The Great PPC/CTR decline

[domainah]

Very True what you say about the ISP cache, there are certainly people that misuse the system, but most people do not. And by basically not paying for clicks on an assumption basis while Sedo is getting paid by google for those clicks is not fair. Sedo obviously does not comment on that under what excuse whatsoever because its basically free money for them. Unless they can show that google does not pay for those visitors they are skimming IMO.

 

[namestrands]

At the end of the day. We all have a choice to choose whether or not to use SEDO, personally I tend to not use them as I have had more sales success with simply adding my own enquiry page, on programs like Parked and DS.

SEDO do not follow the normal rules of parking, they pay based on their own analytics and not those of Google's. They decide who gets what and how much instead of a straight percentage share.

Call it unfair or whatever you like, at the end of the day its how they do business.

I personally do not like the way they do business, nor do I like the lack of customer service and it is for that reason that I avoid them as much as possible, unless it suits me to use them.

Its one of those situations where it is best just to accept the way they do things and take your business elsewhere.

Sedo may offer a good sale or many offers, you just got to weigh up the pros and cons, I for one found most offers to be lowballers. When buying or selling a domain, you tend to spend a copious amount of time chasing up Transfer Agents, and time is money. So the more you have to run after them, you end up getting a worse deal than you first thought.

Not being able to get down to negotiations on domain offers without first getting comments approved is just madness. Business deals are time critical and again you just end up wasting time and opportunities.

Now if you add all that time and stress then subtract it by what you get in return, you will soon come to realise that SEDO are not that great.

I truly believe that SEDO do not see the difference between good and bad press, to them its all the same as long as people keep talking about them.

My advice to anyone that are not happy with their current program is to shop around, I for one have turned a simply hobby into a very successful business..

Using excuses like, having to re-optimize domains is just downright lazy. Treat the domains as a real business, if you want the return then you have to put in the effort. Don't rely on the Parking Program, even the ones that claim to auto-optimize.

Research the domain, and always ensure that the keyword matches the name or prior use of the name. Even if the domain has only 2 or 3 visits a day take the time to really optimize it.. I can tell you that the highest revenue earners in my portfolio have the least amount of traffic.

Set yourselves up with an excel spreadsheet and list all your domains, one by one google the name and check archive.org you will find a wealth of information that will help you optimize. If you have something truly descriptive then consider turning it into an affiliate site. The rest choose at least 3 keywords that suit and then test them for a month. If you then see some keywords are not converting well then its time to use tools like adwords to find other related keywords with higher bid prices.

Most parking programs will allow you to send them an Excel Spreadsheet with your domains and keywords.

The difference between domainers earning a few hundred dollars a month and those that earn 10s of thousands, is simply down to the effort and time put in.

At the end of the day you only have to double the ROI to make this a profitable business and that amounts to less than $2 a month.

Treat your domains like you would any other business, as the more you dress the domain up the better the return.

All the parking programs despite their best intentions do not have the manpower to optimize every domain and therefore if you want the return then put in the work.

Anyway... Rant Over.. this was not directed at any poster in particular, its just an observation.

 

[Theo]

Great post, my Bishop. Two thumbs up.

 

[wanted]

Really interesting thread.

Most of my domains are at Sedo. It's a love-hate relationship, my CTR is higher there but the CPC is really cheaper than anywhere else even if they share the same ads provider.

I wonder how many times more I would make if they counted every clicks.