Wealthy Affiliate University – PPC (Pay-Per-Click) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Hi,

There are many advantages and disadvantages involved when comparing PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I will outline the advantages and disadvantages below:

Advantages:

Return on Investment
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CPC is a very effective marketing tool. The efficiency of the advertising is easy to track, therefore making the return on investment (ROI) figures easy to determine. ROI is determined by how many click-throughs resulted in a sale.

Unlike print advertising, where a company may spend thousands of dollars on one ad that very few people may see, CPC allows business owners to see exactly how many people clicked on the ad and what percentage of those decided to purchase something. If the revenue exceeds the costs involved with getting the customers to the site, then the business is making money.

Auto-Bidding
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Many CPC engines are now offering “auto-bidding” to make things even easier for their clients. If Company A puts in a maximum bid of 10 cents, they have determined their limit per click. However, at the moment they may only be paying five cents. If Company B decides that they want to move to the number one spot and ups their click-through rate to six cents, the auto-bidding feature will up Company A’s bid to seven cents so that they will remain in the first position. And they didn’t have to constantly monitor the situation.

Attracting Visitors
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CPC is the most direct way to attract visitors to a site. Choosing specific keywords means that you can specifically target different types of consumers based on which keyword they type in. By promoting more targeted keywords, you are much more likely to attract someone who is interested in purchasing, rather than promoting a broad search term in which individuals tend to type when they are looking for information only

Increasing Branding
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50% of sales occur when a customer visits a Web site for the first time. The other 50% generally occurs on subsequent visits. If a customer sees a company listed at the top of the sponsored links section, chances are that business will get the sale. But even if the sale isn’t made right away, there is still the advantage of branding — building awareness of the site for future needs.

Having Full Control
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Advertisers choose the terms that describe their company; what the cost of the term is worth; how much they are willing to pay each day; and how long the campaign will last. All of this is managed on their own time, not set by deadlines created by an outside source.

Disadvantages:

Budget Limitations
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Because businesses only have so much to spend on their campaigns, they need to set a budget for not only how much they will pay for each click, but also what their daily maximum will be. Because there is a set limit on the money that can be spent, this also limits the amount of exposure the ad will have. Once the daily maximum has been reached, the ad is no longer shown and potential customers could be lost.

For those on limited budgets, this can mean that some of the larger players will gain more exposure because of their financial ability to pay more per click. But having the budget doesn’t necessarily mean becoming number one. It takes patience, determination, creativity, keyword selection and daily analysis to be successful.

Just Looking…
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Just because someone clicks on a link, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will buy. Some people are just doing some research and may click through to see what else is being offered.

Click-Fraud
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It is said that anywhere between 10-15% of all clicks you receive is click-fraud. This means that you only have 85% of your clicks to try to convert a visitor into a customer. Click-fraud will always be around as your advertisers click on your ads, click-farms exists, and people continue to use the content networks. If you want to limit the amount of click-fraud, avoid the use of the content network as this traffic is where most of the click-fraud is derived.

All in all, both methods can be very effective, however you are at the mercy of Search Engine algorithms if you decide to use SEO techniques. One day you could have a top-listing and then the next day it could be removed from the search results entirely.

Have a great week!

Fred

Hi,

Thank you for visiting my web site. I am going to keep you up-to-date with Internet marketing information and I am going to give you insight into programs, strategies and techniques that I use to generate income online.

Today I am going to discuss the 5 main steps to online marketing success. If you can follow these steps, you will become successful online. I use these techniques and they are also used by several other successful Internet marketers who pull in thousands a day. .

1. Set your initial goal.
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Whether you want to generate $100 per day or $1000 per day, the first step is to set a goal for yourself. Often times you will find it most effective to set short term and long term goals. This will allow you to obtain small successes while still recognizing the big picture as to where you want to go. Those who become successful within Internet Marketing, or any business, have set goals and persevere until they achieve these goals.

2. Research and Select a Niche Product to Promote.
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Would you buy a car without researching it before hand? Probably not. Do your research prior to selecting a niche to promote. Often time’s people get way over their heads before they have a solid understanding of how they are going to make money within a niche.

I highly suggest researching industries, products, competitors, advertising costs, and overall opportunities prior to commencing any advertising campaign. You can research markets using the following guidelines:

3. Find Profitable Keywords
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You will need to research keywords and the average Cost Per Click (CPC) over an industry before you begin promoting it. Some industries have thousands of keywords, while some are so specific that only have a handful of keywords. A smaller industry can convert just as well as a large one, so don’t be fooled by industries with keywords and low traffic.

4. Find High Return On Investment (ROI) Affiliate Programs.
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The last research step is to find suitable affiliates merchants within the industry that you want to promote. There are many affiliate networks that have thousands of affiliate programs across different industries. These include:

-CJ.com (Commission Junction)
-Linkshare.com
-ClickBank.com

If you are promoting products through a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) engine such as Google Adwords or Yahoo! Marketing, you will need to make sure that the affiliate program will pay high enough to make it profitable. You typically want to stick to programs that pay over $15/commission. Alternately you can join a program like Wealthy Affiliate.com and use their recommendations on products that they have tested.

5. Start an Advertising Campaign
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Once you find a product that you want to sell, you’ll want to create an Advertising program for it. We suggest promoting the product using Google Adwords or Yahoo! Marketing as these are the highest converting Pay-Per-Click (PPC) engines available.

The following are 2 resources that I highly recommend. These resources focus on teaching you how to create successful advertising campaigns:

For Help, or personal coaching on creating your advertising campaigns I highly suggest the two following resources:

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Beating Adwords.com

Wealthy Affiliate.com
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I personally am a member at Wealthy Affiliate and I would not have experienced the same amount of success without the support of Kyle & Carson, the resources they provide, or the assistance that many of the fellow members at Wealthy Affiliate have given me. My forum ID is Halhighlander if you do decide to sign-up and want to say hello.

Take the Leap!
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Once you have accomplished the previous 5 steps, it is up to you to take the leap.

To Your Success,

Fred