Google Adwords is the king of search advertising. A whole lot of folks use Google’s pay per click system to reach out to prospects. But with the state of economy getting worse and small businesses feeling the pain of their cash strapped customers, many have to find other ways to spread the word around about their services without breaking the bank. While you should approach some of these services with care, you should definitely give them a try to figure out if they work for your business.

Google Adwords Alternatives:

1. Yahoo & MSN: this is really a gimme here. A lot of folks start with Google Adwords and then graduate to other services such as Yahoo. Others, start will all there engines. I personally like the first approach, but I have done it both ways. Sometimes, it’s possible to get much lower bids on these alternative networks, but they are getting competitive as well.

2. Facebook Social Ads: I have been critical of Facebook social ads in the past, but you can’t question the innovative technology behind the social ads. For instance, you can target 55 years old folks who are small business owners and live in the city of San Diego. That’s extremely valuable if you have data on your audience. You can also create a Facebook page and advertise that instead of your own landing page. Definitely worth testing.

3. StumbleUpon: Stumbleupon ads can drive lots of traffic to your site. Not only you get what you pay for, but if folks give your site thumbs up, you are going to get free traffic. I remember spending $100 for a week on StumbleUpon. I am still getting free traffic from StumbleUpon without me having to actually do anything.

4. LinkedIn Ads: Linkedin DirectAds are made for small businesses who want to spend money on LinkedIn to reach out to business professionals. Folks on LinkedIn do not play around. My conversion rates are higher on LinkedIn than Facebook, but I suppose it all comes down to your product. DirectAds is still primitive in comparison to Google, and you will have to pay on a CPM basis. But nevertheless, you get nice exposure among some serious folks on LinkedIn.

5. ClickRiver: Clickriver can be a goldmine or just a waste of time depending on your niche. I have used Clickriver successfully on my technology sites, but I have heard folks who haven’t had that much success in some other niches. Being able to show your ads below Amazon products is too huge of an opportunity for me to pass by. It’s definitely worth the try.

There are thousands of other networks and methods that you can use to buy traffic to your site (see here). But you shouldn’t spend all your fortune on these outside-the-box ideas. You should always test, test, and test some more. When you hit the jackpot, you know it.

Did I miss anything?

One of the most underrated advertising services that often goes under the radar is ClickRiver. So what is Click River? It’s your key to the kingdom that is called Amazon. Amazon is one of the most visited sites on the Internet. A large number of people visit Amazon on an everyday basis with their credit cards handy and ready to buy, so you do have a whole lot of people that are in the shopping and buying mode. If you have used Amazon in the past couple of years, you have probably seen listings that are similar to the following:

The good thing about Clickriver is that you can choose to pay by category. Whether you have a service on stocks or just a programming product that you want to sell, you can list it on Amazon using the ClickRiver service.  Here are the main categories that you can use for your ads:

• Automotive Services
• Home Services
• Leisure Industry
• Education
• Personal Finance
• Health & fitness services
• Technology Education

There are many subcategories to choose from, but best of all, you can use Amazon’s geo-targeting to show your ads only in local areas! Now that is very powerful. Clickriver is very similar to the advertising system offered by Stumbleupon. It is a very basic system that does it’s job brilliantly. I personally have found that ClickRiver traffic is more qualified and converts better than Stumbleupon. A lot of people feel that the traffic from ClickRiver should convert as well as Google Adwords to be a viable option, but the traffic is cheaper, and if you have hit the ceiling with Adwords, can help you acquire more customers.

Should you use ClickRiver? It really depends on your business. A lot of people don’t even bother with Clickriver, but you’d be surprised how well it works in some verticals.