Overture, now part of the Yahoo Search Network, was the originator of the use of PPC, or Pay-Per-Click advertising. Overture saw that the web was quickly becoming the fastest and easiest solution for buying anything and that very soon Internet advertising was going to hit an all time high.

For an online buyer to go to one web site over another, that web site must be in the Top 20. Yahoo built a service that takes would-be shoppers to any advertisers website,causing a rise in traffic and an increase in sales. Yahoo's Pay-Per-Click program puts your company's advertisement right in front of targeted customers as they search the Internet. Using search terms that describe the goods or services they are searching for, Internet users have extremely relevant ads on the same page as their search results. Online advertisers incur no costs for displaying their ad until a "searcher" literally clicks on it, hence the term "Pay-Per-Click". That click, by the way, can cost as little as 5 cents, or as high as a hundred dollars. But it delivers qualified shoppers right to an advertisers online store.

Any company or Internet web site owner can increase their websites qualified traffic using Yahoo's Search services. That means that whether you are responsible for a multi-million dollar online ad budget or just recently built a 5 page affiliate site, you can start using Yahoo's PPC services today. The increases in traffic and visitors that you will get equals more surfers experiencing your company's pages and your company's products. Even a small percentage of sales, combined with a lots of visitors can equate to a large sum of online income for you.

Achieving a steady, substantial stream of visitors should be the goal of every company-big or small. Both new and return visitors are the life blood of any business that wants a share of the billions being spent online.

Although Pay-Per-Click may have begun with Overture, today Yahoo features quite a few of the same ingredients as Google's Pay-Per-Click service, Google Adwords. They are alike in their use of keyword and keyphrase searching to determine which ads will appear in the results. When a shopper types in a keyword or keyword phrase to search for something, the search engine displays the results over several pages. On the right side of the results pages, and often close to the top, you will notice the small "box-ads" of advertisers that have placed "bids" on targeted keywords and keyword phrases.

As an example, you own a retail auto parts website. You would choose keywords that trigger your advertisement appear when would-be shoppers type words or phrases like Corvette window. Don't forget that any individual word or phrase can cause your ad to be shown. You'll most likely want to stay away from one-word search terms like filters unless you're Target and have a Budweiser sized advertising budget.

The higher the bid, the higher the advertisement will appear on the results pages.

Generally, ads that are placed higher are clicked more often, however more isn't always a good thing. If an advertiser isn't turning a fair percentage of clicks into sales, a few popular search terms can run up a very large bill-very very fast.

To create and manage a successful PPC campaign requires work. But Pay-Per-Click has taken the pressure off of needing a first or second page "natural" search ranking, at least right away. Some of the time you would have spent with optimizing should now be used for keyword research.

Using a retail automobile parts website as an example again, we can learn that the general search term tires and wheels brings back 51,200,000 results. It's far too general of a term. But by regionalizing it, for example Toyota tires and wheels Austin Texas, not only are the results cut down by over 90%, but the number of advertisers shrinks as well-lowering the cost per click substantially.

Doing even the most elementary keyword homework can lessen the number of yourchallengers, step-up your exposure, dilute the potentiality for false or blind clicks, and save your company loads of money. The solutions you can attain by practicing actual research and testing will be even more dramatic.

Real research, actual testing of your ads and their click-thru rates and the discovering of hidden "gems"- niche keywords with no competition, may sound effortful and time consuming, but the tools obtainable today make it simple. Here is one resource for free keyword tools, no-cost software and links to dozens of additional sites with ongoing give-aways and free utilities. And finally, with all the publicity and excitement surrounding Google these days, why the marketing of Yahoo's Search Solutions? I've never suggested not using Googles services; still, it's easy to do what everyone else is doing. But with so much competition for online spending, it is now necessary to try and seperate yourself from your competitors. Yahoo/Overture is a good place to start. Companies big and small have used Yahoo! Search since the late 90's and have thrived.

While Yahoo cannot match the sheer numbers of Google searches, that also means a few less competitors and a few cents less per keyword. And it appears to be the case that when you're Number Two, you try harder, as Yahoo's sales team is bending over backwards for your business.

When you add those up, it equals more than just good sense. It equals dollars and good sense.

Jon Heller is the President and CEO of HellerNetWorks, a Small Business Internet Marketing firm based in Palm Springs, Ca. The creator of numerous respected and high traffic Alcoholism, Addictions and Mental Health Support portals, Jon founded and developed SoberRecovery.com and the Treatment-Directory.com, managing them until their sale in early 2006. An award-winning Journalist, Jon has recently returned to writing, while maintaining a small, exclusive client base that he consults on Internet Content, Traffic and Marketing.