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Free Traffic Vs Paid for Traffic

by garethjehu1
8 replies
What are the pros and cons of each?

Paid traffic
Is immediate
Its targeted
Costs money
If you get it wrong and don't test you could easily lose your investment

Free Traffic
Is normally slower then paid
Its targeted
It costs in time rather then money
If you get it wrong you just keep tweaking until your efforts are returning the right traffic.

I personally use Video Marketing for all of my free traffic. I find it is very targeted and you have the chance to build a rapport and trust with your potential customers.

What do you think?
#free #free traffic #paid #paid traffic #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author wrcato2
    Garethjehu, I think you know what you are doing. Video is a great way to get free targeted traffic back to your site. But there are many other great ways as well. JV with another person that is in your niche is another.

    Paid traffic I like to reserve for times when I have a paid offer such as membership sites, products, or even my services. Like you said if done wrong you can lose a lot of money. I know a guy that used PPC years ago, and put three ads on Google and then left for vacation for a week. When he got back and received his credit card bill it was over $10,,000 and he made only $2500.
    When he told me about it I had to show him that he could have avoided all of that by checking a certain box in his management system.

    Here is a list of many ways to get targeted free and payed traffic.
    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ffic-tips.html
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    If all you have is time, and no money focus on one method and stay consistent with it.

    If you have more money then time, test out slowly before you have a winning campaign.

    With paid advertising it is risky, but also can be rewarding and scalable.

    With free marketing you put in the work early on and the results pay forever.

    I always recommend having a combination of the two for best results.

    One costs you time, one costs you money.

    Time is something you'll never get back.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    the only reason I will pay for traffic is if I know that at a later date I'll get traffic through word-of-mouth. If you have to pay for every single visitor that is a pretty difficult business model to work with. But if people love your site or wherever you are sending them so much that they would tell their friends or their friends would see what they are doing, the paid advertising is only a a jumpstart or supplement.
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    • Profile picture of the author DianaLensbury
      In terms of PPC, unless you're dealing with the top tier search engines, you're likely dealing with a traffic aggregator. That invariably means that a percentage of your traffic is going to be rubbish and it's your job to weed it out before it eats up your budget. That means understanding the nuances of the traffic source, i.e. how to identify and weed out the rubbish.
      It's a game you have to master to survive.
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      • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
        Since there's no such thing as free traffic (it takes your time). You have to decide what your time is worth.

        Example: lets say you have 20 campaigns running in 5 total niches = 4 per niche.

        There aren't enough hours in a day to do it with free traffic.

        So, you will find it difficult to become a larger marketer.

        You could outsource it. But then it's paid traffic again (you're paying the outsourcers).

        Paid traffic example: 20 campaigns; you get up check stats = 1 hour. You test 2-3 more new campaigns. 3 times a week you hit one that's profitable. You implement them and put them into your stats checking routine. Total time per day 3 hours.

        The rest of your day is yours.

        Free traffic is not very scalable. Paid traffic you can nearly always buy more with little or no extra time involvement.

        Thanks, Patrick
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  • Profile picture of the author Riccur
    It seems like paid traffic never goes as intended. I had paid traffic to one of my store sites and it didn't work at getting more orders. All that happened was more people on my site, which would go to one page and then leave.

    I guess overall it does tell me my site may not be where I need it to be to convert viewers into a sale.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMLab
    The best way is to use both. In my opinion, it is really wrong to favour one type over the other.
    Both paid and free traffic must be used together for best results. This applies to any niche independent of the competition.

    The common misconsumption is that people think that if they are on a tight budget, they must only rely on free traffic. In reality though, free traffic requires lots of time and efforts. As we all know, time is money.

    The bottom line is that you must use both methods at all times. If your budget is tight and limited, then start at a small scale in a specific "not-so-competitive" niche before scaling up.

    Apart from that, always keep learning and follow many marketers at the same time. The more theory you get, the better your plans will be.

    I wish you all the best with your marketing and website.

    Best Regards~
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Originally Posted by garethjehu1 View Post

    What are the pros and cons of each?

    Paid traffic
    Is immediate
    Its targeted
    Costs money
    If you get it wrong and don't test you could easily lose your investment

    Free Traffic
    Is normally slower then paid
    Its targeted
    It costs in time rather then money
    If you get it wrong you just keep tweaking until your efforts are returning the right traffic.

    I personally use Video Marketing for all of my free traffic. I find it is very targeted and you have the chance to build a rapport and trust with your potential customers.

    What do you think?
    These are all great ways to get traffic but if you are new to internet marketing and want to get your business off the ground faster, I would look into PAID ads more seriously.
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