keyWorthy information

Friday, August 11, 2006

Google and MySpace make sweet sweet AdSense love

Google and MySpace have inked a multi-year deal worth about $900 million. This is widely being seen as a win-win situation as MySpace wasn't optimally monetizing their traffic and Google essentially edged Yahoo and MSN out from the last "unclaimed" internet giant.

According to Red Herring:

"Google on Monday agreed to pay at least $900 million to become the exclusive provider of search technology and text-based advertising services on News Corp.’s popular social networking site MySpace.com.

Under terms of Google’s multiyear agreement, the Silicon Valley giant also will power search functions on a majority of Fox Interactive Media properties, which include video game site IGN.com and Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review publisher. Google will also provide text-based advertising and keyword targeted ads through its AdSense program."

To give you an indicator of how potent this deal is in the eyes of analysts, consider that eMarketer estimates:

"... that US social network ad spending will rise to nearly $1.9 billion in 2010, from $280 million in 2006. With the Google/MySpace deal, ad revenues at MySpace may top $1 billion as soon as 2010."

Yahoo and MSN aren't looking too rosy in the media. MarketWatch stated:

"While it was viewed as a big loser in the deal, shares of Yahoo Inc. were up 1.3% Tuesday to $27.44."

eWeek added about Microsoft in the title of an article:

"Google + MySpace = Nail in the Microsoft Search Coffin?"

However, this deal is not without risks. The Guardian Unlimited noted:

"However, with the Google/MySpace deal there are also some catches. MySpace is on track, according to analysts, to bring in $200m this year in ad revenues. Under the Google deal a crisp $500m might be the minimum to be expected at the end of next year.

But the whole deal is predicated on Fox Interactive Media maintaining traffic levels across its portfolio of sites, including MySpace. And while MySpace certainly has oodles of traffic, it also has an audience that is particularly resilient to online ads.

According to Jupiter Research the MySpace site rates are about 10 cents per thousand ads served - compared to the $3 or $4 online industry average."

Ick. A 10 cent CPM is downright crappy! CIO Magazine puts a positive spin on it by saying:

"In June, [News Corps' President] said MySpace’s revenue was reaching 'large numbers' and that it had been doubling every four months or so this fiscal year. 'Revenue is growing incredibly quickly, and we think we’ve just scratched the surface of how to monetize this [site],' he said then."

But again, a 10 cent CPM is HORRIBLE. It's not going to be enough for MySpace to grow its membership and increase its traffic. Google and MySpace will have to find some way of reaching the users and making the ads work. We're excited to see where this business relationship goes.

posted by keyWorthy | 11:41 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Keyword search

High Traffic Keywords

  1. Lance Bass Gay
  2. Mel Gibson
  3. The Face Book
  4. Copper
  5. So You Think You Can Dance
  6. Vespa
  7. Israel
  8. The View
  9. Lead
10. H5N1

High Bid Keywords

  1. Ruffies
  2. Coach Handbags
  3. Granite Countertops
  4. Darts
  5. Spray Bottle
  6. Photo Enlargement
  7. Magic Bullet
  8. As Seen On TV
  9. Crimper
10. Limewire

Fun Keywords

  1. The Descent
  2. Danica Patrick
  3. Runescape
  4. Sean Jean
  5. General Hospital
  6. Aliens
  7. Back to School
  8. Garter Belt
  9. Bedazzler
10. Custom Shop

*Keyword lists are not in a definitive ranked order. Keywords in the list are editorial selections made by the staff based on subjective relevance and should not be interpretted as scientifically confirmed rankings.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Star Trek: Damon/Affleck rumor keyword analysis

Is anyone else horrified by the fact that the two rumored candidates to portray Captain Kirk in JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? Seriously! They were both, at some point, rumored to be in the running to play Daredevil. (Just imagine if Damon had ended up playing Daredevil... would we be talking about Damonifer instead of Bennifer?)

We figured this would be an interesting topic to examine the values of the related keywords. So apart from the words we've already mentioned we also looked at movies Affleck and Damon appeared in together like Good Will Hunting, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma; JJ Abrams-related things like Lost and Alias; other associated people like Jennifer Garner and Kevin Smith; and, of course Star Trek-related terms like Spock and Mr. Spock.

The first thing we noticed was that none of the terms was listing for more than $0.49 per click with JJ Abrams in first place followed closely by Star Trek and Captain Kirk. From a search volume perspective, one keyword was heads and shoulders above the rest: Lost. Alias and Star Trek were distant seconds. The most noticeable thing was that Lost was by far the one keyword with the highest estimated number of clicks/day.

Honestly, we might be inclined to stay away from working on sites about any of these topics since there's so much competition. On the other hand, Lost fans pretty are rabid... especially according to Google Trends. So, if you think you can create a site that will get the traffic...

(As a random side note, we'd love to see the trainwreck that would be if Damon signed on as Kirk and Affleck signed on as Spock.)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Rock Star: Supernova keyword analysis

Well, we're totally obsessed with CBS's Rock Star: Supernova. Seriously, how can you not like a show that's essentially a dirty rock n' roll version of American Idol for the sole purpose of finding Tommy Lee (formerly of Motley Crue), Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N Roses), and Jason Newsted (formerly of Metallica) a new lead singer for their new band, Supernova?

In any event, this week, contestant Storm Large indirectly suggested to Tommy Lee that he might be able to see "more" of her by looking on Google. That was enough to inspire us to analyze Rock Star-related keywords for this posting.

So, here are the contestants: Chris Pierson, Dana Andrews, Dilana Robichaux, Jenny Galt, Jill Gioia, Josh Logan, Lukas Rossi, Magni Asgeirsson, Matt Hoffer, Patrice Pike, Phil Ritchie, Ryan Star, Storm Large, Toby Rand, and Zayra Alvarez. As of today, basically none of the contestants gets more than one ad click a day from minimal traffic (with the exception of Ryan Star who gets up to two a day, but we suspect that's due to confusion with Ryan Starr, formerly of American Idol and The Surreal Life.) So the contestants are basically worthless at this point from a traffic perspective, though we suspect that Google had a spike on the the term "Storm Large" this evening. Speaking of which, "Storm Large" is theoretically worth the most at a max of $0.68 per click (for that one whole click a day).

Based off of this poor performance, we decided to add in some extra related terms to see what you could benefit from if you had a Rock Star: Supernova website. In addition to the TV show name, the band members' names, and their former bands, here are the extra keywords we looked at: Dave Navarro, Brooke Burke, Butch Walker, and INXS. Sadly, none of these terms are a bigger winner in terms of ad clicks. Only Metallica registered as high as 436-483 estimated ad clicks per day. (Though it should be noted that all three band names appear to get decent number of search queries.)

And, not to be overly obsessed but, Storm Large is STILL the most valuable term we examined. Sad but true. But given tonight's show and the comments made (and the picture associated with this post), your best bet for a Rock Star: Supernova website might be best focused on Storm Large, who already has a decent amount of press on her in the Portland and San Francisco areas.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Pop culture phrases including the word "shot"

Hmm... while reading through a blog entry on the culture of "Han shot first", it got us thinking about what the value of random pop culture terms were. We decided to analyze three vaguely related terms: "Han shot first," "Who shot JR?," and "Shot through the heart" (references to the Star Wars moves, the Dallas television show, and the Bon Jovi song "You Give Love a Bad Name" respectively).

The results? All the "shot" phrases had intermittent spikes of traffic (and assumedly interest) amidst a whole lot of nothing. None of the terms is likely to result in more than one to three ad clicks per day regardless of however many search queries they might generate. This is not at all unexpected since all three phrases are extremely "dated" so to speak. From the revenue side, "Han shot first" is the most valuable maxxing out at $0.27 per click.

As far as advertisers go, eBay seems to be the only company random enough to consistently advertise on any of these terms. Our take? Optimizing for these phrases isn't worth it from the traffic or revenue standpoint. Surpise!

Monday, May 15, 2006

Keyword Search

High Traffic Keywords

  1. USA National Bikini Team
  2. Kingdom Hearts 2
  3. Chernobyl
  4. Chelsy Davy
  5. Booth Babes
  6. American Inventor
  7. NBA Playoffs
  8. Dave Chappelle
  9. Bird Flu
10. Scarlett Johansson

High Bid Keywords

  1. Movers
  2. Prostate
  3. Testicular Cancer
  4. Wireless Phone
  5. Widescreen
  6. Uniden
  7. Packing Tape
  8. Miter Box
  9. Powerball
10. Fuel