paidContent on Paid Search

Despite Recent Controversy, Paid Search Continues To Gain Acceptance: Report

By David Kaplan - Mon 30 Apr 2007 12:07 PM PST

Search engine keywords represent the contemporary equivalent of a newsboy holding up a paper and yelling “Extra!” as Murray Gaylord, VP-marketing for NYTimes.com, puts it. The street corners have been replaced by Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN and Ask.com, while, as the WSJ reminds us, buying keywords to attract new traffic has become routine among news sites. The method drew scrutiny after some news organizations (including nytimes.com) paid for terms associated with the Virginia Tech shootings, which reached a price of $5 per click. That’s on the high end of the spectrum and the cost-per-click eventually dipped down to a more average price of $.06 last week, according to search marketing firm Reprise Media. Beyond the usual suspects, the WSJ, which keeps most of its content behind a subscription wall....

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