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Can You Really Buy Traffic?

Written by: Michael Fleischner

Article Overview: There are a number of websites out there that offer 10,000 visitors for only $29? Are they legitimate and where do they get their traffic from?

Can You Really Buy Traffic?

Many people wonder about generating traffic to their websites through paid traffic offerings. This topic is highly debated among the industries top SEO managers because some believe in the practice and others do not. Paid traffic services can be useful as part of an overall traffic generation strategy. I have used paid traffic services in the past and believe they do present some value when used in conjunction with Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Email Marketing.

So What's the Rub With Paid Traffic?

Have you ever wondered where paid traffic comes from? The services that generate paid traffic do it through a few key methods.

1. Traffic Exchange. Using this method, these sites sell access to their traffic exchange networks where individuals surf for credits. As they earn credits viewing websites like yours, their ads/websites are displayed across the network for others to click on. If this method is being used, you may certainly experience a decrease in performance only because the same individuals are seeing your ad over and over, reducing their likelihood to click.

2. Search Engine Marketing. A great way to generate traffic for others is through search engine marketing like Google, ExactSeek or Yahoo! Traffic generation sites buy keywords in bulk or many long-tail keywords and resell the traffic generated from them. If they can do this at a profit, its a win-win. This is a difficult strategy only because the cost of keywords change frequently based on industry demand.

3. List Marketing. Traffic generation websites also generate traffic through email marketing and house lists. These techniques are usually leveraged through daily, weekly, and monthly electronic newsletters. Driving less traffic than the first two methods, the list marketing option usually rounds out a comprehensive traffic generation strategy.

So to answer the question about paying for traffic, is it worth? My answer is that as part of an overall traffic generation strategy, paying for traffic can be beneficial. It all comes down to how you use paid traffic acquisition as part of your overall marketing strategy, the quality of the traffic generated and the costs associated with the traffic.

The other factor to consider is the quality of the traffic you receive. The purpose of most traffic acquisition strategies is to improve sales, generate leads, and/or conversions. To that end, I would only recommend paying for traffic if you have a way to measure the traffic to your site, the path the traffic takes through your website and whether or not that traffic actually converts. Whether you consider a conversion to be the completion of a web form or the actual purchase of a product, your buying this traffic for one reason and one reason only - conversion. Keep this in mind before you spend any money on traffic.

Although you can find plenty of sites willing to give you traffic in exchange for a fixed fee, I personally prefer to sign up for my own traffic exchange, purchase my own keywords, and manage my newsletters and email lists. By doing so, I have a better handle on where the traffic is coming from and ultimately the value of this traffic. Keep that in mind before you run out and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on acquiring traffic that may or may not convert for your web site.

Related Articles
  Learn How To Generate Your Own Traffic Without Google Or Any Other Site
  Free Website Traffic Is Still The Best
  Does Buying Website Traffic Actually Work?
  Calculating ROI for SEO
  Things You Need to Know Before Buying Targeted Traffic for Your Website

Article Tags: inbound links, link building, Web traffic



Related Forum Posts
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - LOL, I spoke too soon. Within a few hours of my post, Alexa updated the Traffic Rank on the toolbar. Note however that the 3 month Traffic Rank on Alexa.com has still not been updated...
Re: I'm A Winner!! - Thanks Tami and Ideasuniversity! Traffic is up. Forums are good places to get your message out. I also do quite a lot of article marketing and blogging etc. Still a long way to go, though, on every front!
Re: Who Said Twitter Doesn't Work...? - Hi Trent, I'd have to agree. I never intended to get deep into Twitter and rarely ever get on. Traffic is very minimal as you said, and I doubt that I'll ever make money with it unless I start getting paid to Tweet, and even then I'm not sure if that's worth it. Haven't looked into that yet, but it's definitely not even close to my main method of marketing for my business.
Re: What Do You Want To Be Taught? - Hi Jeff, Congratulations. Basically I think there is a need to discuss all kind of internet marketing methods, all leading to the big problem - Generating Traffic. My biggest challenge is time management, and tracking. I recently noticed that my tracking is lacking something, and i don't know what.
Signatures can improve your Traffic - Don't forget that in addition to directories that you can post your business URL and details on that you can also utilize signatures in highly trafficed Forums - like this one. Except make sure that your Signature is keyword dense instead of your company's name and that the entire phrase is URL'd to your site. Thought I'd mention this one even though it may be obvious as we were talking about Traffic as well.


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