The Clickthrough Slowdown
423 words | Last Updated: April 22, 2008 |
Are you making money online via clickthroughs? Do your online revenues depend on people taking action on certain ads? Well, the internet advertising landscape is once again a-changing (or should I say, has changed). So, where do we go from here?
FT.com reports that social networks slow Google. This means that advertising in various online gathering holes has not attracted as much attention in 2007, as they did in 2006.
People are changing online. The past consumer behavior has somehow morphed into an increasingly ad-blind race from one social network to another, or from one login screen to a host of many others.
What's an online marketing person to do?
Try this: Create your own product.
Scary, isn't it? Somehow, the go-go days of publish free content and live off advertising are hard to shake loose. Like dust stuck to an old comfortable shoe, ancient online publishing practices are hard to change.
It's easy to just keep doing what we've all been used to doing.
Don't panic, though. There's no need to completely stop what you've done all along. Afterall, if you enjoy blogging, then by all means go ahead. For all you know, that's what help keeps your cholesterol down.
But what if... you tried something new, in addition to what you're already doing? That will help protect you when (not if) the current online earning tactics suddenly stop working.
Take this scenario: You, as usual, write about 7 ways to solve (insert popular problem here). Only this time, you only post 5 ways. The remaining two ways, you can package into some kind of "premium content" report, which people can pay you for if they badly want it.
If you're using WordPress, you can create a password-protected post which reveals those secret 2 ways. With the help of Paypal, you can then sell the password which unlocks the hidden post.
See? There's no talk of ebooks or PDF files (although you could publish one, if you wish to). It's just you and your trusty old blog. And the great thing about this approach is your current style (freely blogged articles) and the new one (premium content) can co-exist in your present web site.
So if you're still heavily dependent on advertising revenues, please take note of the signs all around us. And the wonderful thing about this is: there's still time to take action.
"The Clickthrough Slowdown"
First Posted: February 3, 2008 | Filed in: Make Money Online
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[...] show that Internet users are starting to get more and more ad-blind. If you’re making money online via clickthroughs and are worried about this issue, Manuel Viloria explains how you can come up with an alternative [...]
Very clever workaround. A bit more challenging as it centers on the good-old "content is king" idea.
Thanks for this idea. I wasn't aware of the possibility of setting up a password-protected post and selling the password. This is a fantastic idea which I plan to implement asap.
@Jhay - Content development is wonderful, because it works whether you combine it with AdSense or affiliate marketing.
@Flora - Password-protected posts will work well with your blog, because you already have a generous amount of freely-accessible content. All that remains is to organize the remarkable gems of info that you can place in the premium section of your blog. Have fun!
[...] show that Internet users are starting to get more and more ad-blind. If you’re making money online via clickthroughs and are worried about this issue, Manuel Viloria explains how you can come up with an alternative [...]