Affiliate Marketing : 5. Using Pay Per Click

I've been a suporter of PPC search engines for years. They remain one of the most effective tools you can use to bring quick, cheap, targeted traffic to your site.

True to their name, with pay-per-click search engines, you pay a premium every time a visitor clicks on your link-anything from a few cents to a few dollars.

For example, let's say you want to promote a site that sells Information on how to learn affiliate marketing. And you want to rank No. 1 in the search engines for the term "affiliate marketing course" To get a top-ten position in the free search engines, you'd probably be looking at a few months (at least) of arduous effort.

But in the pay-per-clicks, you can grab the No. 1 spot in just minutes! That's because all you have to do is see how much the person who has the No. 1 position is paying per click, and simply outbid them by paying one penny more.

Then when your potential customer searches for the term "affiliate marketing course", your link will show up as the first listing on the search results page. And each time searchers click on your link, you'll pay however much you have bid for that No. 1 position.

Advantages of Using Pay Per Click

There are three advantages to bidding on keywords in the pay-per-clicks:

1. You get effective advertising, because you only pay when someone actually clicks through to your site.
2. Your listing will get posted quickly-anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days at the most-meaning you can start profiting from increased traffic and sales almost immediately.
3. In order to rank in the No. 1 position, all you have to do is outbid your competitors, which is usually only a matter of a few pennies per click.

Important Tips For Pay Per Click Advertising

Done right, pay-per-click advertising can be very profitable. However, if you're not careful, you can lose a lot of money with your PPC advertising. Here are some tips to help you ensure your campaigns are profitable:

1. Avoid keywords that are too general. More general keywords will attract a lot of traffic, driving up the cost of your PPC campaign and converting few visitors to sales because general search terms aren't specific enough to attract the right audience.
   
2. Ensure that the sales process on your site is converting visitors to buyers before you launch a full-scale PPC campaign. You don't want to be spending money on getting the traffic if your site can't produce sales.
   
3. Make sure you calculate how much you can afford to bid on keywords to guarantee you still turn a profit. To determine how much you can afford to bid, you'll need to understand the value of each visitor to your site. You can do this by determining the number of sales you'll get, the profit you'll earn per sale, and the number of unique visitors your site will receive during a set period of time. It's generally easiest to calculate these numbers on a monthly basis.

Calculate Visitor Value To Determine You Pay Per Click Bid Values

Here are three easy steps that will help you determine the value of each individual visitor to your site:

1. To determine your visitor conversion rate (that is, the percentage of visitors who buy from you), calculate: No. of sales ÷ number of visitors = conversions per visitor
   
   Example: 5 sales ÷ 123 unique visitors = 0.041 = 4.10% conversion rate
   
2. To calculate your net profit per sale, calculate:
   (Gross revenue - total expenses) ÷ number of sales = net profit per sale
   
   Example: $145.00 Gross revenue - $67.00 total expenses = $78 profit ÷ 5 number of sales = $15.60 net profit per sale
   
3. To determine the value of each of visitor to your site, calculate:
   Net profit per sale x visitor conversion rate = individual visitor value
   
   Example: $15.60 net profit per sale x 4.10% visitor conversion rate= $0.63 is the individual visitor value
   
   Once you understand the value of your visitors, you'll be able to set your maximum bid for keywords. For example, you may determine that each individual visitor to your site is worth 63 cents in pure profit. This means you can afford to bid a maximum of 53 cents per click to guarantee that you'll generate a good profit margin.

The value of your visitors may also help you determine which PPC search engines you'll use, as the minimum bid on keywords in some search engines may be higher than in others.

Which Pay Per Click Engines Should You Use?

There is no doubt that the two best PPC services are offered by Google and Yahoo Search (formerly known as Overture). In the next two sections, I will provide you with more details on both of these two services.

Stetp-1-Affiliate Marketing:1.Definition

Step-2-Affiliate Marketing : 2. The Clickbank Marketplace

Step-3-Affiliate Marketing : 3. How To Choose The Best Affiliate Programs

Step-4-Affiliate Marketing : 4. Quick Way To Start Earning Money

Step-5-Affiliate Marketing : 5. Using Pay Per Click

Step-6-Affiliate Marketing : 5a. Using Google PPC

Step-7-Affiliate Marketing : 5b. Overture Yahoo Search!

Step-8-Affiliate Marketing : 6. Advanced Pay Per Click

Step-9-Affiliate Marketing :7. Advanced Techniques

Step-10-Affiliate Marketing :8. Summary