Is it possible to make a quick profit on the internet? I hesitate about mentioning this method as it needs to be done with care, but if followed with a good understanding of the principles involved, it is certainly capable of paying well to those who know how to "play the game".

Normally, this marketing strategy would be done in conjunction with article submission, free SEO traffic, etc, but these take time to build up. A speedier method of generating Adsense income is to use Pay Per Click (PPC).

Using a form of traffic arbitrage, low cost keywords are bid for on Google and a few of the other PPC search engines. They are directed to higher paying Adsense pages. Of course, the pages receiving the traffic need to be carefully set up so that they attract the higher paying Adsense ads.

The downside is that you have to pay for PPC traffic but it can be tested as you go and closely monitored. Google allows a budget to be set.

Several key factors in particular need to be considered at the outset:

1. High Paying Keywords.

Although you might have a burning interest in South American Parrots, that doesn't mean the internet browsing population shares this interest - at least to the extent of being willing to click on ads which offer products and services on this topic. So be sure to check whether your interest is likely to produce Adsense ads that pay well for each click. For instance, if you are paying 5 cents per click to receive visitors and you're receiving only, say, 10 cents per click on an adsense ad, it isn't likely you'll do well financially. Only a small percentage of visitors - say 5% - to your site will click on an ad.

2. Relevance.

The keywords recognized by Google as most relevant to your web page influence the selection of the ad which actually appears there. So it's wise to choose content with high paying keywords if you wish to display high paying ads.

You also have to be sure that BOTH the ads and the content are relevant to your visitors. This is worth careful consideration. Your PPC promotion might be aimed at, say, those interested in dog training. This doesn't means ads for dog breeding will be of interest to those visitors - they would probably be more concerned with the every day behavior of the dog. For instance, obedience training, house training, how to stop barking, fighting, digging, etc.

Essentially, you are optimizing for Adsense - choosing keywords with a fairly high level of competition - rather than for the free traffic from search engines (which usually require a lot less competition if you are to attract them), although the two work together. When bidding for keywords with PPC - in effect, buying your traffic - you'll be choosing keywords (including synonyms and related words) that will attract the sort of traffic you'd expect to be interested in the Adsense ads that will appear on your web page. If the connection is too remote, they'll just move on.

Your web page needs to be relevant to BOTH the visitors and the Adsense program that selects the ads that will appear. Don't underestimate the importance of this factor.

3. Low Cost Keywords.

If you are paying the same price for keywords that you receive from the clicks on Adsense, then you are losing, not making a profit. Only about 5% of visitors can be expected to click on one of the ads on your webpage, so you will need to attract a lot of inexpensive traffic. Using Pay Per Click (PPC), such as Adwords (Google) you may be able to find related terms. For instance, instead of "dog", have a look at "pooch", "puppy", or specific animals, such as "Labrador".

As well, Google is not the only store in town. A number of other search engines exist that will charge a lot less for closely related keywords. They don't have the same volume of traffic, but it all helps. Alternatives include FindWhat, Ah-Ha, and Brainfox for starters.

4. Tracking Advertising.

When you are using multiple sources of advertising to attract website traffic, some will prove to be more useful - profitable - than others. It's crucial that you know which sources are working for you and which are merely costing you money. There are a number of commercial Ad Tracking services available. There are also some free scripts that are offered from time to time with the major giveaway joint ventures.

Another way of keeping track of your traffic sources is to have a separate landing page for each source. If you have good website reporting, statistics provided by your webhost will indicate which search engines are sending you traffic.

Usually, if set up without time pressures, by combining with free traffic from feeder pages (articles) average cost per visitor will be reduced, allowing room for a profit margin.

It has to be done carefully though. For instance, you have to be sure that the pages with Adsense attract high paying ads. You can't just put up websites willy-nilly without checking ahead of time whether this is likely to happen.

Remember, if you are setting up niche websites that are optimized for the search engines, aiming for free traffic, naturally you will be looking for "undiscovered" niches that are relatively less competitive so that you can rank well with the search engines.

However, if you are using PPC, you actually WANT a fair (but not excessive) amount of competition for your keywords in the hope that the Adsense ads will pay well when visitors click on them. Much of your time will be spent searching for low cost alternative keywords and sources that you can use to drive traffic to your web pages.

Ivan Kelly managed a Direct Mail business with extensive mailing lists for ten years and has designed and promoted many websites. For more information about making money on the internet go to: Make Money