$50.00 per click ?

The culprits that pay the most for clicks at Overture tend to produce horribly low revenues for affiliates. So what does that tell you?

Oh sure, these casinos will happily shell out up to $30 + per click at overture and seemingly make money doing so. Yet when you throw them up on the front page of your site(s) and send them thousands of hits they produce a couple hundred dollars in commissions if they are feeling generous that month.

If that isn’t the best real world definition of an engima then I dont know what is…

That seems ludicrous doesn’t it? However if that many bidders are willing to fork over that kind of moolah for just a click they must have a very high conversion rate and their average players must be worth quite a bit to make that amount reasonable.

I’d think we should investigate which programs are bidding this kind of money just for clicks. This could be very useful information in determining player worth. Furthermore, it should serve as an indicator as to how much we should be making off each player for that particular casinos affiliate program.

Does that make any sense?

My explanation was that the average player worth must be fairly decent.

Example: I could afford to pay $50 per click if 50% of the time I got an average player worth $1000.

So 1000 clicks would cost me $50,000

500 average players would yeild me $50,000

Since its supposedly highly targeted taffic Id say that 50% conversion rate may be higher – so say its 60% … then Id be up $10,000

Thats why if this theory holds any weight we could potentially use it as a means for determing what our own average players should be worth.

Am I explaining what Im thinking ok, or am I confusing the heck out of you? LOL

Arkyt & Aleph,

On the side of common sense I’m inclined to agree with both of you…. Fraud is a fraud and I can’t see Yahoo! playing ball with them if there was any funny business going on.

When I commented on this being seemingly legitamite, I was refering to an accounting point of view. They could legitimize the accounting of it so it would appear on the up and up on the books.

The big question is, for those websites who continually hold top postions; How the heck do they justify the expense???

Kevin 11

Arkyt
… I agree with it that it would be FRAUD and grounds for
serious lawsuits in my opinion.

So some people are able to squeeze more ROI juice
out of the same bitter lemon ?

Originally posted by Kevin11
…

This process, although nearing on what I would call conspiracy theory, would certainly explain how some websites can afford these astronomical bid prices.

…

Think what you will, but I would not be totally suprised if price fixing was a part of this….

Id agree thats an interesting conspiracy theory, but not one Id buy into. Id argue that this process if true, would not be legitimate but rather FRAUD.

What about all those occassional individuals who placed a high bid in an attempt to compete. These folks come and then go every month when they find there is no RIO …

So if the inflating bids were FAKE … overture (didnt yahoo just purchase them) would be more or less stealing from innocent individuals who “werent in on the deal.”

Its a decent explanation as to how someone can afford to make such high bids, but not one Id like to imagine as true. Heck were ripped off enough!

This sounds like a reasonable assumption….

However, I have heard, and this is most likely pure speculation, that Overture has deals with high profile web properties where these web properties will outbit all competitors thus driving the per click price through the roof. Then, as part of the agreement, Overture then pays them a % of their marketing spend back.

It this arrangement actually exists, then the top bids are at a much lower cost than indicated, the overall price per click is artificially driven up, and on paper the whole process is perfectly legitimate. Why not reward high profile websites with a “kick back” at the end of the day if they are spending enough money?

This process, although nearing on what I would call conspiracy theory, would certainly explain how some websites can afford these astronomical bid prices.

I find it very hard to believe that advertisers would choose to continually lose money. I find it hard to believe that some advertisers can afford to pay 5 times of what I can afford even when my company has similiar profit margins, conversions etc.

Think what you will, but I would not be totally suprised if price fixing was a part of this….

Kevin 11 – Some food for thought

I refuse to believe anybody is actually paying these amounts per click.
However, I’m pretty sure that if allocate a fixed budget, you could ‘buy’ certain keywords.

It’s in the interest of companies like Overture to create a continuous inflow of cash. They probably ‘sell’ terms for a fixed amount per month. Of course they have to make sure the customer receives a minimum agreed amount of clicks, so they set the ‘bid’ very high, just to avoid some idiot goes over it.
Receiving a fixed amount every month is better than the occasional casino that actually pays $50,- per click, but unfortunately stops advertising after one week, because they notice the RIO is not what it should be.

It also depends on their bet so to speak.

If they are calculating loosing money for x amount of time

in the hopes of gaining with the ” life time value ” of

a customer … it might be possible to see higher per click

values … but the internet moves fast and loyalty is hard to

keep so this is a risky proposition.

I cant either