If you aren’t already involved in Pay Per Click (also known as PPC) chances are you have seen it mentioned before on the web and have probably clicked on a PPC link without even knowing it. Pay Per Click is exactly what the name implies, it’s a way of advertising on websites or search engines where the advertiser pays on a per click basis. As an advertiser you pay a predetermined amount for every person that clicks on your link or advertisement that leads to your website. Pay per click is sometimes referred to as Cost Per Click or (CPC).

PPC is a great way of advertising because you only pay when someone actually takes action and clicks to visit your website. This ensures the people clicking on your ad are actually interested in what you are offering and provides you with interested, targeted visitors. The costs of PPC can range anywhere from $0.01 up to several dollars per click.

One of the most popular PPC services is Google Adwords. Anybody can set up an account with Google Adwords, choose certain keywords, and have their ad and website link appear in the search results under Google’s sponsored listings section when those keywords are searched for. Below is an image of some sponsored listings for the search term “insurance” with the PPC ads highlighted in yellow.

There are other PPC services as well such as Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter. PPC ads not only appear in search engine results, but can appear on websites using contextual advertising (a method of automatically placing PPC ads on related websites).

If you’re a beginner to Internet marketing and want to advertise your website then PPC is one of the quickest, easiest, and most affordable methods for marketing your website online.