At some point, many internet marketers reach a fork in the road in their marketing efforts by asking themselves: which way is better for me to generate more website traffic, paid or free? Many would argue that there is no need to pay for traffic as long as you are providing value to your audience and the traffic is coming, while another party would say the complete opposite and a third group would say why you settle on just one form should restrict traffic from website? Still, when it comes to website traffic, there is no path that is considered right or wrong.
Paid traffic is great and is preferred by many marketers as it is a target audience of people looking for what the marketer is offering. Paid traffic (big favourite) also produces quick results and allows the marketer to be a lead manager as opposed to a lead generator. Different types of paid traffic include traffic from Pay Per Click Ads, Ezine Ads, Banner Ads, Pay Per Week Ads, and online directories. Depending on the provider, some initial testing and sampling may be required to determine traffic flow and advertising budget allocation. If you want to convert traffic faster, paid advertising might be right for you.
Free traffic was just as effective as paid traffic. Free traffic is great for generating quality traffic as traffic is built in a way that when done right makes it more personal. Being more personal or implementing personal branding helps build a relationship with your audience and increases the awareness, like and trust factor, making them willing to spend money on you. However, this form of traffic takes time to produce significant results, but the results would be longer-term than paid advertising. For example, some sources of free traffic (like video marketing, article marketing, blogging, and web 2.0) when used can publish your work for long periods of time and get good results in organic search engine optimization, where your work has the potential to stay long at first Getting posted on a search engine page compared to most paid traffic, which stops when you stop paying for it, get penalized, or simply shut down for whatever reason.
There really is no perfect solution or single answer. Free website traffic and paid website traffic have their pros and cons. Even opting for both methods has advantages and disadvantages. Think about the pros and cons you are willing to accept. For example, if you’re an impatient person, unless you’re on a zero dollar budget, producing free traffic might not be for you. If someone else is looking for massive results, they might want to use both methods. Another person may want long-term results and traffic, so they may want to focus on generating leads for free.
There will likely be some trial and error before you figure out what works best for you. What worked well for someone else may not really work for you because different methods work best for different people. Regardless of what you decide to do, once you find a method that really works for you, stick with it.
