Traffic can be categorized into 2 different types: Paid traffic and Free traffic. I will be covering both of them, and will be talking about more modern forms of acquiring traffic(not about printing and handing out posters).
Paid traffic
Paid traffic is usually obtained through a bigger, more popular party. Essentially, by paying these parties a certain amount of money, they will funnel some of their own traffic to you, allowing you to tap onto their fame to build your own audience.
Social Media Ads
Social Media is the largest market for paid traffic, which is why it is also the most expensive. First of all, it is important to understand how social media paid advertising works.
Advertisers like you and me(and big corporations) firstly pick an audience they would like to target on platforms like Google or Facebook. They then enter a bid war with other advertisers, fighting to see who receives the spot on the consumer's feed or search results. Of course, the spot would go to the highest bidder, who will then be able to display their ad to the consumer.
Sometimes, advertisers go directly to influencers on the platform and ask them to promote their products through a post or a story. I would not recommend this as it is not fully utilizing the capabilities of social media ads.
Sometimes, advertisers go directly to influencers on the platform and ask them to promote their products through a post or a story. I would not recommend this as it is not fully utilizing the capabilities of social media ads.
Because social media platforms give advertisers the option to target specific demographics, interest groups and people, advertisers don't mind paying a little extra to get 'higher quality leads', as they have a higher chance of turning these leads into customers.
Here are a few platforms which are commonly used by advertisers to reach out to consumers
- Instagram Ads(can also be accessed through Facebook Ads)
- Youtube Ads(can also be accessed through Google Ads)
- Microsoft Ads(aka Bing Ads)
Solo Ads
Solo ads are a lot less popular as compared to social media ads(and hence a lot cheaper.). They also work quite differently. Unlike social media ads, traffic from solo ads does not come directly from the platform. The platform usually acts as an exchange on which buyers and sellers can communicate and come to a consensus. The seller would usually then send an email with a link you provide to their email lists, and you will be charged per click you receive.
Solo ads can target niches but not demographics or interests. Advertisers would usually provide a link which brings potential customers to a squeeze page(a page which collects emails) and build their own email lists. The marketers can then send offers or products to said email list to make sales and commissions from their list of people interested in a specific niche.
After trying out some solo ads for myself, I found that the traffic actually converts pretty well, if you find the right seller. There are also standalone websites which sell solo ads but I would strongly advise against that as they are likely there to scam your money, offering you cheap and useless traffic. Speaking of which, be sure to use a tracking platform like ClickMagick to ensure that all click received are legitimate(You can usually go back to the seller and ask for more clicks if there are faulty/low quality clicks found).
I was only able to find one reliable solo ads website - Udimi(which I have tried and tested myself). I would advise staying away from other solo ads platforms unless you know for sure that they're not there to scam you.
Native/Pop-up Ads
Treated like the unwanted little brother of paid advertising. I say that because this form of traffic is usually known for being low-quality and low-converting. Native/pop-up ads are the ads that you see on news/blog sites, fan pages(or random websites), online stores, and much, much more. Native ads are the ones that are usually related to the article and are put at the end to 'blend in' with the rest of the page.
I haven't explored many native/pop-up ads platforms and from my experience, they are not that effective anyways. Although if you would still like to try it out, here are some of the more reputable platforms to buy native/pop-up ads
- Bidvertiser
- Propeller Ads
- Google Adsense
I haven't explored many native/pop-up ads platforms and from my experience, they are not that effective anyways. Although if you would still like to try it out, here are some of the more reputable platforms to buy native/pop-up ads
- Bidvertiser
- Propeller Ads
- Google Adsense
Free Traffic(Organic Traffic)
When trying to obtain free traffic, advertisers have to play a completely different game. Free traffic is most of the time, if not always built up over time. It isn't easy to get free traffic and it's practically impossible to get free traffic by just snapping your fingers(you can get instant traffic only through paid ads). It works kinda like fishing, you drop the bait and wait(extremely patiently) for the fish to start coming in(I don't fish much so I apologize if the analogy is inaccurate). When your traffic starts to rack up, your audience will begin to grow exponentially(due to the sharing etc.) and you will have yourself free traffic.
Social Media Posts
I'm sure we've all seen models promoting brands that sell jewelry, clothes, or their own products. Advertisers approach these models and 'theme pages' and ask them to help to promote said products, jewelry and clothes. But the question is, how do influencers and 'theme pages' do it? How do they grow their follower counts to hundreds of thousands or even millions.
The secret: Hitting the explore page. I don't have sufficient knowledge about other platforms to comment about them, but I know for a fact that it is extremely easy to grow a page on instagram. One simply searches for pictures which do well on pages(in the same niche as yours), and re-posts those pictures, issuing credit of course. You can then inject some of your own content and gradually build that audience to a point where you can monetize it.
SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the ranking of websites based on relevance to the search term. It is usually used to refer to websites on Google but can also used for any platform with a search option. SEO is a highly sought after skill which I have not mastered yet.
SEO helps drive organic traffic to your website for obvious reasons. The higher your website ranks, the more people see it, the more people see it, the more click you'll get. The truth is, no one ever looks at the second page, let alone the third page of Google's search results. Hence, ranking at the top of the page for search terms is quite essential.
SEO uses an extremely complicated algorithm to calculate how well your website fits the search term. This is why for more advanced SEO, people use backlinks and other techniques to keep the website competitive enough to stay on the first page.
As mentioned, I do not have a lot of experience with this and hence feel that I may not be fit to offer any advice. However, you can check out videos on Youtube(I've seen many but have not dug deep enough) to learn some SEO for yourself. You could also get an expert to help you rank at the top of Google(but this might classify as 'paid traffic').
That's my take on existing traffic sources! I know that there are other sources like safelists but I feel those are pretty difficult to monetize since you're trying to sell to other marketers. If you have any questions or have anything to add or think I'm missing, feel free to shoot me an email at jingrui.wu.2002@gmail.com. If you enjoyed my article or are interested in joining me on my journey to become a millionaire.
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