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Paid Traffic or Free Traffic - What's Best For You?

by Ron Douglas
25 replies
Does most of your traffic come from Paid Traffic or Free Traffic?

Please explain why and list your top sources if you care to share.

Note: traffic from affiliates is considered paid.
#free #paid #poll #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    I am running a Google Adwords Campaign right now and I am getting more opt-ins from organic traffic than my PPC ads...go figure...
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMagicShow
    Originally Posted by Ron Douglas View Post

    Does most of your traffic come from Paid Traffic or Free Traffic?

    Please explain why and list your top sources if you care to share.

    Note: traffic from affiliates is considered paid.
    Hey Ron,

    How is affiliate marketing, a paid expense? you don't have to invest money, for them to bring you traffic and sales.

    Although you give them commission, it still really doesn't cost you a dime to advertise or anything.

    Cheers,
    Magic!
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
      Originally Posted by TheMagicShow View Post

      Hey Ron,

      How is affiliate marketing, a paid expense? you don't have to invest money, for them to bring you traffic and sales.

      Although you give them commission, it still really doesn't cost you a dime to advertise or anything.

      Cheers,
      Magic!
      You're still paying out like 50 to 75% of your revenue, so I consider it paid. It's all in how you look at it I suppose.
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      • Profile picture of the author mnonline
        Originally Posted by Ron Douglas View Post

        You're still paying out like 50 to 75% of your revenue, so I consider it paid. It's all in how you look at it I suppose.

        I believe that you get more money than your affiliates in this case. They have to use their own money to promote your product(s). You need to pay them higher % because they are the ones who do most of the work while you are doing nothing and still making money. If you think deeper, you actually end up making more money than your affiliates. That 50-75% is not the final revenue they get actually. I rather have affiliates working for me, than advertising myself. That's less work, higher returns. If you think that you can get more benefit advertise it yourself, give it a try
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        • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
          Originally Posted by mnonline View Post

          I believe that you get more money than your affiliates in this case. They have to use their own money to promote your product(s). You need to pay them higher % because they are the ones who do most of the work while you are doing nothing and still making money. If you think deeper, you actually end up making more money than your affiliates. That 50-75% is not the final revenue they get actually. I rather have affiliates working for me, than advertising myself. That's less work, higher returns. If you think that you can get more benefit advertise it yourself, give it a try
          No one is disagreeing with you on that. I've made a fortune from affiliates over the years. I think the point was whether traffic from affiliates should be considered free traffic or paid traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattjay
    organic traffic rocks at least, that's what i think. i am also biased in that before seo i tried a number of different paid options and never got over breaking even.
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  • Profile picture of the author V12
    All my traffic is coming from the search engines, mainly Google. A simple Wordpress site selling a physical product which went live at the beginning of July is averaging around 15k uniques a month.

    Wordpress site with SEO relevant plugins
    keyword rich domain name
    quality backlinks

    Abdul.
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  • Profile picture of the author anthon
    Paid traffic can convert good.
    But free traffic is easy to get and also we can get much more free traffic than we can get paid traffic with same budget.
    So free traffic is good for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author interplay
    Free traffic is best for me. The majority is organic traffic coming from Google with Yahoo a very distant second.

    Tim
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    Internet Marketing Product Launches
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  • Profile picture of the author Joe Benjamin
    Paid Traffic.

    Why? It's simple.

    I prefer spending time doing things I LOVE to
    do, and blowing my time building backlinks,
    writing articles to submit, creating & submitting
    videos, building relationships on facebook/
    twitter/blogs, etc...is NOT my idea of using
    my time wisely.

    I don't care if you DO make money with free
    marketing, you always spend more time doing
    it than it's REALLY worth when you add up the
    hours you spend doing it and the experiences
    you miss.

    And than people will say: "But, free traffic pays
    off"...not most of the time it doesn't.

    What if you spend 100 hours writing articles to
    submit yourself only to find out the signature
    wasn't a strong enough call-2-action?

    You WASTED 20 hours.

    What happens if you go on facebook and call
    yourself building relationships to eventually
    sell your next product, only to get shut down
    by facebook for "suspicious activity"...

    this one account you spent 4 months getting to
    where it was at, and than it get's shut down.

    This is NOT theory. You see threads where ppl
    whine about these things everyday.

    With paid advertising, you get instant feedback.

    It either DID, or it DIDN'T work. And you know
    immediately.

    I've spent thousands learning valuable marketing
    lessons, and you know what? I wouldn't trade it
    for even 1000 hours of my time. What I learned I
    learned far quicker BECAUSE I spent money.

    Money is a shortcut to adjusting and fixing your
    mistakes very quickly. That's not to say TIME can
    be avoided in learning lessons. But money speeds
    almost all lessons (IN BUSINESS) up.

    I think it comes down to what you value more:

    Your TIME? or your MONEY?     Far to many people here
    put money ABOVE their time, and so gravitate to time
    consuming activities...not knowing it's costing them
    more in the long-term.

    But like all things in life, it's a choice.

    I choose PAID marketing, and it pays in spades.

    By the way, the paid marketing I use is Direct Mail
    exclusively at this time.
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    • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
      FREE Traffic

      Why: it is the only thing that has worked for me.

      I tried paid traffic and got burned... waiting till I have some disposable income to go back the paid route.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
      Originally Posted by WhoIsBenjamin View Post

      Paid Traffic.

      Why? It's simple.

      I prefer spending time doing things I LOVE to
      do, and blowing my time building backlinks,
      writing articles to submit, creating & submitting
      videos, building relationships on facebook/
      twitter/blogs, etc...is NOT my idea of using
      my time wisely.

      I don't care if you DO make money with free
      marketing, you always spend more time doing
      it than it's REALLY worth when you add up the
      hours you spend doing it and the experiences
      you miss.

      And than people will say: "But, free traffic pays
      off"...not most of the time it doesn't.

      What if you spend 100 hours writing articles to
      submit yourself only to find out the signature
      wasn't a strong enough call-2-action?

      You WASTED 20 hours.

      What happens if you go on facebook and call
      yourself building relationships to eventually
      sell your next product, only to get shut down
      by facebook for "suspicious activity"...

      this one account you spent 4 months getting to
      where it was at, and than it get's shut down.

      This is NOT theory. You see threads where ppl
      whine about these things everyday.

      With paid advertising, you get instant feedback.

      It either DID, or it DIDN'T work. And you know
      immediately.

      I've spent thousands learning valuable marketing
      lessons, and you know what? I wouldn't trade it
      for even 1000 hours of my time. What I learned I
      learned far quicker BECAUSE I spent money.

      Money is a shortcut to adjusting and fixing your
      mistakes very quickly. That's not to say TIME can
      be avoided in learning lessons. But money speeds
      almost all lessons (IN BUSINESS) up.

      I think it comes down to what you value more:

      Your TIME? or your MONEY?       Far to many people here
      put money ABOVE their time, and so gravitate to time
      consuming activities...not knowing it's costing them
      more in the long-term.

      But like all things in life, it's a choice.

      I choose PAID marketing, and it pays in spades.

      By the way, the paid marketing I use is Direct Mail
      exclusively at this time.
      Outsourcing is your answer
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      • Profile picture of the author Joe Benjamin
        Originally Posted by Mohammad Afaq View Post

        Outsourcing is your answer
        No doubt about it. But outsourcing free traffic is
        not as measurable nor as fast as paid traffic.

        Sure, you can pay others to DO free traffic for
        you, but it will STILL be as slow as if you were
        doing it yourself before you get any measurable
        results with it.

        With free traffic, time is still the biggest issue.

        Sure, you can get the free marketing done a
        little quicker than normal, but it doesn't speed
        up the time it would take for you to see results
        from free traffic outsourcing...it's still the same
        lag time.

        Besides, why the hell would you spend the
        money on free traffic advertising methods...if
        it's supposed to be free?

        Is it not better to do direct marketing and do
        paid traffic since your PAYING for traffic any
        way by having it outsourced?

        Kind screwed up.
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        • Profile picture of the author Shannon Herod
          the vast majority of my traffic comes from free traffic and affiliate traffic.

          But, I would not consider my free traffic "FREE". It actually comes with a pretty hefty price tag. Either through the amount I pay outsourcers or through the actual time I spend on it myself.

          I voted for both because of the affiliates, but actually spending money on ad buys and pay per click I rarely do. instead, I rely on search engines, social media, and affiliates for the vast majority of my traffic.

          But, my Main focus is building brands in a couple different markets. It took me a while to build up a lot of revenue, but now the time I took paid off tenfold.

          Talk soon,

          Shannon Herod
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    • Profile picture of the author V12
      Originally Posted by WhoIsBenjamin View Post

      Paid Traffic.

      Why? It's simple.

      I prefer spending time doing things I LOVE to
      do, and blowing my time building backlinks,
      writing articles to submit, creating & submitting
      videos, building relationships on facebook/
      twitter/blogs, etc...is NOT my idea of using
      my time wisely.

      I don't care if you DO make money with free
      marketing, you always spend more time doing
      it than it's REALLY worth when you add up the
      hours you spend doing it and the experiences
      you miss.

      And than people will say: "But, free traffic pays
      off"...not most of the time it doesn't.

      What if you spend 100 hours writing articles to
      submit yourself only to find out the signature
      wasn't a strong enough call-2-action?

      You WASTED 20 hours.

      What happens if you go on facebook and call
      yourself building relationships to eventually
      sell your next product, only to get shut down
      by facebook for "suspicious activity"...

      this one account you spent 4 months getting to
      where it was at, and than it get's shut down.

      This is NOT theory. You see threads where ppl
      whine about these things everyday.

      With paid advertising, you get instant feedback.

      It either DID, or it DIDN'T work. And you know
      immediately.

      I've spent thousands learning valuable marketing
      lessons, and you know what? I wouldn't trade it
      for even 1000 hours of my time. What I learned I
      learned far quicker BECAUSE I spent money.

      Money is a shortcut to adjusting and fixing your
      mistakes very quickly. That's not to say TIME can
      be avoided in learning lessons. But money speeds
      almost all lessons (IN BUSINESS) up.

      I think it comes down to what you value more:

      Your TIME? or your MONEY?       Far to many people here
      put money ABOVE their time, and so gravitate to time
      consuming activities...not knowing it's costing them
      more in the long-term.

      But like all things in life, it's a choice.

      I choose PAID marketing, and it pays in spades.

      By the way, the paid marketing I use is Direct Mail
      exclusively at this time.
      I didn't spend more than 3 hours on my last website. I outsourced 90% of the work, including article writing and backlinking. Total cost: $250.00 .

      Traffic? In less than 8 weeks I'm getting an average of 500 uniques per day. It's a very targeted niche and the site is making sales every day.

      For me, free traffic wins hands down.

      Abdul.
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    • Profile picture of the author Xmas
      Free or Paid they both have positive and negatives to them.

      Paid:
      positive: put a campaign quickly - see results quickly
      Negative: tedious and constant tweaking to improve results - ad changes changing words. Plus if you use a landing page - constant testing, tweaking colors, fonts sizes, message. Then test some more. It drives me nuts - I don't have the patients for it.

      Plus, there have been many, lots, thousands, of big name gurus that have been banned for life from Google for using PPC. One I know of was spending $30k a month on PPC and Google said good bye. No explaination- just a good bye email. done. That is as bad as spending four months creating a Facebook page and having it blown up in your face.


      Free:
      Positive - well it is free, challenge to create viable content (it is positive if you like the challenge)
      Negative - Getting chopped off at the knees for violating terms of service. Youtube is on a rampage, Facebook watches closely, most all of the other Web 2.0 properties you have to walk carefully along the line to not get banned or have your site taken down.

      Both have their challenges.
      Signature

      James Christmas
      www.jameschristmas.com

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  • Profile picture of the author myadsensegallery
    Both traffic..
    Why: i dont get more visotrs from Search Engine in the begining. I got a paid traffic for $10 for 10k hits.. Then slowly I started getting more (free)traffic for my website from search engine and also I got front page in google.com
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  • Profile picture of the author jhornung
    Ron,

    I've tested about every traffic source imaginable and gotten conversions off of most of them...

    I believe in having a mixture of the two as a short and long term strategy combination. But of course you need to determine if a given traffic source converts for the type of offer you have before you do too much work!

    When push comes to shove, there are only 3 forms of traffic that always perform how I want them to...

    1) Google Adwords

    2) Affiliate Traffic

    3) Media buys

    Usually I test an offer with Adwords and then transition into media buys. Once the sales process is optimized, then I roll out to affiliates.

    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author alhemicar
    definetly paid traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulSolid
      Banned
      I Enjoy using Free Traffic methods.

      You ask Why? well it is quit simple i may want to test the market through the free method before moving on paying.

      You Ask How do i do it? Huh, Article marketing has been working for me.
      Yahoo answer and blog commenting.

      PPC can be good too only if know how to use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mangozoom
    I only use FREE traffic methods.

    1) Because its FREE
    2) Becuase it converts better
    3) Becuase its FREE (did I just say that)

    Paid traffic is instant and requires less effort, although managing PPC is an art in itself.

    However the techniques I use provide me with a constant stream of targetted visitors to all my sites

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author tahirsfriend
    Its free traffic all the time. You know what? Natural traffic is always free. If you have some value in your website and some good public exposure, you will get a lot of traffic for free.
    There is always a limit for paid traffic set by the money you spend but there is not limit for free traffic. Its what you put in. Its all about your efforts.
    So for me the best traffic is Free traffic. I just voted on it
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
    I use both free and paid traffic methods, but just to play devil's advocate...

    With free traffic, you're limited by several things including the number of different keywords you can get ranked for in the search engines.

    With paid traffic, you can pay to get traffic for any keyword or on any website.

    What do you think?
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  • Profile picture of the author OfferJunkie
    paid traffic for immediate results of course....but for longevity....free traffic has worked a treat for me as I'm getting paid for affiliate blog sites I completely forgot about from 9 months ago.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
    Free Traffic 100% preferred.

    Paid traffic I only use Penny clicks (I know expensive).

    Here is why.

    First of all with paid traffic
    you would need a full time person
    monitoring keywords and which ones
    are making money, which ones are not
    and keep changing them. I consider
    this to be more work then setting up
    free traffic which you can just outsource.
    If you are small and few keywords, then fine
    you can manage it, but you are limiting
    growth.

    Second, once you stop paying, your traffic
    is gone. Unless you build a list (which does
    not work if you dont have a business that
    has constant same buyers and have to find
    new stuff to sell them) then your business
    is stopped once you stop paying for traffic.
    There are soo many free traffic sources out
    there that will stay online for a long period of
    time for one time effort. To name a few document
    sites, forums, Q/A sites, video, niche market sites,
    classifieds, articles, press releases). Classifieds you
    have to renew each month.

    I just past 90,000 visitors a month on one of
    my websites. All from FREE traffic (except
    penny clicks and affiliates).

    Cheers
    Mukul
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