Pay Per Click Advertising for Home-Based Businesses

The internet has certainly revolutionized entrepreneurship, and in the case of home-based and other small businesses, it has leveled the playing field. Ecommerce is one great innovation, but perhaps even more important to the average home-based entrepreneur are the opportunities presented by internet advertising.

The Shortcomings of Advertising the Old Way
Using traditional media to advertise is often prohibitively expensive. After all, there's only so much air time on radio or TV, and so many ad pages to be filled in newspapers and magazines. With traditional media, you are competing with huge corporate juggernauts who make bulk purchases to get the best rates - you can't really hope to compete. Furthermore, the effectiveness of radio, TV, and print advertising is notoriously difficult to measure. If you're going to lay out several hundred dollars for ads, don't you want to know if they're working or not?

The Basics of 'Pay Per Click (PPC)' Advertising
Using the internet as your primary vehicle for advertising presents a whole host of advantages. Pay per click, or "PPC," is probably the best form of internet advertising for home-based entrepreneurs. PPC allows you to place ads on major search engines based on keywords you select, and you only pay for your ads when people click on them - there is no charge simply to display your ad. The cost of PPC is totally dependent on supply and demand, with ad placement determined by auction. You set the maximum you are willing to pay, and this will determine how highly your ad is placed on a page of search results. You can also set a maximum daily budget of $5 or even less.

PPC - The Ultimate Target Marketing Tool
Internet advertising allows you to target a particular audience unlike any other advertising medium. Not only can you use keywords to define your market, but you can also target your ad campaign by locality. If your business is local, as opposed to a national or global ecommerce operation, you can choose for your ads to only be displayed to people from your target area. You can use a region (such as a state, county, or city), or a radius (such as 20 miles from the center of Houston, TX). Some search engines even allow you to create your own region by drawing borders on an electronic map! This way, you won't waste money by advertising to people who are unlikely to utilize your product or services.

Make Money by Advertising on Your Site
Not only does the internet advertising revolution present great opportunities to market your own products, you can also make money by hosting ads for others on your own website or blog. Most search engines have affiliate programs that allow you to sign up and host appropriate ads (chosen by their servers) on your site. When people click on the ads, you and the search engine split the revenue. Some savvy techies have thus parlayed their blogs into successful home-based businesses, generating thousands of dollars each month entirely from ad revenue.

How to Get Started
All of the major search engines have information about their advertising programs readily accessible at their sites. Look over each company's program, but keep in mind that there's no reason to limit yourself to one. After all, with no minimum budget, you can try all of the programs to see which work best for you.