Experiment #2 is complete, and the results were even more absurd than last time.
This time I created 20 posts based on the latest upward-trending Google keywords, and put in even less effort to make them anything but cursory. In addition, I slapped AdSense ads above and below the posts to see if I could catch any of the visitors on the way out.
Though I’m choosing these keywords at random from Google’s list of trends, last time I happened to pick a topic with legs (as it were), “Amanda Knox”. Though the web was full of info about this young woman, my post of pics was enough to triple my traffic. And as new developments occurred in her murder trial, my inane post returned to the top slot in my traffic reports.
This time I didn’t have that golden combination of sex and death working for me. Most of the hot keywords were pretty mundane, with the possible exception of the gay porn-star cat burglar, and the obligatory “Tiger Woods Affair photos” post, which continued to be popular even after the photos themselves disappeared. Perhaps if I could have been bothered to host them myself, this would have been a bit more popular.
In any case, I struck gold nonetheless. Unpredictably, this recipe for “Crack Pie” has proved unbelievably popular, generating about 8000 visitors in two days. As I write this at 5:00 pm on Thursday, Google Analytics says I’ve has over 6500 visitors so far today alone. The post has also been linked to by several prominent sites, which will no doubt increase my profile immensely in terms of Google. In fact, I’ve already seen my rankings improve for my primary keywords, thanks to this ridiculous little exercise.
As for the ads, only 1-2% of visitors actually click on them, which isn’t spectacular. However, with every day that goes by, my time putting together the posts becomes more profitable. Right now that time may have netted $10 – 15/hour, but by tomorrow that could be $20 or $25. By next year, who knows?
So should I do it again? That’s something to think about. It’s certainly not making the internet a better place, but I’m not sure that’s my job.
Nobody dreams of growing up to run a junkyard…
