Mistakes to learn from: Two arbitrage layouts with crappy CTRs

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Setec

Setec

Will work for cheese
Nov 1, 2006
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www.buymystupidebook.com
I've gained a lot of insight into arbitrage on this forum, so I want to give back the one thing I currently have to offer: a couple examples of what not to do.

I actually turned a really nice profit yesterday, but it was in spite of my templates, not because of them. My page CTR ranges from 3-10% on the first template (almost none for the leaderboard, 2% for the square, 6% for the skyscraper) and I don't seem to be getting any clicks on the second one.

http://www.buyonlinesale.info/template.xml
http://www.buyonlinesale.info/shorttemplate.xml

(edit: I've modified both of these since I first posted them, although as far as I know I'm still not getting a much better CTR)

So far I've been trying to create generic pages that I can quickly churn out for many niches without having to go find and resize niche-specific pictures. Is anybody having success with that? And, if so, can you say what's wrong with my pages?

I'm guessing people are just seeing them and hitting the back button. My bounce rate is huge, which I understand is what we're going for... but they're bouncing back instead of through the ads. I've got a couple other generic ideas, but I'm beginning to think I'll need to put some work into specific pitures to create enough of the "feel" of a niche authority site that they don't go straight for the back button, but still look for a way out quickly.
 


The layout isn't terrible. But maybe, try to set it up to LOOK like a legit content site with the "links" actually being ads. You can tell too easily that these are ads. Play with color schemes too.
 
try changing the colors on the second one, it hurts my eyes a bit, maybe thats the problem.

So far today I have gotten 100% ctr on my pages with a simular template that was quite so, errr, ah, bright.
 
Setec said:
You mean the colors on the first one? (Orange) The second one is a light blue/green, hard to imagine that hurting the eyes.
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no the second one, I dont want to be mean and I am really not trying to be but it is ugly as sin. and the first thing that my eye was drawn to was the bird, I would try losing the bird, and changing up the colors. You haven't got anything to lose right?

The first one the colors are fine i think but in my opinion it is just to busy. There is just to much going on.

I am a newb tho so I could be completely off base but hey anything is worth a try when it isnt working the way it is.
 
I would recommend a picture to draw the eye to the ads- say having a block adsense ad over a nice square picture...

I am experimenting with mine as well- and remember that the more ads on your page you have the less likely it is that someone will click on the higher paying ones.
 
Don't overthink this. Put ads above the fold and enough content to target them below. Every single page element you have to ask yourself, why is this here and how is it increasing my clickthrough rate? Thats it. No one is bookmarking your site, digging it, or plugging it on their blog.
 
I know, Andrew.

I'm not trying to come up with a design people like. I just want to draw them in enough to stay away from the back button and look at the ads.

Maybe that will take more graphics. Maybe less. I'll experiment.
 
Setec said:
I know, Andrew.

I'm not trying to come up with a design people like. I just want to draw them in enough to stay away from the back button and look at the ads.

Maybe that will take more graphics. Maybe less. I'll experiment.
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I dont think it is about making a design they like either, but I do feel like it should look professional or they won't even bother looking for anything but the back button.
 
does anyone here 'disable' the back button on their arb pages, or is this a way to quickly get banned from adsense?
 
I think it took a bit of luck for me to be turning a profit, small as it is at the moment. I put together a basic run-down of my stats for my first few days of arbitrage (2 1/2 for the first template, 1 1/2 for the second):

First Template Topics
0 clicks from 6+3= 9 visits
3 clicks from 48+1= 49 visits, CPC $1.78
0 clicks from 3+0= 3 visits
34 clicks from 159+53= 212 visits, CPC $1.06
15 clicks from 86+65= 151 visits, CPC $1.22

Second Template Topics
1 click from 2+1= 3 visits, CPC $1.83
0 clicks from 0+0= 0 visits
4 clicks from 11+1= 12 visits, CPC $0.78
0 clicks from 36+1= 37 visits
0 clicks from 12+1= 13 visits

The format for visits is searchfeed+7Search=total. I'm not looking at the impressions reported by Yahoo, because they seem several times higher than they should be given the traffic I'm buying.

Today I think I'll experiment with the templates and try for a better CTR.
 
Did you try any topic/content with both templates? I find that even with the same layout, the CTR can vary quite a bit based on the topic.
 
There is a lot of misinformation in this thread not to mention you barely have any traffic to make assumptions from.
 
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