Around a week and a half ago, I posted a question and answer session… anyways, the quality of the questions was a lot better than previous and due to most of them needing long-ish answers, I decided to answer them individually. I actually put out that post asking for what you guys wanted because a) I had come home late and thus didn’t have time to write content that day and b) I was honestly running out of topics, considering that in this niche most things are covered. Anyways, over the next month or so I’ll be answering random questions from that list, so stay tuned or leave some more questions if you want to see anything discussed 
Today I’m going to cover purchasing traffic to your blog… whether it’s needed, and whether it’s cost effective.
The question was asked by Creating Revenue Online, and it was:
What do you think about paying to drive traffic to your blog. Maybe through Adbrite or something. Have you ever and if so, was the quality of the driven traffic worth it?
Personally, well… the only time I’ve ever bought traffic to this blog is when I was testing full page ads on Adbrite. Since that (a couple months or so ago) I have not, and I do not recommend any of you buying traffic.
The only time you should buy traffic is when you can directly make money off those visitors.
Someone hits my homepage, even if s/he is targeted… it’s likely I’m not going to make money off them (more often than not). As a direct example, I have around 1,000 people that read every single post, and thousands more that check out this blog monthly… however I make only a few dozen sales of everything combined on this blog (hosting and other affiliates, as well as advertising sales).
If you are selling a product, and are semi experienced in pay per click, by all means, pay for traffic. Make sure your keywords are very, very specific (dog training ebook instead of dog training, for example) and your landing page gives visitors only two options – buying your product or the red X button to exit.
Of course, if you do have a budget, you can still use it to build metrics for your website.
If you’re thinking about buying traffic, I’m assuming that you have at least $100 on hand (as that’s what’s needed minimum to start with the likes of Adwords… any less and you’re wasting your time).
Why not run a contest? Give away $50 in pure cash for two months, and you should be able to build at least 100 subscribers (and more if you promote it heavily). I talked about contest arbitrage and how you can use contests to make yourself some money, so that’s an idea. Rather than buying a one time hit to your website, you should make it so that people have to subscribe to your feed… at the very least, even if they use a junk email, this means they’ll be forced to read some of your posts.
Another idea… is to sign up Aweber using some of your money and outsource a short (1,000 – 2,000 words) report on a topic related to your blog. Combined, the two things shouldn’t cost you more than $50.
Offer the report to anyone that signs up for your Aweber email list and setup a blog broadcast to go out every few days… you’re providing people with decent content and in return building yourself targeted subscribers. Win / win. By offering a simple report that took me less than an hour or so to write, I’ve managed to build more than 300 subscribers to this blog… that’s as a direct result of the FREE report.
Both the above ways will have far better long term results than your average pay per click traffic to your blog, no matter how good your blog looks and how targeted that traffic is. The thing is, most bloggers that purchase traffic do not realise that ads tend to show up on others blogs in the niche… social blogs, like this one. Thanks to reading a few high quality blogs (which I’ll talk about in a later post), I learned quite some time ago that social blog readers are pretty damned difficult to make money off. So difficult that your time would be better spent elsewhere.
So in conclusion…
If you are selling a product, working a CPA offer or building a list, by all means pay for traffic.
If not, don’t (like if you are promoting a blog). If you are inexperienced with PPC, take it slowly – you can lose a lot money real fast with even the smallest mistakes
September 11th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Thanks for tips and congrats for touching 1k subscriber again!
[Reply]
Blogging Millionaire (8 comments) Reply:
September 11th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
and then he’s under 1000 subscribers again. It fluctuates so much.
Blogging Millionaire’s last blog post..3 Killer Steps To Create A Striking Blog Title In 10 Minutes
[Reply]
Sell Porn Make Money (80 comments) Reply:
September 11th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I think feedburner is all messed up. I have seen this on multiple blogs where the feed counts have been fluctuating pretty big time.
Sell Porn Make Money’s last blog post..How To Avoid Getting Your Adsense Account Terminated
[Reply]
Melvin (105 comments) Reply:
September 12th, 2008 at 12:27 am
I am wondering why you are using that URL..
Melvin’s last blog post..The Top Commentators For August
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thanks for tips and congrats for touching 1k subscriber again!
SEO Tricks’s last blog post..Namecheap September 2008 Coupon
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Why not run a contest? Give away $50 in pure cash for two months, and you should be able to build at least 100 subscribers (and more if you promote it heavily).
This is an excellent idea, and one I may try in the future on another of my blogs. I also like the idea of a free report.
Minnesota Weekend Getaways’s last blog post..Three Wonderful Art Museums in Minneapolis
[Reply]
ZK from WebTrafficROI (15 comments) Reply:
September 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Contest is a great way to increase your usership
ZK@WebTrafficROI’s last blog post..4 Tips to write effective Title Tags to increase conversions
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
For instance I am running my comment contests and it has brought in over 20 new rss readers in under 1 week. And I only promoted it here at TUK no other blogs. That goes to show how powerful contests can be and of course how awesome TUK is!
Shannon Lilly’s last blog post..New Plugins Added To Our Blog!
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
If you’d be evil, you could buy shit traffic from DigitalPoint for a few bucks and then flip the site. =P
But that would be stupid and the most boring scam ever.
BlackhatWay’s last blog post..Flipping A Website: Making Money After The Sale!
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The contest idea is great. You are definitely more likely to generate new visitors when you are handing them cash and the my statistics on pay per click advertising haven’t shown me great results.
Adam
Adam – Creadiv’s last blog post..Getting into the skunk selling business might make a lot of scents.
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Way to go , congrats on reach the 4 figure base
ZK@WebTrafficROI’s last blog post..4 Tips to write effective Title Tags to increase conversions
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I guess getting direct traffic is grater than buying traffic.
Harish’s last blog post..A Few Reasons Why You Should Subscribe To This Blog
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I don’t like traffic buying. You can increase your alexa rankings, which is useful for text link ads only…
Kadir’s last blog post..How To Make Money Not Online Scams?
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Optimizing your website is much better then buying traffic.
SEO Tips’s last blog post..Namecheap September 2008 Coupon
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
You have some good advice. You CAN lose a lot of money with little mistakes. Affiliate Marketing is about experimenting with what works best for you, but as you point out, you have to be cautious. Great post, Jason! I like the Q&A idea.
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Thanks again for the thoughtful advice!
[Reply]
September 11th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Hey Jason, been reading for a while now and have reported some of your stuff on my site.
I do particularly like this article, especially the reference to abweber and it’s possiblities. It seems to be the only way to get truly great traffic that results in subscribers. I’d be interested to hear more!
Nice post
The Good Blog Guide’s last blog post..http://www.blogarish.com – Alex Atti is storming ahead!
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 12:25 am
You’re right but well it really depends.. When my blog was on its second month, I have tried dabbling into PPC and have took a small amount to it.. And I think it has done well since my readership has increased w/o much promoting on other stuffs
Melvin’s last blog post..The Top Commentators For August
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Really good points. I paid for advertising starting out on my blog (stumbleupon advertising) and it just wasn’t worth it. It was $5 per 100 people and I wasn’t seeing any growth either. So i ditched it.
No advertising is better I believe
Ryan McLean’s last blog post..Things That Disempower Yourself and Your Business
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 7:38 am
hi, it is better to buy targeted traffic, for example if you are blogging about a post on myspace resources, buying myspace traffic will be effective.
derek’s last blog post..Looking for Guest Post [ Free $5 ]
[Reply]
Otooo (28 comments) Reply:
September 12th, 2008 at 7:50 am
It’s not better – as Jason mentioned before, why not hold a contest and get it some publicity – u will get a much higher ROI or conversions
Bought traffic will still work, but it is so much more expensive
Otooo’s last blog post..Vital Steps To Complete Before Launching Your Blog
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Congrats on getting the readers over 1000 again!
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I don’t recommend buying traffic. Although I recommend using money to hold a contest which will bring a lot of traffic.
Ganesh’s last blog post..Increase Your Subscriber Count like Crazy – Hold a Contest
[Reply]
September 12th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I dont recommend buying traffic. I know lots of people making money using free methods to get traffic. Its wasted money. I have bought traffic before and it was just a visit.
Ways To Earn Online’s last blog post..Earning Money Online: Factors To Consider
[Reply]
September 13th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
[...] Pereira from TheUniversityKid discussed about whether you should buy traffic for your blog. Great article and at the end, there are some nice tips [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 1:20 am
[...] Should You Buy Traffic For Your Blog? – The University Kid [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 8:41 am
“The only time you should buy traffic is when you can directly make money off those visitors.” Good rule of thumb to follow. No point spending the money if it wont make you the money.
[Reply]
September 14th, 2008 at 8:50 am
[...] The University Kid – Should You Buy Traffic For Your Blog? [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I always feel that buying traffic is kinda like cheating on an exam.
Eva White’s last blog post..Dating Coach
[Reply]
September 18th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I think it’s funny you wrote this post RIGHT after the paid review for Publishers spot lol.
I hope I’m not the only one that thought it was kinda funny. At least this was a positive post supporting that paid review lol.
Jay
Jay’s last blog post..Password Protected My $100/Day Adsense Earning
[Reply]
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Maybe buy an ad space in some popular forum or blog will help.
[Reply]
June 28th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Just started CPA and reading a lot of information. Thanks
Chris
[Reply]