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Paid or Free Traffic

by KimboJim
37 replies
I was thinking of launching a new info product, and was trying to consider if paid traffic (ie: PPC) or free traffic (ie: SEO/article marketing) would be best. Now I know it matters what the product is about and so on, but I'm not here to ask about what traffic would be best for me.

What I wanted to know is, what type of traffic do you prefer? I've always mixed the two, but do you have a preference? If so, why? Both have so many pros and cons, and I wanted to see what the WF community liked the most.
#free #paid #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Ownerr
    i like adf.ly traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author Jetmir
    I like the Paid Traffic. You get WAY faster results and you don't really waste time waiting to test what actually works and what not. Of course, while you're in the testing period, you'll lose money, but you'll understand your demographics and so you'll know what audience to target. SEO isn't bad neither. When you establish your site, then money floods. As you said there lots of pros and cons for both of them, but I really prefer the paid traffic the most. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    There is no such thing as free traffic. So called "FREE" traffic costs time. Time is money. Paid traffic saves time but costs real money. If your broke you will have to leverage your time. If you have a marketing budget you would be crazy not to learn and master a paid form of traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author tayuyaa
      Originally Posted by jamesrich1 View Post

      There is no such thing as free traffic. So called "FREE" traffic costs time. Time is money. Paid traffic saves time but costs real money. If your broke you will have to leverage your time. If you have a marketing budget you would be crazy not to learn and master a paid form of traffic.
      This.

      If you have some budget id go for the paid traffic road, it doesnt have to be risky, on some platforms you can start with as low as $5. And of course develop your site to bring some free visitors.
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    • Profile picture of the author warriorwoman2011
      Originally Posted by jamesrich1 View Post

      There is no such thing as free traffic. So called "FREE" traffic costs time. Time is money. Paid traffic saves time but costs real money. If your broke you will have to leverage your time. If you have a marketing budget you would be crazy not to learn and master a paid form of traffic.
      I second this as well.

      If you have more time and less money choose free traffic option. Mind you, don't be limited with article marketing and SEO. There's the power of social media.

      If you have more money and less time, well go for it
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    • Profile picture of the author DezertDawg
      I agree. In life nothing is free, especially our Freedom.
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  • Profile picture of the author JFathom
    Both kinds of traffic have their pros and cons. You should work at getting more organic traffic over time, but test your product and the reception from your customers through paid. Paid traffic will get you results much faster, but obviously the downside is that is costs more up front. I think the best results come from a mixture of both.
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    • Profile picture of the author ace666
      Originally Posted by JFathom View Post

      Both kinds of traffic have their pros and cons. You should work at getting more organic traffic over time, but test your product and the reception from your customers through paid. Paid traffic will get you results much faster, but obviously the downside is that is costs more up front. I think the best results come from a mixture of both.
      I agree with Fathom, I'd lean towards using paid traffic to kick things off, but have a strategy in place to begin getting organic traffic to make up 80% of your end focus.
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  • Profile picture of the author thekaver
    paid traffic if use correctly is better short term as your getting instant traffic and instant results = instant money.

    but the free traffic is alot cheaper in the long run!

    thats why i prefer both. start off with both then as you generating more and more traffic wit hthe free approach you can tapper of the paid!

    thanks

    TheKaver
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  • Profile picture of the author robchapman
    I prefer the "free" traffic myself. It may cost time upfront, but it pays off in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    You should do paid traffic to start getting some momentum. Pay some money, get some visitors. It's traffic on demand, that you control. This is very necessary if you want to test an offer or squeeze page quickly.

    Think of free traffic as more of a long term strategy. Traffic will come slowly but builds up over time if you do it consistently.
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    • Profile picture of the author RizNicolas
      Originally Posted by illinimatt81 View Post

      Do you guys tend to like to direct your paid traffic directly to a long sales page?
      Ideally I send paid traffic to a squeeze page that offers something of value for FREE to the target traffic. When they opt-in, they get added to my autoresponder list and get redirected to my sales page. A small percentage will buy, and for those that don't I can market to them over and over again since they're now on my list.

      Alot of cold traffic won't buy the very first time they see your offer. By adding them to your list and marketing to them, a good percentage will buy your offer (and other offers) over time, thus maximizing the return of the traffic you paid for in the first place.
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  • Profile picture of the author almiller
    There is not free traffic. You have to spend a lot of time with "free traffic". I prefer paid traffic because you cen test and get results immediately

    Alberto
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraser SellHealth
    "Free traffic" / SEO and social media are the 2 best,I second @warriorwomen but SEO traffic has always been the best for selling product unless you have a large budget.
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    Sellhealth.com

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    • Profile picture of the author daria19
      I prefer paid traffic first, then move on to free methods later. By doing this, you can quickly test to see if an offer converts, and which keywords convert for you. If all is good, then build out a site on the converting keywords and do SEO, free methods etc.

      ~Darren.
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  • Profile picture of the author ActA
    paid is better, but free is free
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    • Profile picture of the author Matt Huggins
      Originally Posted by ActA View Post

      paid is better, but free is free
      Couldn't have said it better myself
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  • Profile picture of the author Tech19
    Ok like everyone else said you either pay for traffic one way or another. Either with time, or money. I have traffic coming from both sources but prefer PPC and other forms of "paid" advertising. Here is the thing you have to remember though...

    If you have a proven sales funnel, something you know will convert, why wouldn't you use paid traffic? If I am paying $1 per click, but earning $1.20, I'd be crazy not to do that all day long. You have to know your numbers here.

    Paid traffic sucks if you have no ROI, that's why so many people stay away or that it doesn't work. It's because they are paying to send traffic to an offer that will never make them money.
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulyC
    I prefer to build up the 'free' traffic, which as someone pointed out isn't really truly free, simply because I find that the results are more long-term than paid techniques. It is although nice to find paid traffic techniques that work well, such as doing solo ads - which seem to yield some very immediate and high-quality results.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    If you can make your site profit or break even via PPC... go for it. And i would normally suggest that you can even go negative on a PPC campaign, be we have no idea of what the average lifetime value of a customer is for your business.

    Free marketing is hot. You can get alot of traffic also from it. I mean they exist for a reason, and alot of people on here will tell you that free marketing works fast too. Give them both a shot.
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  • Profile picture of the author seopunter
    When my site was new I use to get paid traffic but i think free traffic using various seo technique is better for your site
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  • Profile picture of the author thetrafficguy
    "Free" traffic is used after you use paid traffic to verify your funnel works, it is profitable, and you already know which traffic converts.

    I use "free traffic" to expand volume, not to test offers. Using article and SEO traffic to test offers is a great way to waste an enormous amount of time.
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  • Profile picture of the author mlord10
    It really is apples & oranges...in my opinion, there really is no reason not to use a variety of the traffic generation methods that are available online. It seems that everyone wants to "pick a side" when it comes to traffic, but it all comes down to testing your market & see which traffic sources convert for you.

    I also don't necessarily agree with testing offers with just "paid traffic." I've put the same offer in front of PPC & SEO traffic (same keywords) and seen massively different results. The mindset of someone clicking on Adwords/Facebook Ads as opposed to organic traffic can be quite different.

    There is also another important consideration that comes with organic traffic...and that is the ability to build rapport & authority with prospects via blog posting, videos, webinars, etc that is very hard to do with purely "paid" traffic. Something to be said for establishing trust & credibility via quality content within your target marketplace.
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  • Profile picture of the author sheinjhon
    I think that free traffic is batter than paid traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I wasted a lot of money with paid traffic, and then I realized that for the products I’m selling this traffic is useless. My customers have to think before they’ll make a buying decision. Paying for thinkers is pure suicide.


    I’m a business owner and I mainly promote my own products. I don’t have time or disposition to waste my time with marketing. I prefer to be a teacher than a marketer.


    My best tool is the content I provide to the public. It works like a magnet. I delay seeing results, but once I do I have regular customers that are pure gold because they are loyal, and they trust me.


    This method works only if you have knowledge and you are a real writer, but it’s an option that you can use too, even if you know nothing and you are not a writer. You can pay others to write super-content for you and get a lot of traffic by posting one excellent article everyday to your blog and creating one Squidoo lens every week. You should become a Giant-Squid and have numerous advantages. This is working for me, but not as much as it could because I’m not promoting my blog or my lenses. I’m mainly only providing good content to the public, and attracting readers.
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  • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
    Paid = Faster

    Free = Better
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  • Profile picture of the author barath13
    Free traffic is the stable traffic you will get the money in without any hard work(Ya u have to lot of hard work initially )
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  • Profile picture of the author tharith
    You will spend a lot of time with free traffic, but paid traffic brings you quick result and save time.
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  • Profile picture of the author shireen
    Currently most of my traffic are free.

    There come mostly from eBay, articles, warrior forum :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author wilsonljx
      There is no such thing as "free".Either you spend lots of time to invest or money to invest. If you have the budget,paid traffic comes in handy as it can save you a lot of time.

      The results are pretty visible and you will be more motivated to carry things out.
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      • Profile picture of the author Christines Dream
        I like Paid traffic. If you have the money and the ability to take some risk it can provide the best results the quickest.

        If you have the time and don't want to take the risk then try the "free" methods. Keep in mind they will take time... and that's more than just your time. Free methods are slow and safe.

        The choice is yours. Only you know your situation best.

        Are you a risk taker? And more importantly, can you afford to be a risk taker?
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric S
    Free (organic) traffic is the way to go in the long run, but if you need some results right away, paid traffic is there. Any successful business needs a healthy mix of both.
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  • Profile picture of the author todayheads
    don't pay for traffic because mostly they are bots, if you want traffic you should go to advertising, use facebook advertsing its cheap and make a facebook fan page the more like you get the more probable traffic especially when you keep updating your page constantly
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Barker
    Originally Posted by KimboJim View Post

    I was thinking of launching a new info product, and was trying to consider if paid traffic (ie: PPC) or free traffic (ie: SEO/article marketing) would be best. Now I know it matters what the product is about and so on, but I'm not here to ask about what traffic would be best for me.

    What I wanted to know is, what type of traffic do you prefer? I've always mixed the two, but do you have a preference? If so, why? Both have so many pros and cons, and I wanted to see what the WF community liked the most.
    Both have their advantages. I use free and paid traffic and have always had better success/sales from the paid traffic. Use both. Diversify your marketing.
    Depending on what product you are launching and the price you must be careful with paid advertising as it is easy to run a bill up pretty high very fast depending on what you do.

    Good Luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author John Marshall
      Hi,

      You can do some quick market research using paid traffic. A PPC campaign costing only a few dollars can tell you in just a few days whether or not you are in a market with plenty of traffic, buyers and if you've got your conversion page set up well.

      Some marketers do this and then gradually expand their marketing efforts when they find a winner, leaving unsuccessful campaigns to one side.

      Part of the answer lies in whether you have a budget to do such testing.

      I hope this helps you.

      Kind regards,

      John
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