Free VS Paid Traffic Generation

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At one point or another in your Internet Marketing career, you’re going to have to make the decision of using free or paid traffic generation.

In fact, most people make the choice when they’re just getting started and I can tell you; it’s a really bad idea.

The truth is, free traffic is great, it really is. The majority of people think if they can generate traffic for free, then why on earth would they spend any money?

The answer is time. For a free traffic generation strategy to really kick in, it can take months.

So if you start blogging or writing articles today, you might be getting a few hundred daily visitors 3 months from now. That’s just the way it goes. Obviously, you can speed up the process by increasing the volume of your marketing strategy.

You can also outsource most free traffic generation strategies which is my preferred option. BUT – paid traffic can be very useful. I personally think you need to use a bit of both. If you want to get a new business venture off the ground then you absolutely need to use paid traffic.

You can’t wait a quarter of a year to figure out if a business is worthwhile doing or if a bunch of keywords are worth targeting. So what’s the ultimate solution? Test traffic sources with paid marketing, find the optimum source and begin free marketing campaigns. The most simple example to explain is SEO and PPC.

SEO is one of the most popular if not the most popular free traffic generation strategy out there. It involves targeting keywords, creating content, developing websites, building backlinks, and ranking in the search engines. Using SEO you can quickly rank in the search engines and receive targeted traffic.

You pick a keyword people are searching, do the whole SEO thing and start receiving targeted traffic. With pay-per-click, you pick the keywords and write a quick ad which then gets displayed on the right side of the Google search results. Unlike SEO, you have to pay for every visitor you receive from each targeted keyword. So PPC is like SEO in the sense that you get the exact same traffic.

You have to pay for every visitor you receive, but get “instant rankings” without doing any link building or promotional work. Most people choose one of the two strategies when really they work perfectly together. SEO takes a lot of time and if you’re going to work 2 months to get a single top ranking, you better know the traffic is going to convert. Unfortunately, most people waste their time ranking for keywords that never yield a penny.

So what’s the best strategy?

1. Go To Google Keyword Tool And Locate Keywords

The first thing you need to do is find about 30+ different keywords you believe will make you money. All the keywords must have over 1000 searches/month. Next, you need to set up proper tracking so once you’re getting traffic you know exactly which keywords are producing the best results.

2. Set Up Ad Campaigns

Once done, you need to log in to your Adwords account, input your site details and set up ad campaigns targeting all of the keywords you found in step 1. Since you’ll only be using paid traffic for testing purposes, make sure you allocate a sensible $40+/day for the testing period.

As a rule of thumb, I run ad campaigns for a minimum of 7 days.

3. Analyze Results

Once your campaigns are approved and the traffic starts flowing, analyze the results. You need to figure out which keywords are making you the most money – that is all. That’s why proper tracking is so important, so you can see exactly which keywords convert best.

If you want to conduct a fair test, you need to receive several hundred visitors from each keyword before you make a judgment.

4. Ongoing PPC

Now take the top 5 best converting keywords, leave their ad campaigns running, and kill the other campaigns. If you’re making more money in sales than you’re paying for traffic – keep the campaigns running. Why not, ehh? (At the same time – keep a very close eye on them because PPC campaigns are known to go tits up overnight)

5. Set Up SEO Campaign

This is the part where you commence your SEO campaign. It’s where you start to rank in the natural search results for your keywords and stop paying for clicks. You do this by using SEO.

You need to take the top 5 best converting keywords and set up SEO campaigns for them. This means optimizing your website on-page for the keywords and then setting up link building campaigns.

You can use forum profiles, blog comments, article directory links, web 2.0s, guest posts, and more. Whatever it takes to rank page 1 for your top 5 best converting keywords. Of course, the variables are flexible. If the top 5 best converting keywords are super high in SEO competition, maybe go for some of the worse converting keywords.

The whole idea of this strategy is to find out which keywords perform best before you start expensive/time-intensive SEO campaigns.

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions below.

Comments

Jeanette Clost, February 20, 2012, 10:00

This article really opened my eyes to the benefits of combining free and paid traffic strategies. Thanks for the detailed guide!

Lars, February 20, 2012, 11:15

Great insights, David. I always thought free traffic was the way to go, but I see now how paid traffic can boost my results.

Mike Johnson, February 20, 2012, 12:30

Thank you for breaking down the strategies so clearly. I’ve been struggling with traffic generation, and this post has given me a clear path forward.

Emily Davis, February 20, 2012, 13:45

This is a game-changer for my marketing approach. Combining SEO and PPC is something I hadn’t considered before. Thanks, David!

Isabella Ramirez, February 20, 2012, 14:00

Your explanation of using both free and paid traffic strategies is very helpful. I’ve been hesitant to use paid traffic, but now I see its value. Thank you!

Liam Chen, February 20, 2012, 14:15

David, your advice on traffic generation is spot on. I’ve been relying too much on free methods and not seeing the results I want. Time to invest in some paid traffic!

Emily Gupta, February 20, 2012, 14:30

Thank you for the comprehensive guide on traffic generation. The step-by-step approach makes it easy to follow and implement. Great work!

Jackson Lee, February 20, 2012, 14:45

This post is incredibly informative. The combination of SEO and PPC is something I’ll definitely be trying out. Thanks for the insights, David!