The best listing is the first one on the list of results for your key words or phrases. You can rely on the luck of the lists and hope that your web site is listed high enough in the results that people will see your link and visit your site. Or you can pay for a higher profile.

Not long ago banner ads purchased to attract a visit to your site were promoted as the best way to build traffic, but most banner campaigns have faded away.

Today the most popular way to enhance search results is called pay per click. These programs work on an auction system. The web site willing to pay the most money gets the first listing. Listings that pay per click are displayed in a special section labeled as "Sponsors." A click is a visit to your web site from the sponsored link.

Clicks can cost as little as a dime each to $10 or more, depending on how fierce the bidding becomes for that key word phrase.When you open your pay for click account, you decide how much money you want to spend each month. You'll need to monitor your listings and keep up with the bidding process if you have competition or your listing will sink from sight.

Choosing a pay per click program

The largest pay per click program is through Overture.com, which "partners" the ads you set up with Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Excite, Go2Net, InfoSpace, Sympatico, Dogpile, Metacrawler, and Web Crawler. Ads also show at CNN, ESPN, Away Network, Edmunds, Knight Ridder, MyFamily Network and Advertising.com. You can also buy pay per click ads from Google, but the results will only be visible in a Google search because they aren't partnered anywhere else.

We recommend setting up a pay per click ad account at Google and one at Overture. This assures you that virtually all Internet search traffic will be exposed to your ad. Of course some viewers won't click on your link because they prefer the "real" listings that are not purchased. Those who do click on your paid link are more likely to be motivated prospects actively seeking the product or service you are offering.

We can help you set up your pay per click accounts, and write the ads as well. But first, we'll need to help you with your keyword research, our next subject.