"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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