What's Your #1 Traffic Source? (here's mine...)

37 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hey guys,

This year I've been staying laser-focused on the high-leverage
tasks that GROW my business. The 3 main things that grow your
business are increasing traffic, creating more products, and
increasing conversion. So today I thought I'd share my #1
traffic source.

* Solo Ads

This is one of the BIGGEST traffic sources in our business.
So many people who start a business online shy away from
actually spending any money on BUILDING their business.

Sure, they’ll pay thousands of dollars for training – but VERY few
will spend any money on traffic. Which is really sad because you
can buy a $50 solo ad and start generating subscribers and sales.

I do these every week. One of our solo ads that went out this week
cost $50, sent me 249 unique visitors and generated 134 subscribers.

That’s 20 cents per click and a little under 40 cents per lead. And the
ad was profitable within 48 hours. It doesn’t get much better than that

And that why I LOVE solo ads. Consistent, predictable traffic.
And that’s what your business should be – consistent and predictable.

You could literally use this ONE strategy alone to build your entire business.

So what's your favorite traffic source?
#list building #marketing #mine #source #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author WizIMS
    Hello Kim,

    For me, it varies, it all depends on the website and my goals for the specific website. For example, on WizIMS.com (Now my #1 website), my #1 traffic source is word-of-mouth marketing, which is the best type

    I've watched your video about predictions for 2012, and it's just incredible, it got me thinking about few serious stuff that I didn't even consider before.

    Can you please add my Skype @ Wiz.IMS (I need to talk to you about something)
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  • Profile picture of the author WriterWahm
    I have been thinking about trying solo ads for some time; as a matter of fact I even did once but that didn't yield much. I wasn't sure if they really worked so I appreciate this post. Right now my greatest form of traffic is blog commenting. But I intend to scale up my business so I will need a lot more traffic than blog commenting can offer.

    I know that where you place your solo Ads will depend on the niche you're in. But how does one find great places to place ads?
    Signature

    PM me if you want a romantic fiction ghostwriter.

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  • Profile picture of the author JohnieT
    Newb Question: What's a solo ad?
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    • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
      Originally Posted by JohnieT View Post

      Newb Question: What's a solo ad?
      A solo ad is where you pay someone to send out an email that you've pre-written to their email subscribers.

      Basically getting other email list owners to mail your stuff.

      Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author Zacharey
      Originally Posted by JohnieT View Post

      Newb Question: What's a solo ad?
      A solo ad is a potentially high yielding marketing strategy. If done correctly amazing results are possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
    My top five traffic sources are the follow:

    1. My own email list (to me the BEST traffic source on Earth).
    2. Integration Swaps
    3. Solo Ads
    4. Ad Swaps
    5. Affiliates Traffic

    There are a ton more, but those are my top five.
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    • Profile picture of the author DeskCoder
      Originally Posted by Nickolie0990 View Post

      My top five traffic sources are the follow:

      1. My own email list (to me the BEST traffic source on Earth).
      2. Integration Swaps
      3. Solo Ads
      4. Ad Swaps
      5. Affiliates Traffic

      There are a ton more, but those are my top five.
      What's an integration swap?


      I have been getting some good traffic lately from viral YouTube videos.
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  • so solo ads are just related to email marketing?

    is buying a banner on a website a solo ad?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kim Roach
      Originally Posted by high_plains_drifter View Post

      so solo ads are just related to email marketing?

      is buying a banner on a website a solo ad?
      No, a solo ad is an email that goes out to someone ELSE'S list of subscribers
      on your behalf.
      Signature
      (Blog Traffic Checklist) - How to Generate 1,000+ Visitors to EVERY New Blog Post You Create...

      12-Step Traffic Checklist


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  • Profile picture of the author carrot
    This is relevant to my interests!

    Im a big SEO guy, have been for years.
    Also handle PPC ads quite often, but never tried a solo ad.

    Like others have said, where do you find good solo ad sellers?
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  • Profile picture of the author Landoy
    Where do you buy solo ads?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kim Roach
      Originally Posted by Landoy View Post

      Where do you buy solo ads?
      One good place to find solo ads is SoloAdDirectory.com. This is a site by Reed Floren and he posts reviews on a lot of the different solo ads that he's tried out himself.

      - Kim
      Signature
      (Blog Traffic Checklist) - How to Generate 1,000+ Visitors to EVERY New Blog Post You Create...

      12-Step Traffic Checklist


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      • Profile picture of the author nik0
        Banned
        Thanks for explaining, I also thought a solo ad was a banner at someone's site.

        I would like to ask you, do you think we can have success with solo ads when doing affiliate marketing or do we really need our own product to make profit with it?

        In addition, the list on that website, is that all IM related subscribers?

        Personally I'm thinking about offering a linkbuilding service that I also use for my own websites, do you think that would work by buying solo-ads?
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      • Profile picture of the author carrot
        Originally Posted by Kim Roach View Post

        One good place to find solo ads is SoloAdDirectory.com. This is a site by Reed Floren and he posts reviews on a lot of the different solo ads that he's tried out himself.

        - Kim
        Thanks, checking it out now
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  • Most of my traffic comes from SEO, but I'm looking into the paid thing in 2012. PPC and solo ads sound like a great way to generate targeted traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author freaky316
    Search Engines are the best source for traffic in my case
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Being a simple kind of guy, nearly all of my traffic just comes from the millions of people who read my articles.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    So what's your favorite traffic source?
    Paid advertising. It's fast. It's measurable. It's scalable. While I get traffic from a myriad of sources, in terms of pure efficiency and ROI, it's my favorite. And the good news is it's growing and has projected growth for years to come.

    RoD
    Signature
    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
    - Jim Rohn
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  • Profile picture of the author MrOfferz
    If anybody is looking for offers to test their lists on, lets talk.
    Signature

    Great Offers, All The Time, Just Ask......
    Currently Looking For Affiliates for Solid Converting Life Insurance, Finance, Lending, Credit/Debit Card, Stop Smoking, Weight Loss & Other Self-Help Offers Ready

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  • Profile picture of the author GuerrillaIM
    Do they work outside of the "make money" niche?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kim Roach
      Yes, there are solo ads available in nearly every market. And even if you don't see them advertised publicly - contact the owner and work out a custom deal.
      Signature
      (Blog Traffic Checklist) - How to Generate 1,000+ Visitors to EVERY New Blog Post You Create...

      12-Step Traffic Checklist


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  • Profile picture of the author Theeban
    My votes goes to traffic from our big G, I mean Google, then from social networks like twitter and facebook. I never tried solo ads types.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arav
    Once I saw a post at Hubpages stated that He'd gained thousands of traffiq only be Bookmarking and re-bookmarking the post and earned handsome Adsense bucks.
    Signature

    Actual High PR(3-6), Do-follow,Low OBL,Unique Domain,SPAM Free, Anchor Text allowed, Mostly Auto Approved Blog List Package (30 Links including AA .edu) for Sale. Only 10 Packages. PM me for details.

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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    Originally Posted by Kim Roach View Post

    Hey guys,

    This year I've been staying laser-focused on the high-leverage
    tasks that GROW my business. The 3 main things that grow your
    business are increasing traffic, creating more products, and
    increasing conversion. So today I thought I'd share my #1
    traffic source.

    * Solo Ads

    This is one of the BIGGEST traffic sources in our business.
    So many people who start a business online shy away from
    actually spending any money on BUILDING their business.

    Sure, they'll pay thousands of dollars for training - but VERY few
    will spend any money on traffic. Which is really sad because you
    can buy a $50 solo ad and start generating subscribers and sales.

    I do these every week. One of our solo ads that went out this week
    cost $50, sent me 249 unique visitors and generated 134 subscribers.

    That's 20 cents per click and a little under 40 cents per lead. And the
    ad was profitable within 48 hours. It doesn't get much better than that

    And that why I LOVE solo ads. Consistent, predictable traffic.
    And that's what your business should be - consistent and predictable.

    You could literally use this ONE strategy alone to build your entire business.

    So what's your favorite traffic source?

    when you say subscribers, subscribers to what?
    when you say profitable, how much revenue does 50 dollars ad typically generate
    Signature
    Tech article writing .Native English Speaker(with Proof)
    specializing in SmartPhones , Internet security, high tech gadgets, search engines, tech shows, digital cameras.

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  • Profile picture of the author solado
    I have been having some great results from Youtube, creating 10+ short 3 minute videos per week
    Signature


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  • Profile picture of the author sizzlemediauk
    Kim,

    Thanks for the sharing! I really never tried this as mostly I used to do and get traffic from
    Email Marketing, Social Medias and Search Engines. I am definitely going to try out solo ads, pretty excited and hoping for the best.
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    • Profile picture of the author comixdvd
      Kim which ad person did you go with for $50? Would love to try the same person since they seem reputable First time doing a solo ad so would like someone to follow
      Oh and what niche was it? thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Genycis
    My primary sources would have to be organic first via search engines, then through Twitter blasts I tweet to my 5500+ followers, and then email probably.

    I couldn't try solo ads based on my niche (I've yet to even find or know where a solo ad blast would be related to hip hop artists). I think I MAY have only found one, but was skeptical of using it as the site had been in service for some years, and the cost of it was rather high to take that gamble and not make any sales off of it.

    This is the only example of what I found that I believe resembles "solo ad" in the hip hop niche:

    Email Marketing
    We have very dedicated fans in our network therefore we have a very dedicated mailing list. We have our message board email list with over 80,000 members along with our other email list with over 400,000 email addresses in it. Our email marketing campaigns are very effective.

    Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.

    Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because:

    • The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
    • Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.
    • An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
    • It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
    • It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
    • It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
    • Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically
    • Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
    • Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
    • Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
    • Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.

    The cost for this: $500

    Not sure of the value I'd receive given that this site has been active since 2007, and a large portion of their email base probably doesn't really check their emails any further. So it's really hard to gauge how effective this would be.

    The site is a PR4 with an Alexa rating of under 83,000. Looking the site up in Compete, it states that in June 2011, it had 233k Uniques, but that has since declined in Dec 2011 to 137k Uniques. Checking it in Quantcast, the numbers are a lot worse (do these sites really even work for real? Always a major difference in them versus Google Analytics versus AWStats, etc.). If I spent $500 on this email blast, I'd have to sell at least 36 instrumentals to break even with it.

    Curious as to your thoughts on this and if it would be a wise investment? Hard to find certain things such as Solo Ads or Ad Swaps, etc. that are typically easier to find in other niches like weight loss, money making, self-help, etc.
    Signature
    Genycis
    -- Absorbing & implementing. Need hip hop beats for your business needs? Hit me up!
    -- Posting my experiences and so forth with my own blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author narindersingh
    Social networking websites are my favorite source for traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author johnorc
      Facebook ads are a great way to get highly targeted traffic to your blog (landing page, fan page, what ever). Although not a free traffic source, it is a great one. The price is not very high and I think it is pretty acceptable considering that you can choose demographics of Facebook users that will see your ad. I had great success getting traffic that converts on one of my niche sites.

      Google Adwords is a well known paid traffic generation source. I, presonally, did not get too much into it since it takes some learning to make it work for you. But you can easily find coupons for $75 to try it out, so why not? Those who can use Google Adwords well convert that traffic into subscribers and buyers in no time.

      Ads on related blogs. Most blogs are open for advertising and you can always buy advertising space on them. Choosing a blog that is related to your niche (while not directly competing with you) and has a lot of visitors is a great way to get more traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author aadi144
    Does posting free ads on classified sites too bring in traffic for the site??
    (Obviously High PR ones).

    Once i posted an add on a classified site Kugli.com and got 10 visitors but are they useful worth or not ? Please suggest.
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  • Profile picture of the author WPMaker
    Solo ads can work great as paid traffic source if used with high converting squeeze page to get as many subscribers as possible Affiliate traffic can be great too if you have a nice product with some up-sells and offer your affiliates 100% from initial purchase.

    And the best free traffic source would be guest posting on related blogs and good old forum posting.
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  • Profile picture of the author LiftMyRank
    Depending on your niche you can try direct mailing, that is sending letters/emails directly to your prospects, if you can nail this traffic source you're golden...
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  • Profile picture of the author danlew
    I am getting more traffic from SEO these days, some days I get more traffic from social efforts but whats more important is what converts better.

    The quality of traffic is key!
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  • Profile picture of the author Slin
    SEO by far is mine, but i'm a set and forget kind of guy, I build a nice site, rank it, then leave it making me money.

    Then I go on to the next one...and so on.
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