Sites That Should Be Booted from the Network: Yahoo/Overture Edition

digimedia.com

here's a link to a domain name rights arbitration case
involving
digimedia... http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/285459.htm.
in
this document, digimedia (respondent) reveals its business
model:

"Respondent alleges that its business model is the
registration of
large numbers of dictionary words commonly searched by
Internet users,
and that it generates revenue by providing pay-per-click
advertising
links related to the generic nature of each site's domain
name."

digimedia (and by extension, yahoo) clearly seeks to
generate revenue
from compulsive, and not considerate, clickers. digimedia's
pages
contain absolutlely no relevant content, and the connection
between the
list of links and the associated domain name is purposely
ambiguous, so
as to compel searchers to click PPC links in an attempt to
locate
pertinent information.

check out just one of their sites such as recipes.com and
you'll see
what i mean.

digimedia owns thousands of URLs - ugh!

jeffrey


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I think that's a perfectly valid business and a reasonable
use of
advertising.  Most users would benefit from those ads, and
the
advertisers probably do ok as well. They happen to have
billboards on
some nice internet locations...

(and I don't park any domains - I'm not in that business...)

johnk

On 10/23/06, Jeffrey Silveira <bluenote78gmail.com> wrote:
>
> digimedia.com
>
> here's a link to a domain name rights arbitration case
involving
> digimedia... http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/285459.htm.
in
> this document, digimedia (respondent) reveals its
business model:
>
> "Respondent alleges that its business model is the
registration of
> large numbers of dictionary words commonly searched by
Internet users,
> and that it generates revenue by providing
pay-per-click advertising
> links related to the generic nature of each site's
domain name."
>
> digimedia (and by extension, yahoo) clearly seeks to
generate revenue
> from compulsive, and not considerate, clickers.
digimedia's pages
> contain absolutlely no relevant content, and the
connection between the
> list of links and the associated domain name is
purposely ambiguous, so
> as to compel searchers to click PPC links in an attempt
to locate
> pertinent information.
>
> check out just one of their sites such as recipes.com
and you'll see
> what i mean.
>
> digimedia owns thousands of URLs - ugh!
>
> jeffrey
>
>
> >
>


-- 
Texsy Ads
Automatically Monetize Product Mentions on your Site
http://www.texsy.com

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Not to generalize, but this class of content converts
slightly higher
than average across all content in my experience.

There is some serious monetization going on in the domain
name
"type-in" space. That information has become more
available since
companies like Marchex invested so heavily here (in domain
banks). A
friend of mine was nice enough to send a Wall Street
research report
that breaks down the numbers. There is even *growth* here as
far as
advertising revenue goes.

I too think it is kind of laughable in some cases (I showed
a funny
slide of Hamburgers.com at one presentation -
http://searchviews.com/archives/2006/02/ses_the_pros_
an.php
summarizes... unfortunately that site is changed or under
new ownership
so the big picture of the hamburger, with the
"cheesy" text about
"everything you need to know about Hamburgers!"
and the accompanying
links to ads for digital cameras, is gone), but I do keep an
open mind
in that area - it's a form of opportunism misdirection to be
sure, but
it's *type-ins* so people are relatively autonomous when
doing that.
The average revenue from one of these sites is just a few
bucks a year,
but if it's $60 on average and the cost to maintain it is
$35, then
multiply that $25 profit by 50,000 names and away you go, if
you're
Marchex or another firm with a big bank of good names. Now
make it
200,000 names and you get even happier. Eventually the tail
dwindles
off and they get no traffic of course so it's not like it
goes on
forever.

I'm not in that biz either but I see this as fitting into
the middle of
the "junk content" area that you simply bid less
on, but at least it
legitimately converts, on average, comparably to quality
content. It
would be interesting to speculate on whether they can
maintain CTR's,
though.


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