I’ve talked a lot of smack about the PPC technique of making money online.  Well, to be honest, it’s a necessary evil, and used correctly, you may even make some money off of it.  The question is how you go about doing that.

The first step is selecting your PPC advertising network.  There are many options out there.  The most well-known one is Google AdWords.  Yahoo is still ranking up there, but since Bing took over their paid search, no one actually seems to know where Yahoo will be.  I would be wary of them, although they are still one of the bigger players out there.  In addition to Google AdWords, the other two top-tier PPC networks are Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Ambassador (again, pending governmental approval, who knows how long that will last).  I would also recommend taking a look at the following five smaller PPC ad networks:

·    AdBrite
·    LookSmart
·    Bidvertiser
·    Miva
·    JumpFly

Please note that these are all targeted toward the US; if you want something for the UK, Australian, or general European market this post may not be for you.

In my next several posts, I will focus on-and-off on the positives and negatives of each network.  Let’s start with Google AdWords.

Pros of AdWords:

·    You will be seen on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for Google search queries – it’s a great way to maximize your exposure.  This definitely increases your chances for visibility in a very competitive world.

·    AdWords has awesome tracking – like most-to-all of Google’s products.  (I am a HUGE Analytics junkie.  I could never understand why you would want to pay for an Analytics program when you have Google Analytics at your fingertips for free.)

·    It’s fast – you can be set up in, say, five minutes.

Cons of AdWords:

·    Clicks generated?
o    Using Google AdWords is a double-edged sword.  Yes, you want your ads to be visible in the search engines, considering how many users visit the search engine results pages for a given keyword.  However, most people do NOT look at the advertisements at the top/right-hand side of the page simply because they know that the results located in those areas ARE advertisements.  (Which is the point of SEO – it’s organic, thus people click on those results, believing them to be the most naturally relevant for their search queries.)

·    Amount of training time
o    It takes a while to become an expert in AdWords – and a tidy sum of money.  You will fail in the beginning, simply because you don’t know what you’re doing.  You can read all of the AdWords tutorials that are available back-to-front.  It won’t matter.  Until you actually get out there in the field (so to speak), you are NOT an AdWords expert.  It will be a costly experience.
Next up:  Yahoo!  (Or Microsoft?  Only time will tell…)

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