What really stinks is when you pay per click...big bucks...and someone unethical clicks through your allowance to get themselves into position. Shame on them! But...you reap what you sow, righ?

Larry, thanks for the information.  I've never done PPC and don't really know if it is marketing dollars well spent.

Lania - Wow....I've never would have thought that people do this!!!   That's not right!!

I am not sure that the PPC is all that effective. Any feedback on success stories from people who do PPC would be great. Not sure if I want to spend the money.

I have given PPC a try. Spent 300.00 in one month with nothing to show for it. You really need a large budget for it, and work it monthly. Others in my office are or have done PPC in the past with marginal success. I would just work the AR site to increase your exposure on the google. For further info on that check out Karen Georges archive of blogs, she has some really good stuff there.

I agree I never get into bidding wars.  In fact I have put all my campaigns on hold and it does not seem to make much difference.  Of course, I have never had a big budget.  Maybe a big budget makes the difference.

Bottom line I guess I'm neutral on the pros and cons of PPC.

I dropped PPC this past year in favorof AR and my own blog. They generate organic traffic whereas many people on AR said that "real" consumers don't click on the paid ads. There's too much fraud in PPC. Save your money and instead write good content on AR/Localism.

Larry,

Thanks for the post and advice. I have been tihnking about doing the ppc in my local area, but have to do some additional research.

Lania - Google & Yahoo monitor IP addresses and require cookies in order to prevent that kind of abuse.

Roy, Mark & Rob - I tend to agree with you.  The brokers I know that use it consistently with a significant budget will usually only break even.

Elain - I've monitored direct traffic from AR ... how is it generating organic traffic for you?

Richard - PPC may be worth it for you, just make sure you have a good mouse trap.

I'm considering lowering my ppc budget....doesn't seem to adding much traffic

It looks like a lot of fraudulent clicks that people are doing w/ their adwords accounts

i dont know much about PPC, but there are other ways to generate business and thats through word of mouth and referrals. I will look into PPC, it sounds pricey and little return.

I'm not a big fan of PPC Advertising. The amount of leads you have to work to close a deal seems to be a really bad way to spend your time. Your better walking up and down the streets with your name tag on.