Free Vs Paid Advertising

PPC is a fast way to test markets and find where the real traffic is; however you can lose a lot of money very quickly if you don't know what you are doing.

For most people I believe article marketing used with other Web 2.0 methods is the best way to get started online. It may take longer, but it is low risk and if you do it right you can even get started without knowing how to make a website.

John

I agree with the expenses one has to incur through PPC campaign but it also tells you how much you are in water pretty quickly.

Test the level of water and if you can swim in that, its good but if you are foreseeing yourself drowning then come out of it. Its a good exposure.

And who is saying to choose keywords worth $5 per click. Be innovative and creative... With different permutations and combinations, try to come out with words or phrases which have less competition. You can make money out of that too. Also in PPC you can monitor your progress on daily basis infact if you want to, you can monitor it on hourly basis too.

Unlike SEO campaigns where you have to work with patience as results normally start showing up after 2 to 3 months, here its faster. Its simple...if its not working for you then close it and try some other option but do go for PPC campaigns atleats once. It can change your business.
Thats what i will advice.

Hey i Know all that tricks... but most of the time keywords tend to increase quickly. You might see a keyword increase form $0.5 to $2 in a single hour. Whats the reason for all this, demand and supply i guess.

I don't see how ppc can lose someone money if they have been playing the ppc game for a few years, it could sting a newcomer but veterans of the ppc game will not lose money. Your cpc is really dependant on your product and the price, if a product costs $1000 and I am paying .55 per click and it converts in 10 or 30 or even 100 clicks then it is all profits.

PPC only loses people money if they don't have a goal set, a budget that they can afford and they don't monitor their accounts/campaigns, newcomers need to keep this in mind.

You can actually save even more money with ppc if you constantly test test test, I do it daily and my ctrs rise everytime and my clicks are higher and my costs are lower as well, ppc is the purest form of traffic that anyone can get, although seo is great, it doesn't have total control in targeting your prospects as ppc does.

My advice to all ppc newcomers is to start slow, work on your campaigns with passion and test and tweak and ppc can really bring lots of dedicated customers/buyers to your portal/site/business.

I am new to all of this, but it seems from reading all of your advise, that I should try PPC but not set it and forget it.

When I ran a shop, I found that different customers responded to different types of advertising. There are those who would trust natural SERPS to PPC results and vice versa, and there are customers who would tend to buy from eBay. Basically, I think you have to keep an open mind about it.

I use PPC. But i would advise newbies to learn all they can before they venture into Pay-per-click so that they don't be a victim of the common phase "DOES ANYBOBY EVER MAKE MONEY ONLINE".

My advice for newcomers is that you stick to free methods of advertising ( social bookmarking, blogging, forum activity, article writing e.t.c) till you become grounded in all this surf. Although free methods of advertising can be time cosuming but in the long run it will pay in spades.
Thanks...