Over the span of almost 20 years, I’ve bought and sold more than a billion click-throughs. Ahhh, the love/hate relationship with paid traffic. On the one hand, it’s great -- a way to get more eyeballs with minimal effort. On the other, it’s one of the most frustrating parts of running a large-scale business. You’re paying for all this traffic, but are you really seeing ROI? How do you make sure it converts? I’ve worked in media planning and online advertising sales practically since its inception. I’ve helped buy and distribute traffic for countless brand and eCommerce clients, plus all manner of digital media vendors. Every single one sought better conversion ratios and/or higher order values. Bottom line: they all wanted measurable ROI from [...]

Scott Rabinowitz doesn't get many calls from business reporters who want to write serious stories. He understands, "They tend to focus more on the controversial rather than our business practices. It's more fun and amusing than asking me to provide analytical feedback." But we suspect mainstream content marketers could learn a lot from the adult world. After all, it's a massive, intensely competitive, industry selling millions of subscriptions across every demographic over 18. As Rabinowitz points out, "It's relevant to all humanity; and one third of searches across search engines are adult on everyone's network, not just one part." Also, VCs and banks won't touch the industry for the most part - so adult subscription marketers have to make at least a dollar back for [...]