Review: Sex.com Pay Per Click system

An Adult Webmaster Resource

Written by Tom from Tom's Newbie Booster

Site: http://www.sex.com/
Sign-up Page: http://adlogin.sex.com/
Information: http://www.sex.com/advertising/ppc-guidelines.html

This should really be called 'Tom's first impressions of Sex.com's PPC system', because I've just started using the Sex.com's PPC engine and I'm definitely a newbie there. But I promised a review of it and here's some initial impressions.

What is sex.com PPC?

The majority of the search engines out there (or is it ALL of them now?) offer some way for us webmasters to pay our pay into their rankings. Yep - it's dirty and it's expensive but that's the way it is. If you're willing to splash out some cash then you can get listed almost instantly in most of the search engines out there. One of the most popular ways to pay your way into the search engines is called Pay Per Click (PPC). This involves paying the search engine for every surfer they send to you.

The PPC search engines are listed here in detail:

http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/

As for Sex.com, it's probably one of the most famous domain names in the world. This domain name / website has had a very turbulent history, and has frequently been involved in a long-running court case over who owns the domain name: [More Info]. Further more, over the years the site has changed it's face many times - [See older Sex.com versions] will give you an idea of how much... It's been a free site, a banner farm, and more besides. But today it is finally settling down, casting aside it's wild youth, and has matured into a very competent-looking search engine and directory.

The search engine, following in the same vein from the other search engines out there, also offers PPC system so that webmasters can buy their way in.

Getting set up...

The signup form was very straight forward. There was one screen in which personal details needed to be added. It didn't look that different from your average sponsor page sign-up form. After you've filled out the form, you'll get the usual confirmation email. So far so good. From then on you can go to the first page and put in your username and password and login to the member's area.

In the advertisers area

Once you've logged in your main options are as follows:

- Manage Your Account
- Make a deposit
- Manage bids
- Modify your listings for a URL
- Suspend URLs
- Add a URL for bidding
- Edit your account information
- Run click payment report (per url)
- Financial status of your account (current balance, deposits)
- Research search phrase prices
- Check surfer friendliness

The first thing I noticed was that you are assigned an individual contact to give you support. Each support team member can be reached via phone, fax, e-Mail, AIM or ICQ. This is something that Google or Overture were definitely behind on. Whereas with some of the other PPC systems I've used it's all too easy to feel like a number rather than a name - Sex.com offers a REAL person to help you out. From my experience with PPC systems, sooner or later... you'll need it!

One minor niggle with this area was that there were two banners at the top of the page for some affiliate programs. These pushed the important info about 3 inches down the screen which was a tad frustrating. Not a major problem, but it would have been better to have a cleaner screen.

Paying the man

The first job was to make a deposit. The hardest part here was parting with the cash. The system here was easy to use, and the server seems to have been pretty speedy each time I've used it. I paid $50 but there was an option of only paying out $25 if you wanted to. This should appeal to anyone who likes to test the water before jumping in with both feet first.

Adding a URL

The next thing was to add a URL to the search engine. This screen was pretty self explanatory and there was also something very cool which I've never seen before. When a maximum number of characters were required in say a text box, a real-time counter counts down how many characters you have left as you type. This made writing titles and descriptions much easier than normally is the case with form boxes. TGPs and Link Lists should also implement this in my opinion.

You are required to input a URL, title, and description - and a short version of your title and description too. It's very similar to submitting to Dmoz or a TGP / link list. The only difference is that you have to choose some phrases that you'd like to be found under. This is of course the heart of what PPC search engines are all about. With Sex.com you don't choose the price of each phrase at this stage - which is a nice touch. This stage is all about writing your description and adding in the relevant phrases. Once a URL is set up, you get the usual features to bid on your phrases. The more you pay, the higher you'll appear for a search on that phrase.

One important problem on this page was that the box provided to add your phrases into had a visible area of under an inch tall. This is bad news because most advertisers will be adding in multiple lines of phrases (you add one phrase per line). More room here would have been greatly appreciated.

Editing ANY previously added information at Sex.com is fast and easy.

Search phrase analysis tools

No PPC search engine would be complete without some tools to help you mine out phrases that might send you traffic. Overture's tool is superb. Google's tool is somewhat lacking by comparison. And I was keen to see what Sex.com had to offer in this department. The tools could be found under "Research search phrase prices".

Here's a list of the tools that are available to you here:

1. Search Phrase Analyzer
View top search phrases either by number of searches or in alphabetical order within a time period.

2. Search Phrase Bid Analyzer
View the top 5 bids on our most popular search phrases.

3. Search phrases for effective targeting
Copy and paste search phrases.

4. View the last 10 searched search phrases
(updated every 5 seconds).

5. View the last 10 xml search phrase searches
(updated every 5 seconds).

The one thing that does seem to be missing here is a way to input a phrase and to have Sex.com tell you how much interest there is on SEX.COM for this phrase. This is quite an important thing too. Because you could be wasting time getting listed under phrases that no-one is actually searching for. I could have missed this tool, but I've been searching for it for some time now to no avail. This was a big minus on the system - but not one that spoils it. All I decided to do was to use Overture and to adopt a 'blanket approach' - adding in all of the phrases I'd like to appear under.

It's also worth noting that the Search Phrase Analyzer is a very interesting tool. This can be used to see what phrases people have been searching for. Could this be a good way to track up-coming trends? Tools like this, that put you in touch directly with what the surfers are REALLY looking for, are invaluable. HINT: Anyone can signup for free and use this tool.

Cost per click...

One of Sex.com's major strengths (of which there ARE many) is that the cost per click is NOT ridiculously high. Whereas Google's minimum CPC is 5 cents (with such a low amount not earning you a great position), and Overture has just raised their minimum cost per click to a whopping 10 cents, Sex.com's minimum CPC is a welcome 3 cents.

Reporting

Running reports at Sex.com is something which even new PPC users will be able to handle easily. You specify a date range, set the reporter loose, and in seconds you'll have a detailed report of the phrases people have been finding you under, the number of clicks you've had, and the total cost of those clicks. I noticed that I was also credited with some free clicks. I'm not sure how that happened - but it was a nice bonus. Sex.com's reporting area is robust, simple, fast and has everything a stat-o-holic needs to run a successful campaign.

Adult webmaster friendly?

If you've read any of my other reviews on PPC search engines (which can be read here: [Reviews and more articles]) you'll have noticed one thing which has been synonymous with them all: their lack of thought for adult webmasters. Well guess what? I can finally say that there's a PPC engine which IS friendly for adult webmasters. There's no banned phrases. There's no silly rules on punctuation. There's no 'your description was too obscene'. Basically - the system is an adult webmaster's dream come true, as far as running adult ads goes.

Results, early impressions, and conclusion

I was getting traffic to my sponsor within a day of setting up my campaign with Sex.com. While the URLs are not added instantly, the process doesn't take long. I've not sent enough traffic to my sponsor to analyze how well it's going to perform yet, but maybe I'll get a chance to do a follow up article.

My initial concern with Sex.com was that it was 'adult traffic'. By that I mean that this is not a mainstream search engine like Google or Overture is. So the big question is: will these surfers actually BUY anything? Time will tell on that front. Google traffic is golden in that many of those surfers aren't used to looking for free content. But then the argument is that some sex.com surfers will be virgin typein surfers too. But a slight question mark still hangs over the quality of sex.com's traffic for me. I'll hopefully be able to either slay my fears or confirm them within a couple of months of testing.

On first impressions, my dealing with the big 'S' have been very amiable so far. The system was fast and easy to work with, and seems to be largely far better thought out than some of the mainstream competition. On what I've seen so far, I'd recommend it.

Scores:

Ease of use: 9 / 10
Intuitive and straight forward.

Reporting: 9 / 10
Simple reporting but with everything you'll need.

Adult webmaster friendly: 10 / 10
At last!

Friendly rules / use no content sites: 10 / 10
Perfect.

Features: 6/10
A phrase search tool would have been most welcome.

Total: 9 / 10

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com