----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Disa Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- February 28, 2006 SearchReturn Issue #042 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....IN THIS DIGEST..... // -- FEATURED POST -- // "WebsideStory Release" ~ Andrew Goodman // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // "Yahoo! Stops Trademark Bids" ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- FEATURED POST -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> WEBSIDESTORY RELEASE "My calculator is telling me that, in the same amount of elapsed time, Google sent 400 buyers and AOL sent 6 buyers." From: Andrew Goodman Classic post Mike! And so true! We I-Search (Return)'ers have been debating these kinds of stats for years now. The 6 buyers you received from AOL aren't going to buy you that 10,000-acre ranch anytime soon. It won't even get you to Disney World. Conversion rates matter, but a pristine conversion rate at extremely low volume just "looks pretty." If you ask a guy on the street if he'd like to buy a hot stereo, and he says "yes," that's 100% conversion. Another very important point to make here is that the more scrupulously a search company or media company weeds out "non-buyers," the more they weed out *users* and *searchers.* Their overall influence declines, while people turn to (eg.) Google as their trusted solution for finding information. That's how you build 60%+ market share. Just imagine a phone system that whenever you picked up, it would be a telemarketer, and only people who wanted sales calls from telemarketers would subscribe to the service. The conversion rate would be super high, but you probably wouldn't sell many phones and you certainly wouldn't grow into a "global telecommunications giant." I'm not sure you could even give those "phones" away. Unless maybe you mailed them to every household for a few years to the point where people began gluing them together and creating modern art with them. But that would create a sizeable loss for your company, and potentially annoy a lot of people who didn't want to receive free phones in the mail. Moderator Comment: How many folks out there made modern art with their AOL mailers? -- Andrew Goodman www.page-zero.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Yahoo! Stops Trademark Bids http://directmag.com/news/2-27-06-Yahoo-trademark-bids Essentials: Trademark woes have long plagued auction-style Search Advertising services. With lawsuits now getting more prevalent due in large part to the success of the Google AdWords platform, Yahoo! decides to disallow bidding on registered marks. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stay Tuned. Got feedback?: http://www.searchreturn.com/feedback.shtml Archives: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest-archive.shtml Alternate formats: http://www.searchreturn.com/info-formats.shtml Manage Subscriptions: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/manage-subs.shtml Problems unsubscribing? Contact the postmaster: mailto:postmaster@searchreturn.com Information on how to sponsor this publication: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/advertise.shtml Published by SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com Website Membership: http://www.searchreturn.com/register.shtml The contents of the digest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SearchReturn or Disa Johnson. SearchReturn and Disa Johnson make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the SearchReturn Digest. Copyright 2006 Disa Johnson. All Rights Reserved. -----------------------------------------------------------------