I have nothing good to say about Google, can someone tell me

[sclong]

Can someone tell me how to get more visitors? Without spending a lot of money! I just spent close to $400.00 in just 7 days with the Google Adwords program and I don't have anything good to say about it. I got more visitors but only 13 $10 sales. Thats about $400 - $130 = $270 in the hole! This ain't gonna work.

[bengel]

Can you tell me more about your sites target visitor? Also what is the theme of your site- are you selling cars, anything to anyone....

More specifics are needed to assist.

[sclong]

Yes, thankyou for responding. I am targeting free classified customers as a whole but also individual categories like cars, boats, homes basically like a newspaper classifieds just on the internet. No, I am not selling anything myself just classifieds. Any Ideas?

[bengel]

I've used Google with some success, but you're right, you need to watch what you spend. Your target audience is very broad, and honestly, I think you will have a hard time. I would suggest you start by narrowing your focus, either by geography, or items. If you do a search of online classifieds, even the very large ones have listings that are so scattered by geography or item, that they likely get limited results for customers. And these are the folks you need for repeat business.

To effectively use PPC (pay per click such as Google), you need to target your ads. If you advertise "cars", you will get clickers looking for everything from buying and selling, to researching parts and values. Look for more specific words that will draw less but more more targeted traffic. "used car" "sell new car" are exa,ples of this. If you were to target your search and business to your area, then Google will let you list and show ads in your geographic area. Now you are paying for more targeted traffic and likely to get better results. I like Overture's free search tool at: http://inventory.overture.com This will show you the number of searches last month for affiliated search engines and give you some ideas.

Know what you can afford for an ad at least on a break even basis. A well written ad will garner maybe a 2-3% response rate for classifieds. So if your monthly budget is $100 and you get a 2% response rate, you can afford .20 per click if you profit margin is 100%. If you margin is 90%, then you can afford .18 cents. Keep in mind this is BREAKEVEN without your advertising costs.

Other ideas are getting free listings in directories, and related publications. Spend some time online and you can find some of these, but you will not draw much traffic form them.

Build links with appropriate sites that cater to your focused site- cars etc,

Hopefully this gives you some ideas to get started, but also helps you see that your business might be more realistic with a tighter focus.

Good luck!

[geomodules]

...

[mjm1905]

I am targeting free classified customers as a whole but also individual categories like cars, boats, homes basically like a newspaper classifieds just on the internet.

From my experience, try to avoid flipping people that are looking for free venues. I still offer free advertising on my site, but I have removed it as the focus. In addition, I have ran for a couple weeks without offering free placement. The site produced income, but did not produce any volume.

As mentioned above, broad terms are difficult. I would suggest that you experiment with the advertising campaign for some fixed duration and draw your own conclusion.

As equineads mentioned, it is important to demonstrate some measure of value for advertisers as well. I think this is something that takes time to develop.

For what it is worth, when it comes to ppc advertising, you now know the formula. Rest assured, the people who are attempting to dominate the market share are experiencing the same results as you mentioned above. Now that you have seen the return ratio, put it into your marketing budget. X amount of visitors generates y dollars. So each visitor is worth z.

There are sure to be changes, as clients are not books. However, by monitoring the results, we could base our advertising budgets off averages. I have found some terms to be pure loosers, and hope to enjoy free traffic in the future. They are not worth the minimum ppc fees charged by most search engines.

Avoid the be at-the-top frame-of-mind. This nothing more than the SE's sales pitch. I have bidded top dollar on many terms over the past year. I have monitored and modified my site to become close, in-part, with some of the other high bidders that are by far, "better established". There is no doubt in my mind they are loosing money from their advertising campaigns. Most of them, that had been there when I started, have lost their focus. The sites are full of affiliate links, poorly described links, and google ads. When I visit them, it is difficult to clearly find advertisements or how to advertise on the Website.

On another note, the type of client you are attracting is important. For example, a Real Estate Agent, who may list a new home each month, is worth much more than a "For Sale by Owner" advertiser. The agent would produce a return from repetative business. This would be true for businesses as well. It would depend how long "we" are willing to wait for a return on our investment.

Free traffic, in my opinion is garbage traffic. However, I am appreciative of the free traffic that I receive. I do not believe a single sale has been made from free traffic. I would not focus advertising dollars on generating free traffic. It seems to me, these people are looking for anything. They want to entertain themselves, read, or research information. I view them as a gift. If they come, great. If they don't come, it's not hurting.

Keep in mind, Google would not care who goes, "belly-up," with their ppc advertising. It's not their fault, after all. Discover what a term is worth, and stick to it. Let others overpay and loose money.

Use the tools provided for targeting and eliminate the terms that are not producing results.

I hope that helps.

Good luck

[debatt]

Welcome to the google "haters"
Check http://www.axandra.com/go.to/ranking/http://www.Axandra.com/axroi-store.htm (to buy)

Read about it here: http://www.axandra.com/go.to/ranking

[springsads]

Get out of google while you still can.