Is Pay-Per-Click Really Worth It?

By Jim Pretin

I will just come out and say it. Pay-per-click is the most frustrating, pointless, bone-headed form of internet marketing known to man. Most websites use at least some pay-per-click to attract traffic to their site. Other sites use nothing but pay-per-click to attract traffic to their site. I, on the other hand, detest it. I hate paying for clicks and I have modified my internet marketing strategy accordingly.

What is pay-per-click (PPC), you ask? Well, go to Google, and then type in a keyword or phrase that you want to search for. Then, at the top of the search results, you will see a section for what is called sponsored links or sponsored results. These sponsored links are paying a certain cost per click to be listed in this special section at the top of the listings. Each one of these websites pays a certain fee to Google each time someone clicks through to their site.

Each website that uses PPC has to place a bid on how much they are willing to spend per click for a certain keyword. The highest bidder is placed in the number one position, the second highest bidder is placed in the number two position, and so forth. Also, each bidder specifies how much they are willing to spend per day. Once their daily budget has been exhausted, the clicks stop until more money is added to the account.

Google is not the only search engine that has a PPC service available. Overture also has a service, as does Miva, and several others. Each service is tied to different search engines. If you go with Google, your website will be listed on Google, AOL Search, and Ask.com. If you sign up for Overture, you will be listed on engines such as Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, and several others. Miva is tied to approximately 6 different search engines.

The costs are expensive, especially if you are bidding on a highly sought after keyword or phrase. Keywords related to auto insurance, or mortgage quotes, can cost anywhere between $1 - $20 per click or even more if you want to be ranked in the top position. If the keyword you want to advertise for is not too popular, the click costs will be much less. Usually, doing pay-per-click will boost your Google PageRank by 1 (PageRank is scored on a scale of 1 to 10), but it certainly has never actually helped me get anywhere near the first page of Google.

It is possible to spend thousands dollars on clicks and make zero sales of the product or service you are selling. Conversion rates are usually 1% - 3%, meaning that only 1% - 3% of the people who come to your website will actually order what you are selling. So, you need to take that into account when developing your marketing strategy.

The problem with PPC advertising is that most people using a search engine are only looking for information, and are not planning on buying any products or services. So, you can spend tons of money to get clicks, but you will likely only convert 1% - 3% of those clicks into sales, and sometimes you will get absolutely zero sales.

I am not saying that the search engines do not bring business to your site. They absolutely do. That is why it is good to achieve a high ranking on the search engines within the free part of the listings. Even though you will still only convert a small fraction of your visitors into paying customers, at least you are not wasting money on every single click. So, getting to the top of the search engine listings without having to pay for each click is paramount for your online business.

PPC advertising is not necessarily inappropriate for every online business. If you are selling an expensive item ($100 or more), you can turn a profit as long as your per-click costs are somewhat modest. But generally speaking, you will spend more than you will make.

The only time PPC is truly helpful is for businesses that sell a service where a recurring fee is involved. For example, dating websites charge their customers a recurring monthly fee to be a member of their site. So, if you own an online dating service, it makes sense to use PPC and not worry about losing money on attracting new customers, because if they stay members for the second month, you will be able to charge them again, thus making your website profitable. If they stay members for a year or more, then you really come out ahead.

You need to have a lot of cash to burn in order to compete with the bigger businesses who are spending thousands of dollars per month for their clicks. If you are operating a small business, you need to diversify your internet marketing efforts by optimizing your website and increasing your link popularity so you can climb to the top of the search engines without having to pay for every click you receive.

Also, you should consider having an affiliate program so that other websites will promote your business for free as long as you pay them a commission for any referrals they produce. The best way to approach internet marketing is to use several different methods that when put together result in an optimal cost situation for your business and attract a significant amount of targeted traffic to your website.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

The Traffic Power Keeps on Multiplying with Article Marketing

By Glen Hopkins

Newsletter publishers turn to article directories to find much needed content. These sites allow ezine publishers to reprint any listed article in their newsletter for free. All they have to do is give the author credit for the article and include a link back to the author's site. They do this by including a resource box at the end of each article.

The resource box that tells the reader about you and includes a link back to your site is just the starting point for ways you gain traffic through article marketing. Other ways include:

1. Being a published author boosts your credibility. Just because you don't receive direct monetary compensation for your articles does not mean you can't refer to yourself as a published author. If article directory sites are posting your articles online, you are an author. When you're an author, you're considered both an expert and an authority figure. People trust published experts more easily than they would an unknown source.

2. Unexpected traffic spikes can occur months after you publish your article. On many directory sites, your article remains in the active database for six months to a year after you post it. Then it's moved to the archives but still accessible to those searching for content in your niche. An ezine publisher could come across your article months after you publish it, send it to his list and consequently send lots of unexpected traffic to you.

3. Steady streams of traffic can come your way for years. Others in your niche may like your article so much that they post in on their websites and keep it there for years. Because you have that resource box, you get recognized as the expert author and have a perpetual link that feeds you a steady stream of targeted prospects.

4. You are able to utilize the highly trafficked directory sites. Millions of visitors search directory sites every month. This gives you massive exposure to a wide audience of traffic you didn't have to pay for.

5. You can advertise your site for FREE. If your marketing budget is zero, this is a great way to get the word out about who you are and what you have to offer. The articles cost nothing to post, and that free post comes with an ad for your site.

6. Expand your market reach. Each article you post gives you a chance to reach people who would otherwise never hear your message. This can come from newsletter publishers sending your article to their lists or just regular people searching for information about your topic in the directory database.

7. You get to pre-sell your products. With an informative article, you can turn skeptical readers from cold to sold. Had these people seen a regular advertisement for your product, they might have ignored you. But since you've given them a taste of who you are and what you know, they're willing to at least listen to your sales message and perhaps even respond with a buying decision.

8. Articles help you attract new joint venture partners. Ezine publishers who find your articles may want to partner with you once they read your information. So instead of just emailing their list your article, they would endorse your products. And that means higher conversion rates and more money in your bank account.

9. You increase your link popularity. Every article you post in a directory gives you a free link to your site. As others pick up your article and publish it on their sites, you get more links. The more links you have, the more popular you are with the search engines. Especially if those links come from sites with high page ranks. A link from a site ranked six on the Google 0-10 scale is worth much more than a link from a site ranked two.

10. You improve your search engine rank. When you combine your increasing link popularity with the keyword usage in your articles, you gain importance in the eyes of the major search engines. Your own page rank grows, as does your place in the ranking of the searches for the keywords you use.

11. Your perceived value and prestige in your niche grows. You can have your article published alongside the gurus in your niche. This automatically makes your information appear more valuable and brings with it a sense of prestige no other form of marketing can deliver.

With article marketing, the traffic power just keeps on multiplying.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Glen Hopkins is a Best-Selling Author, Information Marketer, Speaker and Consultant. Glen specializes in teaching struggling entrepreneurs how to turn their small online businesses into thriving money machines using specific systems that will allow you to work less and earn more. Get his List Building Report and Web Traffic CD (valued at $97) for FREE at: GlenHopkins.name