Virginia Postrel muses about the online ads business:
Posted by DeLong at April 6, 2004 05:59 PM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postDynamist Blog: GOOGLE AD SECRETS: One little mention of a site selling a term paper on my NYC talk and now my Google ads are mostly for fraudulent term papers. I trust that no readers of this fine site are in the market--though if you click on the ads and don't buy a term paper, perhaps that will teach these people not to advertise, at least on honest websites.
I'm told by a high-level Google exec that the way to get more action from Google ads is to write a lot about term life insurance. That's because people shopping online for term life insurance really are interested in the subject--they want to shop right now, and they tend to buy insurance when they do. It's what Steve calls the mattress store principle. Most of the time a mattress store has no customers, but nearly every customer who comes in buys a mattress. The same is generally true of term life insurance and probably of fraudulent term papers.
Now that I'm not going to Saudi Arabia and therefore can actually get term life insurance (insurers don't like those Saudi risk factors), I do indeed need to buy some term life insurance. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a source of term life insurance? How about you folks at Google ads? Will this post get action? BTW, readers will no doubt notice that I'm now carrying Blogads, which pay much better than Google.
You know, of course, that the top ad on your Semi-Daily Journal today is "Download a Paper Now".
Posted by: Tom Slee the Jaded on April 6, 2004 06:34 PMSince BlogAds is an auction of sorts, whereas Google Ads is based on click-throughs (I think), it's not at all surprising that BlogAds pays better.
Posted by: Linkmeister on April 7, 2004 12:52 AMI manage several Google AdWords campaigns and have stopped our ads from appearing on "content match" (non-search websites, like blogs) because of poor quality traffic and fraudulent clicks. I'm not alone. Google's AdSense program has really damaged Google's reputation since it debuted last year.
One interesting thing some publishers try to do with Google Ads: arbitrage. They create a one-page site with text to attract high-priced words. Then they pay for ads on the same keywords on search sites. They hope that they will attract visitors interested in the topic who will then be so dissatisfied with the one-page website that they will click on the ads. I don't know how well it works (I suspect many publishers have lost money doing this), but a lot of people attempt this method of generating cash.
Try TIAA-CREF for term life.
Posted by: John on April 7, 2004 07:08 AMI'm a fan of Brad's site and feel I shouldn't take direct advantage of this but since I'm about to pump my self I'd probably send a buck or 3 by paypal. Prof. DeLong, if you don't like this post and/or feel it is innappropriate, delete it.
What state are you in, if you in IL, send me an email, I have life insurance, I'm with Bankers Life
By the way, do you know the difference between Term, Whole and Universal life? Get what you need, but you should at least find out the difference. That term policy - it will end after a period of time, that's why it's called "term". Once it ends, you have to re-apply for life insurance and if your not medically qualified you *usually* will not get life insurance. Then if you do qualify for more term life insurance, your rates are *usually* much higher.
If you get some life insurance, ask your agent about the differences, the coverage is on you, not the agent.
Posted by: Jess Olson on April 7, 2004 09:17 AMI'm sure Brad is well aware of the difference between term and whole life and smart enough to realize that term life is the better approach financially.
The purpose of life insurance SHOULD be to allow your family to replace your lost income should you die. Once you reach retirement there's no longer any working income to replace. So what is the point of life insurance? After you retire, if you die sooner rather than later your family is presumably better off financially because you will have spent less of your retirement savings. So what is the point of paying for a MUCH more expensive whole life policy (that ties up additional funds in an investment account which you have absolutely no control over) just so you can keep buying insurance until you die?
In any event, to answer your question Brad, I recently shopped for term insurance online and found www.reliaquote.com to have the best web site for researching and buying term life. You input your various parameters into a web form and it brings up a long list of policies from different companies to chose from. You can switch the variables around so see how the price differs. My wife and I both bought term life through reliaquote and were satisfied with the experience.
Posted by: Kent on April 7, 2004 12:19 PMTerm life is a better approach financially? If you get a 20 year policy and know you are going to die in 19 years and 11 months, then yes, term is much better. But you don't know when you will die nor how many dependents will be around when you do. Also you don't know what will happen in your life to dictate your financial situation.
Why should you have life insurance after you die? To guarantee you have an estate passable to your heirs without probate restrictions for starters.
I checked the reliquote, for me, a 27 year old male, non-cancer sticks at $100K benifit, a 20 year term *starts* $9.74 from Lincoln Financial Distributors, Universal Life I have is $37.44. Of course that term rate goes up where my Universal Life does not. Say in 5 years I suddenly need to fix my car, I can borrow from the policy, term you can't do that. Say in 5 years I'm unemployed, with term you have to keep paying the premiums *_usually_, check the policy* with Universal Life you can skip payments, it's treated as a policy loan, but when your unemployed, it keeps your policy going.
Posted by: Jess Olson on April 7, 2004 04:22 PMLearn the perameters of term: YRT is yearly renewable term; 10yrt w/ fixed payment decreasing benefits; 10YRT level benefits, increasing premiums. Plus other variations for longer terms.
The benefits of Universal Life are dependent upon the estimated return of your investment(?). The fluctuations in estimated policy yields could unfavorably affect premium cost in spite of the previous posters declarations.
The cost benefit analysis for Term insurance of the simplest type is: Policy Benefit(?)/Annual Cost. Shop, and buy it as any commodity. An important consideration in term purchases is a guarantee of renewal. Price doesn't matter if they cancel you after a few years because of some health problems.
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Posted by: casino on April 12, 2004 03:32 PMBrad needs to talk to someone knowledgable about his entire financial situation and then get recommendations that contain alternatives. Since less than 3% of all term policies worldwide actually pay out, term is not the inurance you will want if you live long, or if you anticipate estate tax issues. Many wealthy people learned long ago that one secret to dynastic estate building was buying whole life policies on their 3 year old children and feeding the policies with their own estate proceeds, effectively passing major wealth to the second generation beyond. Whole, or permanent, life insurance also serves excellent purposes in the deferred compensation marketplace and it deserves a look in that instance. But most telling, is that people who profess to follow the maxim of "buy term, and invest the rest" are not playing the odds at all. Various analyses show less that 20% actually do invest the rest, and only 1 or 2 of those who do invest actually beat the market, or the general account of the top players in the insurance marketplace. If you have a day job you are good at, and investing and finance is not something you can devote substantial time to, leave the strategies to experts who can really help, experts you can trust. Don't get me wrong, sometimes that trust is hard to come by, but when it is, its like finding a good doctor. Hey, its your financial health, right? Buy two policies and call me in the morning.
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