Before You Buy Targeted Traffic…

There are a lot of tempting offers around the 'net to buy targeted traffic or leads for your online business. In fact, I was just looking at one this morning that promised 30,000 unique visitors to your website for under $100...

Even though I have been online long enough to be wary of such companies, I was actually tempted to test this one out. The way that it was worded (ie "contextual advertising") led me to believe that my links would be placed on relevant sites and that I was paying for actual click-through's. No pop-up or pop-under or incentive traffic, so it was much like doing a paid link campaign except paying for actual clicks instead of just placement.

The obvious first step, before you place an order for any kind of leads or traffic, is to do a quick search on Google to find any reviews or complaints from past customers. If someone was scammed by a particular company, you're going to find out. There will be discussions in popular forums, blog posts and reviews with personal experience, etc.

If you do a Google Search and dont find anything negative about the company you want to buy traffic from, your next step is to inquire about it in active discussion forums. Choose a popular online business or marketing forum and simply ask if anyone has personal experience with the company.

The Google Search is usually sufficient in finding the information you are looking for though, and in this case it was. The first two pages of results (20 web pages) were full of complaints and negative experiences with that particular company.

It can be very tempting to buy traffic from a company that promises you thousands of highly targeted visitors. Unfortunately, negative experiences have been associated with these types of offers from day one. More often than not you would be better off saving your $100 for a Google Adwords Campaign, a Blog Review campaign or some other legitimate form of online advertising.

Also See: Traffic Secrets

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