What is “Traffic”?
With internet marketing, “traffic” refers to visitors (read: people) checking out either your website, video, affiliate offer and wherever you need them to be.
Traffic is the lifeblood of your online business (just as having a constant stream of customers is essential to a brick and mortar business).
Essentially, there are 2 kinds of traffic: paid, as well as “free”.
“Paid” Traffic
Paid traffic, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or banner advertising, is usually more controllable and scalable. If what you’re doing is working, you can spend more to grow your traffic. It also has the advantage of being able to start very quickly, if not immediately.
The main disadvantage of paid traffic is that it can be quite expensive and requires a lot of supervision to avoid losing money. Paid advertising platforms such as Google AdWords can also have strict requirements regarding advertisers and ads, so be sure to pay close attention to all rules and warnings.
“Free” Traffic
Free traffic, such as organic search engine visitors, video marketing, or social media/forum traffic, can be a great way to get highly relevant visitors to your website without paying for each visitor. Building a platform that delivers free traffic can be a great long-term affiliate marketing strategy. However, the downsides of free traffic are that it can take a lot of time and effort before you start seeing results, and can be unreliable.
What is the Best Traffic Strategy?
Needless to say, having a balanced approach to both types of traffic will ensure a steady stream of visitors to your site/ blog (or affiliate offer). Your strategy will also depend on the budget you currently can accommodate.
Similar to the “real world”, investing in traffic is comparable to how much a company wants to spend on its marketing campaign. The only difference now, is that you are in control (especially for paid traffic).
To summarise, if you desire to have visitors as soon as possible, paid traffic should be the way to go. However, there are certain factors you’ll need to consider (since you got to pay for it, literally). If free traffic is your preferred option, your investment will primarily be your valuable time.
