Pay Per Click campaigns can quickly become an expensive endeavor. As more and more advertisers leave TV, Radio, Billboard advertising and move to the web, the competition for each click continues to go up as do the costs. Sometimes each click can cost upwards of $5.00. That’s very expensive traffic unless you’re selling cancer treatments or legal services.
Here are a couple of money saving tips to help drive traffic to your site at bargain basement prices.
Bid on Competitors URLs
You’d be amazed how many people type YouTube.com into a search engine instead of into the address bar. Each time someone types a competitor’s website address into Google, there’s an opportunity for you to show a very inexpensive ad to that consumer. You can make that ad even more compelling by advertising as an alternative to that competitor with their name in the ad copy. Sometimes these very targeted clicks will only cost you $0.05/per click.
Bid on Competitor’s Names
It’s the same idea as the URL, but you’re using the competitor’s name instead. Traffic from clicks like this can be very inexpensive and very targeted if you pick the right competitors.
Bid on Misspelled Words
This is different than Typosquatting. You’re just showing inexpensive ads to people who accidently fat-fingered their keyboard or mistyped the name. An ad like this could cost a fraction of the correctly spelled word. Use this tool http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi to help find typo’s of important keywords.
Test Your Site with Cheap PPC
Inexpensive tactics like this to drive traffic to your site is a great way to fine tune your product price points, try out new guarantees, experiment with special offers, etc before you even have a product to sell. The goal is to drive a bunch of traffic and see what offers are the most useful. With traffic like this at less than $0.10 per click, you can learn a lot about what works on your site and what needs to be changed. PPC can be expensive in the long run, but you can use tricks like these to experiment for a few dollars.
Don’t Forget to Subscribe by RSS or Email:




Many businesses aren’t global by definition. Realtors, Chiropractors, Insurance agents, Restaurants, Hair Stylists, and many other local service providers count on local traffic for their business. It used to be very hard for local businesses to compete with global search giants, Pottery Barn would beat out any local furniture store, and what restaurant could compete with Olive Garden. Luckily, the search engines have been working hard to solve the problem of directing local traffic to local businesses. Here’s how to win the local search game.
So Viacom is suing YouTube for a Billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a giant capital “B.” Basically that’s 6 times Viacom’s annual revenue and about 2/3 of what Google paid when they bought YouTube a few years back. Viacom is suing YouTube because someone discovered that the managers and employees of YouTube were turning a blind eye to the copyrighted material that was being uploaded to the site. And because this is the 21st century, the lawsuit is well documented with email correspondence between the guilty parties. (Note to self… be careful what you email).
I first discovered podcasting four years ago and was amazed at the wealth of really high quality content for free. The creators all shared a commitment to keep the medium free. “A business model will emerge,” became the mantra for the first generation of podcasters.
Two exiting new technology products launched this week and took very different approaches to marketing.
Have you ever walked into a store, tried on a pair of pants and then come back a few days later to finally get them? Sometimes we make an impulse purchase, but we’re all much more likely to contemplate a purchase for hours, or days, or sometimes months before we commit. We’re all taught things like “It’s better to look before you leap.”
The next goal is to tip prospective clients from one phase to the next. If someone has just arrived at your site, they’re most likely in Step 2 or Step 3 of the process. This is good news, because you can tailor your copy to those two mentalities:
Often when people make the decision to buy, it’s a fleeting thought that lasts only for a second. Think back to that example when you bought the pants. When did you actually make the decision to buy? How long between the decision and the actual purchase?
In his brilliant book The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris talks at length about how to build a fully automated business in a few weeks. Since he wrote the book a few years ago, the tools have become even more efficient and powerful. Let’s discuss how you can build a complete business in a weekend.
Pick a product with decent margins and preferably in the $100-1000 range. This makes the financials much easier to work with. The best products are intellectual property that can’t easily be copied, like an e-book or a DVD package that you created. Take a look around on Clickbank.com or other affiliate programs for a product that fits your market. The goal is to be at a 4x to 5x mark up to maximize your profits.
There’s a new tool we’ve been playing with for a few months. SquareSpace.com lets you build a complete website in literally a few minutes. It comes with all the tools you’d need:
Run Google Adwords for a few weeks and start to gather some data. You’ll get a good idea if your product works or not. There are tons of resources on this site on how to improve a PPC campaign, get better conversion rates, and boost traffic. But the most important thing is to get started right away.
Link building is an effective online marketing strategy and the key to your company’s success. If you strategically place your links, you’ll be surprised with the qualified traffic you get and how those links build and grow over time. More links equals more sales and customers!
• Links from related sites are worth more than unrelated sites – This is basic common sense. If you have an e-commerce site that sells running apparel, you don’t links from sites that sell cars. Choose links related to running apparel/running-related products.
• Web Directories – Add URLs to web directories such as
Have you ever noticed that when faced with competition that you usually perform better? Think about cyclist Lance Armstrong and his tough competition – do you think he doesn’t push himself to WIN when he’s cycling against other world-renowned cyclists in the Tour de France? Look at his huge successes over the years!
2. Use
Your ultimate GOAL is to get the SAME links as your competition. Easier said than done but armed with a link building strategy, it can be accomplished!