Purchasing Traffic - Does it really work?

8 replies
This topic has probably been discussed numerous times, but yesterday I came across a website called Rent-A-List that does various types of email and marketing campaigns.

Now, I've seen many "buy traffic" sites, but the one thing that caught my eye were some of the notable testimonials on their website: CarbonPro, Sitesell, etc...

Has anyone here tried this service?
#purchasing #traffic #work
  • Profile picture of the author MaskedMarketer
    I've only used them once... and if you're going to try it, start small..

    I wish I did, lol.. I've had much better conversions with the same email with other solo emailing lists.. anyone I see recommending it, is getting commissions off it, lol

    just start small and see how it works...
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    • Profile picture of the author Ivan Correces
      I've actually tried one traffic service a year ago, they sent 200+, but no results.

      As I've mentioned, what's makes Rent a List so interesting is their customer/testimonial list. Again, has anyone here tried it?

      Originally Posted by MaskedMarketer View Post

      I've only used them once... and if you're going to try it, start small..

      I wish I did, lol.. I've had much better conversions with the same email with other solo emailing lists.. anyone I see recommending it, is getting commissions off it, lol

      just start small and see how it works...
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  • Probably couldn't say it any better than MaskedMarketer.

    It's a greedy way of business, especially with renting lists.

    A lot of it is rubbish, but there are some brilliant gold mines. The people using the goldmines, well, you bet they aren't telling anyone.

    The other people claiming its working so amazing, are generally affiliates, owners, or idiots.

    Start small, and don't give up.

    Talk to the owners. Find out where the leads are generated, how many other people mail, if they can provide recent successes (good list traders WANT YOU to make money, because you'll come back, and with some friends), any information at all.

    If they don't want to tell you, or they treat you like a "nobody", it's usually because its garbage. Stay away from it.
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    • Profile picture of the author schabotte
      This is an area where you definitely want to test a small sample before investing in a large amount of traffic - and even then, the results can be unpredictable...

      From the days of direct mail and list rental, you get your best results when you can contact people who have recently bought something similar. You probably see this in the holiday catalogs you get. You buy from one mail order company of a certain type and you get many similar catalogs sent to your house.

      And they can be pretty sophisticated.

      For instance, we have Dachshunds and from the purchase on one Doxie item from the catalog "In The Company of Dogs", we get a variety of mailings of Doxie related products.

      So they are doing some pretty sophisticated segmentation nowadays.

      Where is all this going?

      It is the same with web traffic. If it is targeted, you will do better but if it is from a run of sites, you will probably not do nearly as good. This really is the entire basis of PPC. A small targeted message leading to a website offering exactly what was promised in the PPC ad.

      Good luck with any testing you do but if you do scale up, be sure scaling up does not mean generalizing the traffic to a wider audience type.
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      • Profile picture of the author MaskedMarketer
        i don't know which service you are looking at, but they "pay" or incentive's for the person to open to email.

        They said the way they track emails it was going to throw off my Aweber counter... I didn't believe it.. And either way, I had poor, poor, pooor, results.

        Go with a solo email, newsletter , if you want better results.
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        "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor
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        "I Pay Less Attention to What Men Say. I Just Watch What They Do."
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        • Profile picture of the author Ivan Correces
          And you've experienced this with Rent-A-List?

          Originally Posted by MaskedMarketer View Post

          i don't know which service you are looking at, but they "pay" or incentive's for the person to open to email.

          They said the way they track emails it was going to throw off my Aweber counter... I didn't believe it.. And either way, I had poor, poor, pooor, results.

          Go with a solo email, newsletter , if you want better results.
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          • Profile picture of the author MaskedMarketer
            Originally Posted by Ivan Correces View Post

            And you've experienced this with Rent-A-List?
            Exactly. I couldn't even track the visits myself as they said there system would throw it off. If they are truthful or not, I had poor results.

            Less than a 1% opt in rate.

            Same email went out as a solo to a list and got 25% opt in rate for those who visited the page... I paid less too.
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            "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor
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            "I Pay Less Attention to What Men Say. I Just Watch What They Do."
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  • never tried that service.

    of course buying traffic works, you just need to buy the right traffic.

    if I'm spending my money to buy traffic I do it with reputable people like google, ask.com, yahoo search, etc.
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