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Pay per click is an effective way to get people to your website. It can be highly targeted, and done inexpensively.


 

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Pay per click

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Pay-for-placement works, and is cost-effective.  However there are a bewildering number of options.  We design and manage pay-for-placement ad campaigns for many websites, and can do the same for you. 


Most big search engines charge businesses to be listed on their sites.  In fact, it's getting harder to find sites that take free submissions!  Google still does, however they also offer pay-per-click services (PPC) in addition to the free listings. PPC works. We use it successfully for this site!.  

There are several pay-for-placement models.  While the details vary, they all charge you to be included listed. 

How pay-per-click works
You bid on keywords, highest bid gets listed first.  Overture uses this model.  Others, like Google, rotate the appearance of the ad based on popularity and other factors.  You are only billed when someone clicks on the ad.  Sometimes you can get click-throughs for 10 cents each, however highly sought-after phrases can be several dollars (ouch).  Hint: Make your keywords as specific as possible.  

Google Feeds data to many sites, as well as being the premier search engine. No monthly minimum, and you can set your spending to a predetermined limit.

Overture  also feeds data to many sites such as Yahoo, America Online, MSN, EarthLink  and Lycos and is highly configurable. One caveat - to be listed by all the sites they supply data to, you need to be in the top 2-3 listings, and this can be expensive. 

Another hint: The click-through should go to a page with specific information about that keyword, not to the home page. We use Google and Overture pay-per-click to send traffic to our Clipper and FoxPro to Windows page.  We use several keywords to send traffic to that page and get steady inquiries from all over the planet for about $45 a month. 


Flat Rate
You are billed a flat rate for your site to appear for a specific amount of time.  Examples of sites offering flat rate are:

Yahoo  Still the biggest index and portal around. They will guarantee a listing for a business for $199 a year Non-profits and personal sites are still free.  "Featured sites" get listed first, for an additional hefty charge.

Inktomi  Charges a flat rate for individual web pages to be spidered every few days for one year and has partnerships with many other sites, including AOL, Excite, and Yahoo.  They do not have a "retail" search engine, they only provide data to others. 

 


The bad news:  
The big search engines generally charge for your website to be listed.

The good news:  
These paid listings can produce quality targeted traffic to your website.  But you need to do it right.  We know how! And we take our own advice and use pay per click advertising for this website.