Ask.com Advertising Feed In Limbo
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
Even “reduced” Ask.com feed may disappear.
A number of domain parking companies were delivered a blow as of the first of this month when Ask.com discontinued syndicating its Google advertising feed. These parking companies were left with two options: take Ask.com’s own advertising feed (which has low click prices) or switch to another ad provider.
Not coincidentally, Skenzo jumped to Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) this month.
But a number of parking companies still use the Ask.com feed as a backup. That may not be an option in the near future.
Ask.com just announced a layoff and a change to its strategy. It will now focus on “married women looking for help managing their lives.” (Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up.) Current advertisers will jump ship if their products aren’t related to this narrow topic, and it’s unclear if the company’s pay-per-click advertising program will continue. Even if it does, it will be hard to apply this to the array of topics at parked domain names.
This leaves domain name parking companies with few options. The heavyweight ad providers remain Yahoo and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Depending on how Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition attempt proceeds, hopefully we’ll see a Microsoft advertising feed in the near future.
Further Reading:
“married women looking for help managing their lives.”
WOW. There is no way you could make this stuff up. You’d have to be a certified nutjob to make this stuff up. What is the word I am looking for here: Morons, Dumb, Idots? No. That’s not it. Here is the right phrase: BAT-SHIT CRAZY!
I wonder if they will bring Jeeves back too. Maybe he could help the married women manage their lives.
Ahhh! So much power in niches…think I’ll launch an SE for 35-39 year old never-married men who live on mountain tops (but only during the winter).
Probably make me rich, quick.