By far the easiest way to advertise on Stephen Newton’s Diary of Sorts is to sign up with Google AdWords by clicking the banner below. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to choose site-targeted ads.

AdWords is best known for allowing you to bid on key words people use to search the web with Google, but it also allows you to expand your advertising to the many thousands of websites for whom Google sells advertising space.

Google AdWords most often charges on a pay-per-click basis and the costs compare very favourably with other advertising media. Say you were thinking of launching a direct marketing campaign. This would involve the expense of acquiring a database of potential customers, design, print, production and postage. And you know that many of your mailings will be binned.

With Google AdWords you know your prospect has made the time to search the web using key words related to your business or is visiting a website where those key words have been used. That they’ve then clicked on your ad is further evidence of their interest. They are much more likely to arrive at your website in a buying mood and your costs may be dramatically reduced.

Pay-per-click isn’t the only advertising model available through Google AdWords. If you have a specific website in mind, like this one, you may opt to buy your ads on a pay per thousand impressions basis. Google calls these site-targeted ads and they allow you to handpick the websites on which you wish to advertise. Most are happy to use text ads, but image ads size 468×60 pixels are also accepted here.