subject: Lower Your Ppc Advertising Budget And Switch To A Free Solution [print this page] PPC, short for pay per click, is a common form of advertising on the Internet. You place ads on web sites but you dont pay for the ads until someone clicks on the ads. The price is determined by a bidding system. The more advertisers competing for the same advertising space, the higher the cost per click.
PPC advertising can be lucrative if you realize what you are doing. It is a highly effective form of advertising, especially for direct marketers searching to maximize their advertising budget. But there is a downside. If you are not careful, this form of promotion can burn a hole in your pocket. It's easy to exceed your intended budget if you are not familiar with PPC promotions. For scenario, you can easily lose hundreds of dollars each month acquiring clicks that do not convert to sales.
If you are new to PPC, perhaps it's better that you start with a smaller budget just to catch a better feel of how PPC works. Once you feel more comfortable, you can increase your budget. Alternatively, you can switch entirely to free Internet Marketing solutions. Search engine optimization is one good scenario. Once you catch your sites to rank in the google search engines, you will receive a steady stream of targeted traffic without having to pay a dime.
In the beginning, however, SEO does require you to put in a little effort. The process of SEO is not complication. But it can be tedious. Here is how it works.
There are two parts of SEO - on-site and off-site optimization.
On-site SEO requires you to tweak your web site to make it google search engine friendly. For instance, you should have keyword rich titles and SEO friendly URLs. This is the easy part since you have full control over your web site and can make the changes you want at any time.
The second part of SEO is off-site optimization. This is the more difficult component because you have to start thinking of ways to catch other web sites to link to you. You can try article marketing, web directory submissions, public bookmarking, etc. These are all well known link building methods that are commonly used for SEO purposes.
It takes a bit of time for a new site to climb up the search rankings. But once it gets there in about 3 months or so, you start to enjoy a steady stream of traffic.
Link building is not really that hard once you catch started. It requires patience though. Unlike PPC advertising, which can show you results almost instantly, SEO can take months for results to show. If your sites dont rank, you dont catch traffic. The upside is that there is less risk involved (you dont lose money upfront). So if you can afford to hang around a little and have a limited budget, use SEO to market your web site. Also, dont forget to choose a hosting company that supports you in your marketing. A little hosting companies give out free PPC credits and offer excellent SEO services.