Important Pay-Per-Click and eBay Commentary

One of the most important keys to having a successful online business is web traffic.  Think of this as the number of people coming into a physical store and browsing around.  The more people you have coming in, the more sales you will probably generate.  Assuming you have a nice store layout, quality products, and competitive pricing, with the foot traffic comes success.  The same is true with online stores - the more traffic the more success.

One way to generate traffic to your online store is to pay for it through Pay-Per-Click advertising.  You may be familiar with this method and perhaps even given it a try.  Even so, most people recognize of the most popular methods from Google called “Adwords”.  Do a search on Google and related ads to your search pop up along the top and sides of your web page search results.  The more the advertiser is willing to spend, the more visability the advertiser will receive.  Click on the ad and you just called the advertiser some bucks.  Now the advertiser has you in their online store.  Care to buy anything?

I recently tried Pay-Per-Click marketing for one of my online stores.  I’ve done this about every six months or so, thinking one day I’ll hit it big and get so much foot traffic that my sales will be overwhelming.  Each time, I lost more money than I made in sales.  However, this past month was suppose to be different.  I had Yahoo! professionals set my ads up and do all the magical keyword selections to get the most focused attention to my store.  I’m sorry to say they failed miserably…at my expense.  Ouch.  I even spoke on the phone numerous times with the Yahoo! sales person (the guy who set up my ads) and he promised to fully review the ads again and get back to me with a more improved method.  One week went by.  Two weeks.  Three.  I never heard from him.

What’s the moral of my story?  I use eBay not only to sell but to generate as many qualified leads.  This traffic is free.  I do this by asking customers to opt in to my email list where I entice them with special sales and giveaways.  It a great deal for my customers and helps me move more products.  As the number of customers opt in to my newsletter, the more my sales grow.  If you have an online store, I encourage you to not use Pay-Per-Click as a marketing method.  Use your eBay traffic to build an email list server.

So long for now Pay-Per-Click.  Hopefully I’ll be wiser in 6 months not to try again.