Traffic! Where's your favorite?

[zhunzi]

So, I'm kind of a newb. I experimented with IM last year, and was a huge failure (I spent about $200 and made nothing, $0, zilch!!). For whatever reason, this year I decided to give it another whirl and what do you know, I actually made a profit. Not much, about $60, but that was with lots of mistakes and about 45 days of experimenting (you can see my blog in my sig for all the details). Had I known what I what I know now, I could have made $120 or more in that time, I'm certain of it.

In any case, my learning from that experience has left me with that situation of massive information overload. I'm not really sure where to go next. I've heard lots of good things about CPV (or PPV has Gauher calls it), Facebook, and twitter. I've experimented already with blogging (real), flogging (sounds like that's risky these days), seo, google adwords (PPC), yahoo PPC.

There are so many ways to get traffic, I'm just curious what is everyone's favorite source and why?

Let me know, so far, I'd say my favorite source so far has been SEO because it's relatively cheap to do, you can do it on your own or outsource, and once it's in place it kind of just works itself at very little additional cost to you. I dislike that it takes so long to get it setup and sometimes the deal is gone by the time you do. Based on what I've read about CPV, it may be my new favorite. I signed up for a CPV network last week, let's see if I get approved.

[johnlagoudakis]

Originally Posted by zhunzi

So, I'm kind of a newb. I experimented with IM last year, and was a huge failure (I spent about $200 and made nothing, $0, zilch!!).

Hi Daniel,

$200 is not a huge failure

I've heard stories of newbies that have got themselves into thousands, even tens of thousands in debt before they finally broke the code to making money online.

I wish you every success.


John

[zhunzi]

Yea, but I went into it thinking I was smarter than the average joe, $200 was pretty devastating for me considering I made nothing. I had make $10, I would have at least had somewhere to learn from. When it happened to me, I was just determined you couldn't make money online like that and anyone who said you could was just scamming you. Then by accident, I found this guy Greg Davis on facebook when networking through the real estate investing channels (another interest of mine). This guy was seriously making some mad money, and he was showing daily screenshots of his CPA accounts, bank accounts, etc. He was having $10K-60k days with a 50% ROI. I was so shocked, I had to get back into it and give it a try.

Maybe part of my problem was skepticism at first. Seeing Greg bang out cash online made me believe it was possible, and that's when things started changing for me.

You forgot to tell me what your favorite traffic source is!

[steveblum]

You hear a lot of talk about the fast way of doing things - everyone wants instant results because that's what our society has become. I on the other hand believe in slow and steady (even though it's hard sometimes).

So I would have to say my tried and true method is article submission. Because those posts will be around for a long time and are guaranteed to pull traffic. Yes it takes a lot of time dedication, but it builds a solid foundation for your business.

You may not get the results you want right away, but you build your web presence and get your name out there for people to see.

[Jason Anderson]

My FAVORITE traffic method is email recommendations from other marketers with lists.

This is by far the most effective and immediate.

Here's what I would do if I were you....

Create a free report (yourself). It can be about anything. Make sure it's something that you know about or something that you research. Run a FREE WSO to build your list at least a little. Advertise your "free" report on Twitter but make sure you drive all that traffic to your site or blog where you have an optin form.

After you get about 200-300 subscribers, you can really boost your subscriber list by doing Ad Swaps with other marketers. You can find these ad swap partners right here in the JV section of the Warrior Forum.

Here's how you set it up....

You approach someone and ask them if they would be interested in offering their list your free product. In return, you will offer THEIR list THEIR free giveaway.

Even if their list is larger than yours, you can get around that by agreeing on "unique clicks". Tell them you will mail your list until you can get them 50 unique clicks. They can recripricate.

You can track everything by using cli.gs (url shortener with statistics). You just give them the shortened url to promote and you also promote thier url to your list. This way you can keep track of how many clicks you are getting for your adswap partner. You may have to mail two or three times (over several days) if your list is small.

Do this 20-30 times. Try to find one ad swap partner per day.

This can greatly increase the size of your list....

Then as your list starts to grow, you can start to make affiliate recommendations to them inbetween your Ad Swap give-aways.

You'll soon start making affiliate commissions...

Now........

Now, your list is getting sizeable.

In the mean time, create a product or purchase Private Label Rights to products you are interested in. Create an affiliate program and start getting JV partners to promote your product.

Before you know it.....you'll be making money, building an ever growing list, and establishing long lasting Joint Venture partnerships all at the same time.

Stick with it.

[JeffLam]

Thanks Jason Anderson! Your post is really useful!

Well, my favourite traffic would be really anything that is SEO related. Articles, forum signatures, etc.

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by steveblum

You hear a lot of talk about the fast way of doing things - everyone wants instant results because that's what our society has become. I on the other hand believe in slow and steady (even though it's hard sometimes).

So I would have to say my tried and true method is article submission. Because those posts will be around for a long time and are guaranteed to pull traffic. Yes it takes a lot of time dedication, but it builds a solid foundation for your business.

You may not get the results you want right away, but you build your web presence and get your name out there for people to see.

If you can go on vacation and still have the same cashflow you did last month, I'm all about that. That's true freedom!

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by Jason Anderson

My FAVORITE traffic method is email recommendations from other marketers with lists.

Is the demographic with this always internet marketers? Or do you do non-IM free reports?

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by JasonHicks

Media Buys all the way...

What's the smallest media buy you can get? I was thinking those were all $1000+?

[kfilliez]

Article Marketing Is The Most Fun. If you like to write, and enjoy seeing stats showing the number of people who have read your stuff, then it is the best. Especially when it converts into site visitors.

I get frustrated with PPC, probably because right when I feel like I've found My window of opportunity with the right keywords and pricing, it tanks. But, the challenge of conquering the unknown is 1/2 the fun.

Good Luck!

[ktmurf]

No matter how slick you are, you can't beat good SEO. There are always millions of people out there surfing the web and you're always just a few keywords away from bringing them in. You just need to sit and play with it a little bit.

Having said that. I pull more quan from forum traffic than anything. Of course, I'm a member at a bunch of them and am heavily active in several.

Not enough to buy a mansion or anything but I can kick back and relax a little more these days.

Everyone ready for turkey day!?

*puts bib on*

[thunderflash]

I also like SEO traffic, because its quality, but it is competitive.

[Learnanew]

Big fan of PPC, media buying and SEO.

[Sara Young]

My favorite:

#1 SEO
#2 PPC

If you are a newbie, just pick one thing and get it to work. Trying too many things at once leads to failure....

[eriktin]

Traffic! Where's your favorite?
Wow!
When I’m driving my car with keeping a nice girl near seat!!!
Ok!
Black Hat SEO, that’s my favorite because I like to play with search engines until I become a serious internet marketer.

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by ktmurf

Having said that. I pull more quan from forum traffic than anything. Of course, I'm a member at a bunch of them and am heavily active in several.

Are you using virtual assistants to be heavily active in a bunch of forums, or that's all your time?

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by eriktin

Black Hat SEO, that’s my favorite because I like to play with search engines until I become a serious internet marketer.

Are you coming up with your own black hat techniques or are you reading about them somewhere? Seems like if they're published, the PPC companies would be all over making sure it doesn't happen anymore. A bit of a cat and mouse game, I'm not sure I'd be overly interested in. Maybe when I was young, but I'm too old to enjoy that for very long.

[ktmurf]

Originally Posted by zhunzi

Are you using virtual assistants to be heavily active in a bunch of forums, or that's all your time?

It's all my time, but I'm most active in stuff that I'm passionate about anyway. For instance, music. I'm a musician, so I spend alot of time on music related boards. Just like anywhere else, I link my sites and offers to my sig and I get results.

From what I've seen. That's where it's at. You won't get half the clicks from an on-topic board as you will something totally unrelated. Another oddity, to me anyway, was that I was more successful with a display ad in a parenting magazine than I was in a small biz/industry magazine.

A whole new topic all-together but it goes to show that John Q. Citizen has a lot of pull out there.

[zhunzi]

Originally Posted by ktmurf

It's all my time, but I'm most active in stuff that I'm passionate about anyway. For instance, music. I'm a musician, so I spend alot of time on music related boards. Just like anywhere else, I link my sites and offers to my sig and I get results.

From what I've seen. That's where it's at. You won't get half the clicks from an on-topic board as you will something totally unrelated. Another oddity, to me anyway, was that I was more successful with a display ad in a parenting magazine than I was in a small biz/industry magazine.

A whole new topic all-together but it goes to show that John Q. Citizen has a lot of pull out there.

I've heard that most online purchases are made by women. It makes sense that the target demographic might fit better in a parenting magazine than in an small biz magazine. Just a hunch.

Every offer has a customer, it's our job to figure out how to target that customer, or to know the customer and find them the right offer.

[Troy_Phillips]

Seo

Articles

Forum Traffic

Twitter

PPC

Credit based ad/traffic exchanges

Ad swaps

Affiliate Traffic

[ktmurf]

I always kinda figured one day that I'd like to partner up with one of the opt-in list guys that had just a crazy big list, but I've never given much pursuit to it yet. I figure a pretty high (over half) percentage would probably make it worth someone's while though.

Then just sit back and watch.

[KatyaSenina]

I think joint ventures is the real deal... but they don't work with you if you don't have a big list or a product of your own yet

I'm just starting out just like you but to be honest I think its a mixture of everything...articles, videos, forums, social networking, ppc, joint ventures, guestposting, blog commenting, adswapping, offline marketing, JV giveaways, niche directories, classified ads and the list goes on