March 23, 2006

Guaranteed Hits, Guaranteed Visitors... Do They Really Work???

Guaranteed Hits, Guaranteed Visitors...
Do They Really Work???

This particular question came up recently on one of the home based business forums...

So here's some crucial information that you'll want to know about these so-called guaranteed traffic/guaranteed hits/guaranteed visitors programs before you spend any of your money on this type of advertising...

The Question:

"Has anyone had any success with the various websites out there that promise to redirect targeted traffic to your website? If so which ones? What sort of conversion rate do you get? One sign-up or product sold per 50, per 1,000, per 100,000, etc.?

Most of them seem to involve the use of pop-ups or pop-unders, which I would guess just annoy people. I know I ignore pop-ups and pop-unders.

Thanks"

The Answer:

"There are literally thousands of websites that offer these types of guaranteed hits/guaranteed traffic type of services. As for their conversion rates or ROI (return on investment)... I can say that I know many, many people who have tried them, but know of no one who's had any such luck with them at all.

The main reason they don't work is because the traffic is not organic traffic. The hits to your site are simply generated via pop-ups or pop-unders on some other site... And therein lies the problem. People hate pop-ups and pop-unders. You even said yourself that you ignore them. ;)

Bottom line, I think they're a complete waste of time and money. You'll pay for something like 10,000 or 50,000 hits/visitors, for example, and most likely not see a darn thing as a result of them!

If you want to generate quality, targeted traffic I'd suggest trying PPC (pay-per-click) instead and using more reputable companies like Google or Yahoo!. Google's PPC program is called Google AdWords, and Yahoo!'s is called Sponsored Search.

And if you don't yet have a blog that you post to regularly, be sure to start one as that can also be a good source of traffic for you, as well as an additional income source. Anyway, good luck with everything!

Aaron"

So there you have it. If you purchase guaranteed hits/guaranteed traffic/guaranteed visitors (the terms are entirely interchangeable) for your website, I can pretty much guarantee that the only outcome you'll see is a much thinner wallet.

Instead of seeing green, you'll only be seeing red. :(

What to Know About Guaranteed Traffic:

  • What are guaranteed hits?
  • What is guaranteed traffic?
  • What are guaranteed visitors?

Guaranteed hits, guaranteed traffic, and guaranteed visitors are basically hits (visitors) to your site that you can purchase. These "visitors" are directed to your website through the use of either pop-up ads or pop-under ads.

The companies offering these services have so-called "networks of websites" in which the webmasters have agreed to display pop-ups and pop-unders on their sites. When someone visits one of these sites, your website would open up as either a pop-up or a pop-under window.

But there are many problems with this...

First of all, and as you probably already know, no one likes pop-up ads or pop-under ads. In fact, people hate and despise them! And because of this you can be sure that they WILL NOT buy anything from your site if they've come across it in this manner.

Another huge problem with these guaranteed traffic/guaranteed hits programs is that just about everyone online these days has some sort of pop-up blocking software running on their computers that totally blocks these pop-up and pop-under ads.

This of course means that your site will be blocked from fully loading or opening before anyone even sees it! Talk about money down the drain! Oh, it'll count as one of your purchased visitors, but no one will have actually seen your website or what you have to offer!

Beyond that, there's yet another ugly problem with these guaranteed hits programs... something that those who are selling them conveniently neglect to tell you...

They're selling you traffic, so they need to get the traffic from somewhere else, right? Of course. So, many times they actually use their own website to gather the traffic. And other times, they just buy traffic from other companies and resell it to you!

And worse, they may even go as far as to use unsolicited emails (spam) to generate traffic. And when your name and website is used in a spam email or spam advertising campaign, your business could be shut down entirely and you could be charged for violating the law.

Definitely ugly, and definitely not good!

So bottom line... guaranteed traffic programs do not work! They'll only cause you to lose your money, or much worse, your business and your reputation.

Generating Good Traffic and Leads

To generate leads, "quality" traffic and quality, targeted traffic to your website, be sure to stick with reputable companies and time-proven advertising mediums and marketing practices.

Try things like PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, writing and submitting articles, blogging, being an active member in online business forums, and good old fashioned person-to-person communication.

Happy Marketing!

2 comments:

  1. Excellent post Aaron!

    ReplyDelete
  2. VERY useful. So glad I read this before actually spending my money for guaranteed traffic for my site. I was looking at a few of them but know now to avoid them for real.

    Thanks and nice blog!

    ReplyDelete

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