What is Traffic?

No I’m not referring to this type of traffic.

I’m referring to the methods it takes to get people to your website.

Firstly let me say this, there are two types of ways to drive traffic to your site. In case you are not sure what I am referring to when I say traffic, I mean getting people to see your website or whatever it is you are offering. We refer to people clicking on your site or link as traffic.

Basically you have PAID traffic and FREE traffic.

PAID TRAFFIC is exactly that. Paid traffic is also referred to as advertisement. When you read magazines and see products displayed, know for sure that the company would have had to pay for that slot in the magazine. Just like how you have companies showing you ads on the tv this is the same way how marketers are able to get their products in front of potential customers by placing ads on platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Google and Bing etc.

There are a lot of people out there that do not believe in paid advertising and would rather save money by promoting their business for free.

FREE TRAFFIC for example is when you make a post in Facebook groups about your product or services with the hope that someone will see it and take action. You may use SEO strategies to boost traffic to your website or rely on word of mouth. Blogging can also be used as a source for free traffic or posting youtube videos. However, the FREE method has many disadvantages. For one although you are not paying out in money, it can be very time consuming and cost you more in time. Another downside to free traffic is that it is not scalable. What I mean is that you are not able to take this method and double or triple your efforts.

That is why many marketers love paid traffic. By using paid advertising they are able to scale their business on a larger scale and a faster speed.  People always want to know what is the best traffic source and I will say it is an individual preference. The one advise I can give you it to try out several and see which platform resonates with you.

There are many traffic sources out there:

Social Media Advertising i.e Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram and Linkedin.

Solo Ads is where you approach an advertiser who has a very large list, you pay them to put your ad in front of his customers.

Banner Ads – You need to contact an advertiser to ask if you can place your banner on their website.

Radio

TV

Billboard

Leaflet drops – This can be very effective as a lot of companies no longer use the traditional methods of using the traditional mail.

I hope this post has given you an overview of way you need a traffic source and how this helps to grow your business. There is a lot that goes onto building an online business, that is why I decided to do this 5 part blog series to give you an insight into what is involved.

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