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One of the best ways to get lots of cheap traffic is to appear on AdSense ads for many people writing articles in your industry. One technique to help acquire this traffic is to bid on some of the names of various article authors.
Some people are not a fan of this and some are.
I have gotten a wide variety of responses:
- "I am honored you are bidding on my name."
- Tell me the search volume you are getting and I will give you a free $100 gift.
- I have also got a phone call, a cease and decist letter, and a copyright violation notice.
- Recently I noticed the following ad:
running on AdWords for "SEO Book" and "Aaron Wahl." If one wants to use my name as a marketing / brand strategy you would think that they would take the time to spell it correctly? It is a good idea to use misspelled words to pick up additional traffic, but the incorrect spelling & targeting means the ad will likely get limited distribution and makes it lack credibility.
You should be aware of local trademark / copyright laws before bidding on competitors names. If they ask you to stop then I usually suggest doing so unless you are trying to push the envelope.
My goal is not to piss people off, but to:
- extend my distribution;
- build more link popularity;
- build business partnerships;
- and sell more ebooks.
Some of the responses you will get from other businesses will be positive...some will be negative. The good thing is that you are getting responses.
- Running these ads helps you open the doors to some future business partnerships.
- Running these ads helps you glimpse the motives and thought processes of others in your field.
- Running these ads also help you view some of the relative branding strength of various businesses / personalities in your industry.
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Do you have any examples of what you were actually using? That would be interesting. :)
Ed Kohler is the owner of haystackinaneedle
That's an interesting idea. I don't do Adwords at the moment, but if I were to start an ad campaign for say my ESL site, I might try bidding on a few well known scholars' names. Do you find that you're the only one bidding on these names or is there sometimes competition?
there is competition for many of them, but many terms are not bid on...it just kinda depends.
the solution to drive good traffic is not usually just one or two, but hundreds of related terms.
If you want to taint your reputation by being associated with me, that's your call. ;-)
"If you want to taint your reputation by being associated with me, that's your call. ;-)"
taint taint a word...oh wait ... thats aint ... oh well ;-)
the biggest reason to advertison on other people's names is to list in articles displaying adsense. I think its better than an ad for something like (this is hopefully a fake product name)SUBMIT BLASTER PRO... my goal generally is to help people.
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