Bad Internet Traffic - Does this Exist?

During my last 8 months of being an affiliate marketer, I have learned a lot of about making money online and I have become moderately successful at it, too. One of the most important lessons that I learned is that traffic equals sales! There are many fundamental rules about internet selling and one of those general rules of thumbs is that it is very likely that any respectable website can make 1-2 sales (at least) per 100 visitors. My visitor counts started off small, and I made a little bit of money. My visitor count is now "respectable" and I now make a "respectable" amount of money. But how far does this theory go and when does good traffic go bad?

Annecdote #1: About 3 months ago, I got an email from a very anger person stating that my website was nothing but a fraud due to the fact that they got my link from an adult website (why they were on this site in the first place is left to be seen!). I did some research on why my link was found on a certain website and I found that one of my content ads from Google had the line "Get Off Your Fanny..." I later learned that this rather tame word "fanny" has different meanings in other countries (we are talking about a global economy here!). This triggered an Adsense ad on an adult website. So my first point here is that you do not have control at times where your ad may appear in the world wide web! Secondly, do I care? In this case, I do to some degree. I do not really care that it came from an adult website. Traffic is traffic (even if someone may be upset with this). What I do care about is that I PAID for this click.

This is when good traffic goes bad! I did some careful research on the statistics of those who visited my website from this adult website. Sure enough, I received about 30 clicks at $0.10 a piece (a total of $3). Out of that $3, I received zero sales and additionally, 29 of those people "bounced" (meaning they stayed on my website for less than 5 seconds). This is not a good investment and I made sure that this site would no longer post my ad (and I did change the wording to remove "fanny" from the equation!).

Annecote #2: One common and highly publicized way of attracting traffic to one's website is through free classified ads. The first time I did this, I was kind of shocked what I saw. My visitors to my website jumped to an additional 150 unique visitors per day (after the initial postings.) WOW! I then went and checked my sales: Zero additional sales. I went and researched my classified ad statistics and sure enough, about 145 of those visitors bounced. Does this make classified ads "bad traffic".

It can, but not really! Remember this: these ads are free. And out of the 5 visitors that did stay on my website, I got two of them to sign-up for my opt-in letter. Ultimately, that means I paid zero dollars for each lead. That is definitely worth something. The biggest question here is time. How much is your time worth? To post classified ads requires time and (if you are strapped in time like I am), time is money. Further, this additional traffic hurts my visitors per sales statistics, but who cares! It is ROI (return on investment) that truly matters. The investment in this case is time, not money.

Traffic is currently king on the internet when it come to making sales. In my opinion, though, traffic only goes bad when you pay for it and it does not produce sales. All free traffic is good (no matter where it comes from). But beware, free traffic sometimes come at the cost of time. Is an hour of posting classified ads worth more than a new blog entry or a review of another product? That is a decision that you, the online marketer, must make yourself!

Matthew Bredel is a 32 year old online entrepreneur and engineer currently living in San Diego, CA.

Adoption Search Engine78205
Architect Holland74906
Wedding Bouquets24296
Exterior Landscaping Designszalxzjpdt
Office Furniture Contemporary Desks61
Ionic White Teeth Whitening78733
Chief Architect Appz74472
Used Office Furniture Denverqpgdoc
Wedding Invitation Verses66666
Diabetes Management52081
Type Ii Diabetes35373
Whitening Reviews For Teeth88272
Chicago Sun Times Adoption Russia7039
Car Insurance Companies Uk69680
Teeth Whitening Light16787
Atkins Carb Diabetes Diet Lowyoqedhzx
Landscaping Lawn45102
Landscaping Phoenixcumgsiznqlk
Bargain Airfare65534
Counter Teeth Whitening51113
Hotels In Norcross With Hot Tub62946
American Diabetes Foundationglovzacw
Girl In Hot Tub63210
Airfare Cheap Ticketszwsgjch
Hot Tub Nude72096
Teeth Whitening Problemsbfuxgrrv
Diabetes Research26419
Teeth Whitening San9337
Architect Alvar45696
Wedding Reception Centerpieces19671