Paid Vs Free Advertising

It has been said many times before that if you don't know what you are doing, you can lose your shirt and a lot more with PPC. It has also been said many times in this forum that free methods of traffic generation are the way to go if you are cash strapped and/or just testing a market.

TomG.

I'm a big fan of free advertising.

I started out internet marketing with hardly any cash at all to invest. So, I turned to free methods (with my favorite being article marketing).

I've since made a living solely off of article marketing and other free marketing strategies. You really can't go wrong with free, targeted traffic. That, and once you really get going with article marketing, it really is simple, simple stuff.

PPC is too much of a risk (for me, anyway). While I've dabbled with it here and there, I don't have the patience to learn the tricks and tactics of it. Plus, with keyword bids fluctuating so much, you could spend $x.xx one day and $xxx.xx the next.

Google Adwords and the Yahoo and MSN equivalents are highly effective but expensive.

Free advertising methods can be as effective but are expoensive in terms of the time and effort involved. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

There are other means of search engine marketing which can deliver the same kind of targetted visitor to your website at a fraction of the cost of PPC on the big three. Once you have a little money to invest, why not augment your advertising efforts by adding inexpensive SEM to your mix of free methods before taking the big leap to Adwords etc.?

While Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista and Ask.com control about 95% of all search queries, the remaining 5% of tens of billions of queries per month is still a very significant number. These queries occur on hundreds of independent search engines with networks of thousands of sites carring their sponsored ads.

The traffic from these networks will be smaller in volume but just as targetted and will cost you a nickel per visitor instead of $5 and you'll have far less competition for the most competitive keywords.

i do agree that google adword is pretty helpful.

PPC is great for the right product with the right margins. Other than that, free traffic is the way to go, and it lasts longer, plain and simple.

I created the online magazine in my sig to give an alternative to the article marketing directories. The idea is to get your original, unique content in mainstream media outlets and let that quality do the selling for you. yT is designed to be a destination site that people will routinely visit, not just a database of articles. I don't think it replaces other article marketing sites, but is an adjunct to your article marketing efforts.

Either way, stick with free, as your ROI will always be positive (not counting your time of course )

Free/low cost advertising is a necessary step for all businesses.

It's a chance to really test the marketability of your product or service before investing real money in it.

I guess the real obvious advantage of paid vs free advertising is that paid advertising gives you more control over your traffic flow than free advertising does.

With Adwords for example you setup your campaign and the traffic starts flowing...(until the money runs out)

With most free methods you employ the method and wait for it to kick in. Then it tends to be a little less predictable.

Yes, I have started feeling the pinch of PPC increasing the cost to a dizzy height. I am able to see the fall in my income also due to these costs. I am planning to target other free sites which may be small yet offer significant queries and would involve lot of patience before I get a break. My earnings might go down but I would at least have the satisfaction of earning something if not great money. Once I know some good contacts, I will be too glad to share them in this forum.