It seems excitement about search engine optimization fades in and out from time to time. The more people talk about search engine optimization (SEO) more it seems to be logical choice for bringing customers to your site. However, there are some points that I haven’t seen anyone else make as of yet about effectiveness of SEO versus effectiveness of building a responsive list. I think you’ll be surprised to see which one comes out on top.

Rules and Regulations

There are rules and regulations for almost everything in life. List building and SEO are no different.

Rules for SEO: Your HTML coding has to be just so in order to rank highly on engines. Your copy (text) also needs to include specific keywords a certain number of times in specific places or you might not be accepted. And if you are accepted, unless you follow all “dos” and “don’ts” of SEO, you’ll likely not see top 10… or even top 50.

Rules for List Building: Offer a good product or service; notify your list about it, and watch sales come in.

The Only Constant Is Change

If you do get accepted in search engines, you might be tempted to rest easy. Don’t! As we’ve seen in recent months, search engines can change their policies and ranking orders at flip of a switch. If you depend on search engines for all your traffic, such a change could leave you completely out of business. Not good!

In fact, more and more online marketers, both large organizations and 'one-man' companies alike, use Google AdWords for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to: - Increase website exposure - Sell existing products and services - Launch new products and services - Drive traffic to website to capture e-mail leads and build prospect list - Test various marketing strategies e.g. web copy effectiveness, product and services pricing etc. - Research primary and secondary keywords for Search Engine Optimization strategy - Research consumer and business wants and needs - Market and sell own &/or affiliate products - And much much more...

However, as with any pay-per-click service, a poorly designed Google AdWords campaign will NOT bring you results your desire.

Worst still, a poorly implemented Google AdWords campaign can even 'break your wallet'!

So, how does one develop an effective Google AdWords campaign?

Here are 7 useful strategies you can use to maximize your Google AdWords campaign:

Strategy #1 - Identify a large number (preferably 300 above) of low-cost but highly targeted keywords/keyword phrases

It is important to understand that Google AdWords is a pay-per-click system and you only pay when a prospect clicks on your AdWords ad - regardless of number of impressions.

And you can use this knowledge to your advantage by developing a huge keyword list for each campaign.

Here are some tools you can use to generate keywords and key phrases:

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions tool: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox

Good Keywords: http://GoodKeywords.com

7Search.com's Keyword Suggestion Tool: http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx

WordTracker: http://WordTracker.com

Misspelled Keywords: http://SearchSpell.com

Strategy #2 - Develop various ad headlines and descriptions and split-test them to identify most effective ad

Actually, Google AdWords does this for you automatically i. e. it displays ad that receives a higher click-through more frequently.

Here's a quick and dirty way to develop a killer ad headline and description - Model other Google AdWords ads! Notice I said 'model' and NOT 'copy'.

All you need to do is type in relevant keywords in Google search box and review AdWords ads that show up.

Ask yourself which AdWords ad attracts your attention and note down how headline and description are written.