Your Website Profit

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If there is one thing almost all Internet marketers would agree on, it is that they could use more traffic. While there are many ways to generate traffic organically- social networking like Digg, blog marketing, search engine optimization and so on, one area that has huge potential is the growing opportunities in Pay Per Click, or PPC as it is usually referred to.

The main difference between PPC and other marketing methods is that of precision; think of blog marketing as a shotgun, aiming at the entire Internet, and contrast it with PPC - a rifle, which hit one specific market targeted. The nice thing about PPC is that while it does cost, you are only paying for people who have demonstrated that they are interested in what you are advertising.

Always remember the visitors you get from PPC cost you money, so you must monetize the traffic. Primarily through getting them to buy something. With that in mind, here are three basic steps you need to benefit from PPC marketing.

1. You Have to Have a Great Offer

Even if you do everything else right in your PPC campaign, it can all break down here, so this is where you should start. People have promoted nearly everything with PPC, from selling safari tours to presidential candidates, but if the offer is not what the person clicking the ad wanted, then you have just wasted the cost of that click. Always try to promote a legitimate, high quality product.

2. Spend a Lot of Time Working on Your Landing Page

The landing page is the page that someone will land on when they click one of your ads. There have been hundreds of thousands of words written about the art and science of landing page creation. Thorough explanation requires an article of its own, but here are some rules of thumb to get you started.

• Simpler is better. The landing page is no place for flash graphics, dancing animation or scrolling banners. The entire purpose of the landing page is to sell your offer.
• You don’t want to leak traffic. Since the purpose of the landing page is to sell, you don’t want anyone clicking to links elsewhere. This means no AdSense ads, no free resources. Not even links to your other sites.
• Ideally, the reader should “get it” in about three seconds. That is, in just three seconds, the reader should understand the offer. That is not to say you cannot say more (you probably should, especially with higher priced goods), but the gist of the offer should be that clear.
• You need an opt-in form. For those visitors that are not converted straight away, you should offer more information or free alternatives by email. Once you have their address, you can advertise the product further on the messages they opted in for.

3. Set up Your Campaign

Details vary from network to network, but it always consists of the same basic steps:

• Build a list of keywords
• Write your ads
• Set your budget

Unfortunately, there is no generic help here: two people offering the same thing with the same keywords, but having different ads and landing pages will experience different results. Because of this, you should always be testing any and all variables. Here are a few things to watch for:

• Write multiple ads, and add new ones often. The search engines will rotate them for you; pay attention and drop those that do not perform as well.
• Try to be as targeted as possible. While more people search for “dogs” than “Pekinese Watchdog Training”, if you sell a book on training a Pekinese to be a watchdog, you would have better luck bidding on that phrase. Remember the long-tail keywords.
• Test, test, and test again! This is true for all forms of marketing, and PPC is no exception

While PPC is certainly not for everyone, if you want to make money online it at least deserves a look. If you are new to PPC, I recommend you start with BidVertiser instead of AdWords. Why? They offer $20 in free clicks to new advertisers.

by Sutocu | October 9, 2007