6 replies to this topic

[andymarkison]

I've been reading here for a long time, but haven't posted.

I'm trying to build up my site visibility as well as get some quality link traffic to my site and have been researching pay for links. I dropped in on <name removed per [url=http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?act=boardrules]Forum Rules[/url]> after hearing about it and hearing that it was one of the more reputable places to get quality links. I was surprised to see how much a lot of these sites charge for their links. It was not uncommon to see $600 or so for a top site for one weeks worth of a link. I check the sites out and the link is more or less off to the side and not all that visible. Is this the state of the market for paid links? I am a micro business on a shoestring budget so I can't afford $600 a month, let alone a week. Is this what I have to expect when I go out searching for quality links to bring me traffic?

Thanks in advance for your answers/advice.

Cheers!
Andy

Edited by projectphp, 11 June 2007 - 11:50 PM.

[Randy]

Welcome Andy !

I removed the references to the specific company you mentioned. We try to avoid discussing specific companies and concentrate on what they do.

First off, you're right. $600 per week is a bunch. Unless they're willing to guarantee a certain amount of traffic per week I wouldn't even consider it myself. Doing PPC from one of the search engines where you get to decide what exact phrases you bid on and how much you spend would be a much better deal.

As far as finding places to advertise, that's a whole other question. And one you shouldn't look at from the link phpularity/pagerank side of the equation. You need to look at how much quality pre-qualified traffic you're going to get from the link reference. Meaning if an advertisement doesn't pay for itself you'll go broke purchasing it.

When you're buying ads/links make sure you're targeting sites that will attract the type of visitors you want on your site. Otherwise, you're simply wasting time, money and effort.

[andymarkison]

Thanks for the response. I'll keep that in mind in regards to posting website and business names. I guess I'll just keep trying to research what's best in terms of finding links.


Thanks again

[Justilien]

There are many different ways to get paid links/advertisements. Since you are on a tight budget I would recommend doing a lot of research to find sites that would benefit you the most in terms of traffic and link popularity.

Then find a creative way to get the link/ad. Try to build a long-term relationship with them. Perhaps you have some service you can offer the website for the link/ad. Bartering and/or trading services has been around for thousands of years. It still works today. www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/moolah/history.html

[Alex Choo]

Andy,

I would say that the 2 important questions to ask are:

1) Whether that high level of traffic is sustainable.
2) Whether you are attracting the right kind of people to your site.

With some clever tricks, it is possible to boost your traffic a few times over a short period of time. But it's not usually sustainable if only tricks are employed.

There is no shortcut to building traffic. Have good and fresh content. Visit similar sites and leave useful comments and post to forums. Make yourself known. All these take time and it will pay off for you.

Alex

[arteworks]

Your $600 bucks a month/week/whatever would be better spent hiring someone to build natural links for you, such as through copywriting, syndication, article distribution, directory submissions, social bookmarking.

[nethy]

Is this the state of the market for paid links? I am a micro business on a shoestring budget so I can't afford $600 a month, let alone a week. Is this what I have to expect when I go out searching for quality links to bring me traffic?

$600 is almost ceratinly too much. If you are prepared to pay for links go try ppc for a start. The traffic is usually of the best quality because you choose the sepcific keywords searches use to find you & people are already searching for you there. This will help you assign a value to your visitors (what they cost on google). Only buy the link if you believe it will generate as much trafiic of similar quality as an equivelent budget on yahoo/google...or better.This is unlikely in most cases at $600 buck a pop. If you like, take in to account the organic SE traffic resulting from the extra backlink but keep in mind that one more link is quite insignificant on the grand scale and that google are learning to filter out paid links form their algorithims so when they do the link will be useless.

Paid links (even expensive ones can occasionally be worhwhile):
They generate the best traffic: If you resell a product that is pretty much the same from anyone and your prices are better then your competitors. Try price comparison sites. If you charge less then everyone else on the site for a product you will get consumers that have already researched and are ready to buy.
You are trying toget every scrap of traffic: If you sell a really expensive product that a qualified visitor is likely to be interested in link/click prices may look like peanuts. (eg. if you make a $100,000 sale for every 2000 clicks and a click costs 15c you are not really woried about click prices you want more traffic, what bites you in the ass is not being able to find clicks) In these cases, do what you can to get links that may generate reasonable traffic.