Is Buying Traffic a Good Idea

I'm sure you are all aware it is possible to buy traffic from a multitude of traffic. they offer set amounts of traffic for a price. I personally feel that this traffic would be of very low quality and would not engage in purchasing it, because it might hurt my site. I wonder if Google detects "bought" traffic and penalizes it.

Have you purchased traffic before? Is it a worthwhile investment, or a mistake

 

Buying traffic is not enough if you are going to kick off your website, You must have some strategy on how will you use that incoming traffic, How can you make them stay on your website forever. This is not necessary that the traffic you buy will be of low quality but if you buy traffic from someone trusted then it might help you popping up on the peak as higher the incoming visitors to your website lower the Alexa rank of your website. Your plan and the strategy decides whether your traffic will be an investment, or a mistake. Google can track and penalize the fake (BOT) traffic but if your traffic is of real humans then you need not to worry about it.

 

What are ways that I can capture the incoming traffic, from paid traffic. I guess promising regularly updated content with RSS feeds and facebook "Like" applications would do the trick? Or should I add a subscription box and send out emails to get users back regularly?

 

It dpeends on where you're buying traffic from and if those visitors will remain on your site, or just turn around and leave = a huge bounce rate. I'd recommend buying advertisements on ad networks instead of buying traffic, because that way you can get your bang for your buck.

 

I have mixed feelings about this (as well as experience). I have thought about paying for posting traffic, but for some reason it just feels wrong to me. Kinda like cheating I guess, but the flip side to that is if helps get you to your goal then it should just be considered a tool.

I have used PostLoop to get a little traffic, but find the posts I get, while well written are just fluff. I guess its good for helping the post count, but not much for the content.

Just my opinion though.

 

It's useless to buy traffic, if you can't offer the visitors something. You can have a budget for this too, but the main effort should be put into the site itself to make it convert. Otherwise you're wasting money on traffic that will come and go

 

I plan on my buying traffic for my forum in the future once we have a established community to take it to the next level, so yes I think buying traffic is a good idea sometimes, it depends on the website. Your traffic won't convert if the visitors don't like your site.

 

No, the idea is generally flawed. Buying posts and content I sort of see the point in (even if it's something I'd never do), but traffic? What for, to make your stats look higher? Because with most traffic selling services, it doesn't consist of anyone who'd likely sign up to your forum or take part in the community.

Google won't penalise it as far as I know, but I don't think Google could even detect the amount of traffic gotten by a website in the first place.

 

I agree it flawed for a normal forum, but we offer more then what other forums normally offer. We have a freeroll league(starts at 5,000 posts), where users can get the passwords to play in our poker tournaments, and win money. So there is a incentive for them to join the community, because they need to be active members in order to get the passwords to play in the tournaments.

Nobody should care about stats, I care about growing my forum, and making money.

 

Most "traffic" you buy from vendors isn't even "viewed". It's generally done with iframes, bots ect. If by buying traffic, you mean CPC advertising, then that could work.

 

^And that's why I suggest against it. Buy advertising for your Poker tournament, but most of the traffic you get from these traffic selling services isn't actual visitors that would even consider signing up for anything.

 

I'd be starting a adwords campaign for targeted visitors, or buying ads on other forums or sites in my niche. It won't be iframes, just like anything else you have to do your research before buying traffic.

 

Like I said: CPC ads would work, but that's not really what this thread was about.

 

True that isn't what the OP was talking about.
Someone could make a new,thread of "best types of traffic to purchase" or whatever


To stay on topic and to see how many typos I can type from my phone I would suggest against buying traffic that it's most likely a series of proxies hitting your site.

 

I have never even thought about buying traffic, I don't think it is really beneficial to me or my community.

 

No, I don't think its worth it. Most traffic packages nowadays come from autosurf viewers which won't even look at your web browser. Most of them minimize their browser and get on with their daily activities. Its better if you try to raise your traffic normally

 

I wouldn't personally buy traffic unless it would be highly targeted traffic and it isn't cheap. I would focus on search engine optimization to achieve the best long term results. Buying traffic is only a short term plan and the results aren't guaranteed. I am not saying that you would gain some guaranteed results with SEO but when it is done right it's very lucrative.