Question of the week: Should I pay a company to bring traffic to my site?

Here’s a question I picked up from one of my fellow LinkedIn users.  She was wondering if it is a good idea to pay a company a fee in exchange for the promise of bringing traffic to her website.  I think this is a great question and one that could use a little analysis.

Let’s explore this as our question of the week.

Whatever your reason for taking the time to go on the web, it would also make sense that the time spent is worthwhile by also working to make sure others come to your site to actually see your message.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

I think so. However, when it comes to paying a company that will bring “targeted” traffic to your website, you should ask yourself these questions:

• How will they go about bringing this traffic to my site?  Are they using SPAM or other tactics that are deemed unethical to bring in traffic?
• Do they have a guarantee that if you’re not receiving a certain amount of traffic agreed upon by you and the company bringing you the traffic, you get some sort of money back or additional free services?
• Is it possible that the company you hired could actually be “faking” the hits to your site by going there themselves several times over and over, just to have you think you’re getting your money’s worth?
• Want to know the real reason trying to trick the search engines into bringing traffic to your site simply doesn’t work? Click here.

For all the money, effort, and potential heartache that can go into hiring a company to bring hits to your site, only to find out they may not be the real deal, allow me to offer you a much cheaper, safer, and way more satisfying alternative.

Bring the traffic in yourself!  Wait a minute.  You may be asking yourself, “But why is Helpful Advisor suggesting this when paying a company to do this for you could be simpler and easier?”  Well, as I stated above, such companies are iffy at best to deal with, plus, you could be missing out on a golden opportunity to do the one thing that would make your site stand out from the rest.  That is: Connect with your audience.

However, if your goal is to bring quality, targeted traffic to your site, and for free, I have some suggestions for you.  Here are my 8 steps for bringing quality traffic to your site:

1. If you don’t have a blog, create a blog.  Even if you already have a website, add a blog to it.  This can really help you connect with your audience. Link your site to your blog and your blog to your site. Or, have your blog be your site.  I highly recommend Wordpress on your own web hosting. The free blog hosts aren’t flexible enough and are usually full of ads that make them money, not you. Here’s how to set up your own blog in 10 minutes or less.
2. Post to your blog regularly.  You don’t have to do this daily, but at least once a week is good.  If someone were to stop by your blog and see that you haven’t posted to it in a while, they will move on and not waste their time.  Would you like to master the art of writing for maximum impact?  Here’s a free e-book that will help you.
3. Humanize your blog by sharing a bit of yourself with your readers.  People have a need to connect with one another.  Show your readers that you’re human by opening up a bit.
4. Offer focused content that speaks to the audience you wish to attract.  Focus your blog on the audience you want to reach the most.  The more focused and targeted your message, the more of those types of readers you will bring in.
5. The more original you make your content, the more viral you blog will become.  If you simply re-post other stories from around the web, most readers may not find value in that.  However, if you were to write unique and compelling content that you wrote yourself, your blog has a better chance at both becoming more viral, as well as capturing repeat visitors.
6. If your purpose is to sell something, offer compelling and valuable information for free.  Give the reader enough information to grasp the concept you are writing about, and perhaps to even benefit from this information.  Then, offer more detailed assistance by way of the product or service you’re selling.  By offering free articles, you create value for your readers, repeat visits, linkability to your site, as well as people sharing your site with other people.
7. Promote your blog everywhere you go.  Put your blog’s address on your business card. On your signature tag for your e-mail.  Frequent your favorite social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and let your circle of friends know what you’re up to by telling them about your blog.  You can also register your blog with Technorati and BlogCatalog, which will then keep an eye on your blog, and when you add a new article, those free services will then make your articles searchable on their huge database of blogs.  Again, the more specific your article is, the easier it is for your audience to find you!
8. Contribute to forums and other discussion groups that are relevant to your topic of choice.  By contributing to those discussions, you can further position yourself as an expert in your chosen topic, and when you contribute to those forums, you are gaining credibility and exposure for your blog.

It seems that in the final analysis, paying for a service to bring traffic to your site may be a waste of both time and money; neither of which I doubt you can spare.  With the tips I just gave you, perhaps you can save your money, and frustration, and bring targeted traffic to your website on your own.

If you’re short on time, and would like to learn a faster way of building a high-traffic website that is compelling to your visitors, and soaked up by the search engines, click here.

Make no mistake, it will take time, effort, and tenacity to do this, but I would more readily recommend you doing it this way instead of dealing with a company that is ultimately unable to honestly and ethically bring traffic to your website.

Did you find this article helpful and full of good information that is geared toward helping you achieve maximum results?  Why not join my free article delivery service so you can be sure never to miss an article, and receive lots of other free goodies! Just let me know where to deliver your articles:

Thank you for reading and for doing something positive today!

Related posts:

1. Should You Buy Website Traffic to Boost Your Sales? Is it a good investment to buy website traffic to bring in more visitors to your website, and therefore boost your sales? The answer may...
2. Free Downloadable Ebook: How to Make Your Site Sell These days, simply putting a website up is no guarantee it'll be successful. However, with the right know-how, you can have an extremely successful website...
3. How I Was Able to Skyrocket Website Traffic by 1,900% No, that's not a typo! Would you like to learn how to skyrocket website traffic like I did recently? With the right know-how and planning,...

Jay Medina

As your Helpful Advisor, Jay Medina has over 20 years experience as an Information Technology professional and over 10 years of successful business writing. Jay Medina has 48 post(s) at Helpful Advisor