How BankRate.com Juices Up Page Views: Bank Rate Advertisers Beware
It’s common for large content rich sites to implement measures to increase page views and decrease bounce rate but BankRate.com appears to be taking this philosophy to a whole new level. The reason that most sites want to increase page views is of course to theoretically better engage visitors but usually the real force behind the quest for more and more page views is that most advertisers pay on a cost per impression basis so the greater the number of page views the more moola the website makes.
I will admit that there is a fine line between splitting up an article into easy to read sections and incorporating rich media like pictures into an article to enhance the user experience and just downright chopping up an article into ridiculously small pieces with each piece on a separate page purely to increase page views.
For example, 
While doing market research for one of my finance sites I can’t tell you how annoying it was to try and read this 672 word article over on Bank Rate and have to click through 7 different pages to read the full article. Yes, 7 pages for a measly 672 words of content. That means that each page has maybe a paragraph or two (although page 1 is the longest by far) and since I can speed read then I practically have to keep clicking to the next page every second or so (maybe this means that an additional benefit to this article chunking strategy is that they hope that users will inadvertently click on ads as they are constantly being forced to click away simply to read a short article…)
Anyway, here is page 1 of the article and have fun clicking through 6 more times all to read just 672 words: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/5-reasons-to-buy-a-home-during-holidays-1.aspx
What do you think of this content chunking strategy?
Case Study Friday: SimpleBabyNecessities.com
This week’s Case Study Friday features a baby cribs website submitted by Greg who is one of our readers: SimpleBabyNecessities.com.
(Notice the juicy anchor text for the above link that I am giving the site because A. I think its a well done and trustworthy site about baby cribs and B. Maybe this will incentive YOU to contact us and submit any sites that you want reviewed for a future Case Study Friday – we currently have a backlog of 5 sites to review for the next 5 weeks but if you submit a decent site then we will be happy to work it into the lineup).
OK, let’s just jump right into this case study and as always please participate by leaving your own input in the comments below.
I want to be sure to not just list of the things I like and don’t like about the site but also to make sure to give Greg some really practical action steps that he can maybe consider. That being said, here are some pros and cons for SimpleBabyNecessities.com and then I will give some recommended steps to take to make the site even better.
PROS
#1 For a site that is just over a year old (it appears the domain name was registered on 10/16/08) and that is not an exact match domain or even a keyword rich domain then to rank on page #4 in Google for the sites main keyword of “baby cribs” is not too shabby at all given that “baby cribs” is searched an average of 90,500 times per month in Google (exact match).
Granted, the competition is not overly fierce as the CPC is only $1.21 but it can certainly be a chore to try and get a big product site like this ranked.
(The site is also ranked on page 1 in position #10 for the secondary keyword phrase of “convertible cribs” and although “convertible cribs” only gets searched a relatively low 9,900 times with a CPC of $1.17 it is still a very nice phrase to rank for).
#2 Although I am not too familiar with Volusion, the shopping cart software that powers his product pages, I think that the individual product pages look professional and have nice big product images which is something shoppers want to see.
#3 The left hand navigation bar does a nice job of being user friendly while still making sure to be SEO friendly at the same time because of the strong internal anchor text.
CONS
#1 I think we can all agree that the domain name chosen could certainly have been a little better. As you know I am a huge fan of exact match domains but in this case I doubt that Greg has the budget to go out and purchase Cribs.com or BabyCribs.com so I understand the brandable domain approach (after all that is what I am doing with my website CreditCardChaser.com that was previously featured in a Case Study Friday since I do not have the budget to buy a CreditCards.com but at least my domain is a keyword rich domain that contains my main keyword phrase in the domain).
That being said, I would have liked to see a shorter keyword rich domain that contains the sites main keywords – i.e. BabyCribsLLLL.com or BabyCribLLLL.com and does not have any long and potentially hard to spell words like “necessities”. In other words, if there is going to be a long and hard to spell word in your domain then it really should only be there because it is a part of your target keyword phrase.
It is worth noting here that maybe Greg has plans to move beyond just selling baby cribs and would like to offer all kinds of baby products – if that is the case then maybe it would even be a better idea to choose a very short brandable domain that does not contain the scope limiting words “crib” or “cribs” but just the word “baby” – i.e. BabyLLLL.com etc.
2. It a very very very good idea for e commerce sites to have as many trust building and credibility boosting symbols as possible on the site and while the site does have some of these symbols down towards the bottom of the site in the footer (Google Checkout logo, credit card logos, PayPal logo, “Privacy Guaranteed” logo, etc.) at least some of these logos should be moved above the fold and into a much more prominent location.
3. The individual product pages do a really nice job of showing a strikeout price/sale price, upselling a mattress, and showing related products but (prepare yourself because many may not like this suggestion) I think that the site could benefit from taking a Buy.com approach by not only doing all of the things I just mentioned but also showing competitors prices (with an affiliate link of course) and maybe even Adsense ads ONLY at the very bottom of the page.
I will be the first to admit that I am definitely not a fan of Google Adsense in most scenarios but I think that Buy.com has a nice approach to product pages (and I am sure that they have tested this to death) and that is that for any admittedly “second string” player (AKA anyone who’s name does not rhyme with “Swamazon”) then it makes a lot of sense to monetize not only the people who will click on your product and add it to your shopping cart and buy from you but to ALSO monetize the people who scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and choose to look elsewhere (likely on Amazon.com).
After all, if those people are going to leave by either hitting the back button or by clicking on an Amazon.com affiliate link/Google Adsense ad then as the site owner you want them to at least make you a small amount of money by clicking away on one of your affiliate links or Adsense ads rather than leaving your site and not making you a dime.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
#1 Consider optimizing the monetization of the product pages by using the Buy.com approach outlined above.
#2 Weigh the benefits of sticking with the same domain name vs. moving the site (and 301 redirecting everything) to a new keyword rich domain name.
#3 Move the credibility boosting symbols up from the footer to somewhere above the fold (or copy the symbols and have them visible in both the footer and at the top of the page).
OK, don’t be shy so let’s all pitch in with some advice for Greg. What are your recommendations for SimpleBabyNecessities.com?
Demand Media on the Importance of Domain Names
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers! This will be short and sweet. I recently posted about Demand Media and as a new RSS subscriber of their corporate blog (and a big fan of theirs all around) I wanted to just point you to a great little post of theirs titled “What Do Domains Have to do with Social Media and Engaging Content?”
One especially interesting statistic that they mention in graph form is that over 100 million domain names lay undeveloped and that the gap between actively developed domains and undeveloped domains is getting larger and larger.
(Side Note: It is quite interesting/amusing that since Demand Media claims to be “The Leader in Social Media” that they don’t allow comments on their blog – the most basic of all elements of social media but oh well. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you so choose )
Wanna Make Money Blogging? Chances Are – You Won’t :)
If you think that you can make money blogging by just working a few hours a day in your underwear while the cash just starts to pour in then guess what? You guessed it – it ain’t gonna happen.
“Wait! Wait!” you say. “I realize it takes a lot of work. I am going to work 10 hours a day until I get a million page views a month and then I will be rolling in the dough”.
I hate to be the one to break it to you but even if you accomplish your goal then you likely wont be making as much money as are anticipating. I will be the first to say that I enjoy blogging because I enjoy writing and I enjoy it when readers leave comments and we get to debate different things and I also enjoy blogging because it does bring repeat visitors to Domain Superstar many of whom will go on to become happy customers of our domain name tools BUT I would never ever rely on blogging to make anywhere near the amount of money that can be made by developing a “real” website.
When I say “real” website I mean any website where people visit the site with the intent of buying something, applying for something, “getting” something – anything other than just visiting to comment on what a cool post you just wrote. Let’s face it. When I put up an insurance website I build the site so that visitors will come to the site as they are searching to buy insurance/compare insurance quotes/etc. When I put up a credit card site I build the site so that visitors will come to the site as they are searching to apply for a credit card. Yes, you can have a very high quality content rich blog that gets some of the exact same search engine traffic as I mention above but where is the majority of your traffic going to come from? People who just enjoy spending a few minutes reading your blog. Nothing wrong with that and it can be an ego booster for some I suppose but those visitors aren’t necessarily going to make the blog owner any richer – especially with CPM advertising prices so (justifiably) low.
My examples above are very tightly focused niches and my goal is of course to draw people into those sites by providing high quality content and helpful tools but let’s get real and answer this question:
“Why are visitors visiting my site?”
If you are a blogger then even if you have a huge email list and an enormous number of RSS subscribers then that does not necessarily mean that your visitors are coming to your blog for any type of commercial reason. Sure, you have influence but many people just like the way you write.
There are definitely some bloggers that make a significant amount of money: Shoemoney.com and ProBlogger.com come to mind immediately. I am definitely not one to say that just because something is hard that you shouldn’t go for it and work extremely hard to make it happen. That being said, is blogging really one of the better ways to make money online?
The Alexa blog published a great post a while ago titled: “Get Rich from Your Blog – Is it Realistic?” that should put a lot of your thoughts on blogging into the proper perspective. With so many other great ways to build content rich websites and develop new products and services I would strongly urge anyone that wants to make real money blogging to either just blog for the fun of it and devote the majority of your time to building out a “real” website or use your blog to drive traffic to your “real” website and connect with your customers.
What do you think? (Please do not be offended if you are a blogger since I called non blogs “real” websites as it was just to make the blog/regular website distinction )
(Thanks to Financial Samurai for pointing out the Alexa post.)
What Was the Best Deal in the LuxuryNames 11/18-11/24 Domain Auction?
Now is the time where we can all be armchair quarterbacks and look back over the LuxuryNames.com domain name auction that just completed today and decide who came away with the best deal.
Of course, I actually bid and won a few names that I am very happy with so I can be a “real quarterback” instead of an “armchair quarterback” to some degree.
I just want to say great job to Alan Dunn and LuxuryNames.com for the great showcase of domains and I definitely hope to see more auctions from them in the near future. Here is the full listing of what sold (thanks to Chef Patrick for compiling the list below and also be sure and head on over to visit Chef Patrick on December 1st to watch him announce the winners of the LuxuryNames.com prize money and the 2 annual subscriptions for our premium membership with full access to our domain name tools).
Grand Total of Sold Domains: $20,747
Above $1,000
businesscarinsurance.com $3,777
cheaphouseinsurance.com $3,100
cowboyhats.net $1,800
cruisevacations.org $1,550
csections.com $1,550
fivestarrestaurants.com $1,550
homeloancalculator.org $1,550
realestateus.com $1,050
Under $1,000
WeeklyPlanner.com $925
seoprograms.com $575
drumsets.org $320
chapter7lawyers.com $275
orlandoautoinsurance.net $275
teethcleaning.net $259
carinjuryattorney.net $210
luxuryheadphones.com $210
debtsettlementprograms.com $200
easterbaskets.net $155
newyorkdefenseattorneys.com $142
pancreatitiscancer.com $135
anaheimcriminalattorneys.com $104
chemodoctor.com $104
internetdeals.org $104
jesusapp.com $104
multiplepenetration.com $104
nyccustodylawyers.com $104
talkpot.com $104
vanityplates.net $104
woodfloorrepair.com $104
cookingracks.com $104
bestcellularphones.com $99
OK, I won’t tell you which names I bid on and won but what do YOU think was the best deal in the auction? (or which of the unsold names do you wish you would have placed a bid on?)
Submit Your Site to be Reviewed for Case Study Friday!
Are you developing a website and want to get some feedback from John and me and all of the Domain Superstar members? In previous posts in our Case Study Friday series we reviewed a couple of sites that John and I have been working on although our goal is to review many different sites from either Domain Superstar readers or just any old site that catches our eye really.
Many of the Domain Superstar readers are expert developers and Internet marketers and have a lot of experience in turning domain names into fully functional websites that generate significant cash flow so if you submit your site for review then you may just find an idea or two from John or I and especially from our readers via the comments section that will end up making you quite a nice sum of money.
The only requirement is that your site actually has to be functional (please don’t just send in a domain name and ask us for ideas ) so go ahead and CONTACT US to submit your website(s) for a potential review in an upcoming Case Study Friday post!
PS “Show Offs” and “Noobs” alike are welcome to submit any site they want so don’t be shy!
3 Ingredients for a Psychologically Powerful Domain Name/Business Name
When you first heard the product name “Viagra” then what came to your mind? If you are like most then the name brought to mind images of strength and life and maybe even a flowing waterfall because of its close association with the familiar name “Niagara” as in “Niagara Falls”. Now what comes to mind when you hear the product name “1-[[3-(6,7-dihydro-1-methyl-7-oxo-3-propyl-1Hpyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)-4-ethoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-4-methylpiperazine citrate”? Does this product name sound like something safe? Not likely, as it brings to mind some sort of lethal combination of chemicals that one should never want to ingest. Here’s the catch: both of those names describe exactly the same thing. “1-[[3-(6,7-dihydro-1-methyl-7-oxo-3-propyl-1Hpyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)-4-ethoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-4-methylpiperazine citrate” is just the official name for what we all now know as “Viagra”.
Jason Zweig of the WSJ has a great article titled Wall Street’s Use of Acronyms that while primarily discussing the reasoning behind some of the popular naming conventions for many financial products also mentions some studies that seem to suggest the 3 ingredients that are necessary for a psychologically powerful product name, business name, or domain name. Now of course there are many other things to consider when choosing a domain name but I thought that approaching the domain name selection process from a psychological perspective was an intriguing one so here are the 3 ingredients along with some data points to support them:
1. Easy to perceive
2. Easy to pronounce
3. Easy to remember
Two interesting studies mentioned:
A) “In a classic psychological experiment, people were shown a series of fictitious names of food additives, all with 12 letters. Some, like Magnalroxate, were fairly easy to pronounce; others, like Hnegripitrom, were a cumbersome mouthful. Asked to imagine that they were reading the names as ingredients on food labels, people rated how safe each additive was likely to be. The unpronounceable additives were, on average, rated 29% riskier.”
B) “The psychologists also presented people with the names of amusement-park rides. Some were short, catchy and pronounceable, like Chunta. Other names were hard for most people to say, like Vaiveahtoishi. With no information about the rides other than their names, people rated the unpronounceable rides an average of 44% riskier and more likely to make them sick.”
In a nutshell, the conclusion that Zweig makes is that “So the easier something is to perceive, remember or pronounce, the safer it will make us feel—regardless of its actual risk or benefit”. It is certainly easy to see how we can translate some of the information gleaned from this study into our domain name selection process.
What other psychological elements do you think are involved with coming up with a great domain name?
(I really can’t believe I just put the word “Viagra” into one of our blogs posts which I’m sure tripped all kinds of Google spam filters but oh well )
Demand Media: Books They Read, Business Model, and Why You Should Care
Ever since Demand Media was profiled in a recent article in Wired Magazine titled “The Answer Factory” (if you have not read this article then set aside 10 minutes and READ IT NOW – then come back here and finish reading this post of course ) I have been extremely interested in learning as much as I can about them because to a certain degree the Demand Media business model mimics my thinking in running Domain Superstar LLC with John and also my other company 360 Quote LLC.
There is no real need for me to rehash the Wired article because you can just click on the link above and read it yourself but I would challenge all of the domainer/developers reading this post to see how you can take some of the ingredients for success from the Demand Media business model and apply it to your domains.
I would even go so far as to say that if you are a premium domain name holder or even a very strong niche domain name holder then you can take their business model a step further than even they can because certainly content is king but having the best domain in a given niche (i.e. a category killer domain name) coupled with great content can propel you to even greater success than your competitors who may need to work that much harder with a lesser quality domain.
I realize that what I am saying is nothing new and certainly nothing revolutionary but as with anything the only real success comes with not just a great idea but great execution. Rob Monster and Epik are attempting something similar in that they want to couple great content with great domains and truly leverage the power of a great domain. I am unsure about the soundness of their interlinking strategy from an SEO standpoint but it will be interesting to see how well they can execute on such a large scale as they already have a number of great domains.
Demand Media understands the power of domains as platforms for great content to some degree as they own a number of highly trafficked web properties as well as 50 or so niche web properties (and let’s not forget that they own eNom as well). However, there is one thing that Demand Media certainly understands about success on the web and that is the power of content.
While some may argue that the loads of content that the Demand Studio writers churn out every day is inferior in quality to many other sources of content it is important to remember that much of the content that they churn out is extremely long tail in nature and even if one agrees with the assumption that their content’s quality is lacking is still meets a need in the market because there is so little competition out there already for many long tail keyword terms. This of course is where I would like to say that their business model differs from mine in that I am a firm believer in attempting to publish only high quality content but then again I am sure that they would say the same thing
Demand Media certainly does a lot of things exactly right on the content side and if you are someone who wants to see some of the principles that they adhere to generate such success then look no further then the books that they draw inspiration from on the content side of things. Their most recent post highlights these books: “How Big Thinkers Help Us “Go Big” In Content”
What do YOU think of the Demand Media business model? In what ways can the Demand Media business model and content strategy help YOU develop your domains?
Top Picks for the LuxuryNames.com Domain Name Auction (November 18-24)
One of the things I like the most about the upcoming LuxuryNames.com domain name auction to be held at SnapNames.com from 11/18/09 to 11/24/09 is that according to the list I have reviewed 80% of the reserve prices are less than $1,500 AND the focus of the auction is strictly on .com, .net, and .org keyword domains with high exact search numbers.
It’s easy to say that you are going to have an auction and keep the reserves low but what usually happens is that there are a few major TLD keyword domains and the-rest-are-crap.info if you know what I mean I am a huge fan of buying exact match keyword domain names and then developing them into content rich sites so I thought that I would highlight a few of my top picks for the auction (DISCLAIMER: I will probably be bidding on some of these domains and I also am selling some of the domains so in the interest of full disclosure you can take it or leave it for some of my picks below):
1. AutoLoanCalculator.com (Reserve: $50,000) – If I had the money to grab this one right now then I would probably jump on it because with “Auto Loan Calculator” getting 135,000 exact match monthly average searches in Google AND the fact that this niche could be very easily monetized this could be a steal for someone who knows what they are doing. If you are someone who develops domains and actually knows what they are doing when it comes to monetization then this could achieve a very nice ROI for you. Alternatively, you could just loan me the money to buy the domain and I will give you a free case study on how to turn a niche financial domain into a cash cow
2. GalwayIreland.net (Reserve: $250) – I am not really a huge fan of the .net TLD but I certainly recognize their value because compared to the pricing of the .com then sure you may end up bleeding off some of your repeat traffic to the .com variation of your domain but honestly if you can purchase a .net for 1/100th of the price of the .com then it may certainly be a wise investment of your money. Naturally, GalwayIreland.com would be a much better domain name but with “Galway Ireland” getting 40,500 monthly average exact match searches in Google then you probably wouldn’t even blink if GalwayIreland.COM was listed with a reserve price of $25,000 so to have GalwayIreland.NET listed with a reserve of 1/100th of $25,000 might end up being a steal.
3. ColonDetox.org (Reserve: $200) – I am actually a much bigger fan of .org’s than I am of .net’s in certain niches. Certain health niches tend to lend themselves nicely to a well developed .org domain name and I think that this is one of those cases. “Colon Detox” gets 6,600 monthly average exact match searches in Google and I think that if this domain was fully developed into a high quality informational type site then it could rank very well and even attract some links that a more commercially oriented colon detox site might not get (especially because of the spammy nature of the colon detox niche). Naturally, once the site ranks high enough and has a firm foundation of quality content to stand on then you could feel free to monetize to your hearts content
The above domains are just 3 of the domains that I wanted to feature in detail but as I mentioned in the intro paragraph above there are a number of domains with very high exact search numbers so I thought it would be beneficial to list all of the domains that have more than 10,000 monthly average exact match searches off for you so that you can decide if the time might be right for you to pounce on a few:
| Domain | Searches | Reserve |
| AutoLoanCalculator.com | 135,000 | $ 50,000 |
| Stiletto.net | 135,000 | $ 750 |
| PianoSongs.net | 110,000 | $ 500 |
| FlightStatus.org | 110,000 | $ 1,500 |
| CoffeeGrinders.net | 90,500 | $ 2,000 |
| Improve.net | 90,500 | $ 6,000 |
| FloorPlans.net | 74,000 | $ 2,500 |
| DSLInternetServiceProvider.com | 74,000 | $ 12,000 |
| DrumSets.org | 74,000 | $ 250 |
| ChessGame.net | 74,000 | $ 2,000 |
| Kayaking.org | 74,000 | $ 8,000 |
| AtlantaHotelRates.com | 60,500 | $ 1,500 |
| HockeySticks.net | 60,500 | $ 3,000 |
| CruiseVacations.org | 60,500 | $ 1,500 |
| BestHotels.org | 60,500 | $ 900 |
| CowboyHats.net | 49,500 | $ 1,750 |
| HomeLoanCalculator.org | 49,500 | $ 1,500 |
| RomeHotel.org | 49,500 | $ 500 |
| Home-Buying.com | 49,500 | $ 1,000 |
| GalwayIreland.net | 40,500 | $ 250 |
| CompanyLogos.net | 40,500 | $ 2,000 |
| PrimarySchools.org | 40,500 | $ 99 |
| OrlandoAutoInsurance.net | 33,100 | $ 250 |
| BaltimoreHotelRates.com | 33,100 | $ 550 |
| BmxRacing.org | 33,100 | $ 150 |
| WeddingAlbums.net | 33,100 | $ 4,000 |
| EasterBaskets.net | 27,100 | $ 99 |
| DogBowls.net | 22,200 | $ 1,500 |
| CandyBars.net | 22,200 | $ 4,000 |
| PropertyValues.org | 18,100 | $ 1,500 |
| Clarkes.org | 18,100 | $ 300 |
| RefinanceCalculator.com | 18,100 | $ 30,000 |
| Newlyweds.net | 18,100 | $ 3,000 |
| LosAngelesRentalCars.net | 14,800 | $ 1,250 |
| Cold-Symptoms.com | 14,800 | $ 490 |
| Egos.org | 14,800 | $ 1,500 |
| MortgageMarketing.com | 14,800 | $ 500 |
| HealthInsurancePlans.net | 14,800 | $ 1,500 |
| HotelMadison.com | 14,800 | $ 1,200 |
| GraduatePrograms.com | 12,100 | $ 2,500 |
| WeeklyPlanner.com | 12,100 | $ 850 |
| NewYorkRentalCars.net | 12,100 | $ 399 |
| PassportApplications.net | 12,100 | $ 1,500 |
| HolidayDestinations.com | 12,100 | $ 8,000 |
| LifeInsuranceCompany.net | 12,100 | $ 750 |
What is YOUR pick for the best domain value from the auction?
WordPress Coming Soon Plugin: Why I Love It (and You Should Too)
The WordPress Coming Soon Plugin by CSSJockey.com is one of the niftiest little WP plugins that I have come across in quite some time and although it is very simple and elegant I think that you will love what it can do for you just as much as I do.
I actually just stumbled across this plugin just a few days ago as I was looking for a coming soon page to put up on the weight training site that John and I will be working on in the near future (and launching on 2/15/09). Of course, the domain name is WeightTraining.com and as its a great keyword domain name you can expect to see some “Case Study Friday” posts in the future covering our development efforts.
Anyway, you can read all of the features yourself by visiting the the link above but I just wanted to point out one little thing that I absolutely love about this plugin and that is –
As soon as you activate the coming soon page then anyone who is not logged in as a WordPress admin will see only the coming soon page while you and anyone else who is logged in as a WP admin will see your site live and 100% functional. This allows you to fix bugs and test the site out in a live environment to your hearts content without worrying about visitors seeing a partially finished site or getting turned off by bugs.
I have to say I wish that I would have come across this plugin a while ago as I could have certainly put it to good use but learn from my mistakes and if you are planning on spending some time developing an in depth/customized WordPress site (or even just doing some maintenance on an existing WordPress site) then head on over to check out the WordPress Coming Soon Plugin by CSSJockey.com right now!
