Wisegeek must be BANKING it with adsense...

lexilexi · 04-05-2011, 10:09 PM

I always think it a good strategy to investigate the tactics of those who are 'doing successfully' that which you wish to do. Wisegeek has got to be a good example and I think we can learn a lot from them.

Looking at alexa, they are currently ranked #1079 in the world... that's a mighty number of pageviews and when you think their pages all seem to have adsense on them; very artfully constructed with links blending in to content... their monthly check from the big G must be astronomical.

Note how the ad placement is "in your face". The entire page is clearly highly fine tuned for CTR. It "forces your eye" to look over the ads as you attempt to read the content. There's nowhere else for the eye to go. This leads to higher CTR and you can be sure that with these kinds of pageview numbers available for tweaking, wisegeek's placement is the result of much testing (results of which in their case must be almost instantaneously observable).

Seems their business model is v. similar to that of eHow... dig through keyword results for long tail multi-word questions; outsource article creation and optimize the pages for these exact phrases, catching higher traffic through exact match titles and low offsite link building.

It's a numbers game. Not all the pages hit the top 10, but with huge numbers of pages the overall volume of traffic and the revenue goes skywards. Search string inurl:wisegeek dot com shows up 971,000 results.

Perhaps the only sad part of this model is that the truly high quality content on other, smaller expert sites is often buried by the mass amounts of this stuff online. Small websites get buried by million-pagers such as these. Someone well known in IM affectionately referred to these type of pages as "sh*thead subpages" which rank well due to domain authority. You can beat them on individual keywords with link building, quite easily... but with 971,000 pages online, they really don't care to sweat the small stuff.

I also like to think of companies like this as a kind of "canary in a coal mine"... in other words, if they are doing something for a long period of time and not getting banned, it must be ok.

Which leads me to my question: I thought you could only have 3 adsense blocks per page; also I thought the biggest size available was 768x90, how come I have observed wisegeek seeming to exceed these guidelines and get away with it??

I am looking at the page code and don't quite get it, seems there is only one adsense block in the code. Are they doing something clever with Javascript and CSS?

Other notes - no doubt they have an advanced Content Management System which auto-generates the links at the foot of the page; but the overall content appears not to be scraped although it does appear on a few other pages (who probably copied from WG).

Anyway IMO wisegeek is a masterful piece of IM; over to you, I'd love to hear your input.

Kay King · 04-05-2011, 10:39 PM

Quote:

I also like to think of companies like this as a kind of "canary in a coal mine"... in other words, if they are doing something for a long period of time and not getting banned, it must be ok.

Not necessarily true. Google awards high traffic, high earning site with different ad possibilities than standard publishers have. These sites have "premium publisher" status. They can use different formats, fonts, etc - but that doesn't mean you can do the same.

Choosing a high visibility, high traffic site and replicating the unique way they display google ads can backfire and make you the canary.

Don't know if Wisegeek is a premium publisher with adsense but the entry page is a PR7 so that may be the case.

kay

paulgl · 04-05-2011, 10:55 PM

Wisegeek is a premium publisher. Has been for the duration.
Just like ezinearticles. They can have more ads, even add
more parameters like keywords in the ad generation.

Allow me to designate keywords in ads and I'll show you
a good CTR as well!

Paul

lexilexi · 04-05-2011, 11:21 PM

Aha! Thanks for clearing that one up (note, I wasn't about to start pushing the envelope but it's good to know).

@Paul - a couple of years ago I noticed that the keywords appearing in the ads were strongly related to the page URL and subfolder... I was doing an experimental version of a page and put it in a folder called "tiger" and noticed that all the adsense ads that came up related to tigers; despite the fact that the term did not occur in my html at all. I didn't experiment any further with this and factors may have changed, but it might be a useful avenue of inquiry. Alex.

04-05-2011, 10:09 PM	#1
lexilexi HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: The Pod Posts: 329 Thanks: 129 Thanked 124 Times in 45 Posts	Wisegeek must be BANKING it with adsense... I always think it a good strategy to investigate the tactics of those who are 'doing successfully' that which you wish to do. Wisegeek has got to be a good example and I think we can learn a lot from them. Looking at alexa, they are currently ranked #1079 in the world... that's a mighty number of pageviews and when you think their pages all seem to have adsense on them; very artfully constructed with links blending in to content... their monthly check from the big G must be astronomical. Note how the ad placement is "in your face". The entire page is clearly highly fine tuned for CTR. It "forces your eye" to look over the ads as you attempt to read the content. There's nowhere else for the eye to go. This leads to higher CTR and you can be sure that with these kinds of pageview numbers available for tweaking, wisegeek's placement is the result of much testing (results of which in their case must be almost instantaneously observable). Seems their business model is v. similar to that of eHow... dig through keyword results for long tail multi-word questions; outsource article creation and optimize the pages for these exact phrases, catching higher traffic through exact match titles and low offsite link building. It's a numbers game. Not all the pages hit the top 10, but with huge numbers of pages the overall volume of traffic and the revenue goes skywards. Search string inurl:wisegeek dot com shows up 971,000 results. Perhaps the only sad part of this model is that the truly high quality content on other, smaller expert sites is often buried by the mass amounts of this stuff online. Small websites get buried by million-pagers such as these. Someone well known in IM affectionately referred to these type of pages as "sh*thead subpages" which rank well due to domain authority. You can beat them on individual keywords with link building, quite easily... but with 971,000 pages online, they really don't care to sweat the small stuff. I also like to think of companies like this as a kind of "canary in a coal mine"... in other words, if they are doing something for a long period of time and not getting banned, it must be ok. Which leads me to my question: I thought you could only have 3 adsense blocks per page; also I thought the biggest size available was 768x90, how come I have observed wisegeek seeming to exceed these guidelines and get away with it?? I am looking at the page code and don't quite get it, seems there is only one adsense block in the code. Are they doing something clever with Javascript and CSS? Other notes - no doubt they have an advanced Content Management System which auto-generates the links at the foot of the page; but the overall content appears not to be scraped although it does appear on a few other pages (who probably copied from WG). Anyway IMO wisegeek is a masterful piece of IM; over to you, I'd love to hear your input.
	The Link Building Black Book "Fear nothing in life but to waste the present moment"

04-05-2011, 10:55 PM	#3
paulgl Plundering the Web War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 4,849 Thanks: 804 Thanked 1,199 Times in 886 Posts	Re: Wisegeek must be BANKING it with adsense... Wisegeek is a premium publisher. Has been for the duration. Just like ezinearticles. They can have more ads, even add more parameters like keywords in the ad generation. Allow me to designate keywords in ads and I'll show you a good CTR as well! Paul
	How to Make Money off Facebook: Login to your account. Deactivate your account. Get your butt to work.

04-05-2011, 11:21 PM	#4
lexilexi HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: The Pod Posts: 329 Thanks: 129 Thanked 124 Times in 45 Posts	Re: Wisegeek must be BANKING it with adsense... Aha! Thanks for clearing that one up (note, I wasn't about to start pushing the envelope but it's good to know). @Paul - a couple of years ago I noticed that the keywords appearing in the ads were strongly related to the page URL and subfolder... I was doing an experimental version of a page and put it in a folder called "tiger" and noticed that all the adsense ads that came up related to tigers; despite the fact that the term did not occur in my html at all. I didn't experiment any further with this and factors may have changed, but it might be a useful avenue of inquiry. Alex.
	The Link Building Black Book "Fear nothing in life but to waste the present moment"