Hello
Since overture introduced auto bidding prices have rocketed.

Right now the search term "web page host" is $15 per click for #1

http://www.overture.com/d/search/?type=home&tm=1&Keywords=web+page+host&_requestid=6753699

affordable web hosting is at $10 per click

http://www.overture.com/d/search/?type=topbar&Keywords=affordable+web+hosting


budget web hosting is also at $10 per click

http://www.overture.com/d/search/?type=topbar&Keywords=budget+web+hosting


I wonder how long it will take them to realise thier bids have been pushed so high.

Gordon

*cough* SpamBattle.com (http://spambattle.com) loved it when the bids for keywords like - bulk email, were up around the US$15/click too. :D

Your listed keyword prices are crazy. Maybe they're using the automated bidding software that keeps them in a certian position etc. Dead money IMO. :rolleyes:

i dont see how anyone could make any money paying $15 per click.

Ouch $15 per click ... Overture most be making $$$!

You know you all clicked on the $15 link too.:angel:

Originally posted by Scoochy
You know you all clicked on the $15 link too.:angel:

Its only really naughty if you disconnect from the network and dial up via ISDN to have a second click...........

Gordon

Originally posted by whw
i dont see how anyone could make any money paying $15 per click.

The $15 Overture bid was placed by www.iPowerWeb.com, so I did a little checking out of curiocitty and some interesting facts came up:

They appear to be the same people as iBoost.com. According to the iBoost Management page, the owner is one Ben R. Neumann (http://corporate.iboost.com/management.html#neumann) who aslo founded icom.com and sold it to Interliant.

iPowerWeb states in their "Our Vision" (http://ipowerweb.com/ourvision/index.html) page:Founded in 1998 in Santa Monica, CA, iPowerWeb is recognized as an industry pioneer and a trusted name... Yet, a whois query shows that the domain was registered just last year. :confused:

Nextiva.com and JumpDeck.com (non-functional) are ventures of iBoost but they are listed in the Press Room (http://ipowerweb.com/pressroom/index.html) page of iPowerWeb as partners or acquisitions. :rolleyes:

iBoost also owns Sponsorships.net which closed down owning affiliates money. The sent out a letter (http://affiliateprogramsthatsuck.com/archives.html) stating:...due to the unforeseen economic events, iBoost is currently not in any position to pay you cash. I guess it's hard to pay affiliates when you're paying $15 a click to Overture.

I believe WebsiteSponsors.com, founded by Chet Brzezinski of FineClicks.com, was also acquired and dumped by iBoost.

Now they are offering 15GB of transfer for $7.95/mo and bidding $15 a click. I wonder what their exit strategy is, Mexico?:D

Actually they are only paying .01 more than the bid right below them. So if you click on the $15 one, it costs them $4.02, since position #2 max bid is $4.01 - new overture system. It would autobid to keep them in #1 up to $15.

Ahh, thats not so bad, $4.01 is almost good

That's why it says "Advertiser's Max Bid: 15.00$"

ipowerweb.com is the same a-holes who have been spamming people recently, including me. So I gladly clicked on their link a few times and will contin ue to do so even though I'll never buy anything from them becuase they're spammers.

Can't help thinking that the ipowerweb folks are deliberately trying to be the next boo.com, etc.? If I were one of their customers - let alone one of their investors -, I'd be *very* worried...

Ha!

Folks, try keyword "dedicated server" :)
http://www.overture.com/d/search/?type=topbar&Keywords=dedicated+servers

$15, i guess wht have more then 100 member online at any moment and if all clicks just one time to ipowerweb ad then it will cost them $1500 for nothing.

i guess overture had some kind of fraud click protection system. but don't know more about it.

does anyone know how it works, or it even exists !

Originally posted by Max J.
Ha!

Folks, try keyword "dedicated server" :)
http://www.overture.com/d/search/?type=topbar&Keywords=dedicated+servers
But those are dedicated servers, which are more expensive and they probably make profit off them. But the other keywords are $15 and they are only selling $7.95 plans.:eek:

Wow, $15 a click? What a rip-off. You have to make a lot of money to be able to afford $15 a click. Most companies can't afford to pay $.50 a click, nevertheless pay $15 a click.

Originally posted by iamdave
Wow, $15 a click? What a rip-off. You have to make a lot of money to be able to afford $15 a click. Most companies can't afford to pay $.50 a click, nevertheless pay $15 a click.
Especially off of $7.95/month hosting plans. I'd expect it's going to take them months and months to pay off each customer.:rolleyes:

heh..i clicked and even looked at a few other pages in case there was some depth tracking :)

Originally posted by iamdave
Wow, $15 a click? What a rip-off. You have to make a lot of money to be able to afford $15 a click. Most companies can't afford to pay $.50 a click, nevertheless pay $15 a click. But they're not paying $15; they're paying just over $4. Again, $15 is the maximum bid, not what they are paying.

Whether it's a "rip off" at either price is subject to debate, and in fact has been debated here many times.

It can't really be called a rip-off. The price can only be what the market will sustain. If nobody is willing to bid those prices then the $/click will be lower. Overture doesn't set the price - the market does.

Lets say 30 customers @ $5/click to get 1 sale = $150 per customer = 15 months to break-even @ $10/month. They key obviously being that the customer has to be retained.

Compare it to say an advertising campaign at $10 CPM @ a 1% click-thru ratio = $10 to get 10 visitors. So the traffic is 5 times cheaper - but it may be less targeted traffic - so may take 300 visitors to get 1 sale, so may end up being a lower value.

All just assumptions - but my point is that however outrageous overture prices look - its a safe bet that the companies paying $5/click are not doing it with a plan of losing money.

Originally posted by NovaW
It can't really be called a rip-off.
[...]
All just assumptions - but my point is that however outrageous overture prices look - its a safe bet that the companies paying $5/click are not doing it with a plan of losing money. I agree. As I said, it's been debated here. But if you find those old threads you'll see that my position has been basically that.

Of course, your "break even" calculation assumes pure profit from the monthly fee, so it also would take longer than that. But also missing from that simple view of it is the value of branding, viral marketing and word of mouth. To avoid repeating myself: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=58393

Agree 100%. I left out the cost just to make the example simple & given that the marginal cost of a new account is close to zero.

The point about branding is very important - especially given that No1-3 on overture appear on Yahoo. Although for smaller hosts - branding would not be so relevant a part of the cost-benefit analysis of swimming in the overture $5click stream.

You've got to hand it to overture really - what a superb business model

Everyone -once per day click the top bid on overture for $15. If we all do it, some dumb sucker will go broke... just kidding!!!!

:angry:

Man Overture is making soo much money from them... Wish i thought of the idea earlier.

RackShack is paying $36 a click...

It is interesting to see what others do. No one in this business can survive with such advertising costs. Not even the big boys, they could not afford to do that for a while unless they don't mind loosing money.

Most mid to large companies will set aside a % of revenue for marketing & sales. 15% is a normal level for a mature offline business - for high growth online it could be a lot more. The aim being a larger % branding than direct Return on investment. If you are a smaller company then you need to make advertising generate revenue that you can tie to the spend.

How that % is spent fits in with the marketing strategy defined by that company. AOL pumps the cash into junk CD's to send through the mail - an inventive & outrageous move that looked crazy & way expensive when they started - but took them from a weak contender to buying Time Warner.

The guy who owns RackShack - made a post on one of the forums where he said that they paid the top $ overture prices so that they can get visibility on Yahoo (cheaper than ad rates) - because Yahoo has a great branding value. You can not be a big player in any market without brand equity.

The whole argument about Overture prices being too much or crazy is a redundant argument - no market as a whole will pay too much.