The examples of where negotiation is necessary in the internet-related business in general, and the PPC industry specifically are many and varied. You will need to negotiate anything from getting a good revshare from your favorite PPC search engine to negotiating a good price for advertisement on a forum or a blog. Everything is a negotiation!

The first principle of negotiation is very simple: Never, Ever, Ever accept the first offer that is given to you. Always try to get a better deal from them. You can always have a better deal if you simply try! The number of times I have gotten 10-15% more money just by asking for it is staggering! Never take what they initially offered to you, and always politely inform them that this amount will not work for you (or your company), and that you will need x% more for you, or your boss, or the board of directors, to even consider this deal.

For example, if someone offers you a 50% revenue share on a PPC search engine, ask for 70%. Of course, you won't get 70%, but you have good chances of getting 60%, and if they don't give you 55%, don't even bother talking to them. If someone offers 60, ask for 75%, again, you will probably end up with 65%-68%, if you push it. If someone offers 70%, go for 80%, and settle for 75%. Again, the number of times I have done this is enormous, and it has not worked maybe 2 times, the rest of the time I was able to get a much better deal than the one that was originally offered to me. Try it, you will be surprised!

Anything above 80% is usually not possible though, unless you are dealing with a very small company that will try to cheat you in one way or another, so you shouldn't try asking for more. 75%-80% in the PPC industry is usually the magic number above which no one will go, and you will be hurting your chances for a good deal if you try asking for anything above that. If someone offers your 85% or more, beware, this could be some kind of fraud, and you usually will not want to be associated with it. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

Another principle of negotiation is the principle of higher authority. This is principle simply states that people will respond to you better if they think you are on their side, and not the one making the outrageous demands we have covered above. What you need to do to make this work, is simply refer to a higher authority, like your boss, the CEO, the board of directors, etc. Say something like "Of my, this is a great offer, and I wish we could take, but unfortunately my boss will go nuts if he even sees this! He is that kind of guy! Last week, he threw his laptop out of the window when a company offered him 60% revshare! So anything you can do to help me out here, I'll appreciate it!". Of course, this is an extreme example, but you see what I mean! :) Never let the responsibility be yours, always make it someone else's, and you are only doing his bidding, you will see how much better people treat you, and what kind of deals you will be able to make using this technique.

Well, this is it for now, try these principles out, and let me know how they are working out! And always remember, negotiation is everything in business, and never ever subscribe to any online banner/ad/ppc/contextual/etc. agency without calling them up first and negotiating an appropriate deal. 8 times out of 10, you will be able to get a better deal than the one that you would have gotten had you not tried it.