In the present era of globalization the role of the Internet is not restricted to merely exchanging information and social networking anymore. The Internet is fast becoming the world's largest market place where people from the most diverse and bizarre paces are now coming together and exchanging goods and services for money.

In any market be it the virtual market place of the internet or the physical market place of the real world, one needs to advertise to make one's presence felt.

In the real world there are a number of gimmicks and strategies that manufacturers can use to increase their market share. But in the virtual world the options are limited. Although the reach is world wide but the avenues are limited.

One option that is very popular is the PPC Search Engine and Pay per click option that is on the rise among all classes of businesses especially small businesses.

What is pay per click and what are the reasons behind the popularity is some thing that we will attempt to explore here.

First what exactly is the pay per click concept? This concept is perhaps as old as the internet itself and is the most popular concept.

Pay per click advertising is a technique that works by taking a specified sum of money for listing your advertisement on any of the major or minor search engines. As a net savvy techno freak you would have seen such sponsored links when you would have performed searches on Google.

These sponsored links usually appear at the top, bottom or, as in the case of Google, the right hand side of the search engine results page. These sponsored links are referred to by many monikers. Some of the more popular ones are Paid Listings, Sponsored Listings, or Featured Listings.

When you sign up for a pay per click program the Pay per click search engines require that you pay a pre specified amount to have your advertisement listed on the major search engines. You would also be required to bid on keywords that are related to your business. For example, if you are a T-shirt manufacturer then it would be in your favor to have your link displayed whenever someone searches for shirts or even apparel or maybe even casual wear.

Once you have finalized your bid and the deal is done you don't need to pay any money upfront. The best part about pay per click advertising is that the bid amount is to be paid by the advertiser whenever a visitor clicks on the advertisement and no money needs to be paid up front. Hence, this is also known as a "cost per click" program.

The terms Pay per click and cost per click are oftentimes used interchangeably to describe Pay Per Click web advertising. Although Pay per click refers to the payment method and Cost per click refers to the cost factor involved in each payment.

Now that we have seen what exactly Pay per click is, we now examine the reasons that have contributed to the popularity of Pay per click among small businesses.

The reason behind the rise of Pay per click is very simple. A small business basically wants more customers. The widespread exposure is achieved through the simple act of setting up a website with a shopping cart option. Translating that exposure into sales is a bit difficult.

You would do well to remember that although organic Search Engine Optimization may generate traffic, it is not "instantaneous."

By making use of search engine marketing programs such as pay per click, you can receive the desired results and clicks a few days instead of months.

Therefore owing to the twin advantages of more customers and faster results pay per click and PPC Search Engine Advertising has become very popular today with small businesses.