Morning Folks!!
You may want to look at things differently if you PLAN to SURVIVE in domaining. See the dirty little secret is how many folks have failed and gone bye bye in this business. Some rather large players now gone. More will be joining them. Many more. Will it be you? Probably not. But it will be somebody you know.
If pay per click went away today so would 75% of domainers.
Guess what? I think differently because I did not have the tools or some say the handicap and crutches of things available now that make you see everything differently.
Was there Pay per click (PPC) when I started in 1995? NO! Not even a thought if it coming.
Was there Pay per click (PPC) in 1996? Nope!
Was there Pay per click (PPC) in 1997? Nope!
Was there Pay per click (PPC) in 1998? Nope! Google was born in September that year.
So imagine working the first without the benefit or the tools or the outlook of Google?
So while everyone has Googleitus, because that is all they know, I know a world without that disease. That limiting tool that sometimes works against your long term interests.
So what the hell was I doing? I was joining 'Recognized Groups'. Something I did not talk about for over 17 years until just the other day. Becoming part of an invisible franchise. So when youtube.com became the rage anything XXXTube.com was part of this 'Recognized Group' if it had MEANING. MyTube.com would be an example. Same with Facebook and those either starting with 'Face' or ending with 'Book'. That is how a new thing like the Internet expands. A second BIG success in any of those examples further solidifying and value that invisible franchise with no franchise fee. It is an instant trust.
That is why PIZZA is the only thing that needs to be on a sign to be seen 3 blocks away. Putting 'Ricks Pizza' would reduce the SIZE of the reach of that sign and only reach 1.5 blocks. Half the distance and half the audience. The only thing relevant to them is PIZZA! So if RICK is BIG and pizza is small, I have BRANDED LESS SALES. Period!
My strategy was focusing on domains I could see on TV, hear on Radio, placed on billboards and used in Magazines and other forms of print advertising before I even got to the part of the domain that paralleled a piece of property or even a full business. But not just any property, strategically placed property scattered throughout a city that had yet to be built. Manhattan 250 years ago. Repeating itself!
Adult was the first PPC for me. Roar I think. Circa 1998-1999-2000.
So my question to you today is what happens if PPC is no longer an option? Do YOU have an answer other than the lame one. 'That will never happen'.
ok, fine it won't happen. But we all got a huge haircut from 2007.
What will you say when it goes down another 75%? I mean really....do you have an answer?
It was never part of my equation so I can adjust easier than most. But of course I started that adjustment in 2007 as I then watched payouts decline in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and did not stabilize to any degree until Frank entered the scene. That stopped the squeezing but since May 2011 PPC is DOWN not up.
I think we are at an ebb tide. See it is in Googles's best interest to finally get rid of the shit and focus on quality. They can no longer give their customers shit and say how good it is because they can compare results with other outlets. So quality is finally becoming a big deal.
But what if you have SHIT traffic? Do you really think Google is going to keep paying ya? I don't think so. That day is around the corner. And while PPC won't go away, it won't be available to many because their traffic quality has no quality.
So if you are not actively looking and planning for a day without PPC....wft are you waiting for? By the time Google figures out that quality is FLEEING from PPC, what will be left will be the shit and there goes PPC.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Sad Sally
I thought Smart Pricing is what takes care of shit traffic. If it is shit it can by four clicks for a penny…..that’s Google’s solution.
I agree though, it’s becoming less and less desirable.
Donny
I remember back in 2007, when Yahoo first came out with their TQ score system. Everybody got hit pretty hard. Everybody thought they had great traffic, but what’s great to one person is not what’s always great to another. And with flawed formulas, what really was in some cases good traffic was treated like crap.
Another reason everybody took a big hit was in early 2008, when Yahoo at least announced arbitrage was no longer allowed. People still do it today, but it hit all domainers. Because most of the arb guys were actually driving up the cost of CPC’s and when they all were kind of kicked out from Yahoo, they stopped buying traffic as well, so the over CPC’s dropped.
Also in that same month, Google stopped allowing Ask to sub-syndicate the Google feed. Which affected almost all of the parking providers.
I agree that a lot of domainers would go belly up if PPC went away. But the ones who have taken their time and have good quality traffic will always have places to send traffic.
David
So what other revenue streams are you considering beside leases, direct ad sales, and affiliate programs?
August 3rd
While I focus on ppc income, direct navigation and the missing puzzle for me, I will always do domain name sales in the future and that quality type in traffic off domains.
Can do redirects to hotel sites if I want.
Can do redirects to auto sites and earn some commissions.
Whatever the case, I think quality type in traffic domains will continue to do well in ppc.
While I am focused on ppc income and rely on google, I am not too worried on this. Google still needs parking and they see the quality of type in traffic off frank and others. I just dont see it going away.
But time will tell. Yes I would like to get paid more off a hotel click and that target type in prospect signed up and booked a hotel room.
Maybe google will test out some commission based products and if you have quality type in traffic( not expired junk traffic or tm names) I would like to test this out in future.
Before it was formed, Frank was rotating his type in traffic to businesses and testing things.
steve
Google takes over half my clicks away !
I get they have a fraud system but that is BS.
Half the clicks are marked by them as bogus?