Forum Moderators: martinibuster
ASA
How many clicks from parked domains do you believe are targeted, relevant, and converts? I'd make the assumption, not many.
I, personally, see some of my best quality traffic coming from parked domains. I also see some of my worst quality traffic coming from parked domains.
As with any advertising medium, stop doing what doesn't work so you have more money for what does work.
Like it or not, the new policy has been announced. How many people here intend to quit AdSense in protest? And how many are going to live with the new policy (as I am), despite a lack of enthusiasm for ads on parked domains?
I think there's a big picture here, and I guess I've been talking it up a bit. Is this move a factor for us? Yes. Why?
Because it's our belief that a) google adsense ads have become invisible to users.
b) the reason they are invisible is that after all the years of not showing enough interest in quality, people (and I mean just regular people) have learned that when they click on those ads, a good percentage of the time, the ads are dishonest, misleading, or lead to yet another "directory.
c) Hence the drops in CTR.
What this means to me is that the downward spiral on CTR will continue, until ctr drops below display ads, UNLESS google takes proactive measures NOW to demonstrate to users that the ads are relevant, quality, and deserve attention.
Opening up parked domains doesn't do that. If anything it's the wrong direction.
Google needs to build (protection is too late now) its brand.
As a business, we believe in trying to stay at least six months ahead of the "crash curve". This time we're a little late, but we fully expect that in six months, we need to be ready to be COMPLETELY non-dependent on google revenue.
So, every little bit makes a difference. Encouraging parked domains is bad for the net, and doesn't enhance the brand.
PS. Remarkable to me that there are people that think that because they can afford the money to hoard domains, that somehow they should have a "right" to make money without any work or value added.
That's probably a huge commentary of American business, and why its failing.
PS. Remarkable to me that there are people that think that because they can afford the money to hoard domains, that somehow they should have a "right" to make money without any work or value added.That's probably a huge commentary of American business, and why its failing.
Well said.
At least folks like Mr. Madoff and Gov Blagojevich will have ways to make money.
...but we fully expect that in six months, we need to be ready to be COMPLETELY non-dependent on google revenue.
That's not a bad strategy but I don't think AdSense will be worthless in six months. Just not as good as now, and that's more due to the economy than anything.
PS. Remarkable to me that there are people that think that because they can afford the money to hoard domains, that somehow they should have a "right" to make money without any work or value added.
That's probably a huge commentary of American business, and why its failing.
Agree completely with Atomic, well said.
That's not a bad strategy but I don't think AdSense will be worthless in six months. Just not as good as now, and that's more due to the economy than anything.
I don't know about worthless, but inconsequential to the point where it can no longer be a factor as a planned revenue source. Things are obviously in great flux.
We actually may be "out" of adsense, at least down to 10% of page impressions by sometime this month or next. Our switchover is a longer term project, involving new selling platforms and sites, different retail front end, etc, but we "could" evolve into it faster. I take a lot of pride in my ability to build business strategies, so we'll see if I'm right or wrong.
CTR will drive the decisions. As do alternative revenue source growth. Right now, it looks like adsense will account for about 30% of revenue, down from 90% about a year ago (for this month).
Theoretically, given a stable economy, which we obviously don't have, we would expect our total revenues to go up as we shift focus while our adsense revenues would drop.
Now, the economy effect is unknown both on adsense, and on our other revenue streams.
...however, I sleep less soundly nowadays, AND I'm excited about business again for the first time in at least 12 months. Go figure.
Thanks for the good, well thought-through couple of posts. Good stuff, really.
I'm excited about business again for the first time in at least 12 months. Go figure.
Yep. The outlook may be gloomy and risky, but it opens up new opportunities for advancement, e.g. in the form of new efficiencies entering our lives.
Several governments are already demanding high-speed Internet for everyone (e.g. Obama, Merkel). The other day I read that we will have fiber-based broadband net access in 5 to 10 years, allowing dedicated speeds of up to 1 Gbps in both directions. We will have this IN OUR HOMES.
Just think about what implications this shift will have.
Indeed, it's exciting times for anyone who depends on networks. And I'd love to see Google playing a less important rule in the future.
That's actually a good point, because with the state of the economy they could likely cash in from all the failing websites.
Great. Now Google have an incentive to delay DB updation too.
