CPC and comparision site Overview

Hi,
I have a very basic question to ask.

As a background I am trying to sell online products which retails in
the range of $15-$30 only.I do not sell consumables like printer inks
where there is a great value of repeat customers.

I have tried CPC but due to the 1-2% conversion, my cost per order was
appx $15.Obvioulsy I can not sustain a profitable business as I am
making only $10 per order and spending $15 to get the order, a loss of
$5 per order.

So I have given up CPC.

Now I am going to try bizrate and other shopping comparision site as I
see lots of successful seller.And I think the conversion will be a
little better as customers actually see the image and price of the
product before clicking and that's why I think in the long run
businesses using shopping comparision site will be more successful
rather than CPC.

CPC brings in very generic crowd while bizrate brings in customer after
showing image and price of your products.

I am right? Any comments?/Suggestions.

Second question is if the CPC conversion is always going to be 1-2%
then how can sellers who sell 15-20 dollars worth of stuff be ever
successful?

Should I start selling digital cameras and plasma TV?

Thanks for reading.
Seo_student.

I don't have all the answers but it sounds like the margins on your
product are too low to justify cpc advertising. so yes, start selling
plasma tv's or something with higher margins. Another thing i have
found with web advertising is make sure you only advertise where the
product is relevant to the visitors of that site. Non specific
advertisting seems to generate very low conversions for me. I would
rather have 10 genuine prospects click on my ad than 1000 random web
surfers.

==========================
http://PeoriaDesignWeb.com
e-Software Developers

You should try being more specific with your keywords in CPC. ie 'blue
widgets' 'red widgets' 'buy widgets' this should help you get more
"quality" clicks. Websites like bizrate, are good but they are also
very competitive. Most people going to bizrate, or shopping.com,
etc... are pretty price conscious. Also, people going to bizrate, may
not stumble onto your product, people searching, are people searching
to buy.

Hope this helps~

Thanks for all the response.when I posted this topic I thought It will
start a good discussion about the whole CPC/shopping comparision site
Issue.But I think people do not want to discuss this issue.
The truth is we are all using internet only to find bargains, only
willing to pay much less than what we could be charged in a brick and
mortar store, so there is an opportunity for small businesses, but the
cost of getting orders is just so high.
My understanding and experience is do not use CPC if you only sells
stuff where you make only 5-10 a piece.
Any comments?

[ Moderator's note: followups to this and other posts will be delayed
several days. -JimL ]