Why Does Nobody Discuss This Method Of Generating Traffic?.

[Sham Salih]

In recent times I've found that in most "traffic generation" threads we have the classic list of

- Social Bookmarking
- Forums
- Articles
- Web 2.0 Properties ect.
- PPC

But I've seen a neglect in mentioning buying up Ad Space.

I've found out that I can get some very targetted and HIGH Quality traffic buy buying space on sites that are already established this is excellent for my websites where I operate lists because this means I can get traffic from a source that relates to my niche then build up my list using that traffic.

I appericate people may prefer attempting to get High SERP rankings and may see this as a "short cut" but I just think buying ad space for a new site helps the site until it gets to reasonable positions in SERPs.

[LMC]

Most People don't want to cough up some dough... but I agree.

[marlonjbroussard]

Your right Sham,

But that costs money... This strategy is considered advanced because you should build up to this point.

[Carl-Reed]

I think its because those are the latest trends in traffic generation, buying ad space was the big thing before Adwords came out, it works really well today though and is still my preferred way to get traffic because its the easiest and less time consuming.

[timer]

I agree with what's been said. Most people building up a business don't want to shell out money on advertising like that and also spend ther time to do it. Personally I could never make PPC work for me to any great extent so never fancied buying advertising on other peoples sites.

[RobertAxelsen]

I guess it has to do with the money involved, and as Carl-Reed mentioned, the preconceived notion that it's a thing of the past.

Have anyone successfully tried CPM (set cost per 1000 impressions) ad placements with Google Adwords to achieve similar effect? I've heard you can 'hijack' competitor sites adsense placements, and have them only show your full scale ad at said placement (side banner, top banner, etc..).

[Andyhenry]

we do discuss it, but most people are looking for free methods and there are enough of them to keep most people happy so the subject doesn't last long.

[Sham Salih]

CPM Is quite effective if you have a banner that has a high click thru rate. Otherwise you could be forking out a high price on a high traffic site for nothing.

I guess that I could agree that there is obviously a cost but IMO its well worth it and more so than paying people to do "SEO" work.

[NicheDiary.com]

If you buy traffic directly, it's an excellent way to stop depending on Google/MSN/YAHOO.

[Andyhenry]

Originally Posted by Sham Salih

CPM Is quite effective if you have a banner that has a high click thru rate. Otherwise you could be forking out a high price on a high traffic site for nothing.

I guess that I could agree that there is obviously a cost but IMO its well worth it and more so than paying people to do "SEO" work.

That's the thing though - it's debatable.

Some people don't have money to spend so paying is out of the question. Paying other people to do seo work will have much longer effect than short term spend on paid traffic, so it depends on your objectives.

Most people need both - short term revenue which Paid advertising is good for, plus long term traffic which sem is good for.

Usually it's best to do both, but only pay for traffic when you make more than you spend to get it.

Andy

[anwar001]

The problem is that where can we find places to advertise our new site? The websites we place an ad on should be receiving good amount of traffic as well as should be affordable for people who are low on funds when starting out. That is the problem many would face I guess if they want to go this route.

[Scott Ames]

PR is underused too.

[chandan_dutta]

Free methods are always good and I don't want to pay for traffic.

[Pipinscott]

Well to put an exclamation point on whats been said as the number one reason we don't see alot of talk about buying advertising space...FREE is King...Seriously that seems to be the mantra.
For my part there needs to be a mix. But PPC can be if'ey. Buying advertising space on other sites can be a little scary too...many newbies are on a shoestring budget, and that shoestring is on its last thread.
I think too many view a "failed" ad campaign as a waste of money...Look at it a little differently...you invested in a marketing lesson

[Shana_Adam]

If I had the money hell I would be media buying and testing testing and testing!

Most people cant afford to be competing with the big boys out there when starting out. Also most newbies will not have a clue about a lot of new terminology.

I guess most people like to share their knowledge on easier stuff. The more advanced stuff is probably held in the private forum that you need to subscribe to

[Intrepreneur]

I'm beat when it comes to finding ad space, so far I found Google Adwords (haven't we all) and AdBrite but I need more before I can press forward..

So glad you brought this up.

[JayXtreme]

I've always refrained from discussing ad space buying here, mainly for three reasons:

a) Most members here seem to be looking for low cost traffic generation methods (short sighted, maybe.. but many are still only at this stage in their business).

b) I'm reluctant to reveal the companies and spots I purchase, because it would lead me into revealing niches I currently operate in. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I know how easy it is to reverse engineer a campaign

c) It's a lengthy and deep topic that isn't usually covered in a single thread...

I'm sure if the topic was raised more, there would be many warriors (myself included, I suppose) who would be prepared to carry it on...

Peace

Jay

[AlexGoodall]

I've not studied it in detail, but Facebook provides a controlled, low-cost way to test out this approach.

Alex

[Mr Tomcat]

I have been burnt buying adspots in the past. Of course looking back had I done the right research this would not have happened

[Mark Riddle]

Buying ads on sites is often well worth the price, especially if its when you find new sites with only so-so traffic.

I have literally bought a years worth of 125 X125 ad above the fold on a new-ish site for $35

Very Targeted and powerful.

The Same spot on the same site the year following sold for about $200 a month.

Mark Riddle

[goingup]

Is this straightforward, in other words, no learning curve. Just go here and buy traffic.
If so, where?

[Sham Salih]

There are plenty of platforms to buy ad space

AdEngage - Engaging Internet Advertising is a good example of the sort of platform you would be looking for where you could select ad space on various niches.

[David McKee]

If you want to go even further into areas not much discussed here - try creating weird or different or highly targeted PHYSICAL advertising... such as long copy letters, post cards, and specialized fold out business cards. There is free or inexpensive software to format this kind of thing, and you can print it up cheaply at most print shops.

Then you go to your local "arena" when they are having business events or motivational speakers or other events in your niche and put these cards on the windshields of every car at the event - that is targeted marketing and it can work tons better than trying to get the best SEO!

--Good luck!

[garyv]

I love buying ad space, and using PPC sites. For one thing, once you've found a spot that converts, the conversion rate for that spot usually will not change. The traffic may change, but the conversion rate doesn't. So once you find a good spot, you just keep throwing money at it.

I know some fellow marketers that are throwing $10,000 a day at facebook, and are begging facebook to let them pay more. I wish I could figure that market out, there's a killing to be made there.

[midasman09]

For people who do "OffLine" marketing (which is creating sites for local businesses) I've found 2 ways to get traffic to my client's sites;

1) Place an and AD Link on the Chamber of Comm site. Costs $25 to $35 per mo depending on the Town.

2) Send Postcards to "New Movers" (which includes newbies coming to town, those moving across town, renters and home buyers) informing them of the sites you created. Cost is buying Lists and Printing and Postage.

Midas Man

[Sham Salih]

great point gary

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Sham Salih

I appericate people may prefer attempting to get High SERP rankings and may see this as a "short cut" but I just think buying ad space for a new site helps the site until it gets to reasonable positions in SERPs.

Actually, I'd consider buying traffic to be the real "short cut".

[TheDebtEliminator]

I have tried AdWords with mixed results

I am in the process of working with Banner ads now and so far so good

Best Regards

[pbennett]

I almost bought ad space on Facebook today, but decided to wait until my site is a little more ready.

[acedalright]

Most people want free methods of traffic, or at the least very permanent cheap ones.

An ad is temporary, but for $5 you can get an article written and submitted to EZinearticles, which will give you a permanent backlink

[Sham Salih]

Unfortunately EA takes time to approve the article and then afterwards you have to hope your article starts getting a decent amount of clicks and that the article will appear on google for the clicks

[sylviad]

Originally Posted by RobertAxelsen

I guess it has to do with the money involved, and as Carl-Reed mentioned, the preconceived notion that it's a thing of the past.

Have anyone successfully tried CPM (set cost per 1000 impressions) ad placements with Google Adwords to achieve similar effect? I've heard you can 'hijack' competitor sites adsense placements, and have them only show your full scale ad at said placement (side banner, top banner, etc..).

Apart from buying ad space directly from the site owner, you can choose the option in AdWords to have your ads appear on sites you specify. This would give you the same effect but at a lower price, since you are only charged when someone clicks your ad. To do this, you need to find sites that already display Adsense, of course.

Sylvia

[EffortlessEbook]

Most people are interested in free tactics. That's why most people discuss those free techniques here and everywhere.

[Andyhenry]

How does this thread keep getting dragged up - that 2 years now and the answer is the same - It HAS been discussed a lot but when it doesn't it's because people usually want free tactics and they already know they can pay.

[LooseChange]

I personally don't use social media, article marketing, forum posting, etc to generate traffic. I'm with the OP and buy advertising on up-and-coming sites and sometimes established sites as my means of traffic generation.

BUT.... Here's an even better idea.. .. If you have a product or service you're promoting, starting an affiliate program is the quintessential means of generating highly targeted traffic to your offer. My sales and traffic have gone through the roof since I started using affiliates to promote my products and services.

[Karen Blundell]

people still buy ads on other sites. Why do you think text link sales are so popular? Text link ads and 125x125 banners are still making webmasters, like me, a nice passive income. These are the people who understand that it takes money to make money and they do really well using various methods of advertising, including paid ad spots on other sites that complement their niche.

[RobertJ]

actually Media buying is a much larger market than search ( look up the stats), most people don't use MB since there are some myths which state that you require thousands of dollars to run a campaign. This is actually untrue. If you do your homework and look for ads above the fold and test out CTR initially, you'll quickly identify what will work, the best advantage of MB is it's scalability. hope this helps.

- Rob

[greger9320]

use google CPA " Cost per action " then you don't wast your time on cost per click

[echelon]

I think that for people who are just starting out internet marketing this is perhaps a little advanced. I have never gone to a site to buy advertising space, but I would imagine that it is necessary to find the right sites.

[esk]

When i have a new website i always buy ads on different homepages and run ppc campaigns.

I consider SEO only as an long term method.

If my campaings are not profitable I'm going to drop a project, because it is not worth the time.

Im my opinion you should always test your projects with paid advertising. If this is working good keep the paid campaigns running and invest time in SEO.

The SEO process is very time consuming and takes time to show results. There is nothing worse than investing 3 months of your time in seo and then realise that people don't want your stuff

[PPC-Coach]

Media buying has been going on forever. People shy away from it because they don't understand it. When I opened mediabuyscoach.com a couple years ago, it was hot. But people move from one trend to the next in the never ending search for the magic pill. Free traffic is not king imho. it's nice, but not king.

[esk]

Originally Posted by PPC-Coach

Media buying has been going on forever. People shy away from it because they don't understand it. When I opened mediabuyscoach.com a couple years ago, it was hot. But people move from one trend to the next in the never ending search for the magic pill. Free traffic is not king imho. it's nice, but not king.

There is nothing like free traffic. But you can choose how you want to pay.
You either pay with money or time!

[greger9320]

Originally Posted by esk

There is nothing like free traffic. But you can choose how you want to pay.
You either pay with money or time!

its depend how you do it

[markowe]

There is so much ridiculously cheap ad space going begging - have to admit I haven't quite cracked it yet, though. Connecting the right offer with the right target group seems to be the harder part.

[multimastery]

Direct media buys are a great way to boost traffic. I can produce a good ROI if you target right. Yes it costs money, but no traffic is really free. It either takes money or time - take your pick!

[Eli Junior]

Esk brings up a good point. SEO and organic traffic is great but you can spend months working to get a high ranking without really knowing if it is going to be a true money maker in the long term.

Buying ads can be a quick way to do some testing. It's not that difficult and this is especially true if the site has self serve type ads where you just click the "advertise here" and then pay. The trick is to find them and that's not so hard either.

Eli

[celente]

Originally Posted by RobertJ

actually Media buying is a much larger market than search ( look up the stats), most people don't use MB since there are some myths which state that you require thousands of dollars to run a campaign. This is actually untrue. If you do your homework and look for ads above the fold and test out CTR initially, you'll quickly identify what will work, the best advantage of MB is it's scalability. hope this helps.

- Rob

Also it is like the bank. If you have the right proposal you can get the right price.

Did you know you can walk into a bank and they will give you any money you want, as long as you are prepared to go into great length and tell them your plans.

But with media buying, its all about email and getting a good price.

I once asked a high ranking blog to post about me and my business and i would pay him $60 for this.

Well for that $60 bucks I got a huge surge in traffic and optins, and it was a great investment. I should do this again. But you just have to spend a day or so online and searching your keywords for high traffic sites. Some of their advertising costs are ridiculously low. if you have a good copy and offer you could easily make that back in a jiffy.

in fact I like to target sites without advertising trying to make a buck. You can normally negotiate a very nice offer. He makes money and you do to! WIN WIN situation really.

[Rich Struck]

I have a friend who does this full time. He doesn't even have websites, he just sends traffic to sponsors. He's done it forever and he has it down to a science but he said it took him a couple years to get really good at it.

[Ken Strong]

This thread is two years old.