If you are paying for visitors to your site, they better know why they are visiting. Descriptive titles and descriptions can outperform your competition by stating your competitive advantage and can also make sure the visitors to your site are your target market.

Many online businesses forget to invest in offline promotions. A segment of your target market may be offline or although they have a computer, they do not "look" for your particular product online. Be sure to incorporate offline promotions to hit this market. I suggest direct mailing. If you obtain a highly targeted list (or you generate this on your own) AND create a great letter, direct mailing can have a high return on investment for a low cost. I recommend staying away from post cards as this is perceived as direct mail spam and will be thrown away much more easily than a professional letter sent in an envelope.

Other offline opportunities: Brochures at point of sale at related stores, Affiliate programs with brick and mortars, Advertise in newspapers or magazines, on local public transportation, or in flight product magazines. Be sure that all offline promotions are in congruence with online promotions and the look of your website. Building brand awareness is important with your advertising efforts, online and offline.

Each search engine's editorial review teams won't accept bids on irrelevant terms. Relevant keywords are the keywords that your target market are searching for that best describe your products or services. If you are paying for traffic to your website you must be sure that the visitors are "pre-qualified," meaning they are looking for your unique products or services.

I can name exactly one site on which the webmaster politely asked his/her audience to click an advertisement. On that site, which may not even be online anymore, the writer explained just how and why clicking on the ad would help the site.

Perhaps things are different for others. But my experience tells me that very few people will willingly click an ad.