Every day they show up. Maybe you only get three or four or maybe it’s more like twelve or fifteen. They pop into your inbox just when you think you need them. So you order. You spend $100 or more on ebooks and “systems” promising “server-crushing” traffic boosts. But do they really work?
The answer to this is about as easy to come up with as a fair price. There are a several different factors that contribute to the success (or failuer) of certain traffic tactics. In this article I am going to discuss a few variables that may influence their effectiveness. Here are three questions you can ask yourself before investing your time and money marketing on a social network.
Does The Network Get Enough Traffic?
When Squidoo made its debut there was a crazy rush of ebooks released teaching how to exploit it for tons of attention and traffic. Some of these books were excellent while others were about as “duh!” as you’d expect. Regardless of the ebook’s quality or the effectiveness of the tactics therein, if Squidoo had not taken off and remained a popular site then the ebooks would have been useless.
If you are considering the purchase of an ebook that is based around a particular social site, make sure that this site is popular enough to continue as a source of traffic. For instance, a sweet little Squidoo knock-off launches. Let’s call it Squidon’t. You receive no less than ten emails advertising ten different products promising to teach you how to get in on the ground floor and send everyone that ever visits Squidon’t to your site. That’s killer. Unless of course only seven people ever visit Squidon’t.
Do People on This Site Care About my Product/Blog/Whatever?
Now I’m not saying that it’s never a good idea to jump on a new opportunity. In fact, new opportunities are often the best way to go. Just make sure you do your research before you pay $47 for an ebook explaining how to exploit the network. Traffic is just a part of it. You need to be sure, before you put in a bunch of time, that you have a place within the network you choose.
A bit of a side note: I never really considered MySpace to be the best place for business marketing because most of the folks frequenting the site are not generally looking for business opps. It’s another post altogether, but since I read that MySpace gets more traffic than Google I have been reconsidering my position. I will most likely be following up with a post about MySpace after a bit more research. I am familiar with several gray-hat type tactics that are very time-consuming and debatably effective. If anyone has any feedback about using myspace for business marketing, I’d love to hear it.
In any case, when you choose to invest time and effort into using a network to build traffic, be sure there are people on the network interested in whatever you have. The best way to do that is to get familiar with the space. Create your account and then spend a week or so surfing around. Make some friends in your niche, see what other people are selling and be sure there is a place for you and your product or service.
Do I Have the Time to Invest?
Most tried and true traffic tactics take time to work. It is highly unlikely that you will find a method that doesn’t require a certain amount of time committment. The good news is, once you put in a healtyh amount of initial effort, the really effective methods often work in perpetuity. If you set up a page on FreeIQ and build a bunch of links to it, you could enjoy traffic for months or even years.
Keep in mind that, on top of learning the tactic and normal implementation time, you will need to spend some time testing and tweaking. Most worthwhile traffic-building methods are not out-of-the-box miracles. You will definitely need to customize until you find the right mix for whatever you are offering.
If you are going to spend money on an ebook teaching new traffic tactics you definitely want to be sure you are going to give it the time it needs to be effective. This question is perhaps the most important of the three because a tactic that is not properly developed is a complete waste.
You may want to believe the promises on the squeeze pages, but that is exactly why those promises are there. Take them in stride and just be sure to do the research. There are some really great programs out there so it is just a matter of finding the right tactics for your product or service. If you start with the three questions above, you’ll be in good shape to make an informed decision.
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