A revolution has overtaken the advertising industry: paid search advertising. The news of the mega-success of companies like Google and Yahoo! has spread far and wide. But paid search profits are no longer limited to big business. Your company’s Web site can create a profitable new revenue stream through paid search advertising that you control – instead of the major search engines.

Search benefits all
First, a little history. Generic search engines have enabled Internet users to navigate the enormous scope of the Web. Paid search advertising (also called pay-per-click or pay-for-performance) is one of the most popular and effective methods of marketing. Paid search allows advertisers to get in front of searchers at the precise moment they're searching for information about advertisers' services.

In these models, it’s the search portals such as Google and Yahoo! that make most of the money. Businesses pay these portals to drive traffic to their sites.

But with rising bid prices and diminishing inventory, Web sites need more innovative and effective solutions to connect with their customers as well as monetize their own sites. Well-designed and maintained search is a key to accomplishing both – with the same tool.

Statistics show that over 64% of U.S. Internet users who visit search sites actually conduct searches and upwards of 50% of all searches generate revenue. Thus, gaining control over site search means that your business will both satisfy customers and generate more revenue.

A solution for now: for your customers and your bottom line
In the revolutionary new model offered by the Vortaloptics Search Solution (VSS), a highly customizable search engine is plugged into a Web site that is used to “shape” search results, such as positioning and content. A shaped search produces highly relevant results, and displays only the links pre-determined by the business. Even in Web-wide searches, a shaped search can also exclude site competitors and undesirable content. In addition, the search engine can act as a “layer” over an existing search function, or operate as the main search function on your site.

Generating paid search revenue is as simple as selling a flat-fee keyword listing or contextual banner ad to advertisers. Adding the advertiser’s listings is fast and easy – a new listing can be up in seconds. You can choose to include as few or as many paid search listings in your search engine as you like.

Accurately deliver relevant content
Analytics are an important part of the technology and marketing landscapes today. It’s not enough to just build a search engine and hope it satisfies visitor needs – you need to know what they’re searching for and what clicks actually convert to sales. Vortaloptics clients utilize the Web-based interface of the VSS to monitor and measure keyword activity, pinpoint top keywords, sell keyword listings and manage positioning of the listings for specific search results.

The right market for your vertical search engine
Vertical search is white-hot and it appears it will stay that way. Advertisers are shifting dollars from general paid search advertising to vertical sites. A recent study by JupiterResearch, “Vertical Search: Early Marketers Will Reap Rewards of Low Pricing,” corroborates the trend and speculates that paid search will follow similar growth patterns as media markets like TV and magazines in that general topic search engines will give way to a larger number of vertical sites focused on specific subjects.

Knowing that advertising dollars follow the consumer, it’s clear that users have adopted search in the product purchase cycle. Searchers typically begin their search efforts at major horizontal engines, then click their way to vertical destinations when their needs aren't satisfied by the mountain of listings provided there. That’s not to say that search ads aren’t still effective at general engines – they are – but vertical placements are increasing and are proving to be even more effective. Thus, vertical paid search advertising is going to help the paid search market exceed its profit projections. Piper Jaffray analyst, Safa Raschtchy, projects search to top the $7 billion mark this year – two years earlier than predicted – and subsequently sees search hitting $13.5 billion in 2007 and $23 billion in 2010.

How much can you profit?
To understand the revenue potential of a modest site, let’s use a very simple model called “filling the grid.” In this model, the client identifies the 20 most popular keywords searchers use at its site and then sells 10 listings for each keyword (or phrase) at a flat rate of $100 per month. This 20 by 10 by $100 grid equals $20,000 per month in advertising profit.

Do more with less
Since Vortaloptics hosts and maintains the ASP solution, the VSS actually reduces the client’s Web site server load. And a search engine by Vortaloptics costs less than you might imagine. Plus, if you choose to sell paid listings, hosting fees are usually immaterial compared with the revenue coming in your door.

A winning solution
With shaped search, visitor satisfaction increases because search results deliver the information visitors want. Advertisers get to place their product or service in front of their target audience at the exact moment they’re searching for what they offer. And your business successfully connects with your audience, literally on their terms, while benefiting from a new easy-to-manage revenue source.

In summary, everyone wins.

Want to learn more about how Vortaloptics vertical search can improve your Web site, customer relations and make you money? Please request a free product demo at our site today.

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