Traffic Mavericks

Which traffic type would you prefer? Pay-per-click or SEO? Personally, I prefer paid traffic even more then free traffic. I’m not the type that loves shooting in the dark. If I want to target one keyword, I’m going to make sure the keyword is really worth it. Not only that keyword must bring decent amount of traffic everyday, but it also must convert.

By using PPC traffic, I can archive this goal quickly and track the result quickly. Once I had the solid data about the conversion, I start posting content to Docstoc, Ezine Articles or Hubpages to get organic traffic as well.

However, these are some drawbacks when using pay-per-click traffic:

1. Low click thru rate which resulted less traffic than organic listings. Google will place PPC ads on the right side of search result. So, if you have both PPC ads and website listed for the same keyword, you’ll notice that your ads will less likely going to get traffic.
2. The cost-per-click could vary depending on what keywords you are bidding. The trick is to bid on keywords that no one else found. Otherwise, expect to get as high as $2, even higher for each click.
3. Google Quality Score somehow affect your ranking and maximum bid. You might be thinking, as long as your website is relevant, you are save from being slapped by Google, right? Wrong. You website relevancy comes second. The first thing Google would consider is you ads click-thru-rate (CTR). If your CTR is low for two weeks, your quality score will drop drastically from 8/10 to 1/10. That was happening to me before.
4. Sometimes, the result is not as good as expected. What I means is this, I thought one keyword is good enough, already long, it is product name keyword so I expect the conversion is high. But guess what, the conversion is zero. When that happens, my money also get burned.
5. If that keyword is generated using Google Keyword Tool, probably there already tonnes of competitors bidding for that term. Everyone has access to this tool, average Joe can use this, a company can utilize this tool, so it’s no surprise that most keywords that you generate using this tool is saturated already.

Are you using Adwords? These are list of common mistakes that you should avoid.

1. Bidding on one-word keywords or short term keywords. For example like “weigh loss”, money, laptop PC. The best keywords are buyer keywords, which contains product name inside it. Visitors who entered such keywords would probably be ready to make a purchase, with a credit card in hands already.
2. Depending on Google Keyword Tool alone for your research. Sounds familiar isn’t it? While Google provides the best, free keyword tool for webmasters, this tool alone isn’t enough to determine profitability. Log on to eBay, Amazon or Clickbank marketplace for keyword ideas. Then, generate long phrase using Google Free Keyword Tool.
3. Targeting all countries and territories. In most countries, online buying rate is low, almost zero. Whenever someone click on your ads from these countries, probably they would seek for information about something and not to buy.
4. Turning on the content network. Content network is less targeted. If you send traffic to review page, there’s 99% chance your visitors won’t buy. On the other hand, if you send to squeeze page, or email capture page, they will less likely going to signup.
5. Display ads for iPhone. Can you buy something from iPhone? Of course you can. But do you know anyone did that? People might browse the web via iPhone for all these: Twitter, Facebook, Gmail. But not to buy on these sites: Amazon, eBay, Clickbank, Apple, Adobe, Microsoft.
6. Not collecting visitors emails. One person will think lots of time before buying. It’s your job as affiliate or business owner to remind them about how good your offer is, and how it can help your visitors solved their problems. If you don’t collect emails, they wil leave and forget. Otherwise, the buying rate will increase up to 10%.
7. Not providing relevant landing page. Especially for affiliates, they tend to send traffic directly to affiliate link. This won’t be a problem for Yahoo search marketing, but a not for Google Adwords. Google hates affiliate links these days.