RSS advertising on John Chow: The Final Result
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In September, I had the opportunity to be an RSS advertiser on John Chow Dot Com for $200/month. At that time, the numbers was near 8000 readers. Now, it's 9100+. My goal was to promote my paid Blog Directory and my affiliate program(later) to his readers. Many are bloggers and so it was a natural fit to get serious bloggers, so I taught.
John made that offer at the end of August so it gave me a few days to try out my tag line. Because it's hard to track RSS readers and did not see a jump in visitors, I decided to make a special landing page on my site and change the tag line for the $500 contest. This was done on Sept. 2.
Show me the numbers
I received 27 direct visitors(referrer) mostly from his post on Sept. 5 that he reached the 8000 RSS readers and he also introduced his advertisers.
Each of the 33 post had the same 5 advertisers but in random orders. That's a good way to be fair considering it's the same price. He also wrote: "Your ad will be shown over 50 times." So, it 33% less than expected. I'm not calling him a liar because he only wrote 78 posts in September instead of 100. Of that 78, some did not have any advertisers.
In total, the landing page was viewed 103 times only including the 27 direct. It also include my own views when I first created it. That could also compensate for the time that the main page was the landing page thus harder to count.
My recommendation
The ideal was good knowing the popularity of John but the result was really disappointing. I also noticed that John has only 5 RSS advertisers thus far in October. Out of the original 10, only 1 remained.
Here are my 3 tips for John and others thinking of doing the same:
- Only have 1-2 advertisers per post. I now believe that 5 was too much and over crowded
- Lower the price by a lot considering the disappointing results
- Offer a partial refund if the minimum of stated posts was not reached for that month
Conclusion
I'm selling a service(start at $2,50/year) and I know it's harder but I was expecting a lot more visitors or at least a mini "John Chow effect" which I got from the post and not from the RSS feed. Considering I was also doing a $500 contest, it was even more disappointing considering the final number of entries. I only got 14 entries and sold 3 Blog Packages.
John sent me an October renewal invoice. I did not take long to reply "No Thanks" so that he could sale it to another advertiser.
You may also read other advertiser experience's here:
Darin(125x125 Ad)
Zac Johnson(125x125 Ad)
Cash Quest(Post Level Text Link)
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6 Comments on this post
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CashQuests said:
27 visitors?? That’s unbelievable considering his reach.
Whether it’s right or not, I don’t think it’s 100% fair to say that he’s deceiving. The success of advertising will depend a LOT on the wording of the ad and how enticing it is to his readers. I hope your ad on CashQuests.com is treating you better!
October 6th, 2007 at 8:37 am -
Steve McGrath said:
To clarify: It’s the result that was deceiving not John.
I know that the wording is important. and here is the line I used:
“Find 1 Cool File or Blog: Are you are serious about your blog? Add it to the Blog Directory and you could win $500!”By the way, I’m already advertising on CashQuest.com with the 1 cool File 125×125 button.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:50 am -
Steve McGrath said:
I changed “deceiving” by “disappointing”. I was sure I had used the French translation of the word “décevant”. With the new English word, it’s much better now
October 6th, 2007 at 9:02 am -
CashQuests said:
Haha! Yeah, I noticed that I was on the site of one of my favorite advertisers after I wrote the comment and edited it – I was just blindly surfing and found myself here!
I think disappointing is a much better word to use.
Just some advice about your ad but the $500 is what will make people click and it’s placed at the end of the sentence which it isn’t incredibly obvious. It also doesn’t apply to those who aren’t serious about blogging and only gives them a chance at winning. It’s only an idea, but why not try:
“Want an easy $500? Want to increase your traffic? Click here to get both now”October 6th, 2007 at 10:07 am -
Steve McGrath said:
It’s too late for the RSS and the contest
but not a bad tagline.Anyway, I have an affiliate program on 1 Cool File and I will work on promoting it instead like I do on CashQuest.com. Like you said in your Million Euro Wiki post: “Get in at ground level” . This will apply here because it’s still new if you are interested
You may vote(see sidebar) because I liked the MEW ideal of a draw for those who buy a page.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:25 am
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