alternatives.
How are things downunder?
Gald to have you participate here at WmW.
>4 alternatives
Please fill us in on these.
It's quite warm and very humid. Usual weather for Christmas here (:
Other UK based pay per click search engines that I am currently aware of are:
UKSprite.com which has recently changed its name from Verita.com, Godado.co.uk, eSpotting.com and Splut.com.
Godado.co.uk has been around for the longest and is now offering advertising in some other European countries.
As more and more people become familar with the pay per click concept I have found that taking on board the comments and complaints posted at message boards has been a great way to judge the mood and opinion of webmasters. And at the end of the day, it's the webmasters who become clients that help pay the bills. Like with many sites, few people actually email if they have questions - they just go away, so message boards like this are providing a feedback lifeline.
As always I'm biased with this situation, but I agree with you about Goto UK. Of course if you need lots of traffic quickly and can afford it then they are a great option, but the 5p minimum bid value is unfair. I've got bids placed with them and I'm paying 5p per click for positions I really should be paying 1p for. I'm hoping that as they gain more UK clients they will lower the minimum bid to 1p.
Regarding your comment about partnerships, you said "I see the partnerships pay per click search engines are making as a definate plus for advertisers but, too many could be a drawback."
Do you mean a drawback for the advertisers or the searchers? For searchers I think too many parternips would be bad, it would be bad for the 'net if all major engines were using paid listings - I think there needs to be a balance. But the rules are changing and where that balance will be I don't know.
At the current rate I think most sites that can't pay for a listing are going to be squeezed out of the results. That's fine for getting rid of low quality sites and spammers, but no good for the many high quality sites that don't pay for listings.
Although I run a pay-per-click I don't want to see the net damaged by paid listings. I think the next few years will be interesting as to what the final balance will look like.
Simon.
When I wrote it I actually only meant advertisers, but after reading your message I see that it might be bad for both searchers and advertisers.
In regards to these partnerships that GoTo has developed, searchers and advertisers really go hand in hand. If someone notices that the traffic they are getting from paid listings is becoming less targeted, then the searchers are obviously not getting the results they are after either.
