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All
you need to know about Guaranteed Web Site
Traffic and Visitors...
If you have a website, and are looking for
cost-effective ways to promote and increase
traffic to the site, you might wish to
consider “guaranteeing” that
people will come to your web site.
Today there are FOUR Primary types of guaranteed
targeted traffic you can purchase:
1. Pop-Up Ads
A small window pops “up” over the webpage
you are visiting with some sort of advertisement.
2. Pop-Under Ads
A small window pops “under” the web page you
are visiting with some sort of advertisement
and only becomes visible when you close the
web page.
3. Pop-In Ads
This type of ad pops “into” the web page you
are visiting –seeming to hover between your
screen and the website. You must close this
ad or wait for it to disappear before you
can continue with the web site.
4. Redirected Ads
This type of ad takes you to a web site different
than the one you tried to visit, because the
original site no longer owns that web address.
There are other types such as, Search &
Performance Campaigns, Pay-per-click (PPC)
and Cost-Per-Action (CPA) which we will discuss
at a later date.
In this article I will discuss the two most
popular and affordable means of generating
traffic to a website; Pop under and redirected
traffic. Both work differently therefore,
you should expect different results.
TYPE #1: POPUNDER CAMPAIGNS
These have been popular for years and are
promoted on many major websites. This type
of ad mysteriously seems to show up sitting
on your computer screen AFTER you are finished
at a particular site and close the browser.
Remember that X10 camera banner? How about
Expedia with the different games to play?
I bet you do!
Consider pop-under ads to be an Internet version
of Outdoor Billboards. Because it is like
a billboard, you will want to use active*
or “intrusive” advertising techniques.
Quick Definition - Active Advertising: This
form of advertising is considered active or
intrusive because the viewers are passive,
meaning they are not specifically looking
for you or your service at that time. Radio,
Television and Billboard ads are all forms
of Active Advertising.
An effective active ad is used to reach out
and grab someone who is not particularly looking
for your product or service at that moment.
The idea is to generate name recognition and
familiarity in the marketplace with your brand.
SUCCESS TIP - Whenever using this type
of marketing, you must do a LOT of it (quantity
and frequency) in order to be most effective.
The reason you need to do a lot of active
marketing, is because the target audience
is passive. Therefore, expect your response
and conversion rate (as it relates to your
ROI) to be lower than passive forms of advertising.
This is because the majority of potential
customers will not respond the first time
they see your ad. People are busy, and they
need to be reminded of your business.
With pop-under ads, people are going about
their everyday web browsing, looking for whatever
they happen to be searching or learning at
that moment. If you are able to target your
campaign then the site they are browsing should
be somewhat related to your offer. However,
remember they are not necessarily looking
at that time for what you have to offer. So
you are in a sense interrupting their browsing
experience. This is why it is called “intrusive”
marketing. SPAM is an example of active marketing
that is seen as both “intrusive” and “offensive”.
Think about it - When was the last time you
saw an ad only ONE time and responded immediately
to it? How often do you have that type of
immediate response? Do you usually need to
see an ad a few times before you take action
if it is not an immediate need?
Pop-up blockers are growing in popularity,
but in all honesty, reports from many networks
show that less than 3% of internet users have
an active pop-up blocker. On the flip side,
a report from IT Facts (http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P1146)
says as many as 30% of internet surfers have
pop blockers, however sources at advertising
agencies say the actual number lies somewhere
between the two.
A good traffic company promoting your ads
will NOT count blocked pop-under ads against
you. If they do count blocked ads against
your order, find a new company! In other words,
if your pop ad has been blocked by a pop blocker,
then technically it has not been shown. If
their system can not tell the difference between
a viewed ad and a blocked ad, there is a good
chance you are buying poor traffic, or worse
FAKE traffic.
The goal is for your offer to catch a percentage
of the people who see your advertisement at
the exact right time and make them say “oh,
that looks interesting”. Just like on a billboard
on the Freeway, you have 1-3 whole seconds
to get your message across. This means that
if you do not interest a person within that
time, they move their mouse to the upper right
corner of your ad and press the [x] to close
it. When purchasing guaranteed traffic, try
to use a company that gives you full page
sized or smaller than normal sized pop-under
ads. This will give you an extra second or
two to catch a person’s attention as they
have to travel to the “x” to close the window.
The downside of a pop-under is you generally
do not get a chance to be seen by the same
people over and over with your message. In
the advertising business, this important technique
of repetition is called “frequency”.
Quick Definition - Frequency: Term used to
describe the ratio or number of times an individual
sees or hears the same advertisement. The
higher “frequency” you have the better response
you will get.
Frequency is a major factor in response rates
to any advertisement. You can see this in
how often in a small time period you see the
same commercials on TV.
Frequency creates name recognition, brand
familiarity and stability. All of which are
necessary for positioning a product or service
properly in consumers minds.
Using our billboard example again, this time
we will contrast it with our pop-under ads.
A billboard gets a lot of frequency. They
are often effective at branding because travelers
usually use the same roads multiple times
per week. This allows a message to be presented
to the same people, day after day, month after
month.
The street my office is on gets about 80,000
vehicles passing it per day. This causes the
billboards in this area to be pretty expensive
as our building is located on a major road.
As you can imagine, I am surrounded by many
restaurants.
Alternatively, the benefit of a pop-under
over a billboard is if, and I mean only IF,
you have an awesome headline that grabs a
persons attention immediately, they will most
likely look to see the offer you have available
and “click” for more info – right that second.
It is highly unlikely that a billboard will
cause a person to stop where they are going
and immediately pull over to the side of the
road to get your number and call you. The
exception of course being a “directional”
billboard (i.e. Chevron or McDonalds next
exit).
For specific category targeted USA Pop-under
ads expect to pay $6-$8 per 1000 on the retail
side. Wholesale pricing is about 1/3 – ¼ the
price of retail. Most reputable traffic providers
will deliver traffic within 30 days, have
a delivery guarantee, have a customer support
phone number and some even have a rush option.
TYPE #2: REDIRECTED TRAFFIC
Redirected traffic is a passive type of advertising,
which works on the same premise as search
(pay-per-click) or a yellow pages advertisement.
Quick Definition - Passive Advertising: This
form of advertising is considered passive
or subtle because the viewers are active,
meaning they are currently seeking out your
type of product or service. Yellow Page Advertising
& Search Engine PPC is a form of Passive
Advertising.
People who see passive ads are already looking
for your type of service and have actively
made the decision to search for a provider.
Usually they do not have a particular provider
in mind, which is why they are looking for
someone to service their needs.
Redirected traffic doesn’t pop over, under
or in-between pages on an existing site. Instead,
a person gets directly to your landing page
by typing in the URL and for all intents and
purposes, your page IS the web page they are
looking for.
Here is how it works.
Someone registers a domain name, and markets
and promotes the website related to it. For
whatever reason (maybe they go out of business,
split the partnership, change their mind,
get married, etc) they let their domain name
expire. After about 90 days, the registration
company will release the domain name for sale
to the public. Advertising networks buy these
domain names because they still get plenty
of traffic from people who type them directly
into the browser, select them from their favorites
listings, or click on them from left over
search engine listings and links from other
websites. Once the network owns this expired
domain name they “redirect” any incoming traffic
to whichever new website they wish.
The new owner will then usually use a network
like www.trafficz.com, www.sedo.com
or www.seeq.com. These companies take
your domain name and place a search engine
on the page.
You may have tried a time or two to go to
a website and rather than arriving where you
expected, you instead got a search engine
page! In this way someone uses the ownership
of a previously expired domain name to make
money from the clicks those networks make
from the web site listings in that engine.
These networks collect money from advertisers
on a pay-per-click auction and then use this
to provide the search data. This means an
advertiser pays for each click on the link
to their website listed in their search results.
The network then pays a commission to the
owner of the site for sending the “searchers”
to that site.
The theory behind Redirected traffic is that
there are advertising networks that instead
of using a search engine, will simply send
visitors directly to a new website. Advertisers
would then pay the network for a chance for
their webpage to be viewed, just like in a
pop under/over.
For instance, a person might type in www.HostBlade.com
into their web browser. This person is obviously
looking for low-priced, quality domain name
registration and hosting related services.
In this example if that domain were in fact
owned by an ad network, they would in turn
send you to a site owned by an advertiser
who paid them for the category “hosting” or
“computers”, etc.
Redirected traffic is not always from expired
domains, there are various types such as:
• Exit traffic (when you leave a website and
close the page. Often combined with a pop.)
• Bad or error page redirects (when you click
a bad link or mistype within a specific site)
• Programs installed on your computer that
will “force” a page to show in a browser.
• And other forms.
Some people believe because a person is actively
looking for your type service and it appears
as a web site this is more effective than
pop-under traffic. This is debatable, and
I would say the results generally will be
equivalent to any campaign and has a lot more
to do with your offer, how you target and
how you market on the backend.
You can expect to pay $5-10 for redirected
traffic and add $2-$4 for a rush service.
THE EXPIRED TRAFFIC CONTROVERSY!
One downfall to redirected traffic is the
traffic does eventually wind down over time.
This forces the ad networks to constantly
find new sources of traffic. Be sure the company
you deal with has an established history and
has a stable future.
This leads us to the second downfall of redirected
traffic. There are far too many illegitimate
companies that claim to sell redirected traffic
that is basically non-existent. From most
people we speak with, it is very, very difficult
to find a company selling legitimate redirects.
I did find one company with real redirects: www.RightTraffic.com. They own
their own domains and I have seen them in
action. (Here is one: www.ricky5.com, try going back
to the site several times or reloading the
page by pressing the “F5” key. You will be
“redirected” to a different site each time.)
I asked the owner of Right Traffic, Frank
Rattay, to comment on his opinion of redirected
traffic vs. pop traffic, especially with so
many scams related to redirects.
He replied, “I think that True "Re-directs"
are great, they serve the purpose just like
any other form of traffic (advertising). You
are actually redirected to a site instead
of a pop-under, pop-up, etc. So, your (website’s)
chances of being seen (by a viewer) are greater
than just getting the big X (closing the browser).
I think all forms of Advertisement are great,
especially paid traffic. Targeted and Untargeted.
The main reason why we buy traffic is to get
our (web site’s) name out there. If it is
pop ups, unders, overs, redirects, it’s getting
your web site out there!”
I definitely agree. Any opportunity to get
your web site’s name out is a great opportunity.
Take it if you can and it fits your plan.
Conversely, as it relates to the legitimacy
of redirected traffic, this is an excerpt
of a question sent to me:
“The reason I ask is because a client of mine
is asking me about (expired traffic company
name) and their program. Personally, I don't
trust ad companies that buy up old domains
and then redirect the traffic the old domains
already have to the advertiser because they
don't disclose whether or not they use cloaking
pages or junk doorway pages to run their services.
Such a service could be looked at as search
engine spam and the engines could penalize
the site associated with it. I'd like to know
what anyone else thinks about this scheme.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.”
THE SOLUTION
Be smart! Never let pricing be your sole determining
factor in a purchase. If a company offers
you a test or trial for 1000 visitors, RUN!
The only time to consider it is if it’s a
new company and you think they may or may
not have real traffic. Then you can take it
only if you are going to check the IP addresses
in your raw logs for actual traffic. If you
have no clue what that means, then it is definitely
best to move to the next company.
Considering your click through response rate
will be between ¼% and 2½% the odds are that
you will see ZERO results from such a small
campaign. The fact they will sell you only
1000 visitors for a dollar or two is a good
sign they will take any amount of money they
can get. This would be like McDonalds offering
to sell you 5 French Fries for 25¢ as a “trial”.
Surely you do not expect any satisfaction
from such a small order, and it is an insult
to the intelligence of the customer to offer
it.
If you truly want to TRY a service, or better
put, test a campaign, then you should purchase
an increase of around 10,000 - 50,000 and
see what results you get from that size sampling.
For a sure-fire test – buy about 100,000.
It will be hard to see accurate increase results
to evaluate with anything less than 100,000
visitors.
SUCCESS TIP - When Buying Traffic,
Do NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK if there any specials
or discounts if you buy a certain quantity.
Negotiate!
BE CAREFUL! If the company you are looking
to buy from:
• Has only email support, no phone number,
or if there is only voicemail (all the time)
when you call- watch out!
• Look for a physical mailing address of the
company.
• Find out if they are listed with the better
business bureau (www.BBB.org).
Are there any complaints? Have they been resolved?
These are things to look for with ANY internet
business. Better safe than sorry. Also there
is nothing wrong with asking for a reference
or two.
Here are some important things to note when
doing a pop under or redirect:
Keys To A Successful Campaign
1. QUANTITY. Because you will be hitting a
lot of different people, it comes down to
a numbers game. How many people will you hit
that are interested in your offer at the time
your ad “pops” under or redirects from the
site they are browsing? If they are interested
at a later date and your campaign is no longer
running, then you will have in a sense helped
your competition who is there later, at the
right moment. So if you are buying a guaranteed
increase of web site traffic, be sure to buy
as many as you can afford to.
2. LANDING PAGE. The landing page is whatever
web page that people see in the actual pop-under.
This can be any page, whether it’s the home
page or a custom sales page. Most often advertisers
use their home page as their landing page.
BIG MISTAKE!
I recommend that you have a page created just
for your offer. Make sure you have a great
headline that stands out and can be read and
understood in about 2 seconds. It amazes me
how many people use their homepage as their
URL. When my company offers to create a landing
page for our customers, they are always pleased
with both the ad and the results. Some seeing
an increase of up to a 67.5% response over
previously run campaigns.
Think about it - How come Amazon.com and Orbitz
don’t just show their home page in a pop under
ad? Because it wouldn’t work! What if a department
store showed all the products inside of their
store, or worse, the entire strip of stores
in the mall they were located at, and put
it all on a billboard? Would the average driver
focused on their destination have time to
understand the message the advertiser is trying
to convey? Not many of them at all. What kind
of increase in results do you think that billboard
campaign would achieve?
Remember, your home page is used to navigate
people to all the many different parts of
your site. There is not usually any one specific
theme or offer but, rather multiple offers,
animations, buttons, and a lot of different
paths to take. This is way too much for a
person to comprehend in just 2 seconds.
So since most people didn’t ask to see your
ad in the first place, the subconscious response
is: “Since I didn’t ask to see this
web site and there is no distinct offer, there
might as well be no offer at all.” Click close
[x].
SUCCESS TIP - Make a great landing
page that directs people where you want them
to go. I assure you it will increase your
response.
K.I.S.S. - Keep it short and sweet. Don’t
try to close the sale, get the sign-up, etc
in the first 2 seconds. Be compelling, get
the viewers attention, and draw them into
your offer. Take them through a sales “process”,
not a sales “slam” - you will have much better
results.
3. APPLES-TO-APPLES. One frustration common
among advertisers is the difference between
the response to a pop campaign and a pay per
click campaign. There are many, many reasons
for this difference, but a main reason is
they are not the same type of advertising.
One is active, the other is passive. Remember
we talked about that earlier in this article?
In general pay-per-click (Overture Precision
Match www.overture.com, GOOGLE ADWORDS
www.Google.com, Find What www.Findwhat.com,
etc) will always yield a higher conversion
rate than a pop campaign. It is also much
more expensive and difficult to track to use
this form of advertising.
One key reason there is better response rate
in PPC (a passive form of advertising) is
these are people who took the time to type
in a phrase into a search engine and click
a link. They are actively looking for your
service. Pop type ads are active forms of
advertising and show up on a related site,
but the viewer, who is passive about your
service at the moment, was in the midst of
doing something else.
This is the same reason Yellow Page inquiries
are more expensive, and generally will yield
higher response than say Radio Advertising.
This is due to the different focus of the
viewers at the time of seeing the ad.
KEY POINT: DO NOT compare your pop ad results
to your PPC results, they will NEVER match,
nor should they. That would be an apples-to-oranges
comparison. Both methods should be implemented
as a part of a well-rounded marketing plan.
4. FOLLOW-UP. This is where over 97% of web
sites miss it. They make an ad, they buy the
traffic, but don’t tell people what to do
when they arrive. Here are some important
questions to ask about any web site being
advertised:
1. What happens after they click your ad and
arrive?
2. Can they navigate the site easily to find
what they are looking for?
3. Is your site compelling?
4. Does it draw them in deeper?
5. Does the site itself SELL?
6. Are People encouraged to contact you?
7. Is it easy to contact you?
8. Is it easy to buy?
If you are buying advertising then you want
something to happen. You want people to take
an action. You want the increase of visitors
to sign up for your newsletter, buy your CD,
order your services, etc. Whatever it may
be, all you want is for them to “do the thing”.
SO ENCOURAGE IT! Gather as much information
from visitors as you can. Offer free reports,
bonuses, and/or extra services. Give a good
deal, have a sale, do what it takes to increase
“sales”.
KEY POINT: Remember, simply getting “traffic”
or “visitors” to a site is not enough. Despite
what traffic resellers, web designers and
hosts will tell you. As a business person
you want CONVERSION. And that is the magic
word.
SUCCESS TIP - Before running an ad
campaign, ask yourself, “If I were looking
to buy this same product/service, what would
this website have to say and do to convince
‘me’ to buy”
Any site that can answer that question, is
converting lots of visitors into customers.
That is exactly what your site must do.
This, my friend, is the “Hit Myth”. Hits,
traffic, visitors, whatever you want to call
them, do not do much for business and the
internet unless you learn to convert the increase
in traffic. Getting an increase in web site
visitors to a web site is easy. Getting those
visitors to actually do something is the real
challenge.
If you are going to buy an increase in traffic,
make sure you deal with a company that can
offer you full service and support towards
making the campaign successful.
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