Please note: The information provided in the 58+ pages on this website was written in 2008 and contains old and out-dated information. I will be releasing new updated information soon that will show you how to get around the problems facing most of the web directories online today. So please sign up to the newsletter to get the soon-to-be released update!PPC adsare probably one of the better-known ways to advertise a website. These advertisements are the ones that you see down the right hand side of Google’s SERPS (search engine result pages). The name pretty much tells you how you are charged for these advertisements. You are charged each time someone clicks on your advertisement and visits your website.
There are a lot of different search engines on the Internet and all of them have PPC advertising available. Prices do vary somewhat. Google and Yahoo Search are the two biggest players.
Google is the best known and most used search engine on the Internet so that is the one that we will be using here as an example, however, all of the search engines are effective and none should be completely disregarded. Google’s PPC program is called ‘AdWords’.
The most important words in your Adwords advertisements are the keywords that relate to the topic of your websitel. You can find millions of words that have been written on the subject of keywords. The fact is this; keywords are the words that most people type into the search box of a search engine when they are looking for products, services or information. They are really based on just plain old-fashioned common sense. There are variations of keywords, of course, and there are common misspellings of words that also constitute ‘keywords’. But, if, for example, you are running a fishing directory…then ‘fishing directory’ is your main keyword. Variations of those words are keywords as well, such as fishing guide, fishing index, fising sites, fishing resource’… remember misspelled words are also keywords.
The headline of your advertisement needs to contain your keywords. That isn’t rocket science. The other words in your advertisement need to be well thought out and each one needs to point the reader toward your website. Don’t waste space using descriptive words like ‘great, wonderful, fantastic, etc.’
Using words like ‘free, bonus, or instant’ will help get a lot of clicks but since your advertising budget is probably very small it isn’t a good idea to include those words in your PPC advertisements in the beginning. You are looking for paying customers or potential customers who are interested in listing their fishing site in your directory.
Keep the wording of your advertisement direct and to the point.
The best way to write your PPC advertising is to look at the advertisements that are appearing in the top 7 or 8 results that you get when you plug your own keywords into a search engine search box. Analyze the competition’s advertisements and see how they are writing their ads.
Of course PPC costs money so you shouldn’t start with advertising your directory using PPC. Only after your directory has enough Pagerank and traffic do you want to use PPC to bring in paying customers.
If you can buy clicks for pennies then this is a great way to buy traffic to your site and this traffic is very targeted. You want to be in front of people searching directly for placement in directories. Because other webmasters know they need links they might search for “photography directory” to get a link to their site if they’re a photographer.
What you should do if you do run any PPC campaigns is not send people to your homepage but send them directly to a landing page where you are advertising all the benefits of being listed in your directory. If you are charging $39.95 for submissions then list all the benefits they will get when they pay to be listed. List how much traffic you get, Pagerank and any other benefits of a listing.
Basically you want to sell them on why they should spend their money with you. Webmasters in the know will gladly pay for a listing on a directory if they think they will gain some Pagerank or traffic. Businesses want visibility and this is what you are providing to them.
PPC can be very useful if you want to target certain keywords you are not showing up for in the organic search results. PPC is almost immediate, usually takes 10 minutes to show up on Google for the keywords you are using to show up for. So it’s a great way to market your site and see an immediate response.
If you are new to PPC then be sure to start out with a tiny budget per day. Maybe try $20 to start and see what happens. Be sure to set a budget and check it. I’ve typed in $30 a day once only to find out later that I misstyped it at $300/day. Not very cool if you don’t get the results you wanted. Always double check your budget and the amounts you are willing to pay per click.
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