Wow, I have hit a new low

[RepCentral]

I looked at one of my domain names (non porn, 1500 uniques a month, good paying keyword in continuing education).

I had 22 clicks yesterday and a a CPC of "0.00". That right, 0.00.
Wow, free clicks on me. Sigh.

Guess I need to moving it around more.

What is wierd is some of the click statistics are on target (continuing education) and the clicks were registered and then taken away.
The other clicks are related to "domain name" target method that Yahoo uses for a pretty good CPC but those are taken away because the domain has nothing to do with that clicked subject.
I asked tech support but was told that they are sorry but the system is the way it is.

This is dissapointing because I do make some good money on some of my domains that are obvious to the Yahoo targeting system.

I think this is important for people to know how TrafficZ works on domain names. Keyword domain names are matched by single word clues and not keyword as a whole. If one of those keywords trips the system, then you are stuck with the keyword with nothing really to do but try and cover it over with center landing text and hope the person clicks the search subject on the side or top.

 

[Theo]

So if you have ThePenIsMightier.com you are screwed :-D

 

[David G]

I am also very disappointed in TrafficZ and their Yahoo feed keyword targeting.

See post 4 and 6 in this thread

http://www.dnforum.com/thread179478.html

Support tells me with the kind of domain in my example above it makes basically zero difference what keywords and title you are using. In fact, the html content and links they allow you to add apparently also mean nothing to the ad targeting. The only thing that matters is how the Yahoo feed has PRE-DETERMINED what ads are associated with the domain name, even if they are totally off-base, they can not be overidden, which I find a very poor method. I have aready moved some parked domains out of there over this absurd issue and they are now on Adsense where keyword targeting makes a lot more sense.

 

[dotNetKing]

Thanks for your explaination dnengineer.

Although I don't fully understand it, it does seem that there are some factors at work which I was completely unaware of, and which I should really know about (and understand!) to make the best use of monetizing domains and for choosing which domains to acquire in the first place.

I've been a staunch trafficz supporter in the past, but if things don't improve, I might consider other options.

 

[Lizzy]

Dear TrafficZ clients,

We would like to take this opportunity to clarify how Direct-To-Results (D2R) implementations and keyword targeting work within the TrafficZ system, as we know that it can be a bit perplexing at times.

Our primary search partner, Yahoo, determines whether or not a domain is eligible for D2R implementation when displaying Yahoo listings. This determination is made in real-time, using Yahoo's own proprietary algorithms and is subject to change from day-to-day, depending upon traffic volumes, advertiser breadth and other related factors. As TrafficZ does not determine which domains qualify for D2R implementation, we can not tell you Yahoo’s specific criteria for designating D2R domains. Generally speaking, the types of domains that qualify for D2R implementation are highly-targeted, keyword-rich domains with deep advertiser coverage (i.e., NewYorkRealEstate.com, CarSales.com, healthcare.cc, etc.). We have also found that some typos, slight misspellings, and keywords combined with certain "noise words" (i.e,. theperfume.com, shop4computer.com) often qualify for D2R implementation. Like TrafficZ, Yahoo prides itself on integrity and its ability to insure that its advertisers receive quality traffic, and, as such, the ultimate determination for any domain implementation is going to be based upon the quality of results for the advertiser.

Similar to the process for determining D2R eligibility, Yahoo also has an algorithm for determining relevant keywords to be displayed on domains. However, determining the particular weight and meaning of a string of alphanumeric characters (the domain name) is not an exact science, and there will be instances when artificial intelligence misses what we may determine to be quite apparent. In such cases, where less-relevant or irrelevant keywords are being suggested for a particular domain, we will work with Yahoo to suggest more relevant, more targeted keywords. In addition, we are in the process of enhancing our own auto-optimization technology to better interface with Yahoo's algorithmic suggestions, thereby ensuring that domains monetized through TrafficZ will always display the most relevant, most targeted and highest-paying keywords possible. We anticipate implementing the enhanced optimization logic over the coming month. In the mean time, please feel free to contact us with any other comments, questions or suggestions to further improve the TrafficZ service.

Very truly yours,
the TrafficZ team
[email protected]

 

[David G]

....prides itself on integrity and its ability to insure that its advertisers receive quality traffic....

Thanks for the feedback. However, how does Yahoo wrongly pre-determining the meaning of the domain assure quality traffic to advertisers by sending people looking for a website about a female named Mary (only used as an example) off on a wasted trip to a site displaying ads for marrying (marry, a much different subject) get that quality traffic? The opposite is true.

Still confused about the purpose of the title, keywords and optional html content if in fact with some domains it makes zero difference on the ad targeting so why even bother with metatags etc and the setup process?

Any way to tell if the ads will be pre-determined or not? A possible benefit would be if the metatags and keywords we use make no difference then domains could be moved to you with no time consuming setup required, right?

 

[dotNetKing]

Hello Lizzy,

Thanks for your post which clarifies some things.

However, you don't give any explainations regarding the considerable drops in income that many people seem to have experienced, especially the most recent drop that occured a few days. (20-40% over the last few days, and more if comparison is made to a few weeks and months earlier).

Another issue is that dnengineers seems to be saying that yahoo.com determine a key word for a domain name and will only paymoney for clicks directly associated with the selected keyword.

Is this true? If so, it would mean that for a domain name such as aitn.com (a potential acronym) if yahoo (arbitrarilly?) chooses the keyword "tin" and someone lands on the page and clicks on a link for televisions, that click or lead doesn't bring any money in.

Again, if this is the case, it would be a waste of our time trying to optimise keywords on a per domain basis, and would in fact be *counterproductive* income wise, as it would increase the chance of someone clicking on a "non-income producing" link, and reduce the chances of them clicking on an income producing link.

A further point that has been mentioned above and in another recent thread, is that many domains are very poorly targeted.

Just as one example, I have turniture.com which is an easy mistype of furniture.com (t and f are diagonally next to each other), yet my browser shows me d2r links on the home page for "i turn" I don't have a clue what an "i turn" is, and I would assume that any clicks on "i-turn" would produce incredibly low income.

In this case, as there is no such thing as an "i turn" (and I think yahoo knows that) a NON d2r would surely be more appropriate (giving a visitor a better chance to click on something that really interested them), if, of course, any links clicked on are allowed for income purposes and not disallowed because they don't fit in with a predetermined hidden/secret keyword.

I note that trafficz are in the process of enhancing your own auto-optimization technology and I hope that this will give a vast improvement over the current poor income levels.

postscript:
It would seem that in the case of turniture.com furniture is not a disallowed term, as I got 19 cents for a furniture click yesterday.

And so presumably this also applies to the rest of our domains. i.e. it isn't the case that we only get paid when someone clicks on a predetermined keyword.

 

[RepCentral]

I can only talk from my experience. I saw blips in the revenue that then dissapeared later in the day and the thread was started because of 0.00 CPC value on 22 clicks. I am not bitter about it and understand the issue with geo located and properly targeted clicks. I don't doubt for a second that TrafficZ is completely honest and pays their fair share to the partners (that's us).

I assume the phantom revenue spikes were related to geo locating and the very low CPC was due to Yahoo not approving of my domain when the click was registered with them.

You can kind of infer this when you read Lizzy's explanation (thanks for the quick feedback) and then read the Businessweek article about how diligent Yahoo and Google have become about click fraud.


<Soap Box Mode = On\>

The downside is that PPC advertisers (the companies bidding for the click) are also trying to pull a fast one over Yahoo and Google now by claiming that anything that doesn't get a sale was click fraud. They are trying to evolve PPC into a "pay per sale" system. We alread have "pay per sale" and would all expect dollars per sale instead of pennies under that kind of system. Google/Yahoo should tell bidders that they will not accept pennies per sale on that kind of model, there is no money in it. If they persist then drop them from adwords for being a bad partner just like they drop adsense partners when click fraud happens.

There has to be a balance in which everyone gets something and no one feels cheated. Otherwise it breaks down, Google and Yahoo close down PPC and the adwords partners lose a majority of sales that made all of this possible in the first place.

<Soap Box Mode = Off\>

 

[Theo]

The downside is that PPC advertisers (the companies bidding for the click) are also trying to pull a fast one over Yahoo and Google now by claiming that anything that doesn't get a sale was click fraud.

What tells you that Y and G are not part of this scheme? Since they control the sandbox, you think they can't control the game to their benefit?

It appears to me that the conspiracy is MUCH LARGER than we ever imagine!