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incusa1 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-02-2004, 05:10 PM

Since actively advertising on the internet since 1994, (wow...ten years already) We've seen the "boom" and "doom". In 2000 we paid GOTO (now overture, bought out by Yahoo, funny that it all ends up in the wrong hands) over $560,000 in advertising (small operation). In 2003, only 7200.00. Why? We ventured out to traditional advertising by picking up accounts that use our services on a continous basis. We pay for the advertising once, set up the accounts and get repeat business. I have to admit, we paid Google $140k last year, not bad considering the ROI, however this is drastically reducing as well. The time and effort to try and maintain a top 10 position with all the changes in the search engine algorythems (spelling check please) turns out to be more time consuming for very little results. We plan on reducing our presence on the internet and increase our physical presence to our clients and work for referrals in the same manner. What's my prediction, only a few engines will survive, most are owned by a handful of companies now. What ever happened to the use of Lycos, AltaVista, Dejavu (there's a blast from the past!) I would claim that 99% of the users use Yahoo or Google and MSN by default only, choice being the first two. A sure thing is that advertisers are not going to want to pay (we were as high as 19.00 a click) for "stupid" clicks" , the clicks that people didn't mean to click or the "malicious" clicks by competitors . We've had several thousand dollars refunded by Overture, Ah-ha, Looksmart, Findwhat, because of automated programs developed to do a search, recognize a competitor and result in a click and charge to your account. Nope, not this advertiser, we're going traditional, advertise during our "peak" time, turn the advertising off like we open and close our doors at the office.

I think it is important that if you plan on continuing your internet advertising campaign, that you recognize your industry peak time, advertise only on the ppc search engines that allow a "turn-off" button and advertise only during those times to increase your return. Beleive me, it works! However it is up to you to determine when most people or consumers buy your product, when they're searching for your product / service, and then go from there.

Imagine, if all advertisers stopped paying for the click what would happen to the ecommerce economy. WE wouldn't have to pay for something that was intended to be free! Remember the "INFORMATION SUPER HIGHWAY"...now it's the "ADVERTISERS SUPER PAYMENT SYSTEM".....Just a few comments, the internet is here to state, ecommerce is here to stay, however if you have the opportunity to build your business with ecommerce and traditional methods, use the internet until your traditional or bricks and mortar business starts to show results, you'll be better off and most of all, you'll be generating income without the advertising cost.

Jm