解惑篇 如何控制最低成本，通过adwords 实现广告销售。
来源: 人在 于 07-08-13 14:15:36
看到费律师潜心钻研的精神，人在在藏私也就不太好意思了。这里谈谈卖家们如何开拓市场，实现最低成本的销售。从google adwords诞生的那天起，注定了google不仅仅是一个名字，也不仅仅是一个动词，他成为了一个职业。Google垄断有两大拳头产品，一个是google adsense，这个让google一举征服了天下所有中小it工作者和无数网站站长的芳心，二就是google adwords，通过这个，google成功的牵了上到上市公司，下到ebay卖家那花钱的纤纤金手，用来花钱的。从而，google 成为了一个帝国，几十亿的财富，其中百分之70都要靠这两个产品给他创造。估计大家看了心里都不平衡，凭什么呢？google adwords 是一个在线广告销售网络，他也许不是最早的，但是绝对是功能最强大也是最优效果的，我简单说一下原理，已经有了解得可以跳过，直接看五部建立甘建词库。传统的广告除非您通过专业的广告效果监视公司，以市场调研和建模来衡量广告效果外，你无从知道你的广告信息是否有效，到底会有多少顾客因为看了你的广告前来购买你的产品。而关键字广告提出了一个新的关键，就是cpc,cost per click，也就是你无需对没有效果的广告付费，在大众面前展示不花钱，你仅仅需要竞价来参与关键字的选择付费。一般来说，越热的关键字的单价越高，我见过药品类的曾经单次点击高达50多美金。而越没有效果的就越低，地区经济越发达的关键字点击越高，反之越低，这一切，google都给你了一个强悍的工具可以分析，限定，观察。锁定你的顾客群，锁定你的产品，你可以自由限定每天的广告的支出，即使你只愿意出5美金，也有可能给你成功的带来五位顾客。介绍说完，对于有些adwords不成功的朋友，那是什么原因呢？第一，你一定要有个完善的关键字列表。这个ebay做的大的朋友估计都很擅长可以看看这个 如何五部建立adwords关键词表第二 要能提高转换率，这里说明一下，绝对不能把广告直接做到ebay自己的店上，人为什么用ebay,说穿了，所有的大型c2c都每年花了几百万购买关键字了，所以要买的人去ebay的多，而不是看热闹的，你直接把连接放到店铺？那就是给ebay做贡献了。我见过人这么干，我后来提醒了一下，他恍然大悟。当然，这里的ebayer估计没有这么实心眼。第三 一个好的网店， 为什么我说好，这个意思就是专业，不要相信免费的午餐，你1000刀做出来的网店，和36刀是两个概念，除非碰到不良人士，速度要快，要静态，你看看那个欧美专业b2c网店不是静态？设计不要搞得花里胡哨的，通用模版用得太多了，简单，良好的搭配，高速，体贴设计会大大提高你的转换率。行了，这个我就不多说了，说破嘴其实都没用。呵呵，大家自己看吧，人不是全能，有些技术上的东西看不见不代表不存在。第四 的确需要专业销售，基本上大的公司都有专业的cpc广告专员负责再线广告的adwords oveurture mira lycos等，这个我要指明费兄的一个错误，认为没有任何网络背景都可以成为专员，当然，不绝对，人可以自学，但是你没有任何网络知识绝对成为不了专员。对搜索的技术了解越深入，越能帮助你成为专家，我有句老话，adsense的高手必然是adwords德，但是adwords花钱多的，未必是adsense的。初学者如何成为adwords专家，选定关键字列表，大家可以看这篇文章 http://www.afcng.org/adsense_adwords/20070813/53.html最后希望大家多多支持互联网观察家这个网站，我写深了有人说我术语多，写浅了人家说我写的适合初学者。跟不要提有的人拿着我的adsense单子到处骗人买他空间了。。咳，写原创不容易啊。大家多支持，我也会给大家介绍更多的我所了解的知识。
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
深度调查点击欺诈：中国网络广告业癌变轨迹
深度调查点击欺诈：中国网络广告业癌变轨迹
http://www.sina.com.cn 2007年02月05日 15:35 环球企业家
文·本刊记者 罗燕
点击欺诈存在于在线广告的按点击付费模式中。当一个人对广告本身没有兴趣，而只是为了获得点击产生的收入，采取手动或利用计算机程序的方式模仿正常用户点击广告时，点击欺诈便发生了。
——维基百科
十一长假前，刘接到了加班通知。对此，这个30岁出头、迁居深圳的女性并无怨言，而是告诉自己和家人：“要完成业务量，有时候得靠自己。”
没有前往办公室，也并非找到目标客户大肆推销，她去到了自己住所附近的一家网吧。在那里，每隔几十分钟她就会换一台电脑。但在每台电脑上，她的工作是一样的：打开许多个页面，并不浏览上面的内容，而是直接点击上面的广告。她同时打开了众多QQ聊天窗口，把自己打开的链接群发出去，并叮嘱说：“帮忙点一下”……几个小时就这样过去，离开时，她特意要求网吧给自己开一张发票，以备报销。
作为深圳一家网络广告代理公司的普通业务员，刘的任务完成了。应其要求，她和公司的名字被隐去，但她确定：“这应该是一个比较普遍的现象，不会只我们一家。”
如果你不明白这几个小时里发生了什么，你很可能将成为，或已经成为了一种名为“点击欺诈”的新生意的牺牲品。虽然至今它未被全球任何一个国家界定为犯罪行为，但毫无疑问，这是迅速成长中的网络广告行业的灰色地带：针对按点击付费广告，通过人力或者程序，大量并不构成消费行为的点击让钱从广告主的口袋里流向搜索引擎和广告代理公司。
而这之所以成为了一个重要问题，甚至被部分评论者喻为网络业最大的威胁，原因无它：基于搜索引擎的网络广告正在向世界证明自己是一种有效的营销手段，同时是一个数百亿美元的大市场。据网络市场调查公司eMarketer预计，2006年美国在线广告市场规模约可达到164亿美元，其中搜索引擎广告占据69亿美元。而赛迪顾问的数据显示，2006年中国搜索引擎市场规模达到16.6亿元人民币，较2005年增长了40.6%。依靠网络广告， Google和百度这两家在美国与中国市场最大的搜索引擎，2006年前三个季度的收入分别达到74亿美元和5.665亿人民币。
这是广告业历史上增长最快的一个领域，而其增长动力来自于它被寄望改变广告产业一个无奈现实。传统大众营销的软肋在于：广告主知道他的一半广告投入是无效的，但不知道是哪一半。而利用搜索引擎，广告商似乎可以将用户搜索信息和相应广告匹配起来。理想化的状态是，只有对相关产品有兴趣的人才会点击该广告，而广告主只为被点击的部分付费，能最大程度减少无谓损失。这种价格更低、更为灵活的广告形态，获得了大量从未涉足广告领域的中小企业的重视，它们所在的细分市场并不适合传统的大众传媒，但借助Google和百度，找到客户的成本被有效降低——同时，它们也成就了Google和百度高速增长的神话。
但就像科幻小说中预言的：新星系的开发虽然改变了资源贫瘠的状况，但贩卖奴隶这一已经消失的行为可能随之复兴。网络广告模式的确带来了类似的矛盾：新技术可以通过统计点击收费，但无法了解点击背后的目的，而它又很容易被利用。美国咨询公司Click Forensics通过对1300多家广告商的调研得出结论：在搜索引擎广告中，有14%的点击量为欺诈性点击。
这不只是一个技术问题，更主要的，它与广告主的信心直接相关。2006年初，易观国际在调查过468家搜索引擎广告客户之后，刊出《2006中国搜索引擎市场企业用户调研报告》，其中指出，接受调查的33.12%的企业用户认为自己曾遭受过点击欺诈。易观国际判断，国内为数不少的搜索引擎广告主的信心正被透支，可能导致它们转投其他广告形式，这也许会影响2007年下半年国内搜索引擎的收入增长。
【蚁穴】
自上一波网络泡沫破碎以来，努力寻找成熟商业模式的网站们逐渐构建出了一条不同以往的广告价值链。
1998年，GoTo.com首先开创了关键字竞价模式，借鉴于此，Google随后推出了AdWords服务：广告主设置关键词并开展竞价，当用户在Google搜索框内输入搜索关键词时，Google便在右侧匹配与之相关的广告。这一按点击付费(Cost Per Click)的模式，打破了互联网上主流的CPM(以网页上的广告被显示千次计费)做法。在此基础上，Google又打造了可以被称为“广告联盟”的更为广阔的生态圈：通过一种名为AdSense的技术，任何人都可以将Google的广告显示在自己的网站上，并与Google分享点击获得的收益。此后，雅虎和百度也推出了自己版本的广告联盟。
就在Google们找到赢利模式的同时，一些对其模式富有洞察力的人也开始行动了。就像个人电脑兴起之初的病毒程序编制者，或者网络业刚刚开始发展时的黑客，他们很敏锐地发现了新模式的漏洞，但与黑客、病毒制造者不同，他们试图快速致富。
一个已经进入网络公司，但曾通过搜索引擎广告成功获利的个人站长黄(他同样要求不透露真实姓名)对《环球企业家》夸耀称：他曾单月赚取 22000元收入，而他的一个朋友则拥有一个月内从Google广告中挣得一万美金的骄人成就。尤其令其得意的是：只要摸透搜索引擎和广告的习性，赚钱非常容易。
黄介绍称，他先制作了几个以论文模板下载为主题的网站，通过一系列搜索引擎优化技术(SEO)让这些网站在搜索引擎中的排名中尽可能靠前。随后，他成为百度、搜狗和Google等搜索引擎的联盟网站，获得在线广告链接。作为一个有经验的点击欺诈者，他在实践中逐渐找到哪一类关键词能够吸引来较为昂贵的广告，比如“干洗”相关广告点击一次的价格达到几十元，他就会在网页上放出相关的内容，“故意吸引”相匹配的高价广告。
如果在美国，他接下来有两种选择。其一，与其他站长结成一个联盟，每天每个人轮流光顾对方网站上的广告链接。其二，编制各种点击程序，让程序自行点击、更换网络IP、继续点击。这两种方法在中国也被较为广泛的应用着，但国内自行发明的机巧更多，也更便捷。
比如，在页面上放置“免费获取Q币”之类的话语吸引访客点击广告，或者将广告与一些用户最喜欢的内容和图片混在一起，让用户可能会误点击。最常用的还是用小程序来欺骗用户点击：“我在页面上声明必须点击才能下载论文模板，其实不点击也可以下载，只是我在程序里加上一段时间延迟下载的代码，用户一看还没下载的动静，以为真的要点击广告，那么在我设定的这12秒时间内，他至少会点击2到3个广告。”
这是一个成本甚小的工作。黄称，网站搭设好之后，他每天只需要花半个小时的时间检查一下服务器，然后就是坐等广告收入的累积。
【共谋？】
技术上，搜索引擎公司们完全无法识别欺诈性点击？
对此，无论Google、百度还是雅虎都予以坚决否认。雅虎全球产品部资深副总约翰·史莱德称点击欺诈为“一个严重但可管理的问题”。而让不少个人站长记忆犹新的是，2006年11月，感受到点击欺诈过于猖獗，搜狗联盟曾将近一半的账户封掉。
但批评人士认为，点击欺诈所以得以滋生，因为产业链上的几方可能形成“共谋”：以搜索引擎自身为广告发布载体的广告模式涉及广告主、广告代理商和搜索引擎公司三方利益实体，而广告联盟比前者更多了个人站长这一利益体。只要形成点击，广告代理商、搜索引擎和个人站长三方均可获益，只有广告主被孤立。
也就是说，对能够带来巨大流量及点击量的联盟网站，搜索引擎们如果试图严格执法，就必须牺牲自己的利益。
黄承认，共谋的局面是可能出现的：“当你流量够大的时候，某些搜索引擎广告联盟本身会根据你的要求手工为你匹配热门关键词，比如我的站点明明是做论文的，他们却为我匹配了旅游和信用卡等超级热门的广告”。
同样的问题存在于广告代理商一端。
2001年，3721首创中国互联网领域的分销渠道体系，把全国市场按行政区划分为若干个大区，在每个区域发展分销商，通过他们再发展更多的代理商销售中文网络实名，在较短的时间内取得了巨大的成功。此后，广告代理商便一直扮演着搜索引擎和广告主之间的桥梁角色：广告代理商和搜索引擎签订协议，由广告代理商向广告主销售广告并负责其售后服务，将广告主的广告置于搜索引擎之上。包括一贯坚持直销模式的Google在进入中国之后，也被迫入乡随俗采用了广告代理的形式。
这种形式存在诸多潜规则，其中最重要的一点是：搜索引擎公司分次对广告代理商进行返点。如，第一季度业务量完成，返30%，第二季度业务量完成，再返20%……行业内人士称，广告代理商可获得的返点最高可达70%，即使极为苛刻的Google，也会返点40%。
这一交易方式决定了，广告代理商不希望任何一个季度的业务量低于预期。也因此，本文开头所提及的场景成为了普遍现象。
【黑盒子】
与传统广告业不同，搜索引擎的广告主似乎可以保护自己——当广告主意识到广告费大幅增长，但成交量并不提高，他可以通过相关软件对自己广告的点击进行分析，并据此提出反抗。
揭开国内点击欺诈“窗帘一角”的，是北京中北卫科癌症医学研究院院长刘文华，2006年8月4日，他曾带领员工在百度门口举牌抗议，引起公众瞩目。
但刘所以成为国内点击欺诈事件的一个关键人物，不仅在于他是第一个以“点击欺诈”罪名对搜索引擎公司提起诉讼的人，更因为他个人角色的复杂多样。
他首先是百度的忠诚客户。刘最早出现于媒体，是他于2005年11月对《北京晨报》盛赞百度竞价广告的三个好处：“一是它作为全球最大的中文搜索引擎，覆盖面广；二是它的竞价排名是按效果付费的，在同类产品中是获得新客户平均成本最低、投资回报高的一种方法；三是针对性非常强，能帮助我们直接找到潜在目标客户。”
但不久后，他即因为诉讼和抗议成为反抗点击欺诈的标杆人物。面对百度曾提出的退还其二十多万元的广告费用，他坚定拒绝，而在诉状中，刘要求对方赔偿的金额为250多万元。在2006年12月《环球企业家》的一次采访中，刘表示“并不想把事情闹大”，但是“一定要讨回被恶意点击的部分”，态度非常坚决。
可是到了2007年1月，刘文华又悄然撤下诉状，也不愿意再谈及此事，电话里，他一带而过称：“双方已经达成和解”。
从“形象代言人”到递上诉状到言归于好，个中戏剧性似乎不应属于一名医学研究院院长，但它的确发生了，动力何在？
2006年12月的采访中，刘文华说，“自身利益受到侵犯”是最重要的原因。
早在2003年底，刘文华就通过当时百度北京的代理商真龙广告购买了竞价排名服务，设置了诸如“癌症”等关键词，每年在广告上面的投入有几十万，并获得了“还是比较满意的反馈”。可是2006年中，刘文华突然发现广告费用飞涨，“原来一天花两三千块钱，现在有时候一天就能花掉一万块钱”。奇怪的是，在他两次撤下一些关键字之后，费用并没有减少，刘文华觉得其中必有蹊跷。
使用第三方公司软件对流量监测后，刘发现了一个奇怪的点击来源： cpro.baidu.com。在浏览器上，这个地址并不存在，但它消耗了近70%的点击量。几乎在同时，中国医药招商网的周仁根也在广告费用剧增时，用自己公司开发的后台统计中发现大部分点击来自于“cpro.baidu.com”。
刘、周在调查后发现，cpro.baidu.com这一地址指向的内容大多为“百度知道”的页面，与自己的广告无关，应该算作点击欺诈。这就成为了当年10月刘文华向百度正式提起诉讼的最大证据，而周仁根也已准备好各种公证材料，留做证据。
对于刘文华和周仁根等的质疑，百度方面解释，cpro.baidu.com是百度推出的主题推广服务，类似于Google的AdSense，这项服务于2006年四五月份开始测试，八月正式推出，测试之初选择的是做竞价排名效果不错的客户进行试点，包括了刘文华和周仁根等老客户。至于 cpro.baidu.com为何链接到了百度知道的内容，百度产品市场部高级总监王湛解释到，cpro.baidu.com只是一个百度后台的中转服务器，当时除了运行百度主题推广跳转计费的程序以外，还运行了一个www服务的模块，而可能这个www服务的模块当时恰好是百度知道的首页。据此，他否认了这部分流量为欺诈性点击。
但刘文华和周仁根对这个回答均不满意。刘说：“没有人通知过我参加这项业务。我之前没有监测过流量，也不知道他们什么时候开始了这个业务，但是我现在发现了，那么就认定他们以前可能也是通过这种形式来欺骗我们的。”因此，在诉状中，根据监测数据中平均70%来自cpro.baidu.com的流量，刘文华向百度索赔过去几年内在百度竞价广告中花费的70%，也就是250多万元。
王湛承认，可能在进行主题推广服务之前客服和用户之间的沟通存在疏漏，导致了用户的不知情，但是他认为第三方监测并不能说明任何问题，“第一，很多cpro.baidu.com的流量不计费，因为是在测试阶段，第二，cpro.baidu.com即使有一部分计了费，计费系数还很低。所以有流量并不代表从中扣了客户的钱。”
话题至此，几乎相当于进入了一个无法探究的黑盒子。
周仁根所代表的广告主的质疑是：“它说不收，但是收不收我们怎么知道？包括它说短时间内的重复点击没有计费，但是它并没有给出一个详细清单：哪里点的？IP地址是多少？哪些收费了哪些没有收费？”
而王湛的解答似乎也不无道理：“过滤恶意点击最强的武器其实不是技术好坏，而是这些策略对于那些想突破这个防线的人来说是不透明的。我们有很多策略，比如说通过某些特征判断这次点击是不是恶意点击。如果这些策略公布出去了，他就可能会专门绕过这些防线。但如果不公布，他就很难破解。”
因为信息的透明显得并不可能，这最终变成了用户“信或不信搜索引擎”的选择题。即便在与百度对簿公堂的日子里，刘文华也从未停止使用百度的竞价排名服务，因为他发现自从自己提出抗议，2006年8月起，cpro.baidu.com的点击消失了，费用复归合理。但对另一些人而言，这种博弈显得成本过高，如北京优若翻译公司的创始人周宁在使用过竞价排名后，因为感觉投入的广告费并没有产生相应价值，又不能对点击对象的信息进行有效分析，便已放弃了搜索引擎广告投放。
【市场问题由市场解决？】
“根本上，这不是一个技术问题，而是个商业模式问题”，一名提供网页制作外包服务的人士告诉本刊。
这是搜索引擎公司们较为认同的一个说法。Google全球CEO施密特就曾表示：Google的广告主会根据自己在Google上购买的关键词的投资回报(ROI)来调整他们的定价。如果点击欺诈造成广告主的回报率下跌，他们就会因此要求调低关键词的购买价格，从而使点击欺诈行为造成广告主多付的价格得到修正。
不过，这种自我修正的前提是，运用搜索引擎广告的中小企业与搜索引擎公司形成良性的沟通机制。 比如为网络营销页面留一个专门的电话号码，用以评估广告效果；监测流量的来源，如果来自某个网站的点击量明显增加，则要加以留意。现在这在国内进展并不乐观。
刘文华的代理律师张新维告诉记者，他正陷于与百度的三件案子之中，分别是张新维诉百度“竞价排名擅自提价”，百度反诉张新维“捏造事实恶意宣传、违反协议、侵犯商业秘密”，张新维再诉百度“侵犯其名誉权、单方面中止竞价合同和单方面泄密”。截至目前，在前两个诉讼中张新维相继败诉，他认为这些结果也让刘文华有所顾忌。张还表示，一些之前对他表示过诉讼意向的公司，在得知他被百度反诉之后，都没再轻举妄动。
让张新维最感无奈的是：广告主即便是在官司中胜出，“按照中国的现有法律，也只能得到广告款的返还，而不会获得赔偿。”
你可以将此视为短期内，搜索引擎公司取得了实质的胜利。但长期呢？
可能发生的最坏局面是：因为难以预测的性价比、糟糕的用户体验，广告主们用脚投票。 来自易观国际的市场调查显示，大部分认为遭受过点击欺诈的广告主其实并没有客观的标准来判断是否存在点击欺诈，只是出于“感觉”——而这个“感觉”决定了他们是否对此投资。
“当年，3721等上游厂商在初期为了推广产品和培育市场，纷纷采取代理商的形式，这样培育出来的市场环境是相当糟糕的，代理商只为了完成任务量各般手段用尽，唯一没有做到的就是用户体验。他们不会帮广告主分析关键词，在不同时段调整广告词的使用，只会追求订单的数量，甚至用恐吓的方法让人赶快注册某关键词。”一位中国最早的广告渠道商告诉《环球企业家》，因此，“如果能建立一个专业的渠道队伍，对于一个新的搜索引擎来说，在中国还是有机会的。”
这种说法得到很多广告主的印证。优若翻译公司的创始人周宁经常接到各种各样渠道代理商的电话，这其中“很多业务员对搜索引擎产品的了解还不如我，根本介绍不清楚”，周宁有些无可奈何，“当我要求他们给我分析一下，比如说你们的客户群是怎样的，我这个行业竞争对手是什么情况等的时候，有的人甚至会直接挂断电话”。
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2007-02-05/15351370177.shtml
http://www.sina.com.cn 2007年02月05日 15:35 环球企业家
文·本刊记者 罗燕
点击欺诈存在于在线广告的按点击付费模式中。当一个人对广告本身没有兴趣，而只是为了获得点击产生的收入，采取手动或利用计算机程序的方式模仿正常用户点击广告时，点击欺诈便发生了。
——维基百科
十一长假前，刘接到了加班通知。对此，这个30岁出头、迁居深圳的女性并无怨言，而是告诉自己和家人：“要完成业务量，有时候得靠自己。”
没有前往办公室，也并非找到目标客户大肆推销，她去到了自己住所附近的一家网吧。在那里，每隔几十分钟她就会换一台电脑。但在每台电脑上，她的工作是一样的：打开许多个页面，并不浏览上面的内容，而是直接点击上面的广告。她同时打开了众多QQ聊天窗口，把自己打开的链接群发出去，并叮嘱说：“帮忙点一下”……几个小时就这样过去，离开时，她特意要求网吧给自己开一张发票，以备报销。
作为深圳一家网络广告代理公司的普通业务员，刘的任务完成了。应其要求，她和公司的名字被隐去，但她确定：“这应该是一个比较普遍的现象，不会只我们一家。”
如果你不明白这几个小时里发生了什么，你很可能将成为，或已经成为了一种名为“点击欺诈”的新生意的牺牲品。虽然至今它未被全球任何一个国家界定为犯罪行为，但毫无疑问，这是迅速成长中的网络广告行业的灰色地带：针对按点击付费广告，通过人力或者程序，大量并不构成消费行为的点击让钱从广告主的口袋里流向搜索引擎和广告代理公司。
而这之所以成为了一个重要问题，甚至被部分评论者喻为网络业最大的威胁，原因无它：基于搜索引擎的网络广告正在向世界证明自己是一种有效的营销手段，同时是一个数百亿美元的大市场。据网络市场调查公司eMarketer预计，2006年美国在线广告市场规模约可达到164亿美元，其中搜索引擎广告占据69亿美元。而赛迪顾问的数据显示，2006年中国搜索引擎市场规模达到16.6亿元人民币，较2005年增长了40.6%。依靠网络广告， Google和百度这两家在美国与中国市场最大的搜索引擎，2006年前三个季度的收入分别达到74亿美元和5.665亿人民币。
这是广告业历史上增长最快的一个领域，而其增长动力来自于它被寄望改变广告产业一个无奈现实。传统大众营销的软肋在于：广告主知道他的一半广告投入是无效的，但不知道是哪一半。而利用搜索引擎，广告商似乎可以将用户搜索信息和相应广告匹配起来。理想化的状态是，只有对相关产品有兴趣的人才会点击该广告，而广告主只为被点击的部分付费，能最大程度减少无谓损失。这种价格更低、更为灵活的广告形态，获得了大量从未涉足广告领域的中小企业的重视，它们所在的细分市场并不适合传统的大众传媒，但借助Google和百度，找到客户的成本被有效降低——同时，它们也成就了Google和百度高速增长的神话。
但就像科幻小说中预言的：新星系的开发虽然改变了资源贫瘠的状况，但贩卖奴隶这一已经消失的行为可能随之复兴。网络广告模式的确带来了类似的矛盾：新技术可以通过统计点击收费，但无法了解点击背后的目的，而它又很容易被利用。美国咨询公司Click Forensics通过对1300多家广告商的调研得出结论：在搜索引擎广告中，有14%的点击量为欺诈性点击。
这不只是一个技术问题，更主要的，它与广告主的信心直接相关。2006年初，易观国际在调查过468家搜索引擎广告客户之后，刊出《2006中国搜索引擎市场企业用户调研报告》，其中指出，接受调查的33.12%的企业用户认为自己曾遭受过点击欺诈。易观国际判断，国内为数不少的搜索引擎广告主的信心正被透支，可能导致它们转投其他广告形式，这也许会影响2007年下半年国内搜索引擎的收入增长。
【蚁穴】
自上一波网络泡沫破碎以来，努力寻找成熟商业模式的网站们逐渐构建出了一条不同以往的广告价值链。
1998年，GoTo.com首先开创了关键字竞价模式，借鉴于此，Google随后推出了AdWords服务：广告主设置关键词并开展竞价，当用户在Google搜索框内输入搜索关键词时，Google便在右侧匹配与之相关的广告。这一按点击付费(Cost Per Click)的模式，打破了互联网上主流的CPM(以网页上的广告被显示千次计费)做法。在此基础上，Google又打造了可以被称为“广告联盟”的更为广阔的生态圈：通过一种名为AdSense的技术，任何人都可以将Google的广告显示在自己的网站上，并与Google分享点击获得的收益。此后，雅虎和百度也推出了自己版本的广告联盟。
就在Google们找到赢利模式的同时，一些对其模式富有洞察力的人也开始行动了。就像个人电脑兴起之初的病毒程序编制者，或者网络业刚刚开始发展时的黑客，他们很敏锐地发现了新模式的漏洞，但与黑客、病毒制造者不同，他们试图快速致富。
一个已经进入网络公司，但曾通过搜索引擎广告成功获利的个人站长黄(他同样要求不透露真实姓名)对《环球企业家》夸耀称：他曾单月赚取 22000元收入，而他的一个朋友则拥有一个月内从Google广告中挣得一万美金的骄人成就。尤其令其得意的是：只要摸透搜索引擎和广告的习性，赚钱非常容易。
黄介绍称，他先制作了几个以论文模板下载为主题的网站，通过一系列搜索引擎优化技术(SEO)让这些网站在搜索引擎中的排名中尽可能靠前。随后，他成为百度、搜狗和Google等搜索引擎的联盟网站，获得在线广告链接。作为一个有经验的点击欺诈者，他在实践中逐渐找到哪一类关键词能够吸引来较为昂贵的广告，比如“干洗”相关广告点击一次的价格达到几十元，他就会在网页上放出相关的内容，“故意吸引”相匹配的高价广告。
如果在美国，他接下来有两种选择。其一，与其他站长结成一个联盟，每天每个人轮流光顾对方网站上的广告链接。其二，编制各种点击程序，让程序自行点击、更换网络IP、继续点击。这两种方法在中国也被较为广泛的应用着，但国内自行发明的机巧更多，也更便捷。
比如，在页面上放置“免费获取Q币”之类的话语吸引访客点击广告，或者将广告与一些用户最喜欢的内容和图片混在一起，让用户可能会误点击。最常用的还是用小程序来欺骗用户点击：“我在页面上声明必须点击才能下载论文模板，其实不点击也可以下载，只是我在程序里加上一段时间延迟下载的代码，用户一看还没下载的动静，以为真的要点击广告，那么在我设定的这12秒时间内，他至少会点击2到3个广告。”
这是一个成本甚小的工作。黄称，网站搭设好之后，他每天只需要花半个小时的时间检查一下服务器，然后就是坐等广告收入的累积。
【共谋？】
技术上，搜索引擎公司们完全无法识别欺诈性点击？
对此，无论Google、百度还是雅虎都予以坚决否认。雅虎全球产品部资深副总约翰·史莱德称点击欺诈为“一个严重但可管理的问题”。而让不少个人站长记忆犹新的是，2006年11月，感受到点击欺诈过于猖獗，搜狗联盟曾将近一半的账户封掉。
但批评人士认为，点击欺诈所以得以滋生，因为产业链上的几方可能形成“共谋”：以搜索引擎自身为广告发布载体的广告模式涉及广告主、广告代理商和搜索引擎公司三方利益实体，而广告联盟比前者更多了个人站长这一利益体。只要形成点击，广告代理商、搜索引擎和个人站长三方均可获益，只有广告主被孤立。
也就是说，对能够带来巨大流量及点击量的联盟网站，搜索引擎们如果试图严格执法，就必须牺牲自己的利益。
黄承认，共谋的局面是可能出现的：“当你流量够大的时候，某些搜索引擎广告联盟本身会根据你的要求手工为你匹配热门关键词，比如我的站点明明是做论文的，他们却为我匹配了旅游和信用卡等超级热门的广告”。
同样的问题存在于广告代理商一端。
2001年，3721首创中国互联网领域的分销渠道体系，把全国市场按行政区划分为若干个大区，在每个区域发展分销商，通过他们再发展更多的代理商销售中文网络实名，在较短的时间内取得了巨大的成功。此后，广告代理商便一直扮演着搜索引擎和广告主之间的桥梁角色：广告代理商和搜索引擎签订协议，由广告代理商向广告主销售广告并负责其售后服务，将广告主的广告置于搜索引擎之上。包括一贯坚持直销模式的Google在进入中国之后，也被迫入乡随俗采用了广告代理的形式。
这种形式存在诸多潜规则，其中最重要的一点是：搜索引擎公司分次对广告代理商进行返点。如，第一季度业务量完成，返30%，第二季度业务量完成，再返20%……行业内人士称，广告代理商可获得的返点最高可达70%，即使极为苛刻的Google，也会返点40%。
这一交易方式决定了，广告代理商不希望任何一个季度的业务量低于预期。也因此，本文开头所提及的场景成为了普遍现象。
【黑盒子】
与传统广告业不同，搜索引擎的广告主似乎可以保护自己——当广告主意识到广告费大幅增长，但成交量并不提高，他可以通过相关软件对自己广告的点击进行分析，并据此提出反抗。
揭开国内点击欺诈“窗帘一角”的，是北京中北卫科癌症医学研究院院长刘文华，2006年8月4日，他曾带领员工在百度门口举牌抗议，引起公众瞩目。
但刘所以成为国内点击欺诈事件的一个关键人物，不仅在于他是第一个以“点击欺诈”罪名对搜索引擎公司提起诉讼的人，更因为他个人角色的复杂多样。
他首先是百度的忠诚客户。刘最早出现于媒体，是他于2005年11月对《北京晨报》盛赞百度竞价广告的三个好处：“一是它作为全球最大的中文搜索引擎，覆盖面广；二是它的竞价排名是按效果付费的，在同类产品中是获得新客户平均成本最低、投资回报高的一种方法；三是针对性非常强，能帮助我们直接找到潜在目标客户。”
但不久后，他即因为诉讼和抗议成为反抗点击欺诈的标杆人物。面对百度曾提出的退还其二十多万元的广告费用，他坚定拒绝，而在诉状中，刘要求对方赔偿的金额为250多万元。在2006年12月《环球企业家》的一次采访中，刘表示“并不想把事情闹大”，但是“一定要讨回被恶意点击的部分”，态度非常坚决。
可是到了2007年1月，刘文华又悄然撤下诉状，也不愿意再谈及此事，电话里，他一带而过称：“双方已经达成和解”。
从“形象代言人”到递上诉状到言归于好，个中戏剧性似乎不应属于一名医学研究院院长，但它的确发生了，动力何在？
2006年12月的采访中，刘文华说，“自身利益受到侵犯”是最重要的原因。
早在2003年底，刘文华就通过当时百度北京的代理商真龙广告购买了竞价排名服务，设置了诸如“癌症”等关键词，每年在广告上面的投入有几十万，并获得了“还是比较满意的反馈”。可是2006年中，刘文华突然发现广告费用飞涨，“原来一天花两三千块钱，现在有时候一天就能花掉一万块钱”。奇怪的是，在他两次撤下一些关键字之后，费用并没有减少，刘文华觉得其中必有蹊跷。
使用第三方公司软件对流量监测后，刘发现了一个奇怪的点击来源： cpro.baidu.com。在浏览器上，这个地址并不存在，但它消耗了近70%的点击量。几乎在同时，中国医药招商网的周仁根也在广告费用剧增时，用自己公司开发的后台统计中发现大部分点击来自于“cpro.baidu.com”。
刘、周在调查后发现，cpro.baidu.com这一地址指向的内容大多为“百度知道”的页面，与自己的广告无关，应该算作点击欺诈。这就成为了当年10月刘文华向百度正式提起诉讼的最大证据，而周仁根也已准备好各种公证材料，留做证据。
对于刘文华和周仁根等的质疑，百度方面解释，cpro.baidu.com是百度推出的主题推广服务，类似于Google的AdSense，这项服务于2006年四五月份开始测试，八月正式推出，测试之初选择的是做竞价排名效果不错的客户进行试点，包括了刘文华和周仁根等老客户。至于 cpro.baidu.com为何链接到了百度知道的内容，百度产品市场部高级总监王湛解释到，cpro.baidu.com只是一个百度后台的中转服务器，当时除了运行百度主题推广跳转计费的程序以外，还运行了一个www服务的模块，而可能这个www服务的模块当时恰好是百度知道的首页。据此，他否认了这部分流量为欺诈性点击。
但刘文华和周仁根对这个回答均不满意。刘说：“没有人通知过我参加这项业务。我之前没有监测过流量，也不知道他们什么时候开始了这个业务，但是我现在发现了，那么就认定他们以前可能也是通过这种形式来欺骗我们的。”因此，在诉状中，根据监测数据中平均70%来自cpro.baidu.com的流量，刘文华向百度索赔过去几年内在百度竞价广告中花费的70%，也就是250多万元。
王湛承认，可能在进行主题推广服务之前客服和用户之间的沟通存在疏漏，导致了用户的不知情，但是他认为第三方监测并不能说明任何问题，“第一，很多cpro.baidu.com的流量不计费，因为是在测试阶段，第二，cpro.baidu.com即使有一部分计了费，计费系数还很低。所以有流量并不代表从中扣了客户的钱。”
话题至此，几乎相当于进入了一个无法探究的黑盒子。
周仁根所代表的广告主的质疑是：“它说不收，但是收不收我们怎么知道？包括它说短时间内的重复点击没有计费，但是它并没有给出一个详细清单：哪里点的？IP地址是多少？哪些收费了哪些没有收费？”
而王湛的解答似乎也不无道理：“过滤恶意点击最强的武器其实不是技术好坏，而是这些策略对于那些想突破这个防线的人来说是不透明的。我们有很多策略，比如说通过某些特征判断这次点击是不是恶意点击。如果这些策略公布出去了，他就可能会专门绕过这些防线。但如果不公布，他就很难破解。”
因为信息的透明显得并不可能，这最终变成了用户“信或不信搜索引擎”的选择题。即便在与百度对簿公堂的日子里，刘文华也从未停止使用百度的竞价排名服务，因为他发现自从自己提出抗议，2006年8月起，cpro.baidu.com的点击消失了，费用复归合理。但对另一些人而言，这种博弈显得成本过高，如北京优若翻译公司的创始人周宁在使用过竞价排名后，因为感觉投入的广告费并没有产生相应价值，又不能对点击对象的信息进行有效分析，便已放弃了搜索引擎广告投放。
【市场问题由市场解决？】
“根本上，这不是一个技术问题，而是个商业模式问题”，一名提供网页制作外包服务的人士告诉本刊。
这是搜索引擎公司们较为认同的一个说法。Google全球CEO施密特就曾表示：Google的广告主会根据自己在Google上购买的关键词的投资回报(ROI)来调整他们的定价。如果点击欺诈造成广告主的回报率下跌，他们就会因此要求调低关键词的购买价格，从而使点击欺诈行为造成广告主多付的价格得到修正。
不过，这种自我修正的前提是，运用搜索引擎广告的中小企业与搜索引擎公司形成良性的沟通机制。 比如为网络营销页面留一个专门的电话号码，用以评估广告效果；监测流量的来源，如果来自某个网站的点击量明显增加，则要加以留意。现在这在国内进展并不乐观。
刘文华的代理律师张新维告诉记者，他正陷于与百度的三件案子之中，分别是张新维诉百度“竞价排名擅自提价”，百度反诉张新维“捏造事实恶意宣传、违反协议、侵犯商业秘密”，张新维再诉百度“侵犯其名誉权、单方面中止竞价合同和单方面泄密”。截至目前，在前两个诉讼中张新维相继败诉，他认为这些结果也让刘文华有所顾忌。张还表示，一些之前对他表示过诉讼意向的公司，在得知他被百度反诉之后，都没再轻举妄动。
让张新维最感无奈的是：广告主即便是在官司中胜出，“按照中国的现有法律，也只能得到广告款的返还，而不会获得赔偿。”
你可以将此视为短期内，搜索引擎公司取得了实质的胜利。但长期呢？
可能发生的最坏局面是：因为难以预测的性价比、糟糕的用户体验，广告主们用脚投票。 来自易观国际的市场调查显示，大部分认为遭受过点击欺诈的广告主其实并没有客观的标准来判断是否存在点击欺诈，只是出于“感觉”——而这个“感觉”决定了他们是否对此投资。
“当年，3721等上游厂商在初期为了推广产品和培育市场，纷纷采取代理商的形式，这样培育出来的市场环境是相当糟糕的，代理商只为了完成任务量各般手段用尽，唯一没有做到的就是用户体验。他们不会帮广告主分析关键词，在不同时段调整广告词的使用，只会追求订单的数量，甚至用恐吓的方法让人赶快注册某关键词。”一位中国最早的广告渠道商告诉《环球企业家》，因此，“如果能建立一个专业的渠道队伍，对于一个新的搜索引擎来说，在中国还是有机会的。”
这种说法得到很多广告主的印证。优若翻译公司的创始人周宁经常接到各种各样渠道代理商的电话，这其中“很多业务员对搜索引擎产品的了解还不如我，根本介绍不清楚”，周宁有些无可奈何，“当我要求他们给我分析一下，比如说你们的客户群是怎样的，我这个行业竞争对手是什么情况等的时候，有的人甚至会直接挂断电话”。
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2007-02-05/15351370177.shtml
Monday, October 23, 2006
Advertising Money: Buying Traffic For Your Website
Buying Traffic For Your Website
When companies do business in internet, they have some useful way to get more traffic.
Old Way: Banner Ads
Banner ads (and the related forms) are the most widly known method of paying to get extra visitors. Over the last year, though, the click-through rates of these are getting lower and lower, making them much less effective. There are new banners and other forms of advert being developed which are interactive and have greatly increased click-through rates. Although standard banner advertising is not a very effective use of your money, these 'new generation' ads could be very effective.
Sharing: Affiliate Programs
Another method of getting extra traffic which has been around for a long time is affiliate programs. These are systems where webmasters earn a comission on any sales they refer you. Even with the slowdown in internet advertising, affiliate programs are still extrememly popular, mainly because companies do not pay out unless they actually make a sale. Although this eliminates wasted advertising money, the affiliate comissions can take away a lot of a company's profit margin and the setup costs can be large. Although you can run the system yourself, joining a big network like Comission Junction can cost as much as $2000 plus a comission of every payout. The big networks will manage all tracking and payouts, though.
Google way: Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
Several search engines have undertaken a new revenue model. They are charging people for their position in the search engine. Sites bid an amount which they must pay per visitor the search engine sends them. The sites are then ranked based on how much they are paying. Although this seems like an expensive way of getting visitors it is actually highly effective. The company can choose the keywords they bid on and how much to bid. A typical bid is usually about $0.30 to get into the top 5 on a search. For some popular terms and for the top spots bids can get extremely high, though, and it is usually better to settle for a lower placement or a less popular search term. The good thing about this type of promotion is you are only paying the search engine if you get a visitor, so if you get no visitors, you won't pay.
Yahoo Way: Pay-For-Inclusion
What this means is that many sites that used to take submissions for free, now charge a fee. The most notable is Yahoo which, although it still accepts free submissions, very rarely adds a site which has not paid the $199 express submission fee. Although this sounds like a lot, many webmasters will testify that Yahoo is probably the best source of traffic for websites and it is certainly worth being in the directory. Other directories and search engines will only accept paid submission, some add paid submissions quicker than free ones and some offer premier listings for paid submissions.
New Way: Search Term Advertising
This is a search engine tool. Most search engines will offer advertising based on the search term which is used. For example, if you were a computer retailer your advert would be shown on a search for 'computer software' but not for 'television repairs'. This is very effective at increasing your click through rate, which is especially important as most of these systems are based on pay-for-views, not pay per click. They are very cost effective, though, and are a good way of mounting a medium scale advertising campaign.
When companies do business in internet, they have some useful way to get more traffic.
Old Way: Banner Ads
Banner ads (and the related forms) are the most widly known method of paying to get extra visitors. Over the last year, though, the click-through rates of these are getting lower and lower, making them much less effective. There are new banners and other forms of advert being developed which are interactive and have greatly increased click-through rates. Although standard banner advertising is not a very effective use of your money, these 'new generation' ads could be very effective.
Sharing: Affiliate Programs
Another method of getting extra traffic which has been around for a long time is affiliate programs. These are systems where webmasters earn a comission on any sales they refer you. Even with the slowdown in internet advertising, affiliate programs are still extrememly popular, mainly because companies do not pay out unless they actually make a sale. Although this eliminates wasted advertising money, the affiliate comissions can take away a lot of a company's profit margin and the setup costs can be large. Although you can run the system yourself, joining a big network like Comission Junction can cost as much as $2000 plus a comission of every payout. The big networks will manage all tracking and payouts, though.
Google way: Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
Several search engines have undertaken a new revenue model. They are charging people for their position in the search engine. Sites bid an amount which they must pay per visitor the search engine sends them. The sites are then ranked based on how much they are paying. Although this seems like an expensive way of getting visitors it is actually highly effective. The company can choose the keywords they bid on and how much to bid. A typical bid is usually about $0.30 to get into the top 5 on a search. For some popular terms and for the top spots bids can get extremely high, though, and it is usually better to settle for a lower placement or a less popular search term. The good thing about this type of promotion is you are only paying the search engine if you get a visitor, so if you get no visitors, you won't pay.
Yahoo Way: Pay-For-Inclusion
What this means is that many sites that used to take submissions for free, now charge a fee. The most notable is Yahoo which, although it still accepts free submissions, very rarely adds a site which has not paid the $199 express submission fee. Although this sounds like a lot, many webmasters will testify that Yahoo is probably the best source of traffic for websites and it is certainly worth being in the directory. Other directories and search engines will only accept paid submission, some add paid submissions quicker than free ones and some offer premier listings for paid submissions.
New Way: Search Term Advertising
This is a search engine tool. Most search engines will offer advertising based on the search term which is used. For example, if you were a computer retailer your advert would be shown on a search for 'computer software' but not for 'television repairs'. This is very effective at increasing your click through rate, which is especially important as most of these systems are based on pay-for-views, not pay per click. They are very cost effective, though, and are a good way of mounting a medium scale advertising campaign.
How To Make Advertisers' Money
There are two ways to get advertisers to your site and make money from them.
1. Sale your sapce directly. You may find advertisers and let them put their banners or similar stuff on a certain space of your website. You are an info-estate owner, like a mall owner, and your advertisers are your tenants, they rent a space from you. You can charge them based one time term, pay-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-view (CPM), or other way you both can accept.
Affiliate programs is the other way to do it. You advertise a product or a range of products on your site (like an Amazon.com search box), You will then be paid a percentage of sales you make. This is good if you have an audience who are very likely to buy from an affiliate program you are publicizing as you will earn a lot more than from a banner. For a list of thousands of programs you can join visit AssociatePrograms.com
2. You work as a sub-agent, then you let someoneelse like google to find advertisers for you. But you need convince google to send the "tenants" to your space, and the tenants also need satisfy your standard. AdSense is a popular programm. Many people are making decent money from it now.
What are "pay-per-click (CPC)" and "pay-per-view (CPM)"?
Pay per click will pay you money every time someone clicks on the banner. Pay-per-view will pay you every time the banner is loaded into someone's browser.
It is obvious that pay-per-view is going to make you a lot more money but, unfortunately, it is only available to large sites. Pay-per-click advertising will not get you as much money but if you can get well targeted advertising you should get quite a lot of clicks. Recently, many advertisers are starting to use pay-per-action (CPA) banners, where the user must do something on the advertisers site (like sign up to a newsletter) for you to earn the money, similar to affiliate programs.
Banner companies will look at your site and target the advertising for you. You should only have a few advertisers as they will have a minimum pay out (usually $25). You will not get paid if you don't reach this amount so you should concentrate on a few to make sure you get paid. Some companies, like Commission Junction work as an agency where you can earn from many advertisers and all the money is pooled into one account, which is very useful.
1. Sale your sapce directly. You may find advertisers and let them put their banners or similar stuff on a certain space of your website. You are an info-estate owner, like a mall owner, and your advertisers are your tenants, they rent a space from you. You can charge them based one time term, pay-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-view (CPM), or other way you both can accept.
Affiliate programs is the other way to do it. You advertise a product or a range of products on your site (like an Amazon.com search box), You will then be paid a percentage of sales you make. This is good if you have an audience who are very likely to buy from an affiliate program you are publicizing as you will earn a lot more than from a banner. For a list of thousands of programs you can join visit AssociatePrograms.com
2. You work as a sub-agent, then you let someoneelse like google to find advertisers for you. But you need convince google to send the "tenants" to your space, and the tenants also need satisfy your standard. AdSense is a popular programm. Many people are making decent money from it now.
What are "pay-per-click (CPC)" and "pay-per-view (CPM)"?
Pay per click will pay you money every time someone clicks on the banner. Pay-per-view will pay you every time the banner is loaded into someone's browser.
It is obvious that pay-per-view is going to make you a lot more money but, unfortunately, it is only available to large sites. Pay-per-click advertising will not get you as much money but if you can get well targeted advertising you should get quite a lot of clicks. Recently, many advertisers are starting to use pay-per-action (CPA) banners, where the user must do something on the advertisers site (like sign up to a newsletter) for you to earn the money, similar to affiliate programs.
Banner companies will look at your site and target the advertising for you. You should only have a few advertisers as they will have a minimum pay out (usually $25). You will not get paid if you don't reach this amount so you should concentrate on a few to make sure you get paid. Some companies, like Commission Junction work as an agency where you can earn from many advertisers and all the money is pooled into one account, which is very useful.
The Ways to get Your Content
The Ways to get Your Content
There are several ways to get your content done. You may write it yourself, or get someone else to write it for you. But there two new ways may works better:
1. Get Your Visitors To Generate It
It has become common recently for sites to invite their visitors to contribute. This could be in the form of user-submitted news or articles, comments and feedback from readers or even a forum or discussion board. This is cheap to do and will save you time, but you will need quite a few visitors to make this worthwhile. The popular website Sitepoint, has the majority of its content submitted by visitors.
2. Content Syndication
A good source of content is to use syndicated content from other sites. Many news organisations will provide a free 'news feed' where they give you some code to display news headlines on your site, and because the headlines link to their pages, they are willing to do it for free. There are also many authors who write articles etc. which can be used in exchange for a byline (a small paragraph of text and a link at the bottom). This is common in many newsletters, where guest authors write featured articles.
There are several ways to get your content done. You may write it yourself, or get someone else to write it for you. But there two new ways may works better:
1. Get Your Visitors To Generate It
It has become common recently for sites to invite their visitors to contribute. This could be in the form of user-submitted news or articles, comments and feedback from readers or even a forum or discussion board. This is cheap to do and will save you time, but you will need quite a few visitors to make this worthwhile. The popular website Sitepoint, has the majority of its content submitted by visitors.
2. Content Syndication
A good source of content is to use syndicated content from other sites. Many news organisations will provide a free 'news feed' where they give you some code to display news headlines on your site, and because the headlines link to their pages, they are willing to do it for free. There are also many authors who write articles etc. which can be used in exchange for a byline (a small paragraph of text and a link at the bottom). This is common in many newsletters, where guest authors write featured articles.
How To Design A Successful Website
There are some basic logic you need to follow to Design A Successful Website.
1, The Page Design
The basic structure of a page on your site is vital in the success of a particular design. There are many proven theories about the way a user looks at a page, the most important being their eye movements. The first place a visitors looks at on a page is the area in the top left. This is exactly the reason why the majority of websites place their logo at the top left of the page, as it instantly allows the user to identify the website which they are at.
The positioning of particular elements on the page is also vital in making a design. Logic states that the main navigation of a website will either be placed in a bar along the top or the left of the page. This comes from the basic workings of the English, and most other Western, languages. When reading a book you start from the top left and work across the page, so it is instinct to look at the top and the left for instruction. Of course in other cultures words are read from right to left, and sometimes top to bottom or bottom to top. If you view a website developed for this target audience you may find the navigation on the right, for example. Although this is logical for the main audience for this website, you will probably find it confusing. This is why, if you are developing for a mainly Western audience, you should do the logical thing and place the navigation on the left or at the top, even if you want to have a strange new design on your site.
Logic also states that when you have finished reading a page on a book or in a magazine, you turn the page to go to the next article. You don't return to the beginning of the magazine, then go to the page you want. This idea can be translated loosely onto the web. When someone finishes reading a page on your site, they don't want to go back to the top before going to another page, so provide another system of navigation (usually a text version of your primary navigation) at the bottom. This will make your site easier for people to use.
The final item of page design you should pay attention to is that of distracting the user. Especially on many personal home pages, there are many flashing animations and sometimes sound around the page. Unless they are the main content of the page they should be removed. This is because they are highly distracting (which is why many adverts are animated or flash). Your users have come to the site to view the content, and you should do your best to please them, again a logical idea but something which many people forget. The same goes for visible counters etc. They are not important to the user so get rid of them. They have no place on a site if they have no use.
2. The Structure
Another aspect of site development which should be looked at is site structure. There are really three basic structures: hierarchical, flat and walkthrough. Usually, it just takes a bit of logic to decide which is best for your site.
Some sites, such as Free Webmaster Help, Yahoo and many forums use a hierarchical structure, where pages are in sections and sub-sections. This is a good way of storing large amounts of categorized content. It is important with these systems, though, to be able to provide navigation for all levels of the design, although clutter is kept to a minimum as navigation options from other categories can be hidden.
The walkthrough style is less popular, where the user starts at one page and follows through the pages on a set path. This is difficult to achieve successfully, but works well for online ordering and tuto
rials.
Flat sites are not particularly common. The best example is probably a basic news site, where the latest stories are linked to from the main page. This is very simple to implement, but if you are following this route it can be very tricky to keep the site easy to use, as there are often a huge amount of options presented to the user.
You should probably have an idea what category above your site fits into, and by applying this logic you can create a structure for the site
3. Let The User Know Where They Are
This piece of design logic is often overlooked by many webmasters, and it is a major mistake. The common assumption is that users will enter your website by the the front page and go from there to the information they want. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, as the majority of visitors to most websites will be referred by search engines, going straight to the page they are looking for. If this happens, the user may have no idea where in your site they are. This is easy to overcome by using simple logic.
One method of letting users know where they are on your site is to use meaningful URLs. This works especially well with a hierarchical structure. For example, at Free Webmaster Help, many people enter the site via the PHP/MySQL tutorial. If you look at the URL (http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql/) it is obvious that this page is about PHP/MySQL, it is a tutorial and it is on Free Webmaster Help. It also helps, as the user can then delete part of the URL and get a full listing of tutorials, or even go back to the main page of the site.
This method can be taken a step further by the use of a 'Breadcrumb Trail'. A breadcrumb trail is often found at the top of many sites (like Yahoo, SitePoint and Free Webmaster Help). It is basically a textual representation of the site or directory structure, showing where the user currently is (on the PHP/MySQL page it shows: Home - Tutorials - PHP/MySQL). Each item in this is linked, so the user can easily access different pages. A breadcrumb trail is a very useful method of improving usability and is easy to implement.
There is another way of letting users know where they are in a site, which works best with the 'walkthrough' type of structure. In, for example, an online ordering system, it is very often helpful to be told at what stage the order currently is. This usually takes the form of 'Step 2 of 5' but an even better way is to use a graphical representation of all the stages in the order process, with the current one highlighted. Users are much happier if they know exactly what is going on.
1, The Page Design
The basic structure of a page on your site is vital in the success of a particular design. There are many proven theories about the way a user looks at a page, the most important being their eye movements. The first place a visitors looks at on a page is the area in the top left. This is exactly the reason why the majority of websites place their logo at the top left of the page, as it instantly allows the user to identify the website which they are at.
The positioning of particular elements on the page is also vital in making a design. Logic states that the main navigation of a website will either be placed in a bar along the top or the left of the page. This comes from the basic workings of the English, and most other Western, languages. When reading a book you start from the top left and work across the page, so it is instinct to look at the top and the left for instruction. Of course in other cultures words are read from right to left, and sometimes top to bottom or bottom to top. If you view a website developed for this target audience you may find the navigation on the right, for example. Although this is logical for the main audience for this website, you will probably find it confusing. This is why, if you are developing for a mainly Western audience, you should do the logical thing and place the navigation on the left or at the top, even if you want to have a strange new design on your site.
Logic also states that when you have finished reading a page on a book or in a magazine, you turn the page to go to the next article. You don't return to the beginning of the magazine, then go to the page you want. This idea can be translated loosely onto the web. When someone finishes reading a page on your site, they don't want to go back to the top before going to another page, so provide another system of navigation (usually a text version of your primary navigation) at the bottom. This will make your site easier for people to use.
The final item of page design you should pay attention to is that of distracting the user. Especially on many personal home pages, there are many flashing animations and sometimes sound around the page. Unless they are the main content of the page they should be removed. This is because they are highly distracting (which is why many adverts are animated or flash). Your users have come to the site to view the content, and you should do your best to please them, again a logical idea but something which many people forget. The same goes for visible counters etc. They are not important to the user so get rid of them. They have no place on a site if they have no use.
2. The Structure
Another aspect of site development which should be looked at is site structure. There are really three basic structures: hierarchical, flat and walkthrough. Usually, it just takes a bit of logic to decide which is best for your site.
Some sites, such as Free Webmaster Help, Yahoo and many forums use a hierarchical structure, where pages are in sections and sub-sections. This is a good way of storing large amounts of categorized content. It is important with these systems, though, to be able to provide navigation for all levels of the design, although clutter is kept to a minimum as navigation options from other categories can be hidden.
The walkthrough style is less popular, where the user starts at one page and follows through the pages on a set path. This is difficult to achieve successfully, but works well for online ordering and tuto
rials.
Flat sites are not particularly common. The best example is probably a basic news site, where the latest stories are linked to from the main page. This is very simple to implement, but if you are following this route it can be very tricky to keep the site easy to use, as there are often a huge amount of options presented to the user.
You should probably have an idea what category above your site fits into, and by applying this logic you can create a structure for the site
3. Let The User Know Where They Are
This piece of design logic is often overlooked by many webmasters, and it is a major mistake. The common assumption is that users will enter your website by the the front page and go from there to the information they want. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, as the majority of visitors to most websites will be referred by search engines, going straight to the page they are looking for. If this happens, the user may have no idea where in your site they are. This is easy to overcome by using simple logic.
One method of letting users know where they are on your site is to use meaningful URLs. This works especially well with a hierarchical structure. For example, at Free Webmaster Help, many people enter the site via the PHP/MySQL tutorial. If you look at the URL (http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql/) it is obvious that this page is about PHP/MySQL, it is a tutorial and it is on Free Webmaster Help. It also helps, as the user can then delete part of the URL and get a full listing of tutorials, or even go back to the main page of the site.
This method can be taken a step further by the use of a 'Breadcrumb Trail'. A breadcrumb trail is often found at the top of many sites (like Yahoo, SitePoint and Free Webmaster Help). It is basically a textual representation of the site or directory structure, showing where the user currently is (on the PHP/MySQL page it shows: Home - Tutorials - PHP/MySQL). Each item in this is linked, so the user can easily access different pages. A breadcrumb trail is a very useful method of improving usability and is easy to implement.
There is another way of letting users know where they are in a site, which works best with the 'walkthrough' type of structure. In, for example, an online ordering system, it is very often helpful to be told at what stage the order currently is. This usually takes the form of 'Step 2 of 5' but an even better way is to use a graphical representation of all the stages in the order process, with the current one highlighted. Users are much happier if they know exactly what is going on.
How Does Google Ranking You
How Does Google Ranking You
It was in December 1999 that Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page published their document 'The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine' that everything began to change. This document showed the workings of their new project, a search engine called Google, which at that time, held data on 26 million web pages. Over the 2 years since then, Google has changed the webbeyond recognition.
Finally, there is a search engine which is fast, powerful, accurate and has an enormous database. Today, Google holds over 2 billion pages in its index, the largest search engine ever. Results are accurate and, using Google's 'Page Rank' technology, and the masterful idea of showing a snippet of the site's text containing the search term instead of the META description, the user can easily see which ones are relevant. Google's huge cache of every page in its index has made 'Error 404 - Not Found' from listings a thing of the past and the total lack of large images on the site means it is one of the quickest sites to load on the web, even when showing 100 results per page. Now, Google offers web search, image search, directory search (based on the Open Directory), Directory Search (with the world's biggest Usenet archive) and catalogs search (mail order catalogs online).
This sucess has immense implications for webmasters. Google is now the search engine of choice for most of the web and it handles over 150 million queries a day. With that sort of popularity, a webmaster's first promotion task should be submitting to Google. Although it is highly likely that Google will pick up your site anyway on its next crawl, its always best to be safe. Getting into Google is simple, but getting a high ranking isn't. Traditional methods just don't work. Repeating your search term is useless, as is carefully planning out your META tags (Google doesn't use them). What you must pay attention to is Google's PageRank.
This is the method used to rank search results. Each page is given a PageRank based on this formula:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
Although this looks extremely confusing, in essence it means that your PageRank is based on the following:
1. The number of sites linking to yours
2. The PageRank of sites linking to yours
This means that a site with 500 links to it from other sites will get a much higher rank than one with 5. Also, if two sites, each with 100 links to them, but one of them has links from Yahoo, CNN, the BBC, Amazon and Microsoft, the one with the links from the more popular sites will get a higher ranking.
So the only way to guarantee a high ranking with Google is to exchange links with people, which is exactly what makes the web so powerful anyway. All Google is really doing is returning to the roots of the internet. Exchanging links is free (usually) and, now Google powers Yahoo's web results, it seems to be the best way to build up traffic. But is a good PageRank the only way to get a higher listing. It probably is, but here are a few other tips which may or may not work (they appear to have given quite good results in some cases but this may be coincidence).
1. Get a keyword filled domain name. If someone searches for 'free advice' and your site is www.freeadvice.com, you should get higher up the search results
2. Put keywords in your title. If your site has the title 'F
ree Advice' it should appear higher up the results for the above search
3. Get your site included in the Open Directory (www.dmoz.org). Google appears to rank these pages higher.
Getting a high ranking in Google is not the only way you can benefit from it, though. Take a look at the design. To many people, Google is the best designed site on the web now. Its fast loading and easy to read. You can also learn an important lesson: If you see something wrong with the internet and can provide a good fix, you are well on the way to success. Thirdly, take a look at the Google Zeitgeist. Even if it doesn't help your website, its an extremely interesting page, and you may just be able to change your site to take advantage of highly searched queries.
Google is a revolution. Its changed the way the web works, and its changed the way webmasters promote their sites forever. If you still don't take Google promotion seriously, you're making a big mistake, and if you're considering spending thousands on promoting your site, take a week or two to exchange links with other sites first. I guarantee you won't regret it.
It was in December 1999 that Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page published their document 'The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine' that everything began to change. This document showed the workings of their new project, a search engine called Google, which at that time, held data on 26 million web pages. Over the 2 years since then, Google has changed the webbeyond recognition.
Finally, there is a search engine which is fast, powerful, accurate and has an enormous database. Today, Google holds over 2 billion pages in its index, the largest search engine ever. Results are accurate and, using Google's 'Page Rank' technology, and the masterful idea of showing a snippet of the site's text containing the search term instead of the META description, the user can easily see which ones are relevant. Google's huge cache of every page in its index has made 'Error 404 - Not Found' from listings a thing of the past and the total lack of large images on the site means it is one of the quickest sites to load on the web, even when showing 100 results per page. Now, Google offers web search, image search, directory search (based on the Open Directory), Directory Search (with the world's biggest Usenet archive) and catalogs search (mail order catalogs online).
This sucess has immense implications for webmasters. Google is now the search engine of choice for most of the web and it handles over 150 million queries a day. With that sort of popularity, a webmaster's first promotion task should be submitting to Google. Although it is highly likely that Google will pick up your site anyway on its next crawl, its always best to be safe. Getting into Google is simple, but getting a high ranking isn't. Traditional methods just don't work. Repeating your search term is useless, as is carefully planning out your META tags (Google doesn't use them). What you must pay attention to is Google's PageRank.
This is the method used to rank search results. Each page is given a PageRank based on this formula:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
Although this looks extremely confusing, in essence it means that your PageRank is based on the following:
1. The number of sites linking to yours
2. The PageRank of sites linking to yours
This means that a site with 500 links to it from other sites will get a much higher rank than one with 5. Also, if two sites, each with 100 links to them, but one of them has links from Yahoo, CNN, the BBC, Amazon and Microsoft, the one with the links from the more popular sites will get a higher ranking.
So the only way to guarantee a high ranking with Google is to exchange links with people, which is exactly what makes the web so powerful anyway. All Google is really doing is returning to the roots of the internet. Exchanging links is free (usually) and, now Google powers Yahoo's web results, it seems to be the best way to build up traffic. But is a good PageRank the only way to get a higher listing. It probably is, but here are a few other tips which may or may not work (they appear to have given quite good results in some cases but this may be coincidence).
1. Get a keyword filled domain name. If someone searches for 'free advice' and your site is www.freeadvice.com, you should get higher up the search results
2. Put keywords in your title. If your site has the title 'F
ree Advice' it should appear higher up the results for the above search
3. Get your site included in the Open Directory (www.dmoz.org). Google appears to rank these pages higher.
Getting a high ranking in Google is not the only way you can benefit from it, though. Take a look at the design. To many people, Google is the best designed site on the web now. Its fast loading and easy to read. You can also learn an important lesson: If you see something wrong with the internet and can provide a good fix, you are well on the way to success. Thirdly, take a look at the Google Zeitgeist. Even if it doesn't help your website, its an extremely interesting page, and you may just be able to change your site to take advantage of highly searched queries.
Google is a revolution. Its changed the way the web works, and its changed the way webmasters promote their sites forever. If you still don't take Google promotion seriously, you're making a big mistake, and if you're considering spending thousands on promoting your site, take a week or two to exchange links with other sites first. I guarantee you won't regret it.
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