It's very important to spend quality time creating your sponsored link as this is "online ad" that people will view in midst of search results and competing sponsored links (in some cases). You have ability to create a short headline coupled with two lines of text with approximately 35 characters per line - headline must be succinct and hard hitting and related text should backfill headline with supporting words that convey what goods or services your company provides.

Keyword selection can be most daunting task for setting up a new campaign - be prepared to spend some focused time working through multiple keywords to find those that you can afford. It typically takes 1-3 hours to find 10-20 keywords that are relatively low cost - however, if your budget is open-ended and you have sufficient marketing funds to pay $1-8. USD per keyword then it can take much less time. Your market focus is also another important variable that can impact keyword selection process - if you're in a narrow market niche with only a small number of competitors then it is much easier and faster to setup a campaign.

Finally, be aware you can find some keywords that are very inexpensive, but Google will disallow these if they don't drive a minimum clickthrough amount of roughly less than 1% - you can start off with them, but they will be turned off after 7-14 days if they aren't driving sufficient clickthrough volume.

Wordtracker Keyword Research Tool

You may want to utilize other keyword analysis tools that will give you a broader selection and help you to understand what keywords are popular and searched on, which in turn ensures keywords you do select will drive traffic and will not be disallowed by Google. Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) is an industry standard keyword analysis tool that those of us in online advertising world (and many others) have used for years to help us understand what keywords are popular - their service is very low cost and easy to utilize via their web site.

Now known simply as, "Yahoo! Express", this service is sole avenue for commercial businesses to submit sites to directory, and it initially costs $299. But, as of December 28, 2001, there is a new wrinkle in fold. Yahoo! now charges an annual listing fee. Any commercial site submitted through Yahoo! Express service after December 28, 2001 will be charged an annual listing fee of $299. Simply put, if a commercial site doesn't pay annual fee, that site's listing is removed from Yahoo! directory. Commercial sites submitted before December 28, 2001 are off hook; They will remain in directory but will not have to pay annual listing fee.

So, now for big question: Is a Yahoo! listing worth paying initial $299 submission fee and annual listing fee? That depends. Are you confident enough that your site is of sufficient quality to be listed? Can you afford to gamble for a year to test whether your listing is paying off? Do you know how to get a good listing - one that will generate more traffic for you? Before even considering submitting, these questions need to be addressed and answered.