Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
This is part two of “The Complete Guide To Alternative Traffic Sources“>>>
Media Buys
Media buys is the fancy name for “buying advertising” on other people’s websites. Usually this means banner advertising or anything alike. I personally don’t like Media Buys because it’s hit or miss. Sometimes you’ll get incredible results and other times you won’t break even.
If you want to start with media buys, you need a budget of a few thousand bucks to get some serious exposure.
1. BidPlace SB (works, checked as of 2024)
DibPlace SB is a pretty good network. I haven’t really used them much, I tried them out and it was very straightforward. The only problem was that it took what seemed like forever to review my ads. They have a large reach, but I didn’t make much money using them – but then again I’m a Media Buys newb.
2. Adready (works, checked as of 2024)
Again, I haven’t got much experience with Adready, but I hear great things about their network. Using the wizard you can create your own banner ads within the system and select which sites in their network you want them to be displayed on. Cool network.
Solo Advertising
Solo ads are perfect for building your email list and diversifying your traffic sources. Solo ads are where you pay someone else to mail their list about yours. Usually you provide a freebie of some sort and set up your own capture page. You then pay for a solo, the person writes the email and mails it to their list promoting your freebie. (you always pay by the click i.e. 100 clicks for $30 or $0.30/click)
1. SoloAdsDirectory (works, checked as of 2024)
Soloaddirectory is a blog that reviews all of the top Solo Ad providers in the online marketing niche. If you’re outside of the Internet Marketing niche, then you can’t use this resource. But if you are, it’s a damn good resource for building your list and driving traffic with solo ads.
2. Mailing List Finder (works, checked as of 2024)
No matter what niche you’re in, you can use this site to find a mailing list. You can do all kinds of mailings with this site, email, phone, or post! Just use the search function to look for lists in your niche and you’ll find something.
PPV – Pay Per View Marketing
Pay per view marketing, as the name suggests, is paying per view. But it’s not like any other form of online advertising. PPV is generally popup advertising. You provide a network with a landing page and a group of people you want to target – your landing page then pops up on people’s screens. It’s a really simple and affordable marketing strategy. You can also use it for contextual advertising.
1. Traffic Vance (works, checked as of 2024)
These guys have been around for a long time now, for a good reason too. They’re definitely one of the more popular PPV networks simply because they have great traffic. There is a lot of competition in Traffic Vance, but there is still a lot of traffic to be had.
Editor notes: Trafficvance is still working, but you need to be referrered in order to participate.
2. Direct CPV (works, checked as of 2024)
Direct CPV is a relatively new network, but a great one nonetheless. They have countless sites in their network, and it’s growing daily. I haven’t tried this network personally, but I hear good things.
3. Media Traffic (works, checked as of 2024)
This network isn’t the best. I like the actual network, but not their traffic. I found it difficult to run profitable campaigns with them, but they have a lot of traffic nonetheless. Just because my campaigns didn’t work, doesn’t mean that yours won’t.
In conclusion, if you’re reading this now and are still relying on a single traffic source – it’s time to diversify. Start looking into some of these sources, figure out how to properly use them and spend some money – test them out.
If you’re on a low budget, I would try some low-end solo ads or some Adcenter PPC. If you’re on a medium budget, I would start testing Facebook PPC and PPV marketing. The rest is up to you.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below.
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Comments
Maximus
This is a great guide, especially for someone like me who is new to the world of media buys and alternative traffic sources. I’ve been looking for ways to diversify my traffic, and this guide has given me some great ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Isabel
I’m not sure if PPV marketing is the right strategy for me. It sounds intrusive and could annoy potential customers. Has anyone had real success with it?
Darren
Adready looks promising! I’m definitely going to check them out for my next campaign. I’ve had issues with low conversion rates using other traffic sources, so hopefully, this will work better.
Olivia
Thanks for the advice on solo ads. I’ve been hearing a lot about it lately but wasn’t sure where to start. SoloAdDirectory seems like a good place to begin.
Lara Vance
This post was incredibly helpful! I’ve always been interested in using media buys but didn’t know where to start. Your breakdown of the different traffic sources really clarified things for me. Thanks for the great tips!
Reuben Calder
I’m skeptical about the effectiveness of PPV marketing. Do you have any data or case studies showing its success? It sounds like it might be hit or miss depending on the niche.
Alexandra Diaz
Great post! I was wondering, would you recommend solo ads for someone just starting out in the online marketing niche? Also, are there any specific metrics to track when running solo ads?
Martin Bell
I’m not sure I completely agree with your take on media buys. I’ve had mixed results in the past, but I think it depends heavily on the site you choose. However, I do appreciate your honesty about the challenges involved!
Priya Kumar
Hey David, long time no see! Thanks for sharing this. It’s been a while since I’ve explored alternative traffic sources. We should catch up sometime. How have things been with you?
Esteban Morales
I actually ran into a similar issue with Media Traffic not converting well. It’s reassuring to hear that I’m not the only one who struggled with it. Have you tried any other PPV networks that worked better for you?
Fiona Clarke
If you’re looking for alternatives to the tools mentioned in the post, I’d recommend checking out LeadPages. It’s a great tool for creating landing pages and works really well with solo ads.
Emilio Griffin
I’ve learned so much from this post. I didn’t know there were so many ways to diversify traffic beyond the usual PPC options. I’ll definitely be experimenting with solo ads and PPV marketing now!
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Thank you for this second part, very generous with the detail. I am curious about the solo ads section, you say SoloAdsDirectory only works if you are inside the Internet Marketing niche, but what about a distributor like myself who sells cosmetics, is there an equivalent resource for other niches or does solo advertising simply not translate outside of IM?
Wrote a little script that pulls each network’s stated turnaround time off their site weekly and flags when it changes, because ‘took what seemed like forever to review my ads’ from the post is exactly the kind of thing you can actually track instead of guessing at. Happy to explain the setup if anyone wants it, no code required to use the output.
Media buys always makes me think of the one time I bought ad space in the local paper for the bike shop, back before I knew any better. Got maybe four customers off it and no idea which four, because there was no way to trace it back. Reading this section is like watching someone build the tracking I never had, banner by banner, network by network. Genuinely didn’t expect a post about PPV to make me nostalgic for a mistake.
Declan’s diner-with-no-till-roll problem, but banners.
City advice again, sort of. PPV and media buys both assume you’ve got a landing page built and a budget to lose while you learn. Around here that’s not how anybody starts. You start by talking to the three people at the feed store who might actually want what you’re selling, and you scale from people you know, not from a network you found in a guide.
Lonnie, try this instead of asking whether the guide applies to you: pick the one channel here that costs the least to test, run it for two weeks with a number attached to what counts as working, then stop and reassess. Small towns don’t need less strategy, they need faster feedback loops because there’s less room to waste a month guessing. What would ‘working’ look like for you, concretely?
Simone love, in plain English that means: try one thing, decide in advance what a win looks like, check after a fortnight. I’ve been nursing for thirty years and that’s the exact same advice I’d give someone learning to read a chart. Doesn’t need the word ‘feedback loop’ to be true.
Lonnie, genuine question on the mechanism rather than the anecdote: when you say ‘scale from people you know,’ what’s the actual claim being made? Is it that referral-based growth in a small town converts at a higher rate than paid traffic, or just that paid traffic isn’t available to you at your budget? Those are different problems and the fix for each is different. I’d guess it’s mostly the second, based on what you’ve described, which means the post’s advice might still apply once the budget exists — it’s not that PPV is wrong for small towns, it’s that the post’s own ‘few thousand bucks to get serious exposure’ isn’t sitting around waiting to be spent.
Fine. The honesty about Media Traffic not converting is the best part of this post and it’s buried at the bottom.
Most of the write-up reads like a directory. This network works, that one is cool, this one has a lot of traffic. None of that tells you anything.
The one paragraph that admits a network didn’t work for the author, while acknowledging it might still work for you, is the only paragraph doing real analysis. More of that, less ‘checked as of 2024’.