PPC Marketing Now
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has long been one of the most exciting opportunities for affiliates to earn money. But times have changed recently. It's clear that the search engines (especially Google) want to increase the quality of their paid-listings and are cracking down on low-quality website experiences - no matter what the bid price.
We've spent a lot of time talking to Google (their headquarters are just a couple miles away from us)...and here's what you need to know:
“To advertise on AdWords, you need to provide real, unique value to the users who click the ad. This means that your website cannot be just focused on selling an affiliate product”
When we say "real value" it's not something you can cheat on. The people who work at Google are smart. Really smart. They understand the difference between something that's actually valuable and something that's not.
Google is our most important partner. Do not promote our products using any tactics which violates the editorial guidelines of the search engines. Period.
The “Small Pond” Strategy: How To Make Money In PPC Outside Of AdWords
Your knowledge of how to build quality PPC campaigns is hard won...probably built though a lot of hard work and a fair share of failure. If you cannot advertise on Google, how can you use your skills to make money?
Well, because the reverse phone, email search, and family history markets are HUGE, there are still thousands and thousands of dollars to be made each month on smaller advertising networks. Plus, because these networks are smaller, they are far less competitive – often with just 1-2 advertisers on each keyword.
Working with new ad networks can be challenging, but look at it this way. A new network will leverage your existing skills in PPC so you can make money where very few companies are focused and where you'll be fully compliant with all editorial guidelines (since your ads on these networks will not be "duplicate presences").
We recommend testing out multiple networks to find the ones that work the best for you. Some of the most lucrative ponds we know about are:
- Facebook.com
- AdKnowledge.com
- Ask.com Sponsored Listings
- AOL Direct Network
- MySpace.com Advertising Platform
- Bing.com (lots of money to be made here. Bing.com converts well – and despite lower traffic, is worthwhile)
Try them out... experiment with various PPC networks to find the ones that work best for you.