Buying web traffic can be the quickest and most profitable thing you will ever do for your online business, BUT if you don’t know what you are doing you will burn out and probably lose a lot of money. The most important words in paid traffic is Return On Investment (ROI). Since you pay for the traffic it has to return a profit. Paid traffic is just too expensive to just use for branding purposes.

If you ant to buy web site traffic you have so many options and sources of traffic to choose from. Which one is better and where should you start? Lets quickly look at some of the main sources of paid traffic:

- Pay Per Click:
This is by far the highest quality traffic because it comes from highly relevant searches. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Bing offer PPC programs that allows you to buy advertising space based on keywords. You pay “per click” and all 3 these major search engines have a TON of traffic available to virtually any audience anywhere in the world.

- Media Buys:
Media buys is all about buying banner space on websites. Although Google Adwords allows you to buy banners on its Adsense network, there are hundreds of Media Buyers out there. You usually buy banner space on a CPM (cost per million impressions) basis where you pay for the amount of times your banner gets viewed and NOT per click. Most high traffic websites have media buys available and the great thing about this is that you can pick and choose the websites (and the audience) you want to advertise on.

- CPV Traffic:
CPV stands for “cost per view” and its one of the hardest traffic sources to see good return. The payoffs can be ginourmous though as there is a lot of traffic available. CPV traffic is usually full page ads that gets served to users who have software installed on their computers. Many see it as “spyware” but there is a very definite distinction and the most reputable CPV traffic sources like TrafficVance are definitely not spyware.

- Mobile Advertising:
This is the latest trend in advertising and if you want to buy web site traffic from mobile users then this is the way to go. With mobile phones becoming more and more powerful its basically like little computers and users spend a lot of time surfing the web on their mobile phones. Google recently acquired AdMob – the biggest mobile phone advertising network which a good indication of how serious this traffic source will become in the future.
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Testing different traffic sources is really important to continuously expand your reach and to find new markets. Every traffic source can potentially help grow your business. Some will be good, some will be bad while other will blow it up or bomb out completely. Test, test and test some more. That is the key. Lets quickly look some of the main sources where you can buy web traffic.

Search Traffic:
Search traffic is probably the oldest form of traffic you can buy and the big daddy of search traffic is Google Adwords where you can buy sponsored ads based on search terms. Its commonly referred to as PPC (Pay Per Click) and is one of the most expensive traffic source because of how focused and how targeted it is. Search traffic is generally considered high quality because it is so targeted to specific search terms.

Contextual Traffic:
As the name implies, contextual traffic is usually sponsored words or phrases that appear “in context”. The majority of contextual traffic sources offer hover ads that appear when a user moves their cursor over the sponsored phrase. Its generally considered a low quality of traffic because clicks are generally quite low although with the right targeting you can get some decent conversions. Contextual traffic is cheap which makes up with low conversions and you can see great volume with this.

Web/Banner Traffic:
This is probably the most important and most popular way to buy web traffic. You can buy banner positions from virtually any website and with more advanced targeting available, its a great way to reach specific demographic markets. Standard IAB banner sizes are available on most high traffic sites and you can either buy direct or buy through an ad server. Google Adwords serves banner ads and so does thousands of other networks. Its usually priced bet CPM which is a price based on the amounts of views your banner gets.

Pop Traffic/CPV/PPV:
Pop traffic as its commonly known is based on a cost per view (CPV) basis and you can serve your ad as a pop-under or pop-over based on certain targeting criteria. This traffic is also known as Pay Per View (PPV) and the 2 biggest networks are TrafficVance and MediaTraffic that allow you to target website URL’s as well as keywords to trigger your pop. This is “cheap traffic” but the quality is not always up to scratch. It can potentially be a huge source of traffic and will allow you to reach a very specific audience.

Social Traffic:
Social networks are dominating the internet at the moment and if you want to buy website traffic from some of the most high traffic sites on the web, then Social Networks is the way to go. Facebook is now the most popular website on the planet and when you buy traffic through their self-serve network you can get very specific in your targeting – which means that your ads are very focused and the results are often a very good ROI.
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One really important consideration is that you need to promote your site to the right crowd. If you try and sell dieting products to teenagers then no amount of traffic can help you. Likewise you don’t want to sell computer games to 50 year old women. It just won’t work. In this day and age you need to be much more sophisticated. You need to identify your audience and then focus your attention on them.

With so many avenue available to you, having the right focus on your target demographic is vital. It also depends on what your website is about. Promoting your website with online video is a great way to drive traffic, but not all sites lends itself to video. YouTube has a massive audience worldwide but you need to think about your content and make it relevant to video and to what people are keen to watch.

Social networks has taken over from Google as the highest traffic sites and Facebook is now the biggest website in the world. If I want to promote my website on Facebook or any other social network then its all about identifying the audience. You don’t want to speak to “everybody” because in the end it translates to money down the drain. Social networks have very effective self serve advertising platforms that makes buying advertising space easy.

You don’t have to buy ad space though. You can use Social networks very effectively for free traffic. On Facebook you can create a Facebook Page and get millions of raving fans to become your friend. You can also create a Facebook application and get millions of people to install it and drive traffic to your site that way.

Promoting your website on Advertsing networks still has the widest reach. With media buys you can purchase banner space on websites that fit your target demographic. This will give you a very targeted reach and allow you to reach a very large audience.

While online promotions are very effective, its very crowded and can get very expensive. One thing that many website owners overlook is offline advertising. Because everyone is going online, you can get very affordable offline ads and promote your site through a variety of offline media.

In the end, it all comes down to finding your audience – regardless of what avenue of promotion you choose. Whether its online advertising, offline promotions, viral videos or paid search traffic you need to connect with people who would want to see your website.
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Targeted traffic cuts off a segment of a particular audience that is more likely to buy your products. The wonderful thing about paid search traffic is that you can buy your traffic based on keywords and the keywords in themselves represent a level of targeting. This is why certain keywords are more expensive than others. Targeted keywords convert because its targeted.

Attracting highly targeted traffic is not just about picking keywords either. A very powerful way to look at it is to find out where your ideal customer hangs out online and then advertise to them there. Whether it be an online forum, a Facebook Application, an online game – if you can reach your ideal audience then half the work is done. If you show an ad to someone who is likely to be interested in what you’ve got to offer then your response will be far better than just going after random traffic.

Targeted website traffic has the benefit of improving your ROI. In the world of online marketing its ALL about ROI. Even if you have to pay $5 per click – if it returns $15 per click then its so worth it. So many people shrug away from PPC these days when they see click costs in excess of $10, but there are a lot of people seeing great returns even with the ridiculous click prices.

This idea does not just apply to paid traffic sources either. It’s the same for SEO and even for email marketing. You can go and find website owners with email lists that fit your ideal prospect and get targeted web traffic by doing a JV with them. It can be the best traffic you will ever find because its pre-qualified AND its targeted. Doing JV’s is an art in itself but it has immense potential for anyone who needs targeted traffic quickly. Not even buying PPC traffic is as effective and the risk is relatively low because your JV partner takes on a portion of the risk.

Think outside the box and always think about that IDEAL CUSTOMER.
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Marketers seemed to have their eye flaps on and became too complacent with Google traffic. The truth is that Adwords accounted for less than 30% of paid traffic. Those who broadened their horizons really reaped the rewards and today most of us are forced to find new traffic sources. Here are 5 great places to buy website traffic from.

1. Yahoo/Bing
While Google is still “the beast”, the recent partnership between Yahoo and Bing means that they are becoming a real competitor to buy traffic from. Click costs are generally much lower and the conversions are typically much higher. In many cases you can just copy your Adwords campaigns and see a better ROI.

2. Facebook
Facebook is now the most popular website on the planet and even kicks Google’s butt in terms of traffic volume. If you want to buy website traffic from Facebook then you’d be happy to know that their self serve advertising platform is really easy to use. The best part about Facebook advertising is the level of targeting and you can really get your ads to the right audience and the fact that its popular worldwide means an even greater reach.

3. TrafficVance
Commonly known as “pop traffic” or Pay Per View traffic, TrafficVance is the king and has massive user base. Ads get served through their GameVance installs and are usually full screen pop ups. The bidding system is similar to AdWords but much more targeted in many ways. Full screen ads also means much higher response rates and although it can be an unforgiving traffic source, you can see huge returns.

4. MediaBuys
If you are serious and want to buy website traffic in volume then you have to start looking at media buys. Its basically buying banner space direct from website owners and many of the biggest websites in the world have media buys available to marketers. There is potential for huge volume but the costs are usually much higher. The best way to get started is to use self serve networks where you can buy “portions” and networks like Adbrite is a good start.

5. AdMob
AdMob is the biggest mobile advertising network and it has a massive reach worldwide. With mobile phones becoming more and more geared towards internet use, its bound to be a very important traffic source in the future. You can get ridiculous amounts of traffic from AdMob but you need to monitor your campaigns closely as you can burn through your test budget really quickly.
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