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Thread: Overture Sucks!

  1. #1
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    Overture Sucks!

    Hi all,

    Well i thought i would give overture.com a go so i deposited 50 bucks in just to start out. Thinking that it was a small amount and it would be used up within a few days i was ready to see some quick results to base my next deposit.

    What i have found out is that nobody even visits overture, the activity seems to be no-existent. My ranks for each keyword are around 3-10 and i have keywords such as "php web hosting", "cheap web hosting", etc. All my bids are between $1-$2 and i would consider this a generous amount for obtaining each visitor. My keywords get about 1 click every few days and in my mind that is ridiculous!

    I know the positions 1-3 are advertised on network sites but to get to those positions your talking about $3-$5 per visitor and i'm not willing to pay that.

    This is just my experience and i would personal warn you not to advertise with them.
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  2. #2
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    According to the overture suggestion tool:
    "php web hosting" had 1201 searches last month where as "web hosting" had 443684. Even with 1200 searchs id expect you to get a few more clicks....
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  3. #3
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    Hi,

    We have found Overture to be quite good over the last 12 months. The problem is all keywords are becoming very expensive. I think the term "web hosting" is around the $8 mark!

    You also need to remeber that only up to the first 10 or so results are listed on some search engines and if you are i the top three you get huge amounts of exposure.
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  4. #4
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    It is fun though to search for webhosting and than click on the top 3, nice to do if your want your competitor out of business.
    But you must be a real sucker (or you hate earning money) if you pay $8 dollar just to be on top.

    Jacco
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  5. #5
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    its called sport clicking :-) and seems to be a popular sport..
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  6. #6
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    You said it. The clicks you're getting are most likely other hosting competitors checking out the competition. You can loose money fast this way. We use them and you're right it hasn't been that great plus now they charge a monthly fee of $20. That sucks also.
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  7. #7
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    Originally posted by vSector
    its called sport clicking :-) and seems to be a popular sport..
    God forbid anyone would ever do that!! http://SpamBattle.com
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  8. #8
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    I actually used Overture [checks - ohhhh, I'm still listed ], and it was OK when the prices were around the US$0.30 mark for my keyword. Got a fair bit of business there too but others soon spotted the keyword and it became crowded and expensive. It's up around the $4.50 mark now. They can have it for that price. My name is Billy, not silly.
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  9. #9
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    When do they call you to confirm? We've had our terms and site reviewed a week ago, but their rep still has not called us to confirm our credit card and contact info.
    Ronny Fang
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  10. #10
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    AussieBob, I normally wouldn't do that, but these people deserve it. Hell, one of them popped up a window on me that would not close as I was browsing their site. I'll pass your link on.
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  11. #11
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    NEVER GO WITH PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES

    I went with Sprinks(www.sprinks.com) to advertise my site.

    It cost me $100 just to start! And I deposited $200 for advertising money. And guess what I find in the next day....

    They used about $60 of my money in just a few hours and when I check my website statistics my traffic DID NOT go up, nor did my sales. I emailed them and discovered that $50 of my money was spent on fraudelent clicks!!!!

    At least they were nice about it, they refunded the $100 setup fee and the $50 in fraudelent clicks.

    BUT BEWARE - PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES steal your money and you'd be better off paying for impressions at a web host site.
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  12. #12
    Anybody have any comments for Google.Com ?

    Tried with them once and their system seems ok.

    Cost per click is determined by price for keyword and % of clickthrus...

    eg.. Your price is No 5 on the list ie $0.30 but if your click thru rate for your advert is high, you get to move up to say position 2 on your keyword.

    Anybody else tried them ?

    Or is there any better avenues for advertising for visitors ?
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  13. #13
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    I've heard google is good, but I think they're a little expensive.

    Remember, watch out for frauds. There are people out there who will click for no reason but to charge you!
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  14. #14
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    method of distribution

    Some other aspects to consider is how an engine distributes results and its' method for category-draw.

    Issue one, if the engine syndicates out their results then the syndicated portion, eg. top 3 at Overture will have massively higher traffic than results further down.

    Also, certain engines have better placement for given categories and this will result in high traffic quality. For example, is category appearing on a main page too broad, eg. is a typical user seeing 'web hosting' on a main entry page and visiting companies just out of interest vs. for the reason of buying. In other words, does the engine attract browsers or buyers.
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  15. #15
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    * we just quit overture

    youre not doing much unless you hit the top 10 do that for webhosting and you will lose your donkey FAST

    other popular terms same thing

    we tracked depth of visits based on traffic from overture and found more than 60 % never went further than the first page with an average visit time of less than 6 secs

    sport clickers

    back to submitting to directories

    oh boy!
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  16. #16
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    Re: we just quit overture

    Originally posted by miami_g
    we tracked depth of visits based on traffic from overture and found more than 60 % never went further than the first page with an average visit time of less than 6 secs

    sport clickers
    Also a lot of the clicks that come from deep within listings are competitors checking you out. A potential hosting customer, for example, isn't likely to go through the third page of listings, but another host might in order to see who is out there.

    The best approach is not to target phrases that are extremely popular, but to find variants of them. For example, instead of "web hosting," look at "website hosting" or even "web site hosting." A lot of people will type it that way, and you might be able to get a good position for a much lower bid.

    By the way, these are only examples to illustrate the approach. I haven't looked at the results of these searches, because we don't have any optimization clients who are in the hosting business!
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.
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  17. #17
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    Originally posted by Blikje
    It is fun though to search for webhosting and than click on the top 3, nice to do if your want your competitor out of business.
    But you must be a real sucker (or you hate earning money) if you pay $8 dollar just to be on top.

    Jacco
    LOL Gave me a good laugh.
    123Designing.com: Webmaster Resource SuperSite
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  18. #18
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    Originally posted by mas3000
    NEVER GO WITH PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES

    I went with Sprinks(www.sprinks.com) to advertise my site.

    It cost me $100 just to start! And I deposited $200 for advertising money. And guess what I find in the next day....

    They used about $60 of my money in just a few hours and when I check my website statistics my traffic DID NOT go up, nor did my sales. I emailed them and discovered that $50 of my money was spent on fraudelent clicks!!!!

    At least they were nice about it, they refunded the $100 setup fee and the $50 in fraudelent clicks.

    BUT BEWARE - PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES steal your money and you'd be better off paying for impressions at a web host site.
    You shouldn't judge all PPC Search engine because of that. I have to admit tho.. Overture is way over priced. I still got listing that are one cents from the good old days.
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  19. #19
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    Since it's not really in Overture's self financial interest to weed out the junk clicks, the quality of such PPC search engines will always suck. Don't ever expect too great a performance with them.

    By the way, WTF is up with that UGLY name "overture"? Goto.com was so beautiful. Why did they have to go and slaughter a perfectly good name for "overture"? My knuckles hurt just by typing it in my browser!
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  20. #20
    Originally posted by mas3000
    I've heard google is good, but I think they're a little expensive.

    Remember, watch out for frauds. There are people out there who will click for no reason but to charge you!
    We have been considering advertising on google. Has anyone advertised with them?
    Multiple Image Corporation - http://www.multipleimage.com
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  21. #21
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    Yep I did

    results from Google sucks.

    Mostly sports clicks had one guy that was clicking me 10 times a day. Good way to lose money.

    Monte
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  22. #22
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    Originally posted by multipleimage


    We have been considering advertising on google. Has anyone advertised with them?
    WASTE OF MONEY. adwords original PPM was good. PPC is worst. It eats money very fast and now days its been more then $4 for web hosting keyword if you want 5-6 position.
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  23. #23
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    I was really disappointed with Overture and cancelled my account with them. The keywords I was after didn't have near the amount of searches they predicted and their approval of keywords took too long and was incredibly inefficient.
    Like passive recurring revenue you can retire on?
    You focus on building your brand, we handle all support, billing, and more.
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  24. #24
    Although there is no way for a PPC to completely eliminate sport clicks, it is possible for them to minimize the risk by using cookies and not deducting for multiple clicks in one day or even one week. There are some PPC's that do that.

    Also, you have to remember that Google's ad words and Overture are very well recognized programs. As a result, if someone is going to go "sport clicking", they will probably go to one of those two programs or other well known programs. However, there are plenty of high quality programs out there that are cheaper and more effective without the sport clicking.
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  25. #25
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    While "sport clicking" can often be identified through logs, and certainly is a consideration in a PPC campaign, the fact remains that many of the bad experiences regarding low conversion rates are simply a result of poorly-written ads or poorly-chosen keywords.

    Small site operators don't see themselves as having the budget to hire an agency to develop PPC ads, or to pay Overture for premium services, and it all seems simple enough that they can choose the "do it yourself" approach. But common sense will only take you so far, and when people who don't really know what they are doing are writing ads, choosing headlines, and targetting keywords the result is commonly a lower conversion rate and a lower click-thru rate. And then complaints that it's Google's or Overture's fault. But a lot of companies do very well with traffic from those sources -- what are they doing differently?
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.
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