Lesson #04 Pay Per Click
Written By Titmowse

Wouldn't it be neat if there was a sponsor program that paid you for every single time one of your surfers clicked an ad banner?

Settle down. Pay Per Click programs do pay for the hits you send but only under specific conditions designated by your sponsor.

A click happens is when a user places their cursor on a text link or hyperlinked banner - on a web page - and thus opens another URL. Adult Pay Per Click (PPC) programs offer webmasters a way to make money from surfers that click sponsor ads.

There are a few different ways that sponsors will count clicks but all of them will give the affiliate a special ID that is usually placed within an HTML link tag. The affiliate then applies the tag to sponsor-approved banners and text links. When the surfer clicks the banner or link, the sponsor will track that activity via the affiliate's ID. All sponsors track your clicks but only those that offer PPC, pay you for clicks.

Try not to take the term Pay Per Click too literally. You can't open your own website, click your sponsor banners like mad and expect to be paid. Nothing is that easy. A quick review of PPC terminology is needed:

Visitor

Anyone that opens a webpage through their browser is a site visitor. That means that when your surfer clicks the banner of your PPC sponsor, they become a visitor of your sponsor's site.

Unique Visitor

Any PC that is connected to the Internet has a Unique address called an Internet Protocol Number or IP. Each time your surfer opens a new site, that surfer identifies himself to the site's server via his Unique IP. Your sponsor logs both Clicks and Unique Visits. PPC sponsors count one of your Unique Visitors as one Unique Click, per a specified time period. Sponsors want you to send clicks from many different surfers, not just the same one over and over. Unique Clicks are often simply called Uniques and sometimes are called Raw Clicks.

Second Page Click

A Second-Page Click happens when your surfer clicks not just your sponsor's link but also clicks ahead into your sponsor's site or tour. For instance, when your surfer clicks your text ad, they are taken to your sponsor's Full Page Ad (FPA). If that surfer then clicks a link on your sponsor's FPA, they will perform a Second-Page Click or Clickthrough or even Click-thru.

Remembering the above lingo will help you understand exactly how your PPC sponsor will track and count your clicks. Many will only pay on Second-Page Clicks and some will roll your payout program over to Pay Per Signup (PPS) if your Unique Clicks aren't converting into sales at a reasonable percentage. You'll find there are sponsors that will pay you for Blind Clicks, which are vague text links like "Click Here for Hot Booty!" Quite a few PPC sponsors want you to use only their pre-approved text links and banners. Still others will pay you more per click if you sustain a high click-to-signup ratio.

Read your PPC sponsor's Terms of Service very carefully. Research the support and FAQ pages. Understand how you'll be paid for the Clicks you send before you send them to your sponsor. If you would like to browse Pay Per Click sponsor programs, please visit the Pay Per Click page of our Sponsor listings on Cozy Frog, located at:

http://www.cozyfrog.com/listings/sponsors/click.asp