Question About Landing Pages - What To Do For The Best?

[tim_smith]

Hi folks

This post is a bit long-winded guys but here goes...

I have fiddled about setting up my framework, assembled some tools and templates, done a bit of testing, and drawn up a plan.
Starting with PPC, I intend to use the Bing platform as the main launch pad for my ads.

Now I know the first tier platforms are pretty strict, but not having used them before I don't know what I can get away with, bearing in mind I am strictly on the White side of any hats in question and don't want to knowingly break or even 'stretch' the rules.

My plans are are stalled at the moment because of landing pages, I'm just not sure which way to go with these and me brain is lacking in that precious IM commodity - clarity, am hoping to get some input from you guys here.

What should I do?


Build a proper website on its own TLD for each niche?

This seems to be what the first tier platforms want, but for a CPA offer this to me seems a little counter-productive because of navigation links to other pages and many other distractions ( I don't want visitors I paid for sodding-off to another page - right but without those other 'useful' links my quality score will suffer right?

If going this route what is the best way to minimize distracting visitors from the offer on the page?
The biggest problem I forsee with this way is the time needed to build a site, add good content, bla, bla etc.


Would it be better, bearing in mind the longevity of some offers to use a sub directory with niche keyword on my generic (4 letter) domain for every offer and build a site on that with just a couple of pages linking back to the offer.

Do the same as above but only use a single page (one offer per keyword per page) all about the same offer.


What is rattling around in my head is quality is 'Quality Score' I quote part of G's quality guidelines as a good yardstick...

"Is the purpose of your site clear?
Is your site actually useful to visitors?
What does your site offer that other sites don't?
Is it easy for people to find what they're looking for?
Does your site have too many links that might confuse people?
Can people easily find information to learn more or answer questions?"
<unquote>


It seems to me there is a big trade-off between getting a decent quality score and spending ages writing content and building a site (for what may be a short-lived offer) or using low quality content just to fill up a site quickly and paying for it with low score/high CPC.

Obviously for some big niches a big website is probably the way to go, and you may say just concentrate on one vertical only, sound advice no doubt, but what about if (like me) you lack the experience in CPA and need to be testing lots of different offers, because I know nobody is going to tell me (us) directly what to promote.

Then there is the fact I have zero interest in weight loss or insurance etc and building large websites in these niches would not be an option for me, I currently lack the funds for large-scale outsourcing and would prefer to use that money testing PPC.

Direct linking is out of the question as far I know on first tier platforms so what do you think is the best way to go.
No 'test it yourself' comments please guys because I intend to when I have a framework in place.

How do you CPA ninjas do it? answers on a postcard, or better still right here

 

[Andy Haskins]

We're not ignoring you! Just getting my head around the Q

From my experience... I've only ever created individual websites on their own TLDs but this was in the finance industry which inevitably was seeing it's strongest period when I was active, so I wasn't worried about creating a site around an offer that would lose life after a few days. In terms of content, back then I would actually import RSS feed content in to the site in a 'news' section that linked to the sources, however, I'm not sure SEs would look favourably upon it these days... does anyone care to enlighten us?

 

[Andy Haskins]

Thus my above site relates to your quote:

"Obviously for some big niches a big website is probably the way to go, and you may say just concentrate on one vertical only, sound advice no doubt, but what about if (like me) you lack the experience in CPA and need to be testing lots of different offers, because I know nobody is going to tell me (us) directly what to promote."

Speak to your AMs to see if they can give you a little nudge in the right direction of what may be a viable offer to promote

 

[nonni1990]

Using sub domains will save you a few $$ on domain registration but you'll still have to provide reasonable content to qualify for a decent QS you can use dhtml(dynamic html) not quite white hat pop up or pop under or send them to the offer on close if you want to stick to pure white hat you'll have to write an engaging content and sprinkle your offer url/landing page through your article

 

[Freddy63]

Well going black hat is not something that can put you in jail or something. Every one of us use little bit of it. But remember to not to over do it. With bing you can definitely use some.
Sent from my T8788 using Board Express

 

[tim_smith]

Hey Guys,

I have been MIA for a while and just remembered I started this thread here. Thanks for the replies Andy,Nonny and Freddie. I reckon everyone else fell asleep before they finished reading my question

I have had a think about the LP question and having not been able to find anything of much help on the subject, my gut feeling is that a broad niche website with a TLD is the way to go, for the following reasons at least to my way of thinking ...

(i) A large dot com site will always be a saleable asset.
(ii) I will be building a real business and website portfolio
(iii) PPC and other methods become so much less bothersome with your own domain
(iv) Eventually several sites will form a network which can divert traffic to and from each other, thus keeping visitors in my sales funnel
(v) Pages can be assembled very fast and published in minutes
(vi) Site content may start ranking in the SERP's for some free organic traffic
(vii) A site with a lot of visitors may generate it's own ad revenue via third parties
(viii) Offers can easily be redirected
(ix) Keyword and url cloaking becomes simple and more secure
(x) Tracking is easier
(xi) WP will make navigation and linking simple
(xii) Simple to gain ideas for content
(xiii) A far bigger audience as a whole to the site
(xiiii) Much better chance of building a list

Unfortunately this idea has some major drawbacks as I see it

(i) It's going to take a sh*tload of extra work (for me 1 article = 1 day )
(ii) Insufficient time to devote to PPC campaigns and keyword research
(iii) Burnout a possibility
(iv) No revenue during the building process


Hmmmmm :-(

Perhaps I should forget PPC/CPA altogether and throw some money at banner ads,

What do you guys think?