Why Don't You Just Shut Up ? Stop Moaning & Buy Your Traffic ...

From link:?http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/547747-why-dont-you-just-shut-up-stop-moaning-buy-your-traffic-instead-then.html

Hmm,

While reading various posts and threads recently and trying to give people advice on how they can improve their online business, something struck me like a thunderbolt.

There is a misconception about SEO always being the cheap and best option in comparison to using some other methods to get traffic.

In 2012 I am going to be getting involved with paying for traffic to some of my sites. This is something I have never done before (or so I thought ? but more about that in a second) but it is something that it is becoming clearer to me, that done correctly, can be pivotal to taking your business to a whole new level.

Okay, let me get to the point.

There is a lot of SEO emphasise on this and many other forums about making money online and obviously this is because many people think that ranking your sites in Google is either free or very cheap.

Now I am not even going to go into the cost of your time at this stage, but it dawned on me that all the SEO and link building stuff I have done over the years actually is nowhere near free.

It has cost me thousands of dollars over the past few years to rank my sites.

So is SEO and link building really FREE?

Is it really such a great option in comparison to paying to get traffic?

Let me give you an idea of what my typical costs, per month, where for SEO and link building activities for my sites in 2011.

1. A membership of a private blog network: $47

2. A membership of second private blog network: $97

3. A membership of a Third private blog network: $59

4. A SEO web host so that I can host up to 15 sites, all on unique IP address, for link building purposes: $39.95

5. A service to make sure my links get indexed: $14.99

6. A Full time staff member, from the Philippines, building links for me: $350

7. Other outsourcing related to article writing and spinning for links: $90

Total cost per month: $697.94

As I said earlier, this does not even take into account the time cost to me of checking things and planning things and spinning the odd article and/or submitting the occasional thing myself.

So is ranking in Google a great FREE way to get traffic to your site?

Yes and No?

It sure is great but it sure isn?t free.

Even if you are just starting out and you aren?t paying for any of the stuff I was and you are doing it all by hand then you are undoubtedly spending a lot of your own time doing this.

How much is your time worth?

How much time in hours (HONESTLY) are you spending doing this each month? How much do you get paid per hour in your day job? Multiply the two and see what it is costing you.

Don?t get me wrong. I love search engine traffic and that (and affiliates sending me traffic) is what I have mainly survived on since 2007.

Plus, with this type of traffic I have sites that I haven?t touched for months and probably even over a year that still rank and make me money each month. And you would be hard pressed to beat that.

But it sure isn?t FREE. And it sure can be a lot of hard work and the truth is the results are never guaranteed.

For those that know me, you will know that for me SEO is a long-term strategy and that I have lots of other techniques to drive quick traffic to my sites from day one. Strategies that ? apart from the time it takes you to implement them ? are seen as being free.

However, I am really beginning to see the appeal of paid methods to drive traffic ? once you have a converting offer that is.

I?ll say that again.

Once you have an OFFER THAT CONVERTS, driving the right kind of paid traffic should be a no brainer.

Depending on your niche for as little as $50 you could have a solo ad go out to several hundred people or you could appear in a newsletter, which goes out to several hundred or even thousands of people. Or perhaps you could have a banner ad that converts on a very busy website in your niche. There are loads of paid options.

From a JV mailing, as a conservative example, you might sign up 150 people and from that, 3 might take up an offer you put in front of them that pays you $30 each time. So that is $90, most likely within just a few days of this mailing going out.

$90 ? $50 for the mailing, you are $40 in profit and you have 150 new subscribers that could turn into potential customers (in fact 3 of them have already proved themselves to by buyers).

And how much time did it take you?

Hardly any?

You already had the offer ready. You already had your squeeze page ready. You already had your advertisement or email ready to give to the websites who are going to be promoting you. (Obviously if you didn?t have them ready it would cost you some time and probably money to do them, but the point I am making is the second time you do it, it would cost you hardly anything).

One of the keys here is to have a converting offer and to put that converting offer in front of a crowd that would potentially be interested in it at a price that makes you a profit.

So do you still think your SEO is free?

Look at my costs, then work out your own and tell me if you still think it is free?

I am not trying to prove any kind of point here. I am just stating something that dawned on me when I was trying to help someone else recently.

ALL TRAFFIC HAS SOME KIND OF COST. THERE ARE NO ?FREE? TRAFFIC METHODS

I started this thread to try and encourage people to think differently and to think of what they are doing more in business terms.

What I wanted to encourage people to do is to look at the ROI (return on investment) of all the methods they use to get traffic and work out which ones are the most effective. For $697.94 a month I could buy a hell of a lot of traffic in some niches (and probably a trickle in others). This bought traffic might be a much quicker and more effective way for me to build my business.

What I am trying to encourage people to do is to have an open mind.

It is very easy to be snobbish about your particular method of doing things, and to look down on other methods. I want to encourage my fellow warriors to take one step back, engage their brain, without prejudice, and have an open mind and focus on the main thing that matters ? their ROI.

As a business owner what I want to do is to evaluate the cost of each method (short and long-term cost) and utilize the best options for my business.

For me, in 2012 and beyond, the key is going to be a combination of SEO and ?Paid Traffic.?

I read an email by Jeremy Schoemaker (AKA shoemoney) recently where he says in 2009 they were spending $75,000 a day on facebook advertisements.

Yes you read that right: $75,000 a day.

Here?s the quote from the email:

?In 2009 I spent an average of $75,000 per day on Facebook advertising. I was one of the biggest advertisers on all of Facebook and was asked to join their board of monetary advisors representing Affiliate Marketing.?

They where spending all that money on facebook advertising ? not sure how much they are spending now, might be a fraction of that or might be more ? yet shoemoney and his crew know how to do SEO inside out.

If you ever want to play in the big boy leagues, there is going to have to come a time when you realize paid advertising has it?s place.

I would love to know your views. As I say, up until recently I was a ?Free? (or so I fooled myself) traffic method junkie. But the lore of quick paid traffic being sent to my converting offers, now really appeals to me.

What?s your thoughts?

Do you think paid advertising has it?s place?

Are you only interested in Search engine traffic?

Do you agree with what I have said or disagree?

?

?

Source: http://www.geeyo.com/?p=14

asteroid mining memorial day ivan rodriguez planetary resources mothers day gift ideas natalee holloway scotty mccreery