Bidding on Search Terms in Software

Encoder Data Matrix ECC200 in Software Bidding on Search Terms

Fighting to get yourself noticed in the major search engines can be an enormously dif cult task The sheer volume of companies that are engaged in some form of Internet business has become overwhelming An easier way might be to selectively place yourself in front of the audience that you want to reach by bidding on speci c search terms GoTocom originated this interesting approach to the search term circus They provide two complementary components in their approach:

Free search engine interfaces that can be posted on your Web site, so that your customers can take advantage of the GoTocom listings You get paid a small amount whenever someone utilizes the GoTocom engine, so this can be a revenue producer, as well This also ensures that many sites will be utilizing the engine; this wide distribution will be to your bene t once you start bidding on search terms A bidding system where you can choose the amount of money that you will pay for each click-through on a search term that links to your site You only pay for click-throughs, not for views of the search term, so this can be an effective way to steer customers to your site

The trick is in selecting search terms that will attract the unique interests of those customers you want to reach You also need to steer away from the more common terms such as sex, money, and MP3 since these become the terms involved in bidding wars, driving the prices upwards Let s say you ve developed a CD-ROM that provides an illustrated history of the use of pewter and its value as a commodity in colonial New England You run a few test searches using the GoTo engine and discover that there are no current bids on the term pewter You place a minimum bid of $01 on the term, and also select several other terms, including colonial trading, New England history, oil lamps, and so on As part of the search term, you write a description that will appear when the search term is brought up; perhaps: Learn the history of pewter use in Colonial New England in a unique CD-ROM title You then add your Web address Each time someone clicks through to your site, after running a search on pewter, you pay GoTocom $01 If you get 1000 visitors in a month, you pay $1000 Keep in mind that because you are the high bidder on this term, each time someone searches for pewter, your listing comes up at the top For a small company competing with giants, being at the top of any search list can be a major competitive advantage Current bids on search terms typically range between $02 and $100 At $100 per click-through, this becomes a bit more expensive means of generating traf c, but, otherwise, it is probably the least expensive way you can signi cantly boost your Web site traf c in a very targeted way Through the selective use of different search terms, you can precisely identify interests in your prospective audience, which should generate some fairly good response rates as new visitors enter your site

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This chapter covered a lot of ground in a few short sections The basic points worth remembering are summarized in the following list Niche markets offer great opportunities for small-scale title producers Find a niche that interests you and you can very likely nd an audience that shares your interest Permission marketing is a means of politely supplying information that a customer requests and then working to build a longterm relationship with that customer It is the opposite of interruption marketing, which tries to sell things to you by jarringly intruding on your attention and ramming home an indelible message The Internet offers a variety of ways to reach people with very specialized interested and to communicate with them inexpensively Opt-in mailing lists, free newsletters, useful Web site tools that attract a specialized audience, and search-term bidding can all help you reach your audience If you don t have the time or expertise to construct an entire ecommerce Web site, there are pre- built services that can have you online accepting credit cards in a couple of days Other methods, such as online auctions and services such as Amazoncom s zShops, can also work in some situations Press releases can get your product or business in the news Write the yourself and distribute them to key news outlets, or hire a service, such as Digital Works, to do this for you To avoid the search engine scramble, use a service, such as GoTocom, that lets you bid on selected search terms Targeted use of particular terms can attract the attention of exactly the kind of interests that your prospective customers will most likely have

Look for ways to make the Internet work for you that give maximum bene ts from the dollars invested You don t have to spend a lot of money to get noticed if you use your imagination and creativity in bright and interesting ways