Sources for Targeted Web Site Traffic

Qualified traffic is the lifeblood of any web site today, especially for ecommerce sites that are selling goods or services online. But, many media buyers and/or owners of web sites are paying too much for traffic by relying on top tier PPC ("pay per click") search engines like Overture or Google's Ad Words Select programs and others.

There is a new breed of web site traffic brokers emerging in the interactive marketing world that are brokering qualified traffic to the highest bidder on a CPC ("cost per click") basis. Traffic brokers bypass tried and true business processes by flipping the business proposition 180 degrees. They don't find clients and then optimize their web site for search engines; they do it the other way around, by developing and optimizing their own domains for top tier search engines and then reselling this traffic by redirecting it to a destination of their choosing in real time.

So, is this process illegal or unethical? It's hard to say. I don't believe these processes are more disingenuous than what's occurring with hidden "sponsorship listings" via top tier search engines, including Yahoo, MSN, LookSmart, Overture, etc. The latter are now starting to take up the lion's share of the first page on search results -- these results are viewed tens of millions of times per day, with many people unaware that the results are "sponsored listings."

To muddy the digital waters even more, marketing services companies are starting to offer "trusted feed" traffic to companies who want to buy qualified traffic on a CPC ("cost per click") basis. This process is just starting to take hold in the marketplace and works by a marketing services firm contacting a prospective client and offering them "trusted feed" search engine listings on a top tier web site like MSN or LookSmart on a CPC "cost per click" basis. They (the marketing services firm) then build web site pages for their client that are based on their in-depth knowledge of what the search engines want and then submit these pages to the search engine/directory's editors who then review the sites, give the "client" a top tier listing site and then share in the CPC trusted feed revenue with the marketing services firm.

It's getting pretty murky when you start to look closely at what and how traffic originates. I don't think brokering traffic is bad or unethical as long as the web site that is the final recipient of the traffic is offering goods and services that are identical to the referring web site. And, there is a self-policing component of these types of processes -- the traffic brokers want repeat business, so it is in their self interest to make sure the redirected traffic is being sent to a similar web site.

Also, "conversion rates" (the number of people taking a specific action versus the amount of traffic) are rapidly becoming the final determinant of building a sustaining relationship between the traffic brokering firm and the recipient web site. If the traffic coverts then the recipient typically wants to buy more, if not, they will move on to another source -- this reinforces the self-policing aspects of the relationship.

So what do you look for if you want to start buying traffic from a web site traffic broker? Price is certainly a large factor in determining what your interest should be; most of us in the traffic brokering business typically offer keyword traffic at about a third or half of what you would pay via a trusted feed setup, or Overture or an Ad Words Select program via Google. Expect to pay more for filtered ("automotive, insurance, telecommunications") versus unfiltered ("shopping mall type of traffic") as the former has to be carefully filtered for specific keywords or keywords sets so it can be distributed to a larger number of web sites.

Next, make sure you get a 24/7 reporting capability that enables you to analyze your traffic in real time -- this report should show the originating keyword traffic (keywords are always embedded in the search string). And look carefully at your report; proxy traffic (or cached pages) should be filtered out so that there is no more than 5-10% of the total traffic -- you can't get away from having some proxy traffic in this day in age, even AOL is using proxy servers. Finally, look closely at your report. The timelines should have some randomness in the sequences; if you see a traffic report with keyword traffic that is spaced very closely in terms of the timeline, warning bells should go off.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com a marketing services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium sized companies. Lee@intelective.com Reprinted with permission from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted freely, provided this attribution box remains intact. (c) 2001-2002 by Intelective Communications, Inc.

Lee@intelective.com

---

7 Top Ways to Avoid Link Theft

If you have a link directory on a website, how... Read More

Importance of Keywords - Wrong Keywords Means No Traffic!

If your new to the internet marketing world, you might... Read More

How To Get At Least 50 Visitors A Day Free

How To Get At Least 50 Visitors A Day Free!Every... Read More

Link Building That Makes Sense: Who To Link To

When you are building links to increase your link popularity,... Read More

The Most Common Small Business Web Site Traffic Killers

A prospective client asked me to view his web site... Read More

6 Ways to Get the Marketing-Targeted-Traffic-Machine On the Roll

1__MESSAGE BOARDSIntroduce yourself smoothly, by posting informations and be available... Read More

Generating Website Traffic with Sub-domains

Sub-domains are websites that are located within a directory of... Read More

Why Getting More Traffic is the Biggest Mistake Web Owners Make

Want to know the #1 misconception among Internet marketers and... Read More

Its Not The Opt-In List That Brings Success, Its Peoples Desire For Your Product

Let me ask you a question. What is the most... Read More

Key Words to Build Traffic

Much has already been said about having a content rich... Read More

How To Increase Your Website Traffic With Zero Cost

How to increase your website traffic with zero cost'. It's... Read More

Link Popularity for a Successful Website: How (Not) to Go About Getting It

A classic way of getting seen and noticed on the... Read More

Ten Tips for Generating Traffic To Your Website

I know what you're thinking, oh great another article about... Read More

If You Dont Like The Weather...Just Wait For 10 Minutes

This old saying which addresses the variability of the weather... Read More

Common Sense Link Exchange

Creating a simple links page to exchange links for the... Read More

How To Build Trust and Sell More Products!

If the headline is what gets them there, then it's... Read More

How to Increase Web Site Traffic in Three Steps

To increase web site traffic, you first need determination, a... Read More

Linking Your Website To Others Around The World

Finding quality traffic though effective website promotions is the number... Read More

A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 3

Just to recap - Parts 1 and 2 of this... Read More

15 Link Exchange Tips

Establishing inbound links through reciprocal link exchanges is a very... Read More

Costly Link Exchange Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When you are trying to promote your website, you want... Read More

Free Traffic Course - Day 7

When you work with web site traffic, you must have... Read More

Trafffic Equal Sales?

Everything being equal, more traffic to your website translates into... Read More

How To Generate Targeted Traffic...and Cash In On It.

We all know that generating traffic to your site is... Read More

The Old But Reliable Ways of Attracting Free Online Traffics

Every home business owner should know that your WEBSITE TRAFFICS... Read More

TARGET PRACTICE - Generating The Website Traffic That Matters

But a mere increase in the volume of website traffic... Read More

Turn One-Time Hits Into Repeat Visitors

Every website owner faces the same challenge: How to get... Read More

Are You Guilty of Stinkin? Linkin? Thinkin??

Do you know what kind of sites are suitable link... Read More

Ethical Link Exchange, You be the Judge

Webmasters understand that quality and relevant inbound links can increase... Read More

Traffic Building - Understanding the Basics

So, you've spent hundreds of thousands on a state-of-the-art website.... Read More

Are Manual Surf Exchange a Dying Breed ?

3 years ago when I started trying to make money... Read More

Turn Content Into Traffic

As the saying goes in the business world "The Customer... Read More

How to Cheat Traffic Exchanges

There are many ways to cheat traffic exchanges and generate... Read More