Affiliate marketing is a great business model, but just like a business you are going to have some expenses that occur with marketing online. There are no doubt many things that you will have to pay for, but is traffic one of them? Here I want to share with you my thoughts on paying for traffic, and if it is really worth it.
Honestly the thought of paying for traffic makes me cringe a little bit. This is because since traffic can be had for free, why should you pay for it?
When most people think about paying for traffic, the automatically assume that I am talking about PPC. I do not do much PPC marketing, because the click costs can be outrageous in many of the profitable, competitive niches. Therefore if you are going to pay for traffic, you need to find more cost effective strategies. Paying over $1.00 per click is not an effective traffic strategy, unless you have a huge budget.
If you are going to pay for traffic, then think about advertising on a website or blog that gets a ton of highly targeted traffic. This is the type of paid advertising that can work, because you are likely going to get very targeted traffic, and not lose your shirt for it. Another paid traffic tactic that has benefited me is solo ads. This is where you pay the owner of an email list a certain price to send a “stand alone” ad promoting your offer to their email list.
With all of that said, I still prefer free traffic methods. There is just so much free traffic to be had when you think about classified ads, social media, article marketing, forum posting, etc. Just remember, it is not the affiliate with the most traffic that wins, but the one who can convert it into sales!
