Free or Paid.. Which One Works for You?

I prefer free traffic... But I can't say I've really put my mind to learning much about paid methods.

When I first started I tried out a fair few free traffic methods and now have a couple that I devote most of my time to because I've seen some good results with it.

Hopefully soon I'll spend time learning about paid traffic - It's been on my to-do list for months :p

But for now I'll go with free traffic.

- Trevor

Hello Sal,

I think most, including me, would prefer organic (or free) traffic sources. That can be achieved by providing your visitors a reason to come back on your website. What are those reasons? That'll start with the quality of your content. You mentioned 'spinning' on your post. In our perspective, at least, we don't recommend spun content. No one wants to read the same story, told in paraphrased words, over and over again. So, once you've built that audience, these people may recommend your website to their friends, post your website's link to their Twitter or Facebook account, or perhaps mention you as their reference on the description of their YouTube videos, and things like that.

Yes, paid traffic 'may' or 'can' give you instant numbers. Organic traffic requires knowing who your audience are, what they do, and what interests them. With organic traffic, you are sure that you will only do/post nothing but relevant content to the interests and needs of your target audience. If no one in your family eats a fish, will you still serve that on your dinning table?

Besides, Google recommends us all to report those who are using paid links, as shown on Google Webmasters Tool. They even elaborated that here.

I've just learned this by reading a lot of those old and new threads in this forum. I may not be the person to ask about this. So, if somebody else has a better understanding as to how paid and organic traffic work, let's just share our best practices without those twitching eyes (can you?).

I like free marketing... 100% profits. But paid advertising will bring you sales and customers faster... and can possibly make you more profitable the more you sell to these customers on the backend.

I think the terms organic and free are 2 different things. Even if you do SEO yourself, you still use your time so nothing is free. IMO.

Both worked for me but I used things manally 95% of times.
after launching my site in november, I am now 1st page top five of keyword lottery syndicate.

The monetarily free method of Article Syndication works for me. I love it because it utilizes talents that I already have: writing and dealing with people.

For my writing service, I'm depending more and more on offline leads/clients and clients from other websites. I guess technically this is paid (suit, gas and food, actually getting a decent haircut every once in a while), but the act of actually seeking them out and closing the deal is usually free.

Free traffic is a part of personal success that you can do things in a right way.

Both - why limit yourself?

Organic, free Generally from SEO.. still it requires times and work to get my website rank.. I'll still prefer free than paid nonetheless..

I don't know why but free traffic seems to convert better for me than pay traffic does have tried working on paid traffic but seemed to get better results with free so I stick to that

Both. Mixing methods sometimes brings a better result

Many people fall into the "free" traffic candy
store... and never ever get out. They're so
addicted to free, they don't realize that no
matter how free a method is, it's going to
consume something else in return.

Free traffic devours TIME.

That's why I choose to eliminate time, and PAY
to leverage traffic that is already gathered.
Paid traffic is fast, because you leverage from
other sites which has already done the job for
you.

Paid traffic CAN be free!

And yes, it CAN be free... Once you master how
to use it. The initial startup costs may be brunt,
but if you have set up a good marketing funnel
at the back, you're going to be able to recover
the investment multiple times back!

That's what I do in a lot of my niches...

There's simply no time to waste when you're
doing marketing. I mean, yes, you could take
months to build up a business and all...

But speed gives you MORE time, and with more
time you can do other things like:
-- Improve the backend of your funnel
-- Gather MORE traffic
-- Optimize conversions
-- Product research and development
-- Client-seeking
-- Outsourcing

Eventually, the most precious resource you really
need is time, because it's something that is lost
forever once it's past.

Don't get me wrong though. I love free. Everybody
loves free. It's just that sometimes, paid traffic is
just far more worth it than free...

And it can be vice versa depending on the
circumstances.

Winston Tian

Paid traffic hands down! free is very limited & complicates growing.

Like the above post says paid can be free or eventually is free once profitable $$.

I use free methods like YouTube & Articles, but I still pay people to do it for me.

It's also much easier to grow with paid traffic than free. (No limits reached)

Of course both are great formula. It's all great invest for business.

Free traffic for me is like a life journey while paid traffic is more of a roller-coaster ride?
i like both

Paid is definitely the best to use for your sites. I always go for them as they are more quality and help in long term.

If you have a sales funnel that converts and can buy an ad for $1 and make $3 you can make as much money as you want.

So paid I guess I'm saying if you didn't catch it.

Free Traffic is organic way but I think paid links also create a huge impact. I think 70% organic and 30% paid will keep you way from Google animals(Panda and Penguin). Paid links gives you a good reliable hold and organic is just to let Google know that we are not spamming.

But before purchasing links makes sure that those site is not very popular in selling links otherwise Google pets will catch you. Panda is gonna beat your soul out and Penguin will left you noware in middle of ICE.