Life in the Blue

Very informative post from sitening today. The quick jest is Google will allow advertisers to bid to pay per action (conversion) on the content network. Publishers will only be paid when the traffic they send converts on the advertisers website.

This is obviously a huge advantage for the advertiser, but I don’t know why any publisher would like it. I mean I have gone on rants about worthless websites on this blog before. Those that exist for no other reason than to generate clicks on AdSense ads, so I am all for it. But from a publisher standpoint, most people have websites and conversion rates that blow. And like a wise man once told me, if you can control the conversions on the site, I wouldn’t want to be sending traffic there to get lost in the depths of websites with text over images or something.

It was also be interesting to see how Google determines who ‘wins’ the bidding. If I pay $100 for a really valuable conversion but happens so very rarely, while someone else pays $1 for a conversion that happens all the time, I don’t know how they will decide who wins. Hopefully we get to put up the dukes and fight each other at 12 AM in the street, Double Dragon style.

I am sure Google will set up some sort of quality control to prevent this somewhat. Just like AdWords. Ads with very few conversions and low payouts will lose out to better performing ones.

On a related note, the 1991 World Series Championship defending Minnesota Twins had their game in Chicago cancelled today due to bad weather. Apparently cold and wind. I have received reports of 17 degrees in Minneapolis today? I just find it hard to get into baseball when I have to wear a parka to work in the morning. Looks like it will be an NHL weekend.

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