Pay-Per-Clicks . . .
One way to boost traffic to your Web site

(Part 1)

By Robin Nobles

One of the ways to boost traffic to your Web site is by
purchasing keywords from one of the pay-per-click search engines
or directories.

But with literally hundreds of choices, how do you pick the pay-
per-click engine with the best visibility that has the potential
of giving you a higher return on your investment?

And, just as important, what are some strategies for working with
the pay-per-click engines, and how do they operate?

How do Pay-Per-Click Engines Operate?

With pay-per-click engines, you bid on keywords that describe
your business, your products, or your target audience. Then,
you're charged your bid price every time someone clicks on your
ad, which is displayed when a searcher types in the keyword
you've chosen into the search box at an engine. Whoever is
willing to pay the most for the keyword or keyword phrase will be
at the top of the rankings.

There are many benefits to working with pay engines, which we'll
cover in this article.

Important Pay-Per-Click Engines and Directories

Overture: http://www.overture.com

Overture is certainly the pay-per-click engine that most people
recognize. It's also one of the most expensive and competitive.

However, the visibility of Overture is impressive, to say the
least. It provides the top two or three results to "big boy"
search engines and directories like Yahoo!, Lycos, HotBot, and
MSN Search. In fact, Overture claims to reach 80% of all Internet
users.

Overture listings are generally found at the top of the regular
search results in an area called "Sponsored" results or sites.

Overture's pay-per-clicks operate under one premise: whoever has
the deepest pockets and is willing to pay the most gets on top.

The minimum bid is $.10, and there's a minimum charge of $20 per
month. A $50 initial deposit is non-refundable and will be
applied to click throughs or to the minimum monthly spend. When
your account is depleted, they'll contact you to see if you want
to add additional funds to your budget.

Google AdWords: http://www.google.com/ads/

Google AdWords have fast become extremely important in the pay-
per-click arena, with results being shown at search engines like
Google, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, and Teoma.

Google AdWords operates differently than Overture in a number of
ways. Your click-through rate and cost per click together
determine where your ads are shown, so better ads rise to the
top. That means no one can lock you out of the top position.

Google AdWords are shown on the right-hand side of regular search
results in a shaded area called "Sponsored Links."

Because your click through rate has an influence on the placement
of your AdWords ad, your ad's title and description must be
captivating and designed to pull in traffic.

With Google AdWords, there's a $5 activation fee, and the minimum
bid amount is $.05. You decide on the maximum cost per click that
you're willing to pay and set your daily budget. You don't have
to spend a certain amount per month, and you only pay for clicks
you actually receive.

FindWhat: http://www.findwhat.com

Another popular pay-per-click engine that is generally much less
expensive than Overture is FindWhat.

With FindWhat, whoever bids the most gets on top. The minimum bid
is $.05, and they require a $25 minimum amount to open an
account.

FindWhat provides results to 200 different partners, including
many of the big meta engines like Dogpile.

Lycos InSite AdBuyer:
http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/adbuyer/overview.asp

A fairly new pay-per-click program that's displayed on both Lycos
and HotBot is Lycos InSite AdBuyer.

Again, it operates similarly to the way that Overture and
FindWhat operate, with the top results being those who bid the
most for their target keywords.

The minimum bid is $.05 with a $50 minimum to open an account.

LookSmart: http://www.looksmart.com

LookSmart is a pay-per-click directory where you pay a flat $.l5
per click through. It claims to reach 77% of the Internet users
through the partners that display LookSmart results.

Some of those partners include MSN Search, About.com, Netscape,
and AltaVista.

With LookSmart, you don't bid for listings. Everyone pays a flat
$.15 per click through, and your ranking is determined by how
relevant your site is to the search term, according to
LookSmart's ranking criteria. To get started with a LookSmart
listing, the initial investment is $29.

Other Pay-Per-Click Engines:
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/

This comprehensive site lists over 500 different pay-per-click
search engines and offers individual reviews on many of them.

(In Part 2 of this article, we'll continue by discussing the
advantages to working with pay engines. For the complete article,
write to Robin Nobles at robin@searchengineworkshops.com)

Robin Nobles, Co-Director of Training, Search Engine Workshops,
teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on, search engine marketing
workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations
across the globe. She also teaches online search engine marketing
courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) and has two books
available through Amazon and other bookstores.

Copyright 2003 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.