Targeting...

[BetaChat]

Anyone have any tips on content targetting. My CTR has taken a big cut, and the ads on my site don't reflect the content about 30% of the time. I have made my own little advertiser in place of the PAS's, but I'm not cashing in, because they are not affiliate links, just sites that are mine I'm advertising for myself. I just started this thing about 5 days ago, and been running it for 5 days. I know I have to hang in there, but I have a question. I'm only returning 10% of my money back on everything I'm doing, so for every $1.00 I spend on advertising, I'm only returning $0.10. At this point, even though at day 5, doesn't seem to be optimistic. Maybe someone could give some pointers if you've been in my shoes, and this whole thing has succeeded in the end. Take a peak at my site, and tell me what perhaps I could do better, or if I'm just not being patient enough, or what? Hahaha!
<snip>
I'm new to this whole net marketing, makin' cash, and advertising. I've had websites before, but they were only for fun, not cashing in.

[edited by: Woz at 3:19 pm (utc) on April 21, 2004]
[edit reason] No Site Reviews please, see TOS#21 [/edit]

[sandor]

you're buying traffic in the hope that someone will click on your adsense ads? a bit risky i think ... i'd be buying traffic if i'm selling a product/service or getting a percentage of the sales of a product/service via an affiliate prog or whatever

[BetaChat]

Buying traffic in hopes that someone will click the google ads? Yes. However, as I see it. At some point, I will have several repeat visitors looking for new widgets as my site gets more popular, and I have updates everyday, and a mailing list of new widgets. So, I'll be advertising for new visitors, AND having the repeats, eventually it'll balance out. I hope. As of right now. About 90% of my visitors are coming from AdWords, at some point, I'd like to have 50%(tops) come from AdWords, 50% come from other free promotions. See where I'm coming from?

[edited by: Jenstar at 7:17 pm (utc) on April 21, 2004]
[edit reason] removed specific keywords [/edit]

[steve40]

When using adwords you have some choices

1 use adwords just to create a sale ( easy to find if good ROI )
2 Use adwords for branding i.e. with content turned on

In the above examples you can not expect to show a profit with adsense as the percentages are against you

If for branding be prepared to spend fairly large amounts over a long term for it to work
i.e. $2,000 or more per month for minimum of 3 months if your in competitive market

The gain of branding over sales is if SE's change algo's and you dissapear from results your site will still hold a loyal customer base

one other thing Adsense / branding can be a double edged sword , repeat visitors are less likely to click on adds ,
steve

[BetaChat]

So basically, it would be better for me (percentages wise) to use AdWords to advertise my webhosting to sell my services than to advertise a very busy site with hopes that users will click the advertising links? From April 16th to April 20th, I've returned 7% of the money I've put forth to get it started. To profit at 101% is far stretched.

[steve40]

7% seems about right
on different sites I get 6% - 12% return when using for branding
on 2 sites branding was a success i.e. percentage of visitors returning on another was a total disaster and waste of money the hard part i have found is judging when to pull the plug unless you have deep pockets ( I wish I had )

on Aff marketing between 160% to 300% ROI

The only problem is keywords are B@*&^$% expensive for web hosting

steve

[BetaChat]

Well, at this point I've had my aff with a webhosting before I open my own thing up. And the results are slow, I'm not sure what you mean by them being expensive, I'm guessing you mean that if I want exposure over the other guys, I'd have to raise the price to get a higher rank (am I close?). I've tried other aff, one with <snip>.com and <snack>.net, so far nothing. <snip>, nothing. 0% returned. I think I'm just going to grit my teeth, run the aff, and give it hell. For a site that gives me $40 per sign up, and I advertise for $0.05 per click, I'd have to get a signup every 800 clicks to break even. Which as far as I'm concerned is pretty good odds.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 6:11 pm (utc) on April 21, 2004]
[edit reason] leave the promotional urls out please. - tanks [/edit]