Making Money with Affiliation with Pay Per Click

It doesn't really take a whole lot of knowledge to realize that the internet is the new wave in marketing right now. It is even better than traditional methods for marketing because this method can give you returns almost immediately upon your investment if you know what you are doing and how to best capitalize off of it. As you can probably imagine, the entire purpose of using affiliation as a part of your marketing technique is so that you can make some money.

Below, you will learn how you can make money with affiliation without spending more than you can afford to spend. There are more ways to generate traffic to your website and this is just one of them. However, I thought that it deserved more attention on its own as its popularity gets higher. Look below for more options.

Pay Per Click Advertising. Pay per click advertising is a bonus for affiliate marketers because it basically does exactly what it says. When your visitors click onto your web pages you will get paid just for the visit. It doesn't apply to how much stuff the visitors purchase. Let's take a look at some of the most common questions about it to help you get an exact idea of what this really is.

What Is Pay Per Click? Pay per click advertising on search engines allows you choose keywords you would like your site to appear for when a search query is performed. You get to decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. The more you are willing to pay per click, the higher your site will appear in the results for the keywords you choose. Because of this, your site's appearance listing can rapidly fluctuate. However, this method is great for the marketer that is just starting out.

Which Search Engines Offer Pay Per Click Advertising? There is literally hundreds of pay per click search engines such as MSN, Yahoo, Google and Overture. Generally, the larger the pay per click search engine is, the more you will have to bid to get to the top for your keywords. This is why it is worth investigating different search engines to find what it would cost to bid on your keywords and how much traffic they draw in. The largest companies in the pay per click industry are Overture and Google.

Google is not a pay per click search engine, but it does provide pay per click advertising in text ad boxes to the right of search results it delivers. It also delivers pay per click ads to other content sites as well. One advantage the lesser known search engines have is that these search engines can provide lower costs per click to rank for a keyword than the larger search engines. In addition to the general pay per click search engines, you may also be able to find thematic search engines that serve your industry or specifically cater to your target audience.

Important Thoughts Before Choosing Pay Per Click Search Engine. One very important thing that you must do when you use pay per click advertising is that you must test, test, and test again before you settle on your bid amount. You shouldn't start off with a major investment before testing the service. Start with the minimum bid amount and see how the search engine performs in terms of the traffic it delivers and how well that traffic converts into paying customers. A necessary aspect of your testing is having a method in place that allows you to track your return on the money that you have invested. For example, if your goal is to bring in new subscribers to your newsletter, you could direct visitors arriving from your pay per click link to a subscription form that is set up just for them. You can then monitor how many clicks actually result in a new subscription. As such, you will know how much you are paying for each new subscriber.

Before you begin spending any money with a pay per click search engine, be sure they can answer the following questions first:

• How many searches a month are performed at the search engine approximately?

• What major search partners or affiliates does the search engine already have?

• How many searches are generated each month by the search partners or affiliates?

• Is it possible to avoid having your listing appear in the results of the affiliate sites?

• What fraud prevention and security precautions are in place?

• What is the procedure for filing a "fraudulent clicks" report?

• Will an account be credited for fraudulent clicks discovered?

• Is it possible to refuse to have a listing appearing for searches originating from specific countries?

• Is there a term of service for search partners or affiliates that is easy to see?

Look for search engines that have very strict guidelines for dealing with their search affiliates. This is important because you want to be sure the search engine is working hard to prevent fraud among all of its affiliates. While search engine optimization can be an intensive and time consuming process that requires a complete site overhaul, pay per click advertising is fast, easy and a much more exact science than search engine optimization. Pay per click search engine advertising offers so many benefits that overshadow search engine optimization such as the following benefits:

• You only have to pay for visitors to your website whereas most banner and rich media ad campaigns that are purchased on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis.

• Pay per click programs only charge you when someone actually visits your website.

• You get the chance to reach worldwide consumers during a time when a consumer is using a search engine like Google to look for information so that you don’t have to interrupt them while online in order for you to get them to visit your site.

• You get the advantage of precise targeting that will help to get target people who are looking for your products, services, and informational content regardless of age, sex, income, or other classifications.

• You can easily control your expenses when you use pay per click because you know exactly what you are getting for your money. If you receive visitors from the marketing campaign, you’ll pay a price that you get to determine for each visitor.

• Rapid testing and feedback from pay per click advertising can be instant if you use one of the pay per click ROI tracking or campaign management tools. You’ll know exactly how well your investment is performing in real time. It just doesn't get any easier than this.

• You get the advantage of having rapid deployment that is complete with ROI tracking is very fast to set up and can be up and running in 15 minutes. There are no banners (and associated costs) to create and haggle over; simply write some text ads and get them up and running.

• The affordability that you get with pay per click is awesome whether your monthly budget is $20.00 or $200.00 you can use pay per click advertising to grow your business.

• Not only can you be up and running in 20 minutes, you can reach a global audience quickly and easily, particularly with Google AdWords.

Pay Per Click Search Engine Basics. When you setup an account with any pay per click search engine advertising program your ranking for each keyword is determined by the amount you are willing to pay per click (your bid). The higher you bid, the higher you will rank. You do have the option with search engine's like Google to set a different bid price for each keyword. If you are a small business with a minimal budget to invest in pay per click advertising you’ll probably want to take a guerrilla approach and bid low on keywords that your competitors have overlooked. If you’ve got a larger budget than that it can be best for you if you start with higher bids because then you can collect some conversion data and evaluate the direction your campaign should take a little bit faster.

The best pay per click programs Google AdWords is by far the best choice right now for pay per click programming; in part because it is the most popular search engine in the world. When you take part in the AdWords program you have the option to syndicate your message on all international version of Google, its search partners like AOL, Ask Jeeves, and Earthlink and content sites like HowStuffWorks.com.

Next thing you know, you can be up and running with a worldwide advertising test campaign. When you use Google AdWords you are not buying placement within the actual search results because you can't, but you can purchase text ads in the little colored boxes that are located on the right hand side of the main search results. The ads that generate the most revenue for Google will quickly rise to the top. Like the pure pay per click search engines like Overture you only pay Google when someone clicks on your listing no matter how many times it is displayed. For now, go check out the tutorial on how to set up a Google AdWords Account.

Overture - Massive Reach on MSN, YAHOO! Overture started out as GoTo.com which was a pioneer in the pay per click search engine advertising arena and has always based search engine rankings on the amount of money that the advertiser was willing to pay per click. The price per click on Overture starts at $0.10 and the monthly minimum amount that you can spend is $20.00. When you advertise on Overture and set your bids high enough to rank in the top 3 spots your listings will usually be syndicated on YAHOO!, MSN, AltaVista, and FAST. Your rankings in Overture will change constantly because the market for keyword placements is extremely competitive and everyone is trying to hit at the right balance between traffic, and bid price. thanks to a more extensive editorial review process than Google AdWords, it generally takes up to a week to get active with the standard account, or 3 days if you choose to sign up for the more expensive ($199.00) Fast Track option.

LookSmart -Target MSN Just like Overture and Google AdWords, business at LookSmart is moving pretty good too. LookSmart offers pay per click advertising at $0.15 per click. With the LookSmart Small Business Listings, you can submit one URL to the LookSmart directory for a fee of what is usually around $49.00 unless you get a promotional discount. If your content is approved, and most listings are, your site will be placed in the LookSmart directory. Within a day or two it will be syndicated across the LookSmart syndication network. MSN is currently the largest and most important syndication partner of LookSmart and 90% or more of the traffic you will receive from the LookSmart network will come from MSN. The main difference between pay per click advertising on LookSmart and other programs like Google AdWords is the flat $0.15 rate per click and the fact that you cannot buy specific placements for specific keywords (Google Adwords use fluctuating rates). If you utilize the LookSmart pay per click program you will be subject to a $15.00 monthly minimum spend. LookSmart creates special offers that lets small businesses to submit up to 5 pages from a website. In addition to the major programs that are mentioned above there are shopping search engines like that will also offer pay per click programs for product listings, which is smaller pay per click engines. There are literally hundreds of other pay per click search engines out there.

iGetNet keywords is another program that chances are, you have never heard of. You’ve probably gotten email spam from someone trying to sell IGN keywords or a phone call from a sales rep that is trying to sell you this product. While it’s not a pay per click program, it is a source of confusion for many new to keyword marketing. I would suggest that you leave these people alone because you will likely get more than you bargained for here or not enough.