The State of Search Engine Advertising: Reality and Alternatives

The herd mentality never fails to amaze me. When the pay-per-clíck concept was first pioneered in 1997-98 by GoTo.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), it was years before the model was widely accepted. GoTo virtually created the market for pay-for-performance search single-handedly and redefined how businesses market online while other search engines sat on their collective hands. Then, when it was obvious that there was "Gold in Them Thar (PPC) Hills" hundreds of search engines entered the PPC arena and hordes of advertisers followed suit.As a search engine advertising model, pay-per-clíck was, and is, brilliant in its simplicity. In theory, it is a perfect way to bill advertisers based on consumer interest in their advertisements. Unfortunately, in real life monëy can bring out the worst in human, and business, nature. In today's search engine reality, pay-per-clíck should be on its last legs. But, as anyone with a knowledge of the search engine industry knows that simply isn't the case.

The State of Search Engine Advertising: Reality and Alternatives

The herd mentality nevër fails to amaze me. When the pay-per-clíck concept was first pioneered in 1997-98 by GoTo.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), it was years before the model was widely accepted. GoTo virtually created the market for pay-for-performance search single-handedly and redefined how businesses market online while other search engines sat on their collective hands. Then, when it was obvious that there was "Gold in Them Thar (PPC) Hills" hundreds of search engines entered the PPC arena and hordes of advertisers followed suit.As a search engine advertising model, pay-per-clíck was, and is, brilliant in its simplicity. In theory, it is a perfect way to bill advertisers based on consumer interest in their advertisements. Unfortunately, in real life monëy can bring out the worst in human, and business, nature. In today's search engine reality, pay-per-clíck should be on its last legs. But, as anyone with a knowledge of the search engine industry knows that simply isn't the case.

The Role of Memory In Website Content and Advertising

The primary goal of all advertising, including website content is to be remembered. No matter what other marketing goal you want to achieve, if your audience doesn't remember your presentation, it is a wasted effort and lost opportuníty. All the monëy spent on attracting people to your website goes right down the drain if your content is instantly forgettable. With that in mind it is hard to believe how little thought is put into creating content that people will remember.In order to create content or advertising that people will remember, we have to understand a little about how memory works. Professor Daniel Schacter of Harvard University is an expert in the study of human memory and has written numerous books on the subject, including 'The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers'. In this book Schacter describes seven characteristics of human memory that all marketing people need to be aware of in order to construct content and advertising that website audiences will retain.

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Google AdSense

AdSense Advantages
- AdSense is simple to join.- It's easy to paste a bit of code into your pages.- It's free to join.- You don't have to spend time finding advertisers.- Google provides well written, highly relevant ads chosen to closely match the content on your pages.- You don't have to waste time choosing different ads for different pages.- You don't have to mess around with different code for various affiliate programs.- You're free to concentrate on providing good content and Google does the work of finding the best ads for your pages from 100,000 AdWords advertisers.- It's suitable for beginners or marketing veterans.- AdSense provides simple, easy-to-understand stats.
If you have affiliate links on your site, you are allowed to add AdSense ads; However, with your affiliate links, you must not mimic the look and feel of the Google ads. You can also block ads for sites that don't meet your standards or that may be a competitor. Inevitably, AdSense is competing strongly for space on web sites with all other revenue sharing opportunities.Many users of the adsense program have voiced their concerns about what they would like to see changed or improved.