who will win $500 for Search Engine Optimization at http://www.SEOBowl.com?

New report reveals the 50 things most successful people have in common

adsense can now be displayed with other ads.

Will .info take over as the new .com? What does .ws, .tv and .fm REALLY stand for? Do people Really Pay $100,000 JUST for a domain name?

"How To Quickly & Easily Get A Load Of Fresh Content Every Month EVERY WEEK To Use Any Way You Please Without Writing A Single Word ...PLUS Learn from our Mastermind Group how YOU TOO CAN MAKE MONEY FROM ARTICLES!" Are you looking to cash in on the Google Adsense craze? How about get into professional newsletter publishing? maybe you want to put up fresh, niche content up on your site each week? Or you are not sure what any of that is, but you are ready to make money in your sleep from the internet If you answered yes to any of the above, then my new 100 member mastermind group is for you!

 

MAKING YOUR WEBSITE SELL

Optimizing your website to sell is a very important part of doing business on the Internet.

Promoting your site is the easy part, but once a visitor surfs onto your webpage, what then?

There are a couple things you have to understand.

1. You ultimately know your product better than your customer.

2. You might be on a DSL line or cable modem, but a lot of users are still on dial-ups

So what does this mean? It means that you need to create a ‘web friendly’ site.

Optimize it to ensure a quick download time over 56k and convey your message very clearly to your user.

Compressing your site’s file size is essential for any web business.

If your site takes more than 10 – 13 seconds to load over 56k, you are definitely losing customers.

Try taking away flashy graphics that are just taking up valuable space and that are not really needed.

Next, get an image optimizer and start crunching your graphics. This is where the major downfall is for almost any site. They look great, but some graphics are just too big.

After your site’s file size is optimized, you need to come up with a game plan for your message. Whatever you sell, you must be able to clearly spell it out for your customers. Remember, your site is your personal salesman and it only says what you want it to.

Therefore, imagine if you walked into a retail store and a sales representative came up to you and started pitching the latest and greatest product.

What would it take for you to buy?

What would it take for other people to buy?

What keywords or phrases ring in people’s ears?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself when writing the text on your website.

Every product/service is different, so there is no sell-all universal answer. This is something you will have to formulate on your own.

What ever text you decide to put on your site, make it flow properly. Avoid sentence fragments and grammatical errors that could in the end trip up your users and cause confusion.

Conclusively, don’t overlook the power of surveys and polls. If you don’t think your site is performing as well as it should be, ask your customers what they think. Nobody can give you better feedback than your target market.

This article is Copyright 2003 Pop-Under-Ads.com. All Rights Reserved. If you would like to inquire about reprint permission, please contact us.

 

WRITING EFFECTIVE TEXT BASED ADS

Have you ever found yourself sitting there wasting away time trying to figure out the perfect way to word your text advertisements?

Are your existing text ads not generating the results you hoped for?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, then this article has been written just for you!

I want to discuss some important concepts to keep in mind when writing ads.

Hopefully by following these guidelines, you will be able to zero in on your audience and draw more qualified clicks.

1. Always write to your customer. Use words like ‘you’ and ‘your.’ Stay away from ‘we’ and ‘our’ as much as possible. Additionally, write as if you are talking with an individual customer instead of a group of people.

-BAD-
We have developed the greatest accounting software yet. With our software, accounting is a breeze for any business.

-GOOD-
Our revolutionary accounting software will make your business’ bookkeeping seamless and less time consuming.

The bad version talks too much about the company. The good version is basically the same thing, but addresses the user as an individual rather than a group.

2. List out the features and benefits to your customers.

In some cases, you can just list benefits and that’s good enough, but if you list features without any benefits, then you will probably lose highly targeted clicks and maybe even sales.

-BAD-
Our accounting software includes the ability to keep track of your bank account.

-GOOD-
With our easy accounting software, you will never have to deal with messy bank statements again. This software will keep track of all your company’s money so that you don’t have to worry about a thing.

The bad version of this just lists out a feature. Nobody cares because they are not given a benefit to associate it with. The good version does this exactly and it also addresses a single person by making use of ‘you’ and ‘your.’

Just think of it this way, if you list 3 features; you should have at least 3 benefits to back it up.

3. Give your price. If you are advertising one certain product, list your price in your ad. This helps to target visitors that are willing to pay.

-BAD-
First rate accounting software! Instant download!

-GOOD-
First rate accounting software for only $89.99! Instant download after purchase

The bad version in this scenario doesn’t list out a price, and that’s not a good because everyone who is interested in accounting software will click on this ad.

When doing a pay-per-click system, you want the most qualified visitors you can find without spending your entire advertising budget.

By restructuring your text to include a price, you can filter out the people that aren’t willing to pay $90 to download software.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you’re writing an ad and maybe you will find something that works well for your business. Blessings in your endeavors!

This article is Copyright 2003 Pop-Under-Ads.com. All Rights Reserved. If you would like to inquire about reprint permission, please contact us.

 

WINNING WITH LINK POPULARITY

When trying to achieve higher ranks on search engines, link popularity is a big factor.

Basically, it is a measure of how many links are pointing to your website. The more the better and there are many ways to accomplish this.

One well known method is submitting to any and every free directory you can find with hopes that search engine spiders will find you within these directories. (be sure these are legitimate directories and not Free-For-Alls (ffa's) which search engines recognize and frown upon)

Another good method is regularly posting to message boards and forums making sure to include your URL in your signature line.

Most posts of this nature are permanent and will eventually be detected by spiders. Not to mention, this is a pretty good form of free promotion!

Also, starting an affiliate program can also work out pretty well too. As you recruit affiliates, they will put their affiliate link on their website and as long as the link is pointing to your domain, it will build your link popularity.

Running an affiliate program through companies like ClickBank won’t help your rating because all affiliate links point to ClickBank, not your website.

These are three easier ways to go about getting incoming links, but unfortunately not everything is easy.

Search engines know the difference between a trade and an incoming link. So the BEST is to have an incoming link. You may need to pay for it, but if you can get it free -even better!

Trading links with other websites is a good way to establish link popularity, but it does take a little work.

When making link partnering decisions, start by surveying websites and their content. Make sure that a website draws the right audience for your product or service. Once you find a site that looks good, email the owner.

There are tons of thing you could say to convince this person to trade links with you, but consider this format:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dear (first name or website name),

(Compliment to their site)
(Offer link partnership)
(Tell about your site. Describe products/services)
(Benefits)

(Signature)

 

If I was writing a letter to another website to request a link partnership with Pop-Under-Ads.com, I might write a letter like this:

---

Dear xyz.com,

After passing by your site, I couldn’t help but noticing your outstanding design. Your layout is handled very well and includes a lot of rich content.

We would very much be interested in trading links with xyz.com.

Our site, http://www.Pop-Under-Ads.com offers guaranteed traffic, layer ads, banner advertising, and other CPC types of marketing.

We also offer monthly subscription packages that act as one stop solutions for any size business.

I believe that our sites cater to the same general audience and that we could both benefit from a link exchange.

If you are interested, I would like to talk with you further regarding this matter.

Feel free to email me at sales@iGROWyourBiz.com, or contact me directly by phone at 1-888-Web-Hats. I will be looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Need Promo, LLC .
Maurice Evans
President
Pop-Under-Ads.com
http://www.Pop-Under-Ads.com

---

If you’re having trouble finding words, feel free to copy and paste the example letter I wrote. Just be sure to insert your own information!

This article is Copyright 2003 Pop-Under-Ads.com. All Rights Reserved. If you would like to inquire about reprint permission, please contact us.

 

OPTIMIZING FOR TRAFFIC CAMPAIGNS

It is very important to optimize your website to attract attention and to lure visitors into interacting with what you have to offer.

Note: This article is NOT about Search Engine Optimization - It is about PEOPLE optimization, who is whom you really want to visit your site, right?

One great way to send a steady stream of traffic is through guaranteed traffic campaigns.

When advertising through guaranteed traffic campaigns, there are several factors that need to be realized for success.

First, you need to know how your website will be presented to users (what size the window will be).

For example, our traffic is delivered through full page pop-unders. If the user's screen resolution is set to 800x600 the pop will be 800x600. If their resolution is set to 1024x768, then the pop will size itself to 1024x768, and so on.

This means that you need to put the best your website has to offer within the 800x600 region since almost half of all Internet users are at 800x600.

The reasoning behind this is simple, if a user isn’t attracted to your site on initial contact, then they’re more than likely not going to scroll down the page or click on any links.

With that said, it wouldn’t be very useful to have the main ‘catch’ of your site in the middle of the page outside of the first 800x600.

What’s going to make a visitor want to scroll down? Try bringing your main ‘catch’ up to the top where it can easily be seen. What is most important to your customer?  Express that first off.

Second, do some research and see what methods are working for others in your industry, such as catch phrases, free offers, specials, etc.

Then, take the same ideas and apply them to your site. Now I’m not saying that you should steal your competitor’s website.  However, you should see what is working for them and then work the same principles into your site.

Free offers are hands down one of the best approaches to marketing.

Let’s assume that’s the tactic you’re employing for the purpose of your campaign. Put the offer in the top 800x600 with your main ‘catch.’

Also you may want to bold it, highlight it, or put it in a graphic. Basically, whatever looks best and sticks out the most.

Third, design a color scheme that is easy on your eyes, but sophisticated enough to catch a user’s attention.

Don’t use sharp colors that are so bright that it fries your eyes just to look at it.

An experience on your website should be enjoyable, not a situation that you’re going to come away blind from.

Also, make sure that you use colors that compliment each other. I’m sure you have seen websites that have clashing color schemes.

These can be very painful to look at so try to stay away from using awkward color patterns.

Lastly, don’t overlook your loading time. An acceptable load is 10 – 13 seconds over 56k, but by all mean, anything less than that is excellent.

Most users simply do not have the patience to wait for a slow site. If you find yourself stuck with too many Kb’s, all is not lost. Get yourself an image optimizer and have at it by cutting those image sizes down.

Most importantly - whenever you can, to get the most out of a guaranteed traffic campaing use a "landing" page.  Or a page designed to show BEFORE a visitor sees your website.  This is a sure-fire way to get the most people into your site.

If you don't have the time or facilities to create and effective ad yourself, Pop-Under-Ads will design an attractive, highly optimized popunder page for you for only $85 visit www.Pop-Under-Ads.com to get set up.

This article is Copyright 2003 Pop-Under-Ads.com. All Rights Reserved. If you would like to inquire about reprint permission, please contact us.

 

WHY WON’T MY WEBSITE WORK?

So you’ve built a website, but you’re not making any sales, or maybe your sales just aren’t as steady as you would like them to be and you’re sitting there wondering, why?

Well, I have a couple site and marketing strategies for you to look at in order to help you battle the dreaded ‘no sale.’

Let’s start off with the site that you’ve just built.

How is its loading time? If it doesn’t load within 10 – 13 seconds over 56k, then you are probably losing customers. Not everyone has the benefit of broadband yet and that is something very important to keep in mind. Users can be very impatient towards a slow site and once they get to your site, you want to do everything possible to encourage them to stay.

So, if your site takes longer than 13 seconds to load, don’t fret because it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have to close shop and go back to working 9-5 forever.

Nope, your site just needs a little TLC. Start with your graphics, they look great, but will your site survive without 1 or 2 of them? If so, get them out of there. As for the rest of your graphics, download a nice image optimizing program and start whacking away at those bytes.

If you do not have an image optimization program, you can use a free online version here: http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.html  (this will work on any file ending in .gif)

You’ll be surprised at the difference this alone can make in page loading times. It has been my experience that most graphic file sizes can nearly be cut down to half of their original size.

How is your color scheme? I have seen a lot of site with very unattractive or clashing color scheme and I ask the question, why? What purpose does it serve to have a clashing color scheme? It doesn’t, unless you are trying to deter visitors from coming to your site altogether.

If you’re like the rest of us and attempting to conduct business on the Internet, then you want to deter a visitor from leaving your site. So take a look at your color scheme and make sure that it doesn’t clash.

Also, try to stay away from using extra bright colors because looking at something like that can make you feel like you’re suffering from radiation poisoning.

In general, you should use lighter colors that match well together. This is not only easy on the eye, but also goes along way in giving your site a certain professional image.

Think about it, if you had a retail store would you paint it lime green, fuschia, hot pink and niteglow orange?  If not, don't do it to your website either.

Is your copywriting in the final draft stage? Even if it is, it’s always good to keep reworking it until you find something that makes a solid connection. The text on your website can be one of the most important factors that makes or breaks your site.

This is simply because people will read your text and if it doesn’t read well, then people are going to become confused.

To insure that this doesn’t happen to you, double check your spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. A single, tiny little error can cost you a customer and it can also cost you your image. People are not mind readers; they only know what you tell them. So make them understand.

Explain things clearly and make sure it all flows in such a way, should it to be read it out load or silently to yourself, it sounds good. Don’t worry if you don’t get it on the first try. This is a trial and error thing. If you don’t succeed the first time, try again until you start receiving an adequate (by your standards) response.

So now you’ve tried all that with your site and your still not making an up-to-par sales volume and you’re still wondering, why? Well, it’s time to talk about marketing.

Marketing is the hardest game the Internet has to offer and if you don’t play it right, you’re not going to win. Let’s talk about what it takes in a brick-n-mortar situation versus a click-n-mortar situation and then we’ll draw a conclusion from that.

Assume that you’ve just opened up a DVD rental shop on your local city block. You put big signs in your windows that advertise your specials, you buy up a couple local TV spots, and finally you put up a billboard in your area. So how do you get customers then?

Well, the formula is relatively simple. Have you ever heard of viral marketing, or guerilla marketing? Basically, it’s the idea of having your advertisement everywhere people look so that no matter what, everybody will hear about your business sooner or later and more importantly - tell others to come!

So, with that said, lets be a consumer in that same city block. The first thing you notice when you’re driving to work is that a new business is moving into XYZ building. You pass by it every other day and finally you notice that the store opens up to the public. Now, instead of noticing that a business is moving in, you notice the big signs in the window advertising their basic deals.

So now let’s assume that the work week is over and you take the family out to the park. While you’re driving home, you notice a billboard for that very same rental store. Making the connection, you are now starting to become curious as to what lies within that store (especially if you like movies!). Then, on Sunday, you’re just sitting back relaxing, watching some TV and then… a commercial. It’s an ad for the DVD rental store.

At that point, you will probably be half tempted to go into the store and maybe sign-up for a membership. The video store has succeeded… or have they? Nope, they haven’t "succeeded" simply they were able to successfully market to you, but success will be: 

What is going to make you keep renting DVDs there?

How are they going to draw new customers?

The answer lies within the term ‘consistency.’  In the advertising and marketing biz we call it "frequency".

That’s right; the rental store will have to keep advertising at least the same amount every month until their sales reach a high. At that time they can back down from marketing for a month or two, but then they’ll have to go full offensive again.

Well, now that we have discussed brick-n-mortars, let’s move on to click-n-mortars. The problem we face with marketing website is that they are not like brick-n-mortar stores. If you opened a DVD store within your city block, you nearest competitor might be 15 minutes away, giving you a slight advantage.

However, that isn’t true with the Internet. Your competitor is always a URL away, one click, and that gives everyone a slight disadvantage. Plus, instead of advertising to a small group of people within your city, you are now advertising to millions. So how do you do it?

You just have to apply the same principles that you applied to the DVD store and then multiple them to fit Internet capacity. The Internet is a huge place, to have one or two ads up isn’t going to help you out much.

Remember this; it takes the average Internet user seven to nine times of seeing something before they act on it. So placing one or two ads greatly strains your odds of having maximum exposure.

Instead, you have to have multiple ads and run them consistently. Also, don’t expect to make tons of sales your first time advertising either. It almost never happens this way because first you have to pass the ‘break-in period.’ The break-in period is usually the first two or three weeks of advertising in multiple spots where you won’t really make any sales.

This is because people are cycling through that seven to nine times factor and it won’t catch up for a couple weeks.

Let’s assume that we’re Internet consumers and not entrepreneurs. We go to a search engine and see a certain website come up in the results. A day later we see a banner for the same site, then a pop-under, then the search results, then a banner, a pop-under, etc... It’s all a big redundant cycle, but that’s what it takes.

Sooner or later we’re going to take a look around that site to see what it’s all about and then after making a couple more trips to it, we’ll probably end up buying something or referring it to a friend.

Sweet success! But the game isn’t over, not by any means. That redundant cyclical advertising method must to be kept in full vortex mode so that the person that just purchased from you, and others, will keep seeing your ad over and over again.

Conclusively, we can say that once your website is totally optimized to convert visitors (and it’s proven to convert) and you have your marketing cyclone up and running outside of the initial ‘break-in period,’ there shouldn’t be anything that stands in your path to success. After all, look at all the other successful websites out there.

Let me close with one final thought… People will tell you that there are intricate secrets in both marketing and business that no one else wants you to know about, and that these secrets are the key to success. Don’t be fooled. There are no secrets, unless the secrets are persistence, creativity and innovation.

 

P.S. I provide a service that sends GUARANTEED traffic to internet websites. 

Its very cost effective, you can get 10 guaranteed unique visitors to your website for just 1.5¢!

Check it out here www.Pop-Under-Ads.com

This article is Copyright 2003 TrafficAccount.com. All Rights Reserved. If you would like to inquire about reprint permission, please contact us.

 

Part 3 in a Series

All you need to know about Guaranteed Web Site Traffic and Visitors.

 

Here are some important things to note when doing a pop under or redirect:

 

Keys To A Successful Campaign

 

1. QUANTITY. Because you will be hitting a lot of different people, it comes down to a numbers game. How many people will you hit that are interested in your offer at the time your ad “pops” under or redirects from the site they are browsing? If they are interested at a later date and your campaign is no longer running, then you will have in a sense helped your competition who is there later, "at the right time". So if you are buying guaranteed traffic, be sure to buy as many as you can afford to.

 

2. LANDING PAGE. The landing page is whatever web page that people see in the actual pop-under. This can be any page, whether it’s the home page or a custom sales page. Most often advertisers use their home page as their landing page. BIG MISTAKE!

 

I recommend that you have a page created just for your offer. Make sure you have a great headline that stands out and can be read and understood in about 2 seconds. It amazes me how many people use their homepage as their URL. When my company offers to create a landing page for our customers, they are always pleased with both the ad and the results. Some seeing increases of up to a 67.5% response over previously run campaigns.

 

==============================================================

[Think about it] How come Amazon.com and Orbitz don’t just show their home page in a pop under ad?  Because it wouldn’t work!  What if a department store showed all the products inside of their store, or worse, the entire strip of stores in the mall they were located at, and put it all on a billboard? Would the average driver focused on their destination have time to understand the message the advertiser is trying to convey? The answer is: No, not many of them at all. What kind of results do you think that billboard campaign would achieve?  The answer is: poor results if any.

==============================================================

 

Remember, your home page is used to navigate people to all the many different parts of your site. There is not usually any one specific theme or offer but, rather multiple offers, animations, buttons, and a lot of different paths to take. This is way too much for a person to comprehend in just 2 seconds.

 

So since most people didn’t ask to see your ad in the first place, the subconscious response is: “Since I didn’t ask to see this site and there is no distinct offer, there might as well be no offer at all.” <Click> close [x].

 

[==SUCCESS TIP==] Make a great landing page that directs people where you want them to go. I assure you it will increase your response.

 

K.I.S.S. - Keep it short and sweet.  Don’t try to close the sale, get the sign-up, etc in the first 2 seconds. Be compelling, get the viewers attention, and draw them into your offer.  Take them through a sales “process”, not a sales “slam” - you will have much better results.

 

 

3.  APPLES-TO-APPLES. One frustration common among advertisers is the difference between the response to a pop campaign and a pay per click campaign. There are many, many reasons for this difference, but a main reason is they are not the same type of advertising. One is active, the other is passive. Remember we talked about that earlier in this article?  In general pay-per-click (Overture Precision Match www.overture.com, GOOGLE ADWORDS www.Google.com, Find What www.Findwhat.com, etc) will always yield a higher conversion rate than a pop campaign.  It is also much more expensive and difficult to track to use this form of advertising.

One key reason there is better response rate in PPC (a passive form of advertising) is these are people who took the time to type in a phrase into a search engine and click a link. They are actively looking for your service. 

 

Conversely, pop type ads are active forms of advertising and show up on a related site, but the viewer, who is passive about your service at the moment, was in the midst of doing something else.

 

This is the same reason Yellow Page inquiries are more expensive, and generally will yield higher response than say Radio Advertising. This is due to the different focus of the viewers at the time of experiencing the ad.

 

==============================================================

KEY POINT: DO NOT compare your pop ad results to your PPC results, they will NEVER match, nor should they. That would be an apples-to-oranges comparison.  Both methods should be implemented as a part of a well-rounded marketing plan.

            ==============================================================

 

 

4. FOLLOW-UP. This is where over 97% of web sites miss it. They make an ad, they buy the traffic, but don’t tell people what to do when they arrive.  Here are some important questions webmasters should ask about any web site being advertised:

 

1. What happens after a visitor clicks your ad and arrives at the site?
2. Can they navigate the site easily to find EXACTLY what they are looking for?
3. Is your site compelling?
4. Does it draw them in deeper?
5. Does the site itself SELL?
6. Are People encouraged to contact you?
7. Is it EASY to contact you?
8. Is it easy to buy?

 

If you are buying advertising then you want something to happen. You want people to take an action. You want visitors to sign up for your newsletter, buy your CD, order your services, etc. Whatever it may be, all you want is for them to “do the thing”. SO ENCOURAGE IT! Gather as much information from visitors as you can. Offer free reports, bonuses, and/or extra services. Give a good deal, have a sale, do what it takes to increase “sales”.

 

            ==============================================================

KEY POINT: Remember, simply getting “traffic” or “visitors” to a site is not enough. Despite what traffic resellers, web designers and hosts will tell you. As a business person you want CONVERSION. And that is the magic word.

            ==============================================================

 

[==SUCCESS TIP==] Before running an ad campaign, ask yourself, “If I were looking to buy this same product/service, what would this website have to say and do to convince ‘me’ to buy”

                                                                                           

Any site that can answer that question, is converting lots of visitors into customers. That is exactly what your site must do.

 

This, my friend, is the “Hit Myth”.  Hits, traffic, visitors, whatever you want to call them, do not do much for business and the internet unless you learn to convert the traffic into sales. Getting visitors to a web site is easy. Getting those visitors to actually do something is the real challenge.  

 

If you are going to buy traffic, make sure you deal with a company that can offer you full service and support towards making the campaign successful.

 

Keep an eye out as I share some simple tips to getting a better conversion rate out of your website.

Until we speak again,

Promote, Promote, Promote!
Blessings in Biz from Maurice

 ©2005 Maurice Evans. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article only so long as this full copyright and author information is included.  Maurice Evans is the Development Director for http://www.iGROWyourBiz.com. Since 1992 he has assisted small business owners in learning how to get more bang for their advertising buck. For your Advertising and Marketing Consulting needs contact him at 727-417-6838

 

Part 2 in a Series

All you need to know about Guaranteed Web Site Traffic and Visitors.

 

TYPE #2: REDIRECTED TRAFFIC

 

Redirected traffic is a passive type of advertising, which works on the same premise as search (pay-per-click) or a yellow pages advertisement.

 

==============================================================

[*Quick Definition] Passive Advertising:  This form of advertising is considered passive or subtle because the viewers are active, meaning they are currently seeking out your type of product or service. Yellow Page Advertising & Search Engine PPC is a form of Passive Advertising.

==============================================================

 

People who see passive ads are already looking for your type of service and have actively made the decision to search for a provider. Usually they do not have a particular provider in mind, which is why they are looking for someone to service their needs.

 

Redirected traffic doesn’t pop over, under or in-between pages on an existing site. Instead, a person gets directly to your landing page by typing in the URL and for all intents and purposes, your page IS the web page they are looking for.

 

Here is how it works.

Someone registers a domain name, and markets and promotes the website related to it. For whatever reason (maybe they go out of business, split the partnership, change their mind, get married, etc) they let their domain name expire. After about 90 days, the registration company will release the domain name for sale to the public.  Advertising networks buy these domain names because they still get plenty of traffic from people who type them directly into the browser, select them from their favorites listings, or click on them from left over search engine listings and links from other websites. Once the network owns this expired domain name they “redirect” any incoming traffic to whichever new website they wish.

 

 

The new owner will then usually use a network like www.trafficz.com, www.sedo.com or www.seeq.com. These companies take your domain name and place a search engine on the page.

 

You may have tried a time or two to go to a website and rather than arriving where you expected, you instead got a search engine page! In this way someone uses the ownership of a previously expired domain name to make money from the clicks those networks make from the web site listings in that engine.

 

These networks collect money from advertisers on a pay-per-click auction and then use this to provide the search data. This means an advertiser pays for each click on the link to their website listed in their search results.  The network then pays a commission to the owner of the site for sending the “searchers” to that site.

 

The theory behind Redirected traffic is that there are advertising networks that instead of using a search engine, will simply send visitors directly to a new website. Advertisers would then pay the network for a chance for their webpage to be viewed, just like in a pop under/over.

 

For instance, a person might type in www.HostBlade.com into their web browser.  This person is obviously looking for low-priced, quality domain name registration and hosting related services. In this example if that domain were in fact owned by an ad network, they would in turn send you to a site owned by an advertiser who paid them for the category “hosting” or “computers”, etc.

 

Redirected traffic is not always from expired domains, there are various types such as:

• Exit traffic (when you leave a website and close the page. Often combined with a pop.) 
• Bad or error page redirects (when you click a bad link or mistype within a specific site)
• Programs installed on your computer that will “force” a page to show in a browser.
• And other forms.

 

Some people believe because a person is actively looking for your type service and it appears as a web site this is more effective than pop-under traffic. This is debatable, and I would say the results generally will be equivalent to any campaign and has a lot more to do with your offer, how you target and how you market on the backend.

 

You can expect to pay $5-10 for redirected traffic and add $2-$4 for a rush service.

 

THE EXPIRED TRAFFIC CONTROVERSY!

 

One downfall to redirected traffic is the traffic does eventually wind down over time. This forces the ad networks to constantly find new sources of traffic. Be sure the company you deal with has an established history and has a stable future.

 

This leads us to the second downfall of redirected traffic. There are far too many illegitimate companies that claim to sell redirected traffic that is basically non-existent.  From most people we speak with, it is very, very difficult to find a company selling legitimate redirects.

 

I did find one company with real redirects: www.RightTraffic.com. They own their own domains and I have seen them in action. (Here is one: www.ricky5.com, try going back to the site several times or reloading the page by pressing the “F5” key. You will be “redirected” to a different site each time.)

 

I asked the owner of Right Traffic, Frank Rattay, to comment on his opinion of redirected traffic vs. pop traffic, especially with so many scams related to redirects. 

 

He replied, “I think that True "Re-directs" are great, they serve the purpose just like any other form of traffic (advertising).  You are actually redirected to a site instead of a pop-under, pop-up, etc.  So, your (website’s) chances of being seen (by a viewer) are greater than just getting the big X (closing the browser).

 

I think all forms of Advertisement are great, especially paid traffic.  Targeted and Untargeted. The main reason why we buy traffic is to get our (web site’s) name out there.  If it is pop ups, unders, overs, redirects, it’s getting your web site out there!”

 

I definitely agree. Any opportunity to get your web site’s name out is a great opportunity. Take it if you can and it fits your plan.

 

Conversely, as it relates to the legitimacy of redirected traffic, this is an excerpt of a question sent to me:

 

“The reason I ask is because a client of mine is asking me about (expired traffic company name) and their program. Personally, I don't trust ad companies that buy up old domains and then redirect the traffic the old domains already have to the advertiser because they don't disclose whether or not they use cloaking pages or junk doorway pages to run their services. Such a service could be looked at as search engine spam and the engines could penalize the site associated with it. I'd like to know what anyone else thinks about this scheme. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.”

 

THE SOLUTION

 

Be smart! Never let pricing be your sole determining factor in a purchase. If a company offers you a test or trial for 1000 visitors, RUN! The only time to consider it is if it’s a new company and you think they may or may not have real traffic. Then you can take it only if you are going to check the IP addresses in your raw logs for actual traffic.  If you have no clue what I just said means, then it is definitely best for you to move to the next company.

 

Considering your click through response rate will be between ¼% and 2½% the odds are that you will see ZERO results from such a small campaign. The fact they will sell you only 1000 visitors for a dollar or two is a good sign they will take any amount of money they can get. This would be like McDonalds offering to sell you 5 French Fries for 25¢ as a “trial”.  Surely you do not expect any satisfaction from such a small order, and it is an insult to the intelligence of the customer to offer it. 

 

If you truly want to TRY a service, or better put, test a campaign, then you should purchase around 10,000 - 50,000 and see what results you get from that size sampling.  For a sure-fire test – buy about 100,000.  It will be hard to see accurate results to evaluate with anything less than 100,000 visitors.

 

[==SUCCESS TIP==] When Buying Traffic, Do NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK if there any specials or discounts if you buy a certain quantity. Negotiate!

 

BE CAREFUL!  If the company you are looking to buy from:

• Has only email support, no phone number, or if there is only voicemail (all the time) when you call- watch out!
• Look for a physical mailing address of the company.
• Find out if they are listed with the better business bureau (www.BBB.org).
  Are there any complaints? Have they been resolved?

 

These are things to look for with ANY internet business. Better safe than sorry. Also there is nothing wrong with asking for a reference or two.

 

Stay tuned for part 3 tomorrow!

 

©2005 Maurice Evans. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article only so long as this full copyright and author information is included.  Maurice Evans is the Development Director for http://www.iGROWyourBiz.com. Since 1992 he has assisted small business owners in learning how to get more bang for their advertising buck. For your Advertising and Marketing Consulting needs contact him at 727-417-6838