It is often said that paid marketing is the THE FASTEST way to get website traffic. PERIOD.

I define paid marketing like the marketing technique like the name, where you pay for exposure or traffic. It’s the fastest way to be on the first page of any keyword phrase you want in a matter of minutes with Google AdWords. However, the moment you stop buying these clicks from Google, your advertising stops.

There are many ways to get started in “Paid Marketing” on a shoestring budget. These can be useful to get things going as you plant seeds in your chosen promotion areas. I have found that as mature marketers, paid marketing is always part of their mix.

For the purposes of this article, I will refer to the top three “paid marketing strategies” now being used on the Internet to drive traffic to a website, capture a page for the sole purpose of making a sale, or build a listing for sell later.

The first is AdWords or Google Search Engine Marketing. Their names have become so common that we sometimes use them to refer to paid marketing, much like Kleenex is a soft facial tissue, but we use the brand name when referring to any brand of tissue. AdWords and Google are trade names, but since they’re the major players, we refer to the entire strategy by their names. Actually, more accurately we should call it Pay Per Click Advertising (Google, Yahoo, MSN and others). Also known as pay-to-rank, pay-to-place, pay-to-position, or cost-per-click, this strategy allows you to place an ad for your site at the top of search engine results by using keywords that best describe your product or service. It’s a competitive and dynamic market: the more you bid, the higher your ad will be listed.

Unlike conventional print advertising, you only pay when a searcher clicks on your listing and connects to your site. You do not pay to have your ad listed; you only pay for clicks or “click through”. So you are actually paying for traffic to your site. And here is a plus, there are no other hidden costs.

Pay per click is a ADVANCED marketing strategy that has a significant learning curve. One must have a budget of at least $2,000 per month to spend and it is highly recommended to complete your “learning process” with other strategies so that your learning curve is not so expensive. To successfully advertise with Pay Per Click (PPC), you must be prepared to invest in your education if you expect this strategy to produce results. However, with that being said, if you are WILLING to learn this strategy, it can be extremely effective!

Although many credit Goto.com’s Jeffrey Brewer and Goto.com founder Bill Gross with initiating PPC (Pay Per Click), it wasn’t until October 2000 that the AdWords system was introduced with Google, allowing Advertisers create text ads for your placement in the Google search engine. Then, in 2002, it paid for each “click” as previous ads were charged at cost per thousand impressions.

Now, PPC is an internet advertising model used by websites where advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers often bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites often charge a fixed price per click instead of using a bidding system.

Although there are many PPC providers, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest network operators and all three operate under a bid-based model. The cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular keyword.

[Keyword] A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Keywords are used to search for articles in a database and are also “tagged” on a website, so when people use that specific word to search, they are directed to that particular site.

The second is Ezines Solo Ads, which may be a better option for the first time person starting out, mainly due to the limited cost commitment required.

Solo Ezine Ads

Ezine Marketing is one of the favorite methods of many of the top producers. The reason for this is that ezine marketing allows you to “leverage” someone else’s credibility and in essence “rent” someone else’s list!

Ezines is an online inventory of newsletters that people subscribe to and where website owners keep in touch and build relationships with their visitors. Ezines are used to share news, updates, and website promotions. When an ezine sends out an email with your ad, the reader takes it more seriously because they have an established “relationship” with the ezine.

Almost all ezines accept third party advertising. By mixing some paid ads with their content, website owners can defray the cost of running an ezine and open up an additional stream of income. You can place an advertisement for your website, product or service in various ezines. It’s important to find an ezine that specifically targets the market you want to reach. This will ensure that your offer is relevant to a larger percentage of the magazines’ followers.

The most expensive (but by far the best) type of ezine ad is called a single ad. Solo Ads, as the name implies, means “an advertisement”. When you run a solo ad, your ad is the only one the ezine reader will see.

the third is list builders, which is one of the strategies I started with as I developed my article marketing skills. ListBuilders are online services that can send thousands of SINGLE ADVERTISEMENTS to their members in the form of emails. “ListBuilders” are highly effective when used consistently. You can usually join them for free, but the real value is in the upgrade. Members with “free” access receive credits to send ads or emails based on the number of other ads they read or the sites they visit.

To upgrade, you pay a one-time or annual fee, and then you can immediately distribute ads to your database. You are usually limited to a certain number of emails within a certain number of days. You will also start receiving emails (ads) from other members. This can fill your “Spam Box”. Then, if you upgrade further, you can send an even larger number of emails, and sometimes you don’t need to continue receiving emails from other members. These services often offer other similar products, such as banner ads and banner ads (which are short advertisements for your product or service) that will appear on cooperating websites to drive more traffic to your site.

When getting started, ListBuilders can be a great source to not only drive traffic to you, but also give you a window into what others are doing, which in turn will improve your skills.

Other forms of Paid Advertising are, banner advertisingadvertising that appears on a website, usually as a banner at the top of a page, and Facebook Advertising offered for people with budgets under $30,000 per month. -LOL- Of these and others I will go into more detail later, and on my website.

So how does all of this relate to a person who may want to start marketing a product or business, or even themselves on the internet? Paid advertising is a great resource and is widely used by people who fully understand our industry. It’s not a place to start, but a place to use “free” strategies while learning the ropes and practicing new tricks. With any Internet marketing strategy, the most important thing is that you discover the strategy that you like the most and feel comfortable doing. If you enjoy the process, you will surely be better at it. And the better you do it, the more likely it is to be consistent with your implementation. You will find that the strategy you choose is much less important than your ability to do it consistently to achieve success.

It is best to choose only 1 or 2 starting strategies to focus on at any one time. The best strategy for one person may not be the best strategy for you. I agree that it can seem overwhelming at times, but in reality the process can be quite simple if one focuses on only one strategy at a time. There are unlimited training courses, internet tools, websites, and programs to help you become more effective and efficient in each category or strategy you choose. Having someone guide you through the process, pointing you to which tools and programs offer the most help, will not only save your sanity, but can save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in the process.

After choosing which strategy you want to implement, you’ll need a system or platform to manage all of these tasks relevant to those strategies. The system should also include support training so you don’t waste endless time trying to get started.