Have you been using Pay per click or PPC marketing like I have lately? I was nominally happy with the quick traffic, but I’m starting to think it may be a waste of time. They say there’s greener pastures, and I think it might be true. You may be wasting a ton of money on Google that may be better spent elsewhere!

There’s plenty alternative marketing ventures to Google.

Pay Per Click ads can make you money. It’s simple, but they can also cost you money too! I have been making money online through the use of PPC campaigns, marketing directories and adwords ads. However, things could be better to be honest. For one competition for google is pretty fierce. You could be spending $3.00 a click on good keywords. Carving out a niche is recommended, but easier said then done. Also, there’s a lot of  ‘sabotage’ that goes on. People with competing ads may click on your ads to cost you money, and force you out of their spots!

Often times when you establish yourself in a niche you’ll find out that it either doesn’t have the traffic or somebody has already thought about it. So, my new method I’d like to try is direct advertising. Why?

Well, I thought using adwords to make money with affiliate marketing was a match made in heaven. However, I think I could be getting a lot more bang for my buck! I’ve been marketing to a certain niche, and paying about $0.6 to 0.8 cents a click. Which is not too shabby! However, the conversions are hit or miss.

It’s also pretty hard to track affiliate conversions for adwords. I mean; I can see what ad landed the sale, but it’s hard to tell ‘when’ it happened per say. Usually, when somebody clicks one of your ads they will not buy right away. Your click lead that resulted in a sale may actually have happened a week ago.

After some recent success I posted up a bunch more similar ads, and got way more clicks than I bargained for! Even at $0.8 cents it cost a bit. And, as of yet no conversions for those! (Lesson learned, when testing new markets start with smaller budgets.)

I’ve also been playing around with another project child I want to unfold! I didn’t think PPC was right for its audience so I was checking out other marketing ideas. I then saw I could buy a banner ad on popular blogs in my niche to the tune of $30-$40 a month! That’s pretty slick actually!

I spent that much money in a day on adwords. That means for 30 days everybody that visits a website directly related to my niche that is probably interested in my product will see it. I also don’t have to pay per impression or click which is a pretty good deal too.

Also, I have better control over where my ad lands. The only downside I see is that you can’t get as big of a variety of placement like you can across Google’s network. But I haven’t decided if that is really a ‘bad side’ or not.

As with everything.. you have to test out what’s right for your product. Ad words may do wonders for you, and it may not. If you’re not having any luck with adwords it may be time to move on. There’s plenty other places to get attention online! It may be time for you to stop giving google free money.