OMG, is this conversation still going???
Right, firstly, to all of you who say paid traffic is 'bad', I get it, you had a bad experience - but do your homework! the internet is built on paid traffic and the bottom line is, if you CHOOSE correctly, then paid traffic works for a multitude of things.
If your paid traffic doesn't convert YOU chose wrong, not that it doesn't work, just YOU don't know what you're doing.
That said, anybody in this for the long haul should be doing BOTH!
SEO is a valuable and important part of your sites longevity, and should not be ignored. However, there are far too many people on here stating that SEO is the ONLY way to do things, yeah maybe for you, because you haven't learned enough yet.
Either that or you are one of the pseudo marketers on here who think they can offer SEO services but cannot rank their own sites to get work so try to scare people into buying.
Listen, if you really want to get off to a running start, paid traffic is a good way to do it. Choose wisely, and you WILL get conversions, not a lot, but you WILL get them.
However that said, most of the traffic out there is junk and should be avoided. You need to TARGET your traffic, and I don't mean by buying diet related traffic for a weight loss product, I mean target the traffic site by site.
If you want to convert weight loss traffic then you MUST have your banner or traffic coming from a weight loss related site too. Simple huh?
Avoid redirect traffic - it's mostly useless if you plan to convert any - it's best use is for numbers or integrity testing your server.
Deleted domain traffic is just as bad, unless you can really and I mean REALLY target the domains on a domain by domain basis.
Solo ads can work well IF you have an offer which you can do longer term marketing with, such as a freebie in exchange for a mail address - then market to them with valuable information over a few weeks and pitch your offer to them after that.
PPC ads are very good but again only IF you know what you are doing. Throwing an ad up and targeting all of the weight loss related terms will quickly bankrupt you - you need to be precise and very choosy about your chosen targeted words.
Ad share is possibly your best option, it's cheap, you will see how your visuals convert and if people do make it to your website, you know they are already interested in your offer.
What do I mean by ad share? Simply put, the old fashioned method of placing banners on a site - but on a per 1k basis and NOT for a month or defined 'time based' term. Essentially sharing the spot with other advertisers.
You will get valuable information from this; time of day your prospect clicks, what visual they click on (you can have multiple banners running), and if they convert or not.
Once you find one which works well for you, stay there until it no longer produces results and change your banners and start over.
Common sense is your primary tool of attack here - think if YOU would click on an advert, or if you were looking for diet related information and got sent to your site, would you be interested if you were only looking for a meal plan or a shopping list.
Feel free to insert terms related to your own personal experience, I choose diet since it's a huge market and some of you are bound to be looking at it.
So here it is, the plan:
0. Decide what your intention is
1. Plan your ads
2. Choose wisely where you want them
3. Refine and alter
4. Expand your reach
