5 Critical Questions To Consider Before You Buy Internet Traffic

With such rapid advancements in technology and the World Wide Web, many online business owners are resorting to buying Internet traffic as opposed to creating their own traffic. Although it's a very “smart move” to put your hard earned dollars to work rather than spending countless hours trying to figure it all out on your own, it can be quite a challenge to find an honest company with the “real world skills” necessary to drive quality traffic to your website.

Before you buy Internet traffic, there are five critical questions to consider:

Question One: Is the Internet traffic real?

Internet marketing and online advertising is a business with a lot of “grey area.” This opens the door for many unscrupulous business owners to “cash in.” When the average person attempts to buy Internet traffic, it can be extremely difficult to understand what methods that particular company is utilizing. Internet marketing has become so difficult for the average person to understand, it's easy to be taken advantage of.

Business owners are literally throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain all across the world on a daily basis through with marketing and advertising companies who simply cannot deliver the goods. As a matter of fact, there are many companies out there that have very sophisticated scripts and software programs to make it look like you are getting traffic when you really are not.

If you have just a bit of knowledge in your back pocket, you will be able to successfully identify these companies and avoid them. They are easy to spot because they post ridiculous offers all over the Internet, and they generally like to use a “pay-per-click” style of advertising, including Google AdWords. You will rarely see them in the organic search results because, quite frankly, most of these companies have no idea how to make it into those positions successfully.

A good example of one such ridiculous offer is: “10,000 visitors for only $19.95!" All you have to do is simply “Google” the keyword “Buy Internet Traffic” or “Get Internet Traffic” or “Cheap Internet Traffic” and you will see a wide variety of these ridiculous offers. If you decide to take the bait and purchase this fake traffic, there are two things that will happen. First, your campaign will begin and you will have a login area where you can check your stats. Second, several days will pass and the numbers in your login area will continue to grow, but the forms on your capture page will never be filled out and you will never sell one product. When you contact the company to ask what's going on, they will have all kinds of creative and “pre-conceived” excuses for you... that's if they choose to respond at all.

This type of traffic will also not show up in your analytics. If you have any sort of analytics on your website including "Google analytics" this traffic will not register. Once again, when you contact the company, you will receive all kinds of very creative excuses as to why you cannot see the traffic. A common excuse is that they are using a special “patented” or “trademarked” "JavaScript" and a website cannot run two types of JavaScript at the same time. When the site loads they will claim their JavaScript is activated first and therefore the JavaScript for your analytics is rendered null and void.

Question Two: How is the Internet traffic cultivated?

Assuming you buy Internet traffic and it is real, the next question you should have in your mind is “how are they cultivating this Internet traffic?" Internet traffic can be captured in a lot of different ways. Some methods are great, and others are not so great. Before you buy Internet traffic, it's always a good idea to ask the company where that traffic comes from. For example, if you have ever been to a website and a window opened up unexpectedly with a free offer or some sort of free give away like a free iPod or something of that nature, this is one method of traffic that is useless in most cases. In fact, all “popup,” “popover” and “popunder” advertising is, in most cases, completely useless and a complete waste of money.

This is how it works: a very enticing advertisement will pop up on your screen. If you “click through” or you fill out the form to enter your name and e-mail into their free drawing or whatever type of offer it is, once the action is taken and you click through or hit submit, you will be redirected to another page which, in most cases, has nothing to do with anything you are interested in. In fact, if you buy Internet traffic of this type, it will be YOUR website that is displayed after somebody clicks through. Do you really want to pay for that?

If you simply visualize this process, it's easy to understand why this traffic is completely useless. Simply put, it is not targeted and has nothing to do with the subject matter or information that person was originally searching for.

A general rule of thumb is to avoid pop-up advertising like the plague! It simply doesn't work.

Question Three: Can I afford to lose 100% of my investment?

As a business owner, you should understand that even the most targeted advertising in the world does not convert immediately. Regardless of what the “gurus” are telling you, even advertising like pay-per-click and Facebook advertising takes time to work. In fact, studies show that, on average, a person needs to see your advertisement SEVEN TIMES before clicking through. Chances are that no matter what style of advertising you choose, whether it be SEO marketing, pay-per-click marketing or any other style of marketing, during the first month or even first TWO months, you should not expect any results at all. This will also help you to avoid disappointment, it is one rare occasion where pessimism can pay off.

For example, if you have a budget of $1,500 for marketing, it is recommended that, rather than spending the entire $1,500 in the first month, you find a good solid marketing package with a price tag of $500 and run it for three months steady without any breaks in the action and effort.

Question Four: Can I Talk To Someone About My Campaign?

One sure sign of fake and/or ineffective traffic... or some other sort of “underhanded” activity is when a website is displayed and there is no phone number. A good rule to live by if you have an Internet-based business is to make sure you have your business phone number clearly displayed at the top of your website on each and every page. Avoid at all costs any website that does not have a phone number where you can simply pick up the phone and get your questions answered. The majority of these faceless crooks do not post a valid phone number on their websites. They usually offer e-mail contact only.

Question Five: how many other people are sharing my traffic?

Everyone has heard the story about the pickle company that was trying to figure out a way to reduce costs and increase profits. The moral of the story is that someone suggested simply taking out "one pickle from each jar" before the jars were shipped. Unfortunately, most of the companies who sell Internet traffic rack up the majority of their profits by reselling the same traffic over and over again. This happens especially when you buy e-mail leads. Again, most companies will tell you they only sell the same e-mail account lead three or four times, but the reality is, it's more like 30 or 40 times. That is how they make their profits. Instead of taking the "proverbial pickle" out of the jar, they slice it into tiny little pieces and sell each piece for full price over and over again.

It is completely up to you as a business owner and entrepreneur to do your research thoroughly. If you are lucky enough to be one of the millions who will eventually make it to the end of this article, you now have the knowledge to make a wise decision about who you choose to market your business. There are some very good companies out there, but remember that in this business you generally get what you pay for. Your marketing campaign is one aspect of your business that should not be taken lightly. It is highly advisable to avoid "cutting corners" or "trimming the fat" when it comes to your advertising budget. Spend it wisely.