Internet Ads

I hate the big search engines.  It takes forever to get a decent rank on the natural searches.  So what does that mean for someone like me?  MONEY, and lots of it.  I have been relying on the coupons I have found or have been sent for ads like google's adwords, overture, yahoo and the like.  This pay per click ads will quickly kill a small soap business.  The average pay per click bid for a first or second page ads is more than $0.85 each.  So if you don't set your total daily budget you could spend more than $25 a day for your ads.

I have been running ads for Soapy Sue's Soap Shoppe for over 2 months now.  Although at present they do now really cost me anything.  Now to put it in perspective, I have had a total of $250 in free ads with adwords, I set my daily budget to $5.00 a day to make it stretch.  I use all the click in a couple hours or less and maybe, usually not, I will get a sale.  At that rate, if I paid for the ads, I would actually be in the hole!  The average handmade soap sale is generally between $30-$50, materials and packaging is approx $10-$20, and the sales through the ads for me have been average 1 every 3-4 days maybe.

So now I am searching for ways to optimize my handmade soap business website and link, link, link to directories and the like.  I have also been exploring other advertising options.  The road to a good natural search result for your site is time.  Time, time, time.  Being impatient by nature it is seriously killing me!  Anyone have suggestions?