Has anyone tried this (Clive I know you have cos I have seen your Emazdad Ad today   ) and if so is it worth it?  

From what I understand you have to pay so much per month to have your ads displayed on other relevant websites and in the side bar of google for relevant searches and you get charged per month depending on the number of people who click on the links but it is capped at the amount you set as your limit?  Is that correct?

Also, if Adwords are worthwhile what would be the suggested limit per month?

Can you tell I am trying to increase my online image  

P.S.  Just got my first booking from this site today - cheers guys.

Hi Yvonneh,
I have used add words before, its very expensive, and there is nothing to stop competitors just clicking on your site till your budget has gone for the day!

I've got mine on about £10 per month, it doesnt get me that high in the rankings, but just hoping it will somehow help my site, just to have more links back to it!

Jordan

there is another one at the moment - we have had hundreds of call son they list you at the top of  the google listing for about £20 a month per link

type in what you want to use and see if it comes up with a list and who does it -

the ones that have phones us want £99 + £38 admin for up to 5 phrases for the first month then £20 per month per phrase

dont know if its worth it - I have not used it because we are lucky not many around us doing what we do have websites or promote them, so can get my website onto first page with Search engine optimisation and jeywords, I just know when they phone they tell me they are an option to adwords

Pam

Quote from: "jordanogrady"Hi Yvonneh,
I have used add words before, its very expensive, and there is nothing to stop competitors just clicking on your site till your budget has gone for the day!
Jordan

Don't worry about that Jordan, once they click it won't register them again as it recognises you've already been there (cookies I presume). That was a concern of mine at first.

I've been using it for about a year now and I'm happy with it. On average I pay less than £10 a month, but always gets me at the top of the listings. I do get a huge amount of email enquiries.

Clive (Emazdad) has just started using it, I think he might be using it wrong, because you don't want your advert to show up all over the country - unless you want work all over the country. I'll mention it to him when he comes back from his break away. My advert should only show up in the areas I want to work so I'm not going to pay per click for long distsance areas.

The good thing is there is no minimum contract, so try it, and if you're not happy, cancel it.

On a similar subject, I have just reduced my Yellow Pages by a huge amount. Last year I got three new shows from Yellow Pages, nowhere near enough to pay for the £2400 it cost me. I've now gone down to £600 this year.

My thoughts are that I NEED to be in there as that's where most of my bookings actually find my number. But I get hardly any 'new' bookings from it. I probably get plenty of phone calls, but most I can't do.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Sorry to hijack your post Yvonne I just thought I would ad to it as it's a similar subject

Pam that is dodgy at best and very different to Google Adwords.  These companies that claim to get you to the top of google cannot possibly do so as even people who work for google get to know all of how they rank a website  :roll:

Not only that I am already pretty much the top of the list if people specifically search for a twister / face painter in Herts but Ad words are different as they allow you to advertise on other people's sites and then pay so much everytime someone clicks on one of the ads to go to your site.

No by all means Graeme go for it.  I am seriously trying to up my advertising without spending too much as work is a little slow at present and I need to do something.

Google adwords

Have used it and found it brought in some good work.

Top Spot on Google

Have used this but got bad service from a specific company.

I can see it working with a good company but I refuse to try agian because of bad experiences.

They charged my credit card after cancelling and problems getting a refund.

Try to use DD rather than a credit card.

See this link for details http://www.eukhost.com/forums/f22/top-spot-google-5377/

On Yellow pages
I now just using it to send prospects to my website, no phone number in the add...Working great for me.

Next year I am thinking of dropping them completely.

Tip...Have a picture of your self in the ad. well worth the extra £30+

Fuzz

Seriously I have never heard of one of these companies purporting to get you to the top of google that have actually done what they promise.  Not only that but they do no research whatsoever before they phone you - the ones that call me try to tell me I am on page 8 on google under certain search terms, my response is (and always will be) funny that but when I search those terms I come up on the first page and usually top!

You can easily do what they promise yourself.  Search for SEO or search engine optimisation and start to do as they suggest and you should start rising up the rankings.  Another tip is to regularly update your website.  If you don't google assumes yours is an abandoned site and lowers it importance in searches to the point where it will eventually not show up anymore.  A little bit of a pain for the likes of us but well worth persevering with  

Yellow pages keep phoning me.  (Usually about once a day at the moment as I am ignoring the number ) I told them a couple of months ago I didn't have £600+ to give them for an ad.  They phoned back a couple of weeks ago and it was down to £299.  I only work part time and I'm building my business up so I can't fork out that much.  
I agree with Yvonne about up dating your website.  Mine has really come up the rankings since I started to do this a lot.

Yellow pages.......well for those who don't know me I worked for them for 6 years as a major accoiut manager b4 going full time with the balloons. I personally thinks it pays to have a small 1-4 col and that's it. The quality of lead is quite poor as they tend to be comparisson shopperd but you can pick up nice leads too, and these lead to other bookings.(He internet is a much better place to spend!

Thanks for the advice Normski!  

google are now selling space at the top of the pages and thats what these companies are selling is the impression I get. when you go onto google search pages you find them in a pale blue box

Pam

I'm still not sure that half of these people are not scam artists.  If I wanted to buy my ranking I would go to Google directly and if they don't sell it I would approach whoever they refer me to.  I rank these "we can get you to the top of google" people with the "we spoke to you a while ago and promised to put £1000 worth of advertising in our mag that you have never heard of" ones.

From my understanding from the sales calls I have is that they are SEO companies that are not actually affiliated with Google and will only get you to the top of Google in the same manner as you could do for yourself for free.  Like I say if anyone wants to increase thier ranking just search for SEO and do as it suggests.  It is a bit of a balancing game but if you keep working at it you will generally stay on the first page and stay there and if you really crack it you should also come up either first or second (after the paid adverts btw).

ARRGH I have just tried to google myself to prove my point and I have obviously not got my metatags sorted yet as I am not listed under loony balloony just the face factory!!!  Looks like I have yet another job to do today  :roll: