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Permalink Reply by Tom McCann on October 25, 2009 at 11:05pm

The PPC game is getting harder to play and win every day.

First, Google and the other big search engines are making it very difficult for affiliates to buy traffic. It can still be done, but you have to add a lot of value in order to have a high enough quality score to get traffic. The days of getting people to click on an ad so you can send them to a short landing page with an affiiate link is pretty much over.

Second, the competition in the PPC game has gone very high tech. The people who play the game are getting very good at what they do. They track everything, use automated software strategies, AB test everything, etc... It is possible to find a small niche somewhere that doesn't have some of these major players, but it is far and few between.

Third, you need some money up front in order to really play the game well. You will need to do a lot of testing before you figure out what works. This can mean a lot of time and money will be spent as you are learning the ropes.

Last, but not least, when you play the PPC game, you are building very little long-term value. People are on your site for a very short period of time and then they move on to the merchant site. You will get almost no repeat visitors and you aren't building a branded domain or site.

My advice is to build a site people will remember. Don't waste your time chasing the latest offer with PPC efforts. The game can be won, but it is a poker game that needs to be played every day. Work on building long-term value. Build a good site about something you are interested in.

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Permalink Reply by lea on November 27, 2009 at 6:26pm

Thank you Paul, that was very helpful. I like the concept of building long-term value.

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Permalink Reply by James Scott on October 29, 2009 at 12:06pm

If you are an affiliate, I don't think it is worth it. Too much competition with the same offer being offered by lots of people. Also, the search engines seem to be slapping affiliates much more these days.

PPC is great if you have your own product or service to sell.

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Permalink Reply by OICUAM2 on November 7, 2009 at 2:06am

Getting my own product to sell is something I have been thinking about. I love affiliate marketing because you don't have to do much of anything other than generate leads, but we are all trying to sell the same things and promote the same offers. Having my own product would give me a lot more control and a lot less competition - depepnding on the uniqueness of the product.

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Permalink Reply by OICUAM2 on December 11, 2009 at 9:51pm

I just read on another forum that Google has been closing more PPC accounts of affiliate marketers who are tryong to make money by playing the PPC game. No advance warning. Just an email that says your account has been terminated and any attempt to set up a new account with a different email address won't work.

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