the numbness of today's surfer..

[kvarnsten]

Hi all,


Some five years ago I made some decent bucks with an agreement with sandbox dot com to hold a CD prize draw for all people joining their java games site.

Remembering those days I decided to put up a similar site the other day offering free CDs to people joining ebay (again the affiliate link used does allows incentivized traffic) and placing a bid. Contrary to before, now EVERYone from the US or Canada who fills out the form correctly are being sent a CD. With my past offer, only 1 out of 12 was drawn a winner.

However, and this is my point, despite of now offering an actual giveaway, I so far have received zero correct entries. I tried advertising the offer through a targetted ppc link just to test the waters but the response is really nothing (and yes the paricular ppc source/kw is a good one.. Ive tried it out in the past). I remember back in the days I used to have one valid entry per maybe five visits(!). Those hits back then were very targetted from "free stuff" sites and the likes but still..

anyway I think these results are interesting, have people surfing the Net really got this rejective and numb to free offers, or do you think the sole blame is that in this case is that they would actually have to place a bid with my new offer? (NOTE not actually buying anything but placing any bid on anything).


I may do a bit more case study to find an offer more identical to the past one just to see how it goes.. might be the most important difference in climate to those days is spelled s p a m.

Well thats what Im on pondering .. If you wanna check out the site and give me your 2 cents that would be great.. its at www.edgelotto.com

 

[David G]

IMO your poor response is a combination of websurfers getting weary of free offers as they usually have strings attached, i.e. your offer requiring them to open new eBay acct and even placing a bid, combined with the fact most everyone now seems to already have an eBay account (vs 5 yrs ago) and do not want a 2nd acct or perhaps think another acct is not permitted.

 

[Stinos]

indeed, trader is right. And the people are also getting lazier

 

[skylight]

maybe you try some other affiliate signup eg. software download , movies download, etc

 

[mike031]

you can't possibly expect the same turnout or even near the same results you got way back then in this present day.. nothing is for certain anymore.. same tactics don't work and trends are overturned.. 5 years is a long time.. don't you think it's time for a change? people are giving out ipods and much more desired stuff then just a cd this days, with no disrespect or anything but if you want to stay on top of your game; just speaking in general, you have to adjust your strategy every so often.. but yea, comparing conversions and sign-ups way back then and now is like day and night.. things are so much complex and way more different this days k:

 

[kvarnsten]

thanks for your responses k:. youre probably right in most of your ideas. people just arent behaving as they were back then. this new site was merely a test though to see if the same setup could work after a long time not running a similar website. And obviously, without exploring and tweaking this particular site too much, things have changed.
Now as an experiment I tried making a clone of the site offering only Britney CDs, and posting the link to the site as a signature when making a few posts on a Britney spears website forum..
Anyway, this setup did get a number of responses, much better than the original one that despite quite some visits really delivered none. Anyway, few or none of even these new giveaway entries could be verified as new eBay accounts and it might be that eBay isnt the right offer for this young audiece. (not sure what eBays age limit is but it may also have a thing to do with it..

A conclusion I guess to have these kinds of webiste work nowadays would be to target the audience particularly offering prizes that would appeal to that specific narrow group. and maybe most importantly try to find users that either arent very familiar with the internet or are young enough to appreciate something as cheap as a music cd..

perhaps

 

[Nexus]

Have you thought much about the particular wording or presentation of the offer? I also believe today's visitors are *JADED*, but that doesn't mean they're not interested.

I believe phrasing and presentation can compell even the most resistant surfer in many cases where that same surfer has ignored innumerable ads for the same thing. I agree that the amount of ads on the net have put everything into a new context. I think every ad campaign is trial and error in search of the ever elusive sweet spot. :wink:

~ Nexus