"The Fallacy Of High-Paying Keywords"
(c) 2006 Damon G. Zahariades
Let's say you have just bought a brand new list of keywords.
The sales letter that you bought the list from said that
these are HIGH-PAYING keywords.
In other words, these are keywords that advertisers are
shelling out big money in order to bid on clicks through
Google's Adwords program. When someone clicks their ads,
the
advertiser is charged a huge amount of money and Google
splits it with you through their Adsense program.
Sounds great, right? I mean, some of these keywords are
getting bids of $20, $30, $40 and more PER CLICK.
Even if Google is only giving you 50% of the cut, it doesn't
take much to hit $10,000 per month in Adsense revenue.
Here's the math...
(20 clicks x $30) x 50% = $300 per day in revenue.
Kinda gives you a tingle, doesn't it?
Hold your horses, partner! There's more to this than meets
the eye.
There are 3 reasons why the promise of high-paying keywords
is a fallacy...
REASON 1: Advertisers Are Saying No To The Content Network
Trust me. Any advertiser who is paying $20 a click in Google
Adwords is tracking their performance. He's tracking his
ROI.
I know, I know... you've been taught that the Adwords game
is filled with corporate knuckleheads who are just begging
to throw their ad budget at Adwords. You've been led to
believe they're bidding up prices and they couldn't care
less about their ads' performance.
That's BS.
Advertisers are getting more savvy. They want results.
And
they have the tools to easily recognize when those results
aren't happening.
It's no secret that the Content Network (that includes
your
sites on which you display Adwords ads for Adsense revenue)
delivers prospects of LOWER quality than the Search Network.
Advertisers know this. So, many of them simply choose to
NOT
display their ads on the Content Network.
What does this mean for that list of high-paying keywords
that you just bought?
The bid prices that are displayed for each keywords on
those
high-paying keyword lists come from bids on Adwords ads
that
are shown on Google's search results pages. NOT the Content
Network.
If there are fewer advertisers willing to shell out the
cash
to show their ads on your sites, what happens to the bid
prices of those keywords?
Simple supply and demand... the bid prices go down. Often,
dramatically.
So, when you see that "mesothelioma" is getting
bids of $60
a click, that bid price is for ads that are being shown
on
Google's pages. Not yours.
The ads that are showing on your pages are earning MUCH
less
that that. Ask anyone with a "mesothelioma" site.
The folks selling the high-paying keywords don't mention
that
little nugget.
REASON 2: Advertisers Are Lowering Their Bids On The
Content Network
In the past, advertisers could only display their ads on
the
Content Network if they agreed to bid the same amount that
they bid to display their ads on Google's pages.
That is no longer the case. Google now allows advertisers
to
bid different amounts on the Content Network.
Now, a quick review... you know that the Content Network
delivers lower-quality prospects via Adwords ads than
Google's pages (see Reason 1 above).
So, if advertisers can adjust their bids for displaying
their ads on the Content Network, which way are they going
to adjust them?
Exactly. DOWN.
Which means you get paid less. Often, MUCH less.
That's another little tidbit that you aren't told when
you
buy high-paying keyword lists.
REASON 3: Smart-Pricing Creates A Huge Mystery
Now, I'll be the first to admit... I have no idea how Google
determines what they pay you each time someone clicks on
the
Adwords ads showing on your site.
Let's say an Adwords advertiser has bid $1.50 each time
somebody clicks on his ad that shows on the Content Network.
So, if Google is giving you 50% of each click price, that
means 500 clicks would put $375 in your pocket, right?
If only the math were that easy!
Unfortunately, Google uses what they refer to as Smart
Pricing to determine what you get paid. There are tons of
variables that Google uses. And they protect it like Coke
protects its secret recipe.
So, what does that mean for the huge bid prices that you're
seeing on the high-paying keywords list that you bought?
Well, you already know that the bid prices are for the
ads
that show on Google's pages, not yours.
But, to ADD to the mystery, now you have no idea if Google
is going to pay you %50, 22%, or 78% of the click price.
It
depends on their Smart Pricing and nobody knows what makes
up the recipe.
That kinda throws those bid prices on your high-paying
keywords list into a tailspin, doesn't it?
Last Thoughts
Okay, we've covered a lot of ground. And by now, you may
be
snorting with anger. You're either angry at your high-paying
keyword lists or you're angry at me for suggesting they
ain't what they're cracked up to be.
So, let me clear the air a bit.
First, high-paying keyword lists are still worth acquiring.
There's a bit of art and science that goes into finding
lists and massaging them so that they're actually WORTH
something, but I'll go over that in a future article.
Suffice to say, if you know that "mesothelioma"
is getting
$60 bids, that's worth knowing.
But, you have to put that data into the proper context.
By
now, after reading this article, you know you're not going
to get $30 a click for ads on "mesothelioma".
So, don't
count on it.
Same goes for every other word on your high-paying keywords
list. Put the data into context.
Whether you're building auto-generated sites or valuable
virtual real estate with quality content, a list of
high-paying keywords can be valuable. But, like any data,
you have to analyze it correctly to get the value from it.
Damon G. Zahariades
You can find the tools I use to make my full-time living
online at
http://www.webbusinesstoday.com/resources.html
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Article by Damon G. Zahariades. To get immediate access
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