By Daniel D Dwase

There's so much competing buzz about pay per click marketing. Depending on where you are, some people will swear that it's the only way to go, while others think it's a complete waste of money.

But what they both fail to consider is this: What are the individual needs of your online business and how much money are you able to invest?

Popular pay-per-click marketing campaigns like Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Bidvertiser, and Miva all bring millions of ads to millions upon millions of internet viewers everyday.

There really is a lot potential for maximum exposure, I will admit that. But at what cost? It is true that you don't have to pay unless someone clicks on your ad, making this far more appealing than up front, flat rate advertising, but does it really save you money in the long run?

Every online business won't benefit from spending money on pay per click marketing. You really need to consider the nature of your website.

If you've only monetized your site with Google Adsense and your reason for wanting to increase your website traffic is to earn more from ads, then pay per click marketing would be redundant for your site. You'll simply be giving back what you earn.

If you're just starting out and you can't afford to spare another dime, you really need to be careful. The costs of pay per click can add up quick. Even if you select a budget of only $5 (£3) a day by the end of the month you will rack up a $150 (£93) advertising tab.

Some will argue that the increased sales you'll close will make up for the cost in the long run, but sales are unpredictable. You could possibly increase your sales, but what if you don't? Can you afford pay per click?

Unless you can afford to invest a few hundred dollars/Great British pounds and still have money to spare, you may want to consider other advertising options (see "2 Alternative to PPC Search Engines").

Pay per click marketing will only generate so much traffic depending on your specified budget, so be realistic, the more traffic you want, the more you'll have to pay.

Maybe flat rate advertising isn't such a bad idea. You will need to advertise, but should you pay for it? There is no simple answer to this question.

Again, it depends on your needs. If you have exhausted all of the free website traffic generating techniques (see "9 Tips to Generate Free Web Traffic" for ideas) and you still can't seem to get the traffic going, you may have to consider purchasing some ad space.

But I only recommend it as a last resort. If your website is new, it will take time to establish a steady flow of traffic so there really is no easy way around it. It could take at least a month or two or even more to build up a good following.

Before resorting to pay-per-click marketing, you might be able to purchase some ad space on other websites or blogs.

Just be sure that the website or blog has a decent site rank, but remember, the higher the rank, the more the ads will cost. Before you buy any kind of advertising package, make sure you've carefully considered your website needs first.

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