Forbes Reports PPC overpriced; affiliates laugh all the way to the bank
I hate tearing into journalists who may not be an expert at the particular subject, but hey this is fair game. Alice LaPlante wrote a particularly sloppy article for Forbes reporting that the ROI for PPC marketing is, in her words, “notoriously hard to prove.”
Affiliate marketers on WickedFire.com had their own opinions to share. Rob_TID said “That’s a great article. The more articles like this in big respected publications like forbes, the less competition we will have from big business.”
Here is the punchline from the article, that makes it enter sloppy territory “There are a number of shopping sites..that offer an alternative to the PPC model. With these, advertisers only pay when there’s an actual transaction.” Hmm, could this be something called, affiliate marketing? Ever wonder how super affiliates make so much money? Its no secret, its pay per click marketing.
I think this writer could have done a wee bit better job than this one page article reported. Yes, absolutely some segements of pay per click marketing are horrendously unprofitable. Its even more unprofitable when you don’t understand the conversion process, have a mediocre product, or are just plain lazy (another quote, this one from a small business owner, “‘The best keywords are too expensive, and what’s the point of buying the more obscure ones?‘”)
Pay per click certainly is a hard game to play, but thats hardly an excuse for a sky-is-falling no-one-makes-money-from-this article from Forbes.
For affiliate marketers making lots of money from PPC ad buys, this is great. For web site publishers, this sloppiness is unneeded.
“If you know that each transaction coming to you from a particular site costs $10, for example, you can compare that to your existing margins to get a feel for performance.”
Yes she is talking B.S. but so are you, why pay 10$US for click — and that click producing NO SALE, when you can pay 20$US and produce ACTUAL SALE!!!
What would you appreciate more: 10,000$US of PPC with 15 to 25K$US of income, if even that!!! — or 10,000$ of affiliate expense with 15 to 40K$US of total income on that, take the math….
Comment by Mayo — December 16, 2006 @ 8:24 am
Sorry to say this Andrew, but you are really a “jack’ass of all trades” just like the Forbes reporter is, bring us the numbers…!!!!!
Comment by Mayo — December 16, 2006 @ 8:30 am
Well you are talking nonsense so its hard to answer.
I don’t need to produce any numbers. First of all, I’m not a journalist. Second, because I have first hand experience! Me, and plenty of other affiliate marketers, are pulling down six figures arbitraging affiliate offers with pay per click. These guys are whining about spending 20 hours a week of PPC — no wonder they aren’t getting results. Try 60-100 like the super affiliate marketers and things might start looking a little different.
Sure, some markets are completely, unprofitably cut-throat with competition — but thats hardly a reflection of the rest of the entire PPC market.
Comment by Andrew — December 16, 2006 @ 8:46 am
Yes but your looking from the other side of the fence, are you a publisher your self?? Now there are guys who can make a plausible return on investment, but there are so many SUCKERS that publish ads and go BROKE because of their incompetence to return the money invested, i.e. she was looking on the ADVERTISER side, NOT WEB PUBLISHERS side!!
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You must understand that there are SUCKERS UPON SUCKERS who OVERPAY for something THEY SHOULD NOT PAY FOR in THE FIRST PLACE!!
That is what she was talking about (in the context
Well the world is made of suckers, and i would be willing to get paid by one or many of them several 100K$US/p.a., and if they go broke, well there will be another sucker i will milk money from!
Just like Superbowl advertisers, remember pre 2K internet industry, remember how many web sites paid MM’s for 30 secs of Superbowl intermezzo?? Now if they could make MM’s from that invested MM’s than we would see them today, just like we see Yahoo today, but tell me how many Yahoo companies are there today?? Also how many companies do you think will exist on-line just ONE YEAR from now..??
And why will they fail?? Because they are SUCKERS, they overpaid WORKERS, OFFICE SUPPLIES, SERVERS, MANSIONS ;), and yes ADVERTISING EXPENSES…
And why, well because their owners are say it simple: MORONS..
BTW Andrew great blog you have, and don’t take my rant as negative comment
Comment by Mayo — December 16, 2006 @ 9:28 am
Yes, I’m an advertiser. Last month on Adwords alone I averaged nearly $600 spent *a day*
Comment by Andrew — December 16, 2006 @ 9:31 pm
And do the returns beat the expenses by x2 ?
Comment by Mayo — December 17, 2006 @ 6:44 am
Mayo,
Saying all these business owners are morons is a pretty bold statement from someone who writes like a 12 year old.
Oh and Andrew, I’m loving the no paid post image haha.
Comment by Jason Rodriguez — December 17, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
I am saying about unsuccessful BO’s! Oh an FLAMING is only another way of writing, just a little cocky
Comment by Mayo — December 17, 2006 @ 6:54 pm