Every once in a while panning for gold in an on line “geek forum” comes up with a nugget.
” The problem is no matter where I am parking these days no one is clicking. I checked the logs and I see almost no spider traffic, 90% of it is real. What the hell are these people looking at and why aren’t they clicking?” whines the affiliate marketer “Cashcows” June 1, 2007 on DNForum.com who got into the game thinking $40-$70 per click
DNForum is a site which enables registered users to chat about Domain Sales, Domain Appraisals, Domain Registrars, Industry Leaders and Traffic Monetization.
Further down the thread from the “Cashcows” query a poster called Melmunch opines “I think that the structured settlement PPC (pay per click) rates were an anomaly that has been corrected. Most of the search volume is on the setup side, where an attorney or plaintiff is looking into the benefits of setting up a structured settlement”.
Melmunch goes on to say something very very revealing… that “the big money is in finding people who already have structured settlements and in purchasing those future payments for a fraction of their value. He goes on to say ” these aggressive purchasers used to have generic ads without mentioning what they do that got a better CTR (click through rate), but they saw that their cost per action was way too high and so they started changing the ads to specifically state that they are buying settlements, not setting them up”.
Points to be taken from this
1. If most of the search volume is on the setup side that will explain the structured settlement apers’ 
(see aper’s pillory below right) motivation to bogart legitimate structured settlement terms. It will also be helpful to explain why more regulation is needed. Thank you DN Forum!
2. Clearly Melmunch knows that in a pay per click affiliate’s perfect world, the money is made off the consumer’s “mistaken identity” confusion and then again on referrals to “cash now companies” who can “purchase those payments for a fraction of their value”
3. It highlights the diminishing marginal utility (DMU) of pay per click advertising in the structured settlement arena. Over saturation leads to consumer rejection.
4. Add the DMU aspect to click fraud problems and trademark abuse or word association diversions (see Uncovered Annuity Transfers, Ltd. Midnight Madness)
Don’t support affiliate marketers who create splogs, or even seemingly informative pages loaded up with pay per click ads. In my opinion don’t click. Educate people and tell everyone you know not to click.
For the full discussion thread please click below:
Download structured_settlement_monetization_thread.pdf
http://ads.sixapart.com/custom?id=1000002898807&width=300&height=250&js=1
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