businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your ke

Paid search has exploded, becoming a widely accepted way to drive qualified traffic to your site — fast. And with each passing year, it becomes more sophisticated, allowing you to zero in on your target market with greater precision.

Today, the major players are...

· Yahoo! Search Marketing Yahoo's sponsored search lets you advertise your site in the search results of the following search engines: MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace, AlltheWeb, and NetZero.

· Google AdWords: With Google AdWords, you can have your ads show up in sponsored search listings for certain keywords — and you can also advertise on other sites that match your audience. You can also search the exact keyword to match your site content from here.

· MSN AdCenter : MSN has recently entered the arena of paid search with MSN AdCenter. So far, it's the only PPC engine to offer keyword-based demographic targeting.

Paid search is one of the fastest ways to drive qualified traffic to your site... and if done properly, won't break the bank. To learn how to profit from pay-per-click advertising in three simple steps

And you can figure this out by plugging your key stats and figures into the following three simple steps:

STEP 1: Figure out your visitor-to-sale "conversion" rate:

To find out the number of visitors you need to close one sale, divide the number of unique visitors to your web site by your total number of sales. So, if you make one sale from every 100 unique visitors to your site, your conversion rate will be 1 in 100, or 1%.

STEP 2: Determine your net profit on each sale:

This is the amount you pocket after all expenses are covered. First, calculate your gross revenue. If you had 48 sales at $97 each during the month of September, your gross revenue for the month is $4,656 (48 x $97).

Then deduct expenses. Say it cost $3,183 to produce those 48 products:

$4,656 gross revenue - $3,138 expenses / 48 sales = $31.62 net profit per sale

STEP 3: Calculate your "value per visitor": Divide your net profit per sale by the number of visitors you need to get one sale:

$31.62 net profit per sale / 100 visitors = $0.3162 per visitor That means each visitor to your web site is worth 31 cents. This is the amount you can afford to pay to attract one visitor to your web site -- and should be your maximum bid for PPC advertising.

Now, you may be thinking that your 31-cent-per-keyword budget will automatically exclude you from bidding on competitive keywords... but that's actually a good thing!

The keywords that tend to be expensive are often much too broad to be effective for small online businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your key

an also search the exact keyword to match your site content from here.

· MSN AdCenter : MSN has recently entered the arena of paid search with MSN AdCenter. So far, it's the only PPC engine to offer keyword-based demographic targeting.

Paid search is one of the fastest ways to drive qualified traffic to your site... and if done properly, won't break the bank. To learn how to profit from pay-per-click advertising in three simple steps

And you can figure this out by plugging your key stats and figures into the following three simple steps:

STEP 1: Figure out your visitor-to-sale "conversion" rate:

To find out the number of visitors you need to close one sale, divide the number of unique visitors to your web site by your total number of sales. So, if you make one sale from every 100 unique visitors to your site, your conversion rate will be 1 in 100, or 1%.

STEP 2: Determine your net profit on each sale:

This is the amount you pocket after all expenses are covered. First, calculate your gross revenue. If you had 48 sales at $97 each during the month of September, your gross revenue for the month is $4,656 (48 x $97).

Then deduct expenses. Say it cost $3,183 to produce those 48 products:

$4,656 gross revenue - $3,138 expenses / 48 sales = $31.62 net profit per sale

STEP 3: Calculate your "value per visitor": Divide your net profit per sale by the number of visitors you need to get one sale:

$31.62 net profit per sale / 100 visitors = $0.3162 per visitor That means each visitor to your web site is worth 31 cents. This is the amount you can afford to pay to attract one visitor to your web site -- and should be your maximum bid for PPC advertising.

Now, you may be thinking that your 31-cent-per-keyword budget will automatically exclude you from bidding on competitive keywords... but that's actually a good thing!

The keywords that tend to be expensive are often much too broad to be effective for small online businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your ke

need to close one sale, divide the number of unique visitors to your web site by your total number of sales. So, if you make one sale from every 100 unique visitors to your site, your conversion rate will be 1 in 100, or 1%.

STEP 2: Determine your net profit on each sale:

This is the amount you pocket after all expenses are covered. First, calculate your gross revenue. If you had 48 sales at $97 each during the month of September, your gross revenue for the month is $4,656 (48 x $97).

Then deduct expenses. Say it cost $3,183 to produce those 48 products:

$4,656 gross revenue - $3,138 expenses / 48 sales = $31.62 net profit per sale

STEP 3: Calculate your "value per visitor": Divide your net profit per sale by the number of visitors you need to get one sale:

$31.62 net profit per sale / 100 visitors = $0.3162 per visitor That means each visitor to your web site is worth 31 cents. This is the amount you can afford to pay to attract one visitor to your web site -- and should be your maximum bid for PPC advertising.

Now, you may be thinking that your 31-cent-per-keyword budget will automatically exclude you from bidding on competitive keywords... but that's actually a good thing!

The keywords that tend to be expensive are often much too broad to be effective for small online businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your ke

>STEP 3: Calculate your "value per visitor": Divide your net profit per sale by the number of visitors you need to get one sale:

$31.62 net profit per sale / 100 visitors = $0.3162 per visitor That means each visitor to your web site is worth 31 cents. This is the amount you can afford to pay to attract one visitor to your web site -- and should be your maximum bid for PPC advertising.

Now, you may be thinking that your 31-cent-per-keyword budget will automatically exclude you from bidding on competitive keywords... but that's actually a good thing!

The keywords that tend to be expensive are often much too broad to be effective for small online businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your ke

businesses like yours. The more narrowly targeted your keywords are, the more targeted -- and likely to buy! -- your visitors will be.

Consider this: If you sell waterproof sport watches, and you bid on the keyword "watches," it will cost you at least 90 cents to get a top-three ranking on Yahoo Search Marketing.

But if you bid on "waterproof sport watches" you'll pay around 20 cents to get the same position.

Since there are so many types of watches out there, you're far better off appealing ONLY to those people who are looking for exactly what you offer. They're the people who will buy your product!

Just remember: Never bid more on your keywords and key phrases than you can afford... and you'll get swarms of targeted, affordable PPC traffic -- guaranteed!