There has been a lot of debate in other articles, forums, and books regarding sending targeted traffic to your website. Some sing its praises but many webmasters dismiss targeted traffic as a waste of money. They argue that CPC (cost per click) or paid banner/text link advertising is a better method for generating quality visitors to your site. There is no doubt the CPC advertising and paid banner links can be a valuable source or web business. In fact, CPC advertising usually has a much high conversion rate (a greater percentage of visitors: registering on your site, signing up for your newsletter, or buying your product, etc.) than bulk targeted traffic. However, advertisers must pay a premium for this higher conversion rate. If the campaign is done properly targeted traffic is an inexpensive way to get your message out. Here is an Example: “Digital Camera” targeted visitor from Overture $1.70 / visitor 100,000 Banner Impressions (1% CTR) $0.35 / visitor Targeted Traffic Targeted Visitors $.003 / visitor Obviously targeted traffic is far less expensive than other methods of online advertising in terms or price per visitor. However, webmaster are, and should be, less concerned with price per visitor and more concerned with price per conversion, i.e., what is the cost per person registering on your site, signing up for your newsletter, or buying your product, etc. So, in essence, the key to making targeted traffic work is to maximize your conversion rate. Let’s examine some primary rules you should follow to accomplish this. 1. Get traffic from a reliable source. You need to know where the traffic is coming from. Is it from Expired Domain redirects? Is it from pop ups or unders? If it is from pop ups/unders, does the traffic source have a method to compensate for pop up blockers? If not, you may find the actual traffic far less than the traffic you are being charged for. 2. Pinpoint your target market. Don’t try to save a few dollars with untargeted traffic. Make sure your message is being seen by people interested in your product or service. Give some thought to who would really benefit from your offer and target that group. Also, consider regional targeting as well. If you sell a product and can only ship to US customers, make sure only US visitors are being targeted with your message. 3. Create Impact Quickly. You have one brief chance to convert targeted traffic. Choose your landing page wisely. Use a page that will grab a visitor’s attention right away. However, be cautious not to create a message with too much hype. Web surfers have become more callous to advertising and may ignore messages that sound too fake. The best option is to give a brief description of your offer then require them to click through to get more information. This way you can track conversions. 4. Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. Experiment with different landing pages to see what works best for your offer. Do not send hundreds of thousands of visitors to a single page. Create several different landing pages and send 10k visitors or so to these pages. This way you can find out what works best and focus the rest of your traffic on those pages. Also, don’t try to get all your traffic in a few days. By spreading it out over time you may convert repeat visitors who overlooked your message the first time. 5. Maximize your advertising dollar. I also like to sign up with a text link (www.textdot.com) or banner exchange (www.bexchanged.com) and place that code on my landing page. This way you can maximize your advertising budget by earning banner/link impressions. Just make sure that the code does not interfere with your primary message. By following these rules, you will have a much greater chance of your targeted traffic campaign being a success. Travis Adair writes articles for http://www.bindexed.com, a free web directory with tools and information helpful to webmasters. He also runs http://www.targeted-traffic.ws, a valuable source of targeted traffic.