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Paid Search Venues

As a PPC marketer, it's tempting for me to focus this site on Google, Google and more Google, but the reality is that there's more than just one big giant paid search basket out there with Google's name on it. If you focus all your energy on Google Adwords and don't even think about testing other search engines and venues, then you may be missing out. On the other hand, you may not.

Still, in the interest of diversification, I've put together a collection of paid search venues where you can test the concept of PPC marketing beyond Google's hallowed walls. One of the benefits of testing sites other than Google is that there's a lot less clutter, thus the cost per click tends to be a lot lower and your ad tends to stand out more.

Keep in mind that Google dominates the paid SEARCH market, but not necessarily the PPC market. I'm going to try to focus on creating a list of sites that fall under the category of "search engine" but this list won't be exclusive to search engines. I mean, what is a search engine REALLY?

I use many sites to look for many different things. I research products on Amazon.com, for example. I search iTunes for new podcats and apps. I visit eBay when I'm looking for rare items or bargains. And then there's the whole social networking...thing. I'm not sure where Facebook and MySpace fall in terms of category, but since Facebook ads are tied to keywords and context and since I have more than one client clamoring for me to help them launch a Facebook PPC campaign, I'm including it here.

See? Clear as mud!

So, without further delay, here are the top picks for paid search advertising. I've listed a brief summary of each venue as well as what's involved with launching on each.