Peter D's Insight

[John Scott]

http://blog.v7n.com/2006/04/18/how-t...rch-marketing/

Like, why spend a huge amount of time and money getting top ranking for a keyword, when you can achieve the same boost to your bottom-line by placing an advertisement on the site that is already at number one?

That really is a diamond.

[ayanev]

The url in your blog is not working right now for me.
For that Quote - I can't agree. Who will sell his visitors to competitors ? I wont.

[John Scott]

I think he means, buying visitors from the top ranked website. It is like, advertising a hosting company on a top ranked web hosting resource instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to get ranked for "web hosting".

[ayanev]

Yup, for portals and so on its a cheap deal, but what for the pure specified business webpages, ranked #1?

My clients are in very competiting enviroment, just take a look at http://www.google.bg/search?hs=zz6&h...BD%D0%B5&meta= for example ... Only competitors' pages... Not a single way to break trough and buy ads...

pp
the link is still not working for me

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

That really is a diamond.

Shhhhhh, keep the diamonds secret

It's really a great practice. The first people I contact for ad buying opportunities are the people who hold the top 10 spots in the big 3 SE's for the target term. They can send amazing amounts of traffic at costs lower than PPC.

[gfriedm1]

makes sense, but like ayanev said, who is going to sell advertising space to their competitors. i find my my case, that many of the top ranked sites for my business "calling cards" don't even sell advertising.

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by gfriedm1

makes sense, but like ayanev said, who is going to sell advertising space to their competitors. i find my my case, that many of the top ranked sites for my business "calling cards" don't even sell advertising.

Don't look at your direct competition...odds are they won't sell you space, even if they do offer it. If you're selling phone cards maybe you look for sites that sell phones or phone accessories.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Don't look at your direct competition...odds are they won't sell you space, even if they do offer it. If you're selling phone cards maybe you look for sites that sell phones or phone accessories.

Yup. What he said.

[wariental]

makes sense.

[gfriedm1]

hmm... good strategy, sounds good ill give it a try.

[petertdavis]

I think there's a greater point with this too. Seems a lot of people in forums like these are totally focused on getting ranked in the search engines. While that can be a very lucrative strategy, it's also very risky. I prefer a roundabout way to search engine rankings. This is one of the things I try to do with my sites, though usually not paid advertising. I try to get all the sites that rank highly for my keywords to link to me. It is a killer strategy, because even if you don't get the ranking in the search engine, you still benefit from the direct traffic from the sites. Getting the links free works better for me, as the type of sites I'm working with are hobby topics, it wouldn't work as well if you're doing Viagra or Texas Holdem.

[gfriedm1]

that strategy obviously works well for non commercial sites, but if you are trying to sell something. rankings is key. my site relies on rankings to make sales. it is important to us. there is no way my competitors are going to link to us if they know anything about SEO. that would only hurt their business.

[petertdavis]

Yea, prepaid cards and phones, maybe not as bad as Viagra and Texas Holdem, but right up there too. You certainly don't find a lot of people to happily give links out to sites like that.

[John Scott]

I don't think it's necessary to rank for search terms to be profitable.

Like, if you are selling hosting. It would take massive resources to rank for "web hosting". But I can buy ads pretty cheap on 3 of the sites in the top ten for that search term.

[gfriedm1]

i am not following your logic JohnScott. what good are the ads your buying on those sites if they don't help you rank in the top 10?

[GuyFromChicago]

Site targeting with AdWords can work very well in this space too. A lot of sites that don't "sell" advertising still run AdSense.

[gfriedm1]

Adwords can be sooo costly though. to have people click on my ad, but to not purchase something from my webstore is a huge problem for me.

[petertdavis]

Don't buy advertisements that are only intended for the search engine rankings. But advertisements for traffic, and if they inadvertantly get your search engine rankings, then great. I know some people who do very well in the search engines from purchased links, but most people just waste their money in my opinion.

Originally Posted by gfriedm1

i am not following your logic JohnScott. what good are the ads your buying on those sites if they don't help you rank in the top 10?

[gfriedm1]

I am not sure if i understand that. IMO it seems the more inbound links you have, the better you do in the SERPS so how will paid links not help you with rankings?

[yfs1]

Originally Posted by petertdavis

Don't buy advertisements that are only intended for the search engine rankings. But advertisements for traffic.

A lost art it seems these days, I actually get the majority of my traffic from offline old school advertising and PR (Public Relations, not the other one) with PPC campaigns a very close second. With SERPs being as irradik (sp?) as they are, its very difficult to earn a living from your sites and sleep well at night when Search Engine rankings are the only weapon in your arsenal.

I am not sure if i understand that. IMO it seems the more inbound links you have, the better you do in the SERPS so how will paid links not help you with rankings?

They will help you of course but I think Peter is hinting at value for money...You could spend a million dollars on links but if the resulting SERPs only net you $500,000 it was worthless.