*VERY IMPORTANT* Re Goto.com - geek/talk: Signature-free discourse for serious web publishers

Edwin · 12-19-2000, 10:30 PM

A warning for anyone using Goto.com to generate cheap traffic... they will be VERY happy to keep taking money from you at an unnecessarily high cost. Recently, looks like huge numbers of companies have dropped out of the listings through lack of funds - I was able to reduce some bids today from $0.30+ to $0.10- and still stay #1 for my chosen search terms.

Problem is they don't auto-adjust so if you're at #1 paying e.g. $0.50 per click and the #2 spot is paying $0.01 per click, they'll leave you at $0.50 per even though it should only cost you $0.02 to clinch the #1 spot!

Hope this helps you stretch your ad budget much further!

Edwin

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WildComputer · 12-20-2000, 08:38 AM

Hi Edwin, good point, but auto-adjust is not realistic option without the imposition of additional, potentially arbitary, rules by the search engines.

Consider the following 2 scenarios

1.
Alice bids $0.10
Bob bids $0.01

Therefore Alice's bid is moved, auto-adjusted to $0.02. No problem.

2.
Alice bids $0.10
Bob bids $0.05
Carol bids $0.01

Therefore Bob's bid is moved, auto-adjusted to $0.02

This leaves Alice bidding $0.08 more than she needs to

Therefore Alice is moved to $0.03

Bob is now less than his max, so Alice + Bob fight it out, until Alice is $0.06 and Bob is $0.05

Now Bob is still bidding more than he needs to, so we start over, he goes to $0.02... etc.

in summary,
- examples like case #2 are in fact the generally case.
- case #1 is only one possible case. If a SE introduces auto-adjust, it can only be applied for the top bidder, without hitting these kind of snags.
- I doubt many search term engines will make it a priority

BUT

You can off course do the same manually.

There are 3rd party services that will do this for you live. If you spend more than say $50 or $100 per month on Goto, you might want to look at these.

------------------[*]Over 207,000 Killer Domain Names from $11.97 each[*]Create Your Own High Profit E-Books[*]Drive thousands of visitors to your web site cheap'n'easy[*]Affiliate Programs reviewed

Steve_S · 12-20-2000, 11:56 PM

Great stuff from you guys http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

Another thing to watch VERY carefully is your top 3 position for a given term. Since these are aggrigated/pushed into other engines like AOL you can get hammered with a large bill very fast. The problem is the "quality of the click" and where they go after they see the first page. Not the large bill per sey.

Naturally these issues relate to your term and description but I had a few that a lot of AOL users never went deeper than the first page. YUK! Carefully lower your bid so you arent in the top three for some other engines.

HTH

------------------
Best Regards,
Steve_S
Your Administrator
FREE Ecards for your site. Your pages and images = $$$ Tons of features. We host the script. The easy way to learn who links to your site in the major engines.

starluck · 12-20-2000, 06:05 PM

We take the monitoring and adjusting of our GoTo bids a step further because we have over 1,000 terms we either buy ourselves or manage for other companies. One of my staff has this function as part of their job but, if you spend $100 or more a month at Goto you might find some of this information helpful depending on your bidded term.

Rates tend to drop towards the end of a month as advertisers monthly budgets run out so watch for potential savings then.

For pricier/popular terms, we've found even time of day makes a difference. You can sometimes cut rates substantially for the hours of 12midnite to 12noon New York time. Doesn't make much difference on one cent terms. But can make lots of difference on terms over 30cents and up.
Some terms go up in price on weekends, like games especially and usually lower during the week. The opposite is true for business/finacial terms.

The other thing we've noticed is rates across almost all the terms are about half what they were 6 months ago and are still trending downward. So anyone who hasn't checked their term lately may benefit by doing so.

That's just a few of the things you can do. Sorry for the long winded message http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

WildComputer · 12-21-2000, 08:31 AM

>> we've found even time of day makes a difference

I would be interested in seeing some data on this, either on the forum or privately (webmaster@ans2000.com) if you are prepared to share it + have some. Thanks

------------------[*]Over 207,000 Killer Domain Names from $11.97 each[*]Create Your Own High Profit E-Books[*]Drive thousands of visitors to your web site cheap'n'easy[*]Affiliate Programs reviewed

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12-19-2000, 10:30 PM	#1
Edwin Registered User Join Date: Jan 1999 Location: Tokyo, Japan Posts: 670	VERY IMPORTANT Re Goto.com A warning for anyone using Goto.com to generate cheap traffic... they will be VERY happy to keep taking money from you at an unnecessarily high cost. Recently, looks like huge numbers of companies have dropped out of the listings through lack of funds - I was able to reduce some bids today from $0.30+ to $0.10- and still stay #1 for my chosen search terms. Problem is they don't auto-adjust so if you're at #1 paying e.g. $0.50 per click and the #2 spot is paying $0.01 per click, they'll leave you at $0.50 per even though it should only cost you $0.02 to clinch the #1 spot! Hope this helps you stretch your ad budget much further! Edwin ------------------ Free Email Address Directory: 1,000+ free email services. http://www.emailaddresses.com/

12-20-2000, 08:38 AM	#2
WildComputer Registered User Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: See Answers 2000 Limited Posts: 2,618	Hi Edwin, good point, but auto-adjust is not realistic option without the imposition of additional, potentially arbitary, rules by the search engines. Consider the following 2 scenarios 1. Alice bids $0.10 Bob bids $0.01 Therefore Alice's bid is moved, auto-adjusted to $0.02. No problem. 2. Alice bids $0.10 Bob bids $0.05 Carol bids $0.01 Therefore Bob's bid is moved, auto-adjusted to $0.02 This leaves Alice bidding $0.08 more than she needs to Therefore Alice is moved to $0.03 Bob is now less than his max, so Alice + Bob fight it out, until Alice is $0.06 and Bob is $0.05 Now Bob is still bidding more than he needs to, so we start over, he goes to $0.02... etc. in summary, - examples like case #2 are in fact the generally case. - case #1 is only one possible case. If a SE introduces auto-adjust, it can only be applied for the top bidder, without hitting these kind of snags. - I doubt many search term engines will make it a priority BUT You can off course do the same manually. There are 3rd party services that will do this for you live. If you spend more than say $50 or $100 per month on Goto, you might want to look at these. ------------------[]Over 207,000 Killer Domain Names from $11.97 each[]Create Your Own High Profit E-Books[]Drive thousands of visitors to your web site cheap'n'easy[]Affiliate Programs reviewed

12-20-2000, 11:56 PM	#3
Steve_S Join Date: Aug 1998 Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Posts: 5,223	Great stuff from you guys http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif Another thing to watch VERY carefully is your top 3 position for a given term. Since these are aggrigated/pushed into other engines like AOL you can get hammered with a large bill very fast. The problem is the "quality of the click" and where they go after they see the first page. Not the large bill per sey. Naturally these issues relate to your term and description but I had a few that a lot of AOL users never went deeper than the first page. YUK! Carefully lower your bid so you arent in the top three for some other engines. HTH ------------------ Best Regards, Steve_S Your Administrator FREE Ecards for your site. Your pages and images = $$$ Tons of features. We host the script. The easy way to learn who links to your site in the major engines.

12-20-2000, 06:05 PM	#4
starluck Registered User Join Date: May 2000 Location: Toronto Posts: 125	We take the monitoring and adjusting of our GoTo bids a step further because we have over 1,000 terms we either buy ourselves or manage for other companies. One of my staff has this function as part of their job but, if you spend $100 or more a month at Goto you might find some of this information helpful depending on your bidded term. Rates tend to drop towards the end of a month as advertisers monthly budgets run out so watch for potential savings then. For pricier/popular terms, we've found even time of day makes a difference. You can sometimes cut rates substantially for the hours of 12midnite to 12noon New York time. Doesn't make much difference on one cent terms. But can make lots of difference on terms over 30cents and up. Some terms go up in price on weekends, like games especially and usually lower during the week. The opposite is true for business/finacial terms. The other thing we've noticed is rates across almost all the terms are about half what they were 6 months ago and are still trending downward. So anyone who hasn't checked their term lately may benefit by doing so. That's just a few of the things you can do. Sorry for the long winded message http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

12-21-2000, 08:31 AM	#5
WildComputer Registered User Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: See Answers 2000 Limited Posts: 2,618	>> we've found even time of day makes a difference I would be interested in seeing some data on this, either on the forum or privately (webmaster@ans2000.com) if you are prepared to share it + have some. Thanks ------------------[]Over 207,000 Killer Domain Names from $11.97 each[]Create Your Own High Profit E-Books[]Drive thousands of visitors to your web site cheap'n'easy[]Affiliate Programs reviewed