Simon Paul Thurston

There are so many success stories out there about businesses succeeding through the use of the internet. The trouble is, there are hundreds or thousands of stories about failure using the same medium.   There are a lot of individuals who have launched internet-based business enterprises, but only a small handful actually succeed.

Is it just luck?  Probably not.  It takes good business sense, a lot of work, and a team effort.  Most importantly, it takes an eagerness to succeed, a determination to learn, and a willingness to invest a lot of hard work and money.

The Basics

Traffic is key.  Without traffic, all your effort will go to waste.  Every business needs customers - without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to.  In the internet world, traffic is the walk-in customer.  The more traffic you have the more, the more potential customers you will have an opportunity to sell your products to.

But like any business that is located in some corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy.  However, the greater the number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater the number will be of people who will buy your products.  It’s not rocket science – just simple logic.

The question really is this – how do you get traffic?  How do you draw traffic large enough that it could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit?  A number of large companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buy - but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these successful businesses get their traffic by paying others.  That’s right - you have to spend money to make money.  Advertising is key.  The more people who know that your site exists; the more people who will go to your site - it’s common sense.

While there are many ways that you can obtain advertising for free, these don’t  generate the same high volume as those methods with an associated cost. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes through Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Search Engines

The search engine is the easiest and fastest medium people use to find what they are looking for on the internet.  Search engines have always been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. Because of this popularity, they get a large number of visitors and clicks – and they’ve become the most common sites people visit on the internet.  This is why it is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to millions of users each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your site’s link pops up high in the search results page, you have a fantastic chance that they will go to your site.  While search engine optimization is a much cheaper and lower cost method to get your site a high rank,  paying for advertisements will ensure that your site will be within the top ranks.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic.  This may not sound like an ideal scenerio, but the payoff will convince you. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site, and your sales will show it.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged by the number of clicks a link gets when your ad is clicked - this is called pay per click.  With some search engines, you will be charged by the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched.  It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad.  There are many tools available that assist you in using the right keyword for the right ad.

All of the money that you spend for your traffic will not be for naught.  You will see an impressive boost in traffic which will also result in a great boost in your sales figures.  And in the end that is, quite literally, the bottom line.