I was playing around with Eurekster to get a feel for it . Eurekster is a “wisdom of crowds” search engine. I want to discuss it briefly before I get to theBest Sales Ideabecause it could have some bigupside if they execute on their idea correctly
Theirs is a simple concept.
Add their search engine to your site. They will rank results based on what actions people who search from your site take. Makes perfect sense. There is usually some level of commonality between users of any given site. Sports sites get sports fans. Movie Sites get movie fans. They recognize this and show results that maximize relavance to thesites’ community. That should be a good thing. But its really not the key to whether Eurekster succeeds or fails.
The real question about Eurekster is whether or not they can successfully use the same approach to advertising. More relevant ads should result in more click throughs andhappier advertisers. Happier users and advertisers should result in more money paid to sites that use Eurekster.
That is the trillion dollar question. If sites start to realize that they can make some decent money hosting Eurekster search boxes, they will drop the more typical Google or Yahoo search boxes and quickly replace them with Eurekster.
If Eurekster does the same with an adsense like product and pays back more money to site owners. Well then the better idea will make them rich and upset the search applecart. Which quickly explains why the rumor is that MicroSoft is interested in acquiring them. It will be fun to see what direction Eurekster goes business wise and product wise.Will they be caught up in a”our search isbetter so use us” mantra. Or will they besmart and go for blood with a “our search is better and because of it, we pay you the site publisher much more money than the other guys” approach.
But I digress. The Best Sales Idea ?
Well I was doing a compare Google results to Eurekster results. As is standard with Google, the sponsored text ads show up above the results. Low and behold, what do I see, a link to something that some guy had emailed me about, trying to sell it to me.
Apparently the guy figured that I would be doing vanity searches on my name through Google. (I never use Google for search, I use Icerocket.com for obvious reasons)So when I saw the ad come up, I had to blog about it as the Best Sales Idea I had seen in a long time.
Most people, particularly those who find their name in media from time to time, search for themselves, their companies and whatever else may be personal to them on an ongoing basis. It may be daily, weekly, monthly, but its going to happen.
So if you want to reach that big shot that would never take your call, or respond to your letters, this is your way to do it. Buy their name as a key word.
If you want to reach Katie Holmes to sell her on your new Scientology friendly baby products, buy the keyword “Katie Holmes” across the search engine universe and there is a pretty good chance you will get to her.
How long before we see our first search engine ad Marriage Proposal ?
Hey baby, I think you better Google yourself tonight…
Cheap, easy, original. The hallmark to any great selling idea.