4 Free Website Traffic Myths & Scams

Jim Edwards always gives us his very vocal point of view when it comes to the truth about marketing. We do not necessarily have to agree but the points are often good to know.
I have been a reader of his for about a year now which is why I have posted his latest traffic article on my blog. It's a great read especially if you are a newbie online.
Enjoy!


4 Free Website Traffic Myths & Scams
- by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved http://www.thenetreporter.com/-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The question rates almost as old as the Internet itself: "How do I get free traffic to my website?"
In fact, entire online industries spawn and die trying to fulfill this wish by website owners desperate to get eyeballs to their sites without any time, money, energy or effort whatsoever.
Much like the "medicine wagons" of the old Wild West sold potions and snake oil to "cure what ails you," any unsuspecting website owner can spend thousands of dollars on software, schemes, services and scams that promise to deliver tens-of-thousands of visitors for "free."
In fact, one of the biggest scams online that I know of personally involved the promise of riches through "free ads."
Unfortunately, most people don't learn the truth about these myths and scams until after they get separated from their hard-earned cash.
Myth #1 -Traffic Exchanges
Traffic exchanges promise piles of cash by delivering thousands of visitors who get shuffled around between members' sites through ads.
Originally set up mostly as "exit traffic exchanges," this scheme lost popularity once pop-up blockers started coming as standard issue with most browser toolbars and Internet Explorer 6.0+.
The main problem with this scheme centers on the fact that they shuffle NON-targeted traffic to your site.
If someone is looking for bicycle information, the chances of them clicking on a link or loitering on your "home beer kit" site are slim to none.
Myth #2 - FFA Pages
FFA (Free For All) Links Pages surfaced when people realized that search engines included "back links" in their calculations of a site's relevance to various keyword phrases.
If you got 100 links to your site with "purple gargoyle" in the text, various search engines would list you prominently for most purple gargoyle searches.
Once the search engines got wise to these "link farms" as worthless link lists, they quickly started penalizing anyone who listed their site on them.
Moral of the story: unless you want your search engine rankings to plunge, avoid FFA pages or "link farms" like the plague.
Myth #3 - Safe Lists
How's this for an idiotic traffic idea. Let's all join a list and mail each other our offers, regardless of our actual tastes, preferences, businesses, or any other coherent factor.
Then, let's promise that we can all get rich as a result of mailing each other.
Safe lists must rate as the most pathetic scam when it comes to website traffic, yet people still sell them and people still join them.
In fact, I know someone (several people actually) who got sued because emails sent to a safe list.
What makes the situation even more horrendous is that they didn't send the emails, their affiliates did!
The only people who make money with safe lists are the people who set them up and persuade others to join.
Myth #4 - Surf-for-Traffic
If you visit my website, I'll visit yours, then we'll each get a visitor to our sites.
"Surf-for-traffic" schemes basically promise to deliver visitors in proportion to the number of sites you visit while displaying their browser toolbar.
Two main problems arise from this type of scheme. First, a real human being can only visit so many sites before they all look alike (rendering any marketing power of the sites useless due to viewer fatigue).
Second, some idiot will always figure out how to get hits using a software robot that simulates surfing (you can get them free online) to rack up credits.
Bottom line: there are only three legitimate ways to deliver targeted traffic to your website.
You "buy" traffic through pay-per-click ads, banner ads, niche site ads and similar methods.
You "borrow" traffic through your affiliate program or other pay-per-action method by paying people who promote your site only when a sale is made.
You "create" traffic by publishing and posting content to your website, blog, article announcement sites, and other proven places, along with other legitimate methods that drive organic search engine traffic.
–Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and theco-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you howto use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targetedvisitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
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