Amusing, daunting, fetal position..

[CuttingTeeth]

Ok, it's not -that- bad, but it's still a difficult situation.

Client is basicly going to become a master casino site, selling afilliate programs, which tie into the master site under seperate domains. That's not really the problem right now. The problem is, the client wants to be ranked for casino/gambling type stuff. He wants to do it ethicly (thank god), but that's not going to happen without a PPC type deal. Even if the site wasn't PR0'd, it still would be near-impossible, with all the spamming in that area. What I'm wondering is if all you wonderful people could supply a list of small PPC engines that you've had sucess with. I figure that's going to be the only way to really do it, as they probably won't want to pay out the arse for such terms. I have a few in mind already, Ah-Ha and Kanoodle and whatnot, and need as many at least decent ones that you could list. Any advice would also be much appreicated.

[ihelpyou]

A few more are on this page:
http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=20

There are many out there though. Anyone?

[bigDugan]

Um...none?

Actually I'm looking at Google AdWords (http://adwords.google.com) now.
:read:

[MJR]

My favorite for low cost and a very good ROI is IQ Seek (iqseek.com) Out of all the "median" PPC's this would be my best reccomendation, and I have used almost all of them :)

[nzbase]

There's no reason you HAVE to use a PPC campaign to get rankings in the gambling industry. I have a clients site who is a casino with PR6 without running any form of PPC campaign...

Unless I'm missing something about what you wrote, using PPC listings for page rankings doesn't make a huge difference because all the links are dynamic. Right?

You are definately right about being careful not to get involved with the spammy side of that industry though ...

[CuttingTeeth]

The real problem is the client needs to push affilate programs, and you can only really do that if you're getting the visitors and revenue. His home page is already PR0'd, and most(or all) of his internal pages are PR1 or 0. Bad neighborhood linking most likely, as the site had a (soon to be removed) adult section. Gonna know more later today after the actual meeting with the client, but from what I've seen, PPC would probably be the most painless way to go with this, if closely monitored.

[nzbase]

the client needs to push affilate programs, and you can only really do that if you're getting the visitors and revenue
I see affiliate programs as the other way around. Sure you need to drive the affiliates to the site intended but the visitors and the revenue will come after the affiliates have started doing the work on helping to build the traffic.

[CuttingTeeth]

Thanks for all the input, guys.

The affilate program works like this - it's basicly a portal site that links to the download of the gambling software. When they start getting affilates, I will be doing SEO-type work for every affliate too. I was also wondering - which of the PPC engines allow you to do ads for more than one company under the same email/contact info?

[Advisor]

With all the PR penalties, and since the basic idea of the site is changing, why not start from scratch with a new domain/URL? I think that should be your first step!

Jill

[CuttingTeeth]

Yeah, we've already gone over that with the client. We can't host the site, because it is a gambling site, and needs to be offshore. I don't know how much effort and time the client wants to spend sorting out moving all the stuff onto a different domain name. Would have to get in contact with the host, get them to create a new site on the server, get the DNS set up, and edit the site to not include the adult content AND not copy the adult content part over (probably the biggest hassle). This is a possibility, but for ease and speedy results, PPC would probably be the way to go for now. Casino-type bidding really isn't that high on the smaller engines, I've noticed, so it may not really be a problem. Time will tell, I suppose.

[kneelsit]

, but for ease and speedy results, PPC would probably be the way to go for now.

Sorry WRONG - getting rid of the PRO could take a year or more
if ever.

Starting afresh with new domain should not take more than about a week.(Try Godaddy) Finding a new server offshore 2-3 days. Setting up on the new server maybe a week.

3-4 weeks at most. :)

[CuttingTeeth]

I know it won't ditch the PR0 pentalty, but woudln't it make sense to do a PPC campaign while making and transferring domain name and whatnot? I think he likes his domain name anyway, and if I can find enough small, good PPC engines that give a good ROI, get people to the site and have them stay and download the gambling program, what's the point of doing it traditionally? Sure, I can, and it may help, but so much time would be needed to get a site up there for such terms, it almost wouldn't be worth it. My opinion of course.

[excell]

Doesn't sound as if they are in it to play ethical.. walk on by.. pass it off.. pass it on... I wouldn't work with them.

What outstanding good advise kneelsit gave! wow that has got to go done in history :)

[CuttingTeeth]

The client actually does want to handle this ethicly, he doesn't want to spam or cloak or any such nonsense. Even if he did want to tread that path, I'm just an employee at a "one-stop-shop" web-type company. Don't have a choice in the matter. But, I don't have to worry about all that because he doesn't wanna be unethical. The client has a decent understanding of what it would take/limitations, and he seems like he will listen to my advice and let me handle whatever we end up doing. I appreciate the input, guys.

Anyone else know of smaller, non-fraudulent, semi-effective PPC engines?

[ihelpyou]

No Fraud? Doubt you will find any ppc that is fraud free. Your budget should figure into it all the fraudulant clicks you get going with any ppc search engine. It's a given and a cost of doing business.

[CuttingTeeth]

Didn't think of that. Rather, it should read "as little fraud as possible eninges" or something. Also, generally how much money does it take for a decent testing of the smaller engines?