Purchasing web site traffic.
With increasing competition for visitors, a number of options
are available for increasing traffic to your web site, but they
come a cost. Is it worth it? Previously, I published an article
on pay-per-view search engine options. This article can be
viewed at:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/payperview.htm.
Another popular ploy to encourage "eyeballs" (visitors) is to
purchase site exit traffic. In this strategy, you pay a web site
to redirect traffic to you when a visitor leaves their site.
This usually occurs with a pop-up window. Is it effective? I
guess the best way to answer this is with another question. How
do you feel when you leave a site and 20 pop-up windows litter
your screen? While utilising this strategy may increase page
views according to your server logs, I don't think that you'll
make many friends or encourage sales. This option is usually
charged "per view" i.e, every time someone exits the site
involved, you are charged. I can think of better ways to spend
your advertising budget.
Yet another strategy that marketing agencies may convince you to
try is buying redirects from defunct sites, or from domain names
owned by them. The domain names they own are usually generic
terms, words that web surfers may type into their browser
address bar in the hope that they will find something of
relevance. Some clever individuals and companies have made a
great deal of money through this scheme. They buy thousands of
domain names, preferrably those that have existing traffic and
redirect those visitors to their customers. Unless the domain
name that traffic is redirected from is specific to your line of
business, it will probably be "low quality" (visitors not
interested in your product) and once again serve only to annoy
internet surfers. Again, this promotion method will "appear" to
be successful as your site will gain thousands of hits. But
unless the product you are offering has broad appeal, the money
you spend may not be justified.
Still one of the best and most ethical ways of purchasing web
site traffic is utilising pay-per-click options offered by many
major search engines. It can be very expensive; so you will need
to do your maths first in order to justify it. Most of these
search engines require you to bid on key words or phrases that
users type in. The highest bid gets the highest ranking on the
search results and the advertiser pays the amount bid every time
someone clicks on their link. In this option, you will want to
be listed in the first page of results in order to be noticed.
Some advertisers go overboard in their bidding. As an example, a
search I carried out today on the the term "computer" on
Goto.com (now known as Overture.com) showed that the no.1
advertiser has bid US$10 for the privilege. The number 2
position was held by an advertiser prepared to pay US$.77 per
click. It's a huge difference. Coupled with the fact that not
everyone who clicks on the link will purchase, it becomes an
extraordinarily expensive marketing exercise.
If you do intend to utilise a pay-per-click option for gaining
traffic, you'll first need to work out your current
visitors/sales ratio. If on average one out of one hundred
visitors to your site makes a purchase then bidding 5 cents for
a position on a paid search engine placement will cost you an
estimated $5.00 per sale. If your profit margin is $10 per sale,
then it's viable. If it's $4, then it's very risky. These
figures are only a "guesstimate", but you get the idea.
You will find it more beneficial to bid on words and phrases
that are not so popular. In comparison to the example mentioned
previously, a search on "computer parts" showed that the top
bidder only pays US$.36 for each click; a difference of over
$9.60 on the term "computer". Using this strategy will cut down
the costs of each visitor that you acquire. Remember, customers
who know what they want to purchase will be more specific in
their search criteria.
For the web masters who offer a great deal of free content, as
we do, a paid search engine placement is usually not an option.
In fact, any cost involved with advertising will probably turn
out to be a loss, especially if you rely on advertising on your
site as your major source of income. If you are in this
position, there are a number of other articles on our site that
can assist you in generating visitors, without the expense.
To view a listing of these articles:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/articlemain.htm
Michael Bloch michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content and tools,
software and community. Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development
solutions. _____________________________________________
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