
Pay Per Click Madness
By Rick Carbone
Having been on the Internet for close to ten years the
affiliate market has changed dramatically. It wasn't that long
ago that several large online sites held command of the
affiliate universe. Even today they still have the largest
number of affiliate memberships. What has changed is that just
about anyone can have an affiliate program due to the emergence
of sites like ClickBank and Azoogle. The affiliate member has
the opportunity to share in the profits by as much as 70%!
Azoogle's business model is different in that you either
display html ads on your web site or you can get html to paste
into an opt-in email campaign. With Azoogle you get paid for
the amount of information the individual, the person who clicks
on the ad, provides. This could be just a zip code or an email
address. The pay-off is commensurate with the amount of
information.
This of course is just for placing a link on a website
or sending an email with a link to a landing page. (If you
don't know what a landing page is…read on.) The reason that
just about anyone can be an affiliate today is because PPC or
Pay Per Click advertising has changed the landscape quite
considerably. Google and Overture (These two account for about
90% of all PPC traffic) have changed the affiliate marketplace
because if you are smart enough you have figured out that you
can buy keyword advertising from Google or Overture and
advertise someone else's product, provided you are an affiliate
for that product. You don't need a website because when the
individual clicks on the PPC ad it is directed to the
affiliates web page or landing page. You collect the commission
if that person buys the product or service. Sounds easy, it is,
but as with all good things there are some
catches.
Google â now requests that you provide
them with a list of keywords for your product. You think of
about ten keywords that are associated with your product. You
list each of them within your Google ad. Google then asks you
what's the maximum price per click you'll pay. Being an
astute business person, you decide that you can afford $.10 per
click with a maximum of $25.00 per day. This would give you 250
clicks on your ad per day. That doesn't mean that 250 people
will buy, it just means that 250 people have looked at the
"landing page." How many of the 250 will buy? Good question. I
knew you were paying attention. The answer is: your guess is as
good as mine. It could be 10% of the 250 clickers or 1% of the
clickers or .1%.
Now comes the fun part. Remember that I said you
decided to put your maximum per click price at $.10 per click.
(See the previous paragraph) and your maximum daily amount at
$25.00? Let's say that one of your top, top keywords. the one
that you really felt was going to bring in the big clicks, was
not available because your maximum per click was only $.10 and
the going rate was over $2.00 per click! (Google will not
divulge the top price but only indicate if your maximum is too
low.) $2.00 per click you say I can't afford that! Well that's
how it works. This type of thing happens everyday. Should you
quit the PPC game? Absolutely not! Then how does one on a
limited budget play in the PPC market? There are a number of
ways to break in without depleting your bank
account.
You can test your way in by utilizing alternate PPC
networks. There are several. You can also find niche markets
for keywords that are far less expensive than the more obvious
ones. There are alternatives but you must get grounded first
and then proceed.
Rick Carbone is the owner-editor of Home Business
Research a top website focused solely on online home
business development and management since 1998. You can get
a free copy of his ebook "Go Online1-2-3" by clicking
here
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