Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I mention the following because I think it might be illuminating - since I have reason to believe our 2 worlds - the written "content network" and the parked domain network - track one another.
Like jetteroheller I, too, can report from the parked domain world (also a scion of Google) that my revenue numbers are up in 2007.
Why are they up? My suspicion is that revenue will increasingly parallel "the value" of traffic that converts, not the volume traffic that is merely sent.
Just like you have a good idea of the quality of your content I have a fairly good idea of the "quality" of my domain holdings. My portfolio is comprised of decent quality generic commerical domain names, which value - as parked domains - is enhanced by the effort I undertook to hand code keyword phrase links - those "on lander links" that you see, the ones that trigger keyword related ads - I handcrafted those links in many cases so that the lander keyword links have a strong connection to the keyword(s) embedded in the underlying direct navigation domain.
For example, if you type in Widgets.com I have manually crafted a lander with links to "Blue Widgets", "Green Widgets", "Cheap Widgets", "Widget reviews", etc.
You see, even in my world of domain parking there is a version of "quality content". Quality is measured by the quality of the domain AND the quality (relevance) of the keyword links on the domain's landing page.
I know there are some who, at least for now, just cannot accept domain parking - I say "direct navigation" - as a value proposition and, for the life of me, I don't want to drag this thread off into that debate. I've posted simply to offer a parallel observation that rising revenue likely (should be?) a reflection of the quality of the traffic you send, measured by conversion data, which quality traffic a) brings advertisers back, again and again, and, b) inspires those to raise their bids.
Again, to track the parallels between the AdSense domain parking world and the AdSense website/publisher world I'm not saying all domains or domain landers are "quality" or created equally. In the domain parking world I see 1000s of "MFA domain landers" - landers where the root domain contains keywords related to "blue widgets" but the links on lander relate to anything but blue widgets - "student loans", "mortgage refinancing", "credit repair", etc. All potentially high value clicks but, likely, of little value to the advertiser. Traffic or "clicks away" from that version of MFA domain lander would likely be the same type of "get me outta here - Click!" junk traffic as originates from MFA sites. As a domainer, I feel a certain revulsion when I see such domain landers. Blech.
So, my guess is that we - people in the Adsense "publisher" network and the "parking network" - do live in parallel and closely tracking worlds. My very best guess, to explain anyone's numbers going up - including my own - is that it's not about the volume of traffic but it's about satisfied advertisers and advertisers are satisfied by ROI = conversion.
EFV still holds the #1 spot in my book for explainig what works in the publisher network: Do a good job of helping people decide how to best spend their money and then, within reason, both "the customer" (the ad clicker) and the advertiser will also be happy . . to spend their money. Not everyone has the qualifications or the character to do that job well, just like not everyone has domains and landers that do "that job" well. Hopefully it's that difference in quality that explains what goes up and what goes down.
The corresponding advice in the domain parking world would be to "do a good job of making certin the links on your parked domain lander have been researched to match the likely search-intent of the person typing in your domain". That is, don't offer them credit repair links when their implied intent - from typing in the domain - is that they're looking to book a hotel in Florida.
I now return to the netherworld of domains from whence I came. ;) Good luck to you all in publisher World. I really DO enjoy a GOOD content site, from time to time. Don't tell any domainers that or I'll be blackballed from their little society.
The corresponding advice in the domain parking world would be to "do a good job of making certin the links on your parked domain lander have been researched to match the likely search-intent of the person typing in your domain". That is, don't offer them credit repair links when their implied intent - from typing in the domain - is that they're looking to book a hotel in Florida.
Makes sense to me. Back when I used to get a porn site whenever I typed in the name of a major guidebook publisher without an "s" (e.g., whatsit.com instead of whatsits.com), I couldn't help wondering how many people who were planning a trip would buy a subscription to an X-rated photo site instead.
Aka if some researches a trip to Europe they will likely soon spent money. Someone looking for mitosis/osmosis/cat cry syndrome needs to be somehow diverted from their initial intent.
Aka if some researches a trip to Europe they will likely soon spent money. Someone looking for mitosis/osmosis/cat cry syndrome needs to be somehow diverted from their initial intent.
Sure, it's easier to earn revenue from users who are researching ways to spend their money. But advertising works in all types of venues, not just in media that appeal to shoppers or spenders. For example, somebody who's visiting a site for arthritis patients to learn about the condition and its treatments might not be looking for products, but he or she might react favorably to an ad for arthritis medications and lotions, heating pads, walkers, or some other product that meets a need for arthritis sufferers. Similarly, a person who's reading about the life of Mother Teresa might be inspired to buy a biography of Mother Teresa, a DVD of the movie about Mother Teresa, or even a Mother Teresa dashboard statuette (or, for that matter, to donate money to the late Mother Teresa's charity).
The Amazon type stuff doesn't work as most people try to get free content, not books. I am the same, if I can find it on the web, I am not gonna spent money on information. Poems and fiction is a different matter.
All the publishers in my sector do bad, unless it's the super special info that is attractive to 6 people usually, that's just how it is.
There is just one market where people pay and I am building that up in the moment.
[edited by: mattg3 at 5:30 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2007]
Sure, it's easier to earn revenue from users who are researching ways to spend their money. But advertising works in all types of venues, not just in media that appeal to shoppers or spenders.
Absolutely. I make an amazing (to me) amount of AdSense money on users who are researching events where they *don't* have to spend any money. I have to assume they're considered to be quality traffic, because I'm getting better and better ads with better and better EPCs.
As the original post - right on the money. I no longer mind finding my clients' AdWords on parked pages that have been optimized for relevance, because they convert. I was as surprised as anyone to find this, but if my client is widgetsupplies.com and he's advertising his widgets and his ads show up on a parked page called nationalwidgets.com that's optimized for the widget demographic, that click is just about as much chance of being relevant as one from the Search or Content Network.
Absolutely. I make an amazing (to me) amount of AdSense money on users who are researching events where they *don't* have to spend any money. I have to assume they're considered to be quality traffic, because I'm getting better and better ads with better and better EPCs.
Hmm, depends, in the moment, I make about 1200,-, best months were 10.000. Do I compare it with what an academic would get for publishing a weird book about libraries in Mongolia, I guess I am better off.
Absolutely. I make an amazing (to me) amount of AdSense money on users who are researching events where they *don't* have to spend any money. I have to assume they're considered to be quality traffic, because I'm getting better and better ads with better and better EPCs.
ditto here.
Well, not events, in my case, but researching topics in which they have no original intentions of buying anything.
I also have sites that fit EFV's classic definition of need/purchase. In my case, they do not perform near as well in quality of advertisers, and the resulting CTR and eCPM.
I believe either model can work, but you are probably better at creating and growing one than the other.
It was a consensus by then that direct traffic (then referred to as type-in traffic) was the highest quality traffic of all, notches above target SE traffic, and leaps above all the rest.
I am not sure if that consensus still prevails, or if it is valid for non-adult traffic; but I see no reason to think it wouldn't.
I do have a problem with direct nav domains on my site.
Travel page yesterday 30 cent clicks.
Today 15 cent clicks.
Why?
Two direct navigation parked pages feeding off my traffic, and into the filter they go.
If they kept to search and direct type in I wouldn't care. Why come after my hard earned traffic and suck the blood out of me like the vampires they are.
By the end of the day it will amount to $100 loss, care to put that cnote back in my pocket Webwork?
Yes, down to the netherworld from whence you came and pray I never find the silver bullet!
[edited by: Khensu at 1:19 am (utc) on Oct. 6, 2007]
Two direct navigation parked pages feeding off my traffic
It's a shame that you can't attract better quality advertisers. ;-P
Might I ask: How many ads do you have to be running on any page to fish this far down in the advertiser barrel? Maybe running fewer ads on a page might not "dip so deep in the barrel", i.e., bring up the bottom to the top and land them on your page?
Truly, though, you have my sympathies. It appears you are a target of arbitrage. HOWEVER, if it will make you feel any better, imagine MY PLIGHT: Every day dozens of entities - some rather large - do their best to capture my domain portfolio's traffic and feed it to their assorted arbitrage programs. I'm talking shopping/comparison engines, secondary "search engines", various versions of landers running Overture/Yahoo feeds, etc. It's equally brutal in the domain parking world.
Misery loves company?
Nah. I'd rather we both were a bit less miserable. ;-P
It's a shame that you can't attract better quality advertisers.
It's a shame that Google can not attract better quality advertisers. The concept of Adsense is "implement and forget". Google takes care. But their sales force seems to be unable to attract those advertisers who spend their money on parked pages (apparently at a higher cost, otherwise the domainers could not make a living off it).
That, my friend, is our problem.
Like Khensu, I don't care about parked domains AS LONG AS THEY DO NOT ADVERTISE on my sites. The fact that they are advertising indicates to me that direct navigation seems to not bring enough traffic. (That's why I call direct navigation a myth. For some domains it may work, certainly, but noone with an IQ higher than 80 enters www.about-keywordsome.com into the browser. Well not too many anyway.)
The fact that they are advertising indicates to me that direct navigation seems to not bring enough traffic.
Or maybe parked domains are (1)automated and (2) profitable, leaving the owner both time and money to play around with things like paying for traffic through PPC ads in an effort to tweak even more profits from the model.
FarmBoy
But their sales force seems to be unable to attract those advertisers who spend their money on parked pages (apparently at a higher cost, otherwise the domainers could not make a living off it).
AdWords/AdSense has a "sales force"?
For that matter, how do you know what they're bidding at all? Or how many clicks there were on those specific ads or how much those clicks paid?
The rest of the group have been with me for a long time and are pretty consistent. It is usually a 22 cent average page. First there was a surge to 30 cents one day and then a drop to 15 the next, after they got the 1 & 3 spots out of 6 positions. Now it is back to normal, typical attack sequence.
AdWords/AdSense has a "sales force"?
It didn't work but is that not Sales Force?
It didn't work but is that not Sales Force?
It certainly isn't an "ad sales force." An advertising sales force consists of reps who sell ads to advertisers.
