Theo
Account Terminated
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2004
- Messages
- 30,318
- Reaction score
- 2,217
Here's a chart showing how my portfolio declined with Sedo over the course of a year.
In Yellow, the CTR: from 13.68% CTR the drop is now down to 5.8% - that's using the same domains with the same keywords and templates.
In Orange, the PPC. From an average of $0.21 the current monthly average is $0.17
So what is going on?
Sedo's lack of optimization for search engines such as Google has caused many domains to fall off the "face of the earth". Sure, the type-in traffic is still there, but search and locate any domain parked at Sedo and in the description you will see Sedo's own promotion "for sale" etc. No keywords meta tags, no description.
Secondly, many domains despite all attempts for optimization display unrelated content, at least 50% of the time. It seems that Sedo alternates between two - maybe more - sets of content, some of which is related and some has nothing to do whatsoever with either the category or the keywords used. On top of that, some innocent domains fall victim to displaying adult ads. I had to move these away from Sedo to avoid further damage as they were generics unrelated to anything adult-oriented.
The templates: there are not enough of them. The decline in CTR is an indication that frequent visitors are now trained to recognize the Sedo landers as simply ad pages and don't click on them anymore. This means that despite the continuity of traffic, the visitors are driven away eventually not by the particular domain but by its look that they have seen elsewhere. Other companies, such as Parked.com now offer full customization of the template with provision for adding related content. This offers the benefit of making any given lander distinct from any other, actually offering content & visibility in the search engines.
PPC-wise, Sedo has simply become "#1" - in retaining a large chunk of its payouts to themselves, that is. There is no other explanation. Google is thriving, their stock is at an all time high of $677 per share.
Sedo has announced a gift hunt for the holidays that I personally find insulting. I don't need glass beads when I give Sedo my traffic so that they can claim they are #1 with millions of parked names. Sedo's value for a potential sale to an investing venture depends on the revenue it generates, this could explain the drop in the past 12 months across the board for PPC.
Two months ago I moved my zero-clickers from Sedo to Parked.com and at the current rate I will be making $1,400 a year from that chunk - money that I would never see if I left them at Sedo.
The chart below speaks for itself. It's a downhill course for the domainer - an equally proportional uphill course for Sedo's finances.
This Christmas do yourself a favor and run some stats, then decide whether you want to make more $$$$ or you want coupon revenue to get that Sedo-branded iPod.
In Yellow, the CTR: from 13.68% CTR the drop is now down to 5.8% - that's using the same domains with the same keywords and templates.
In Orange, the PPC. From an average of $0.21 the current monthly average is $0.17
So what is going on?
Sedo's lack of optimization for search engines such as Google has caused many domains to fall off the "face of the earth". Sure, the type-in traffic is still there, but search and locate any domain parked at Sedo and in the description you will see Sedo's own promotion "for sale" etc. No keywords meta tags, no description.
Secondly, many domains despite all attempts for optimization display unrelated content, at least 50% of the time. It seems that Sedo alternates between two - maybe more - sets of content, some of which is related and some has nothing to do whatsoever with either the category or the keywords used. On top of that, some innocent domains fall victim to displaying adult ads. I had to move these away from Sedo to avoid further damage as they were generics unrelated to anything adult-oriented.
The templates: there are not enough of them. The decline in CTR is an indication that frequent visitors are now trained to recognize the Sedo landers as simply ad pages and don't click on them anymore. This means that despite the continuity of traffic, the visitors are driven away eventually not by the particular domain but by its look that they have seen elsewhere. Other companies, such as Parked.com now offer full customization of the template with provision for adding related content. This offers the benefit of making any given lander distinct from any other, actually offering content & visibility in the search engines.
PPC-wise, Sedo has simply become "#1" - in retaining a large chunk of its payouts to themselves, that is. There is no other explanation. Google is thriving, their stock is at an all time high of $677 per share.
Sedo has announced a gift hunt for the holidays that I personally find insulting. I don't need glass beads when I give Sedo my traffic so that they can claim they are #1 with millions of parked names. Sedo's value for a potential sale to an investing venture depends on the revenue it generates, this could explain the drop in the past 12 months across the board for PPC.
Two months ago I moved my zero-clickers from Sedo to Parked.com and at the current rate I will be making $1,400 a year from that chunk - money that I would never see if I left them at Sedo.
The chart below speaks for itself. It's a downhill course for the domainer - an equally proportional uphill course for Sedo's finances.
This Christmas do yourself a favor and run some stats, then decide whether you want to make more $$$$ or you want coupon revenue to get that Sedo-branded iPod.
