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However my ROI on PPC Business.com almost destroyed my online PPC campaign budget.( 2weeks of lost traffic due to excessive costs from them)
They cost 2 times as much as Overture and Google combined for the same keywords in the same period.
The traffic was 1/4 less than both combined, and the conversion rate was 1 sale out of the viewers they sent. Google and overture hold to 6 each out of the many they sent.
At a dollar or more a click yhey charged for (fake)3900 clicks and I can only find (fake)2100. At this point they balk at doing audits of clicks, admit they charge for the same user to click on the same links and then quote overtures notes on tracking clicks from aol users as a way to say that my server and outside logs may not be seeing the traffic they are sending. Which is bull as I do not have this problem with overture, google, findwhat, inktomi, sprinks and others...
I do not know what they are doing wrong internally but I can say they will charge you to death and not care that your site is not properly represented or that its clicks are real.
Ironic thing is the traffic from the free links appears to be more qualified and very documentable.
Regarding that you got a free link now - do you think it was worth it? [If they remove it out at some time]
The costs for the initial account were so high that even with 5K and up items I would have to sell 20-30 units to see a comparible ROI to a magazine ad. So no, it wasn't worth the initial costs.
If I didnt pay to get in, then its always nice to have another small consistent trickle into the river of profits.
Last time I submitted a site it was under $100 US for a year. And it doesn't take a very big result for that kind of expense to show a decent ROI. I agree with Macguru that it's a decent buy, especially if you have a B2B offer where one conversion means big bucks.
-they are also getting clever with marketing your postion on third party SEs.
highly recommended for the "right" site with a comprehensive approach to IM.