Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) is a marketing strategy that is unique to our times. Never before in history has it been possible to use this amazing and efficient method of reaching out to potential customers. But even so, it must be used carefully if it is to give optimum results.

Most readers will know basically how the system works. An ad appears on a website page (or on a search results page) and if the viewer is interested by the ad they click on the ad in order to find out more about the advertiser who has placed the ad. This opens up a page on the advertisers website. Whenever someone clicks on the ad, the advertiser pays a sum of money to the owner of the website in which their ad appeared. Hence the name, Pay Per Click.

The reason why we say it is an efficient advertising method is because you don't have to pay for your ad to be merely looked at, as you do with other forms of ad, such as billboards, classified ads, tv commercials and the like. With PPC you only pay for those people who are already interested in your products or services.

So how does it work?

There are a number of companies that provide systems dedicated to PPC advertising. Of these systems, by far the largest and the most well-known is Google AdWords. Google have had a great deal of experience at this kind of service, and on the whole they provide the advertiser with a powerful, flexible and efficient tool for displaying ads. You can write your own ads, within certain parameters, such as word count, and also meeting certain guidelines of taste and/or legality. AdWords also allows plenty of scope for experimentation, and they provide a useful back up in the form of Google Analytics, so you can see who is clicking on your ads. Further, they have many training pages, and optimization advice.

The counterpart to AdWords is Google AdSense. This is where you allow some space on your website or blog to be used by Google to insert PPC ads. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on an ad, you get paid! And Google uses its search robots to determine what type of ads are suitable to appear on your site, so you do not have to do anything, except watch the money roll in. In our opinion, this is where Google scores big plus points over its competitors, in that AdSense ads are more finely tuned to the website than other PPC providers.

You might think that all you need to do is to use AdWords to bring visitors to your site, who will then click on the AdSense and give you a profit for nothing. But experience has shown that if this is your sole strategy, you will make a steady loss over time. You need to have something of value on your site, in addition to AdSense, if you are to make a profit. The AdSense should be considered as a back up or a fall back to your main product line.

There are a number of other companies providing Pay Per Click ad systems, such as Bidvertiser, Adster, Adbrite and others. Our researchers have discovered that, although in many ways these companies provide a reasonably good alternative to Google, they still have not reached the level of contextual matching which Google AdSense has achieved. But the situation is constantly developing so it is worth keeping these companies in mind.

Author : Robert Paterson
Source : http://www.articlesbase.com

3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

Affiliate marketing is one of the most productive and powerful ways of earning some money online. This program gives everyone a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission regularly, more an more people are now willing in this business. However, like all businesses, there are enormous number of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common affiliate mistakes will cost the marketers a large part taken from the profit they are making everyday. That is why it is better to avoid them than be disappointing in the end.


Mistake 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate program.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as rapid as possible. In their dash off to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is red-hot. They opt for the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise step obviously.

Instead of jumping straight into it, try choose a product in which you are truly interested in. If you want to succeed in the affiliate market, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Get a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about the product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.


Mistake 2: Joining too many many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very much easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you might be thinking that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, it is great to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote all of them at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The result will shows otherwise. The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not met and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining only one program that pays at least 40% commission. Then give it your best ever effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable commission for you, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.

Do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going for us, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a very long long time too.


Mistake 3: Not buying the product or using the service for testing.

Your main purpose as an affiliate is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers of the product and service. It will be difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will undoubtedly fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a certain desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering.

Author : Muhammad Riduan Ramli
Source : http://www.articlebiz.com