Greetings folks,

I've been actually curious about this for a while. A lot of hosting firms nowadays still opt for pay-per-click advertising. After checking some of the hot resources online (PPC marketplaces), I noticed that bids go for as much as $15 per click (Google AdWords). I've seen one at $21/click a few months ago.

The average rate for the top 10 "web hosting" keyword listings at Overture is $5.99.

This sparked my interest to start offering pay-per-click advertising at this forum in the same format of banners, only results are counted for this time. The performance of advertising on our forum has been surprisingly positive anyway, so I'm not worried about members' continuous interest in those who expose their business services in the form of advertising. Such a solution is merely for those business owners who are used to knowing exactly what they are purchasing.

I have initially set the PPC rate on $5/click, seeing how there is market for it, as well as it being less than the top 10 Overture average bid. But prior to HD establishing such an offer, if at all, I would like to hear what you think about it.

Please tell me what is a reasonable, fair and competitive PPC rate for your business (certainly not targeting 1-dollar hosts). What you would find comfortable working with and if you would have real interest toward such a marketing tool at HostingDiscussion.

Keep in mind that HostingDiscussion.com carries direct and overhead costs with its operations.

I, as always, highly appreciate your feedback.

PS: Feel free to PM me should you desire to let me know that information in private.

Best,

I think that is WAY too high for a forum to start charging $5 per click. The reason why they are so high is because a customer is actively searching for that keyword, not just clicking on link on the top of a forum out of boredom. I do not think that it would be smart to do this... Does it really cost that much to run a forum? Or are you just trying to get another buck? I know you have servers to pay for, but that is a bit high of fees. I know I personally don't pay anywhere near $5 click for results on Overture, and only a fool actually targets the phrase "web hosting". I was thinking of advertising here, but this would change my mind. As a web host I would much rather go to the competing forum that does not charge by the click. But hey... Its your forum.

One might think that anyone visiting a web hosting forum might be searching for the very same thing.

This is a very interesting idea... Only one question though, will the PPC banner program replace the existing pay per impression program?

That depends entirely on the quality of traffic. Traffic and quality will obviously vary for each business... I'd imagine such an system would undergo a series of tests to receive genuine feedback from whose who have trialed it.

One user clicking on our advertisement from boredom could potentially turn a sale (has happened before).. I don't see a problem here.

I seriously doubt it.

Some very smart thinking by Artashes. Nice work..

To answer MaxHost, as Fisherman pointed out, it doesn't mean the CPC advertising would replace CPM model. Not at all! It would simply become an extra value-added service HD provides in regard to marketing to offer a wider choice.

$5 is NOT a final mark, it is just the one I initially planned to release (I had to name something). If you could share what your value for the click is, that would definitely help in estimating the opportunity to have such an offer at all.

There is also a difference between what Overture provides and HD. With Overture you are competing with hundreds of other companies for what seems to be the same space - being displayed as at the top for more exposure. At HD there is less competition to worry about and exposure is strong. There is a good anti-fraud system, so whoever clicks on your banner has got to have SOME value. Otherwise, what is the point of pay-per-click advertising?

Best,

Let's break it down MaxHost:
vBulletin Leased Liscenses. I know of 5 that Artashes maintains - sho that's the discount of $79/board/year but times by 5 that's $395/year.

Hosting. Easily $20/month, but because Art is running 5 vB boards, I'd put him at possibly owning a dedicated server. Let's pretend he gets a discount from MicFo - I don't know if he does or not, but for the sake of argument. He gets a discount from them. Looks like their basic dedicated server retails for $199, but I don't think the 512MB of RAM and 1.3 would cover his needs. so let's put him on the second step up with a 2.0 and a 1GB of RAM.

Said server retails for $249/month. Discount him down to $200/month because MicFo likes him cause his name is cool - I dunno - he gets a discount, let's just pretend he does. That's still $2,400/year for the server.

So now we're at $2,795/year to provide a service to you and we haven't even started in on the .com domains - the administration of each site, have you seen the rewards for being an active HD member? Or the prizes lined up for the comin' contest? Tournanov Media more than likely costs Art $5,000 EASILY each year - and you're a member at this lovely forum for free. I highly doubt Art is trying to make an "extra buck".

Just submitted taxes - and for our small web hosting business I spent enough to buy my 2004 Nissan Titan fully loaded and customized how I want - don't start assuming people just want an "Extra Buck" because they're offering a bit higher quality of PPC than one might find elsewhere. If you don't like his prices - then don't advertise with HD. Personally we're locked into some other advertising right now in other places else you would see ExonNet on those text links and top banner ads currently.

$5 is a fair price for PPC on a forum dedicated to web hosting where people will be looking for opinions on web hosting and seeking new and reliable web hosts. I would rather pay the $5 for a PPC than a $1 for a PPC campaign and cause the person providing the advertising space to lose out, and not be able to maintain the advertising space for those interested.

/rant

Now, why would getting another buck be a bad thing? Also, I'm not an owner here, but I do know this forum requires more than just hosting space.

Side note: server information:

Processor #4 Vendor: GenuineIntel
Processor #4 Name: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.00GHz
Processor #4 speed: 1993.443 MHz
Processor #4 cache size: 512 KB

I also don't really want this thread to be about HD, but it was meant to be more like your guys feedback whether CPC campaign is something that is of your interest and what do you expect from it, what have your experience with PPC advertising tells you, what you would be comfortable working for, considering the costs and the venue such as our forum - > value.

Best,