I swear I should be a part of Myth Busters

Ok, here is the article, and I will place notes throughout this article.
My notes will look like this.

Can you really buy web traffic?
Yes you can, but is it worth it, or are you just throwing your money down the toilet? Let's take a closer look at this article...

Many people wonder about generating traffic to their websites through paid traffic offerings. This topic is highly debated among the industries top SEO managers because some believe in the practice and others do not.

Paid traffic services can be useful as part of an overall traffic generation strategy. I have used paid traffic services in the past and believe they do present some value when used in conjunction with Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Email Marketing.

I want you to notice some of the language here. Things are said like "I have used" and "they do present some value". I gather that by saying "I have used paid traffic services, that you do not use them any longer, because if they were worth it, you would have said "I still use" or "I use" and you would not say "in the past" but rather "even today" which is a GIANT RED FLAG in my opinion.

So What's the Rub With Paid Traffic?
Well, it's a rip off. It's a good way to waste time and money. You waste time setting up what you want to target your words to, and you waste money paying some company for very few leads.

Have you ever wondered where paid traffic comes from? No The services that generate paid traffic do it through a few key methods.

1. Traffic Exchange.

Using this method, these sites sell access to their traffic exchange networks where individuals surf for credits. As they earn credits viewing websites like yours, their ads/websites are displayed across the network for others to click on. If this method is being used, you may certainly experience a decrease in performance only because the same individuals are seeing your ad over and over, reducing their likelihood to click.

This is a complete waste of time as basically, the method that is talked about in the last part of this paragraph is basically true most of the time, making it a waste of time and money. I have tried this method in the past, so I can speak from experience, "IT DOESN'T WORK"

2. Search Engine Marketing.

A great way to generate traffic for others is through search engine marketing like Google, ExactSeek or Yahoo! Traffic generation sites buy keywords in bulk or many long-tail keywords and resell the traffic generated from them. If they can do this at a profit, its a win-win. This is a difficult strategy only because the cost of keywords change frequently based on industry demand.

Again, from experience here, I don't pay for targeted keywords, nor do I sell them to my clients. There is no need to because I build my websites for my clients, with search engine marketing in mind, and if built correctly, or what we like to call, "the right way" then there is no need for spending extra money or time paying and setting up for certain keywords.

3. List Marketing.

Traffic generation websites also generate traffic through email marketing and house lists. These techniques are usually leveraged through daily, weekly, and monthly electronic newsletters. Driving less traffic than the first two methods, the list marketing option usually rounds out a comprehensive traffic generation strategy.

And now you know where you get a lot of your spam from. Basically this is people sending you unsolicited email. How many leads do you think you will get from that?

So to answer the question about paying for traffic, is it worth? My answer is that as part of an overall traffic generation strategy, paying for traffic can be beneficial. It all comes down to how you use paid traffic acquisition as part of your overall marketing strategy, the quality of the traffic generated and the costs associated with the traffic.

The other factor to consider is the quality of the traffic you receive. The purpose of most traffic acquisition strategies is to improve sales, generate leads, and/or conversions. To that end, I would only recommend paying for traffic if you have a way to measure the traffic to your site, the path the traffic takes through your website and whether or not that traffic actually converts. Whether you consider a conversion to be the completion of a web form or the actual purchase of a product, your buying this traffic for one reason and one reason only - conversion. Keep this in mind before you spend any money on traffic.

Although you can find plenty of sites willing to give you traffic in exchange for a fixed fee, I personally prefer to sign up for my own traffic exchange, purchase my own keywords, and manage my newsletters and email lists. By doing so, I have a better handle on where the traffic is coming from and ultimately the value of this traffic. Keep that in mind before you run out and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on acquiring traffic that may or may not convert for your web site.

Basically, if you want to do a search engine marketing strategy, that's great, but do it the right way or the complete honest way. Let your website put in it's time. Yes, it takes some tweaking of your site to get it really right, but in the end, slow and steady wins the race. All of these methods that Michael talks about here, are basically shortcuts. Shortcuts do not work in search engine land. The only thing that ends up happening is you either make people mad with spam, or those really cool pop up ads that they won't click on just because it poped up in front of them, or there is always the pop up blocker. It's for people that use these types of methods to get ahead, that pop up blockers and antispam methods were introduced in the first place. Gimmie a break, just do things honestly, realize that there are no shortcuts, and put your time in.

I don't use any of these methods, I generate my own email list, that people volunteer to sign up for. In other words, they are not just automatically added because they signed up for something totally different, I don't pay for keywords, and none of my clients do either, and yet, they seem to show up good in the search engines... and in case you are wondering, I just took a vacation for the first time in almost 5 years, because I have been so busy with work... hmmm, I guess this myth about paying for keywords or search engine placement has been busted!

About the Author: Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. To discover how to improve search engine rankings on Google and other major search engines visit http://www.webmastersbookofsecrets.com and the Marketing Blog