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I think most of us have at one time or another bought traffic. Over the years I have bought tons of traffic from just about every source available. Most of the time I have lost money and I even managed to get myself banned from Google Adwords and Facebook ads simply for promoting an IM related type of product. It was probably a blessing in disguise anyway as I never seemed to be able to get my ads to show a profit.

Because of this I’ve learned to generate my own traffic, in fact 99.9% of the traffic I receive to all of my websites is completely free. However, over the last few months I have been having a play around with one form of paid traffic that I have actually managed to turn a profit from, do you want to know what this traffic source is?

Solo Ads.

Just in case you are wondering what a solo ad is it’s just a way to get someone to mail your offer to their list. You pay them to deliver X amount of clicks to your offer. This is usually an opt-in page where you collect subscribers, if done right you can build your list very fast indeed.

Now I want to point out I am no expert when it comes to buying Solo Ad’s but I want to share with you a few things I have learned.

Take things slow at first.
Don’t go spending thousands of dollars on clicks when you are starting out, take things slow and get used to how things work before you go spending crazy amounts of money on ads because if you do this wrong you can lose a lot of money very quickly indeed.

Buy ads in small chunks.
If you want to buy 1000 clicks buy them in 20 sets of 50 clicks from different providers instead of buying 1000 clicks from one vendor, by doing this you will minimize the risk of getting scammed from an unscrupulous vendor. Not only that but you will receive more traffic. You see most Solo Ad vendors over deliver by around 10-20 clicks. So if you bought 1000 clicks you could expect to receive 1020 clicks, but if you buy 50 clicks you can expect 60-70 clicks. Multiply that by 20 and you have 1200 – 1400 clicks, a lot more for you money.

Don’t expect Solo Ad lists to convert like a regular list.
One thing I noticed was the fact my Solo Ad list didn’t convert as well as my regular list(s) did. Without detailed testing there is no sure way to determine why but my guess is a lot of the people on Solo Ad lists are freebie seekers who are getting passed from Solo Ad provider to Solo Ad provider. Just remember that any subscribers you gain from Solo Ad’s are not likely to convert as well as a regular subscriber.

Test test test test, then test some more.
The only true way to get any form of paid traffic to work is by testing. You should know your metrics so you can work out how much it costs to gain each subscriber. As you can expect to pay $50+ for 100 clicks you need to be sure you are at the very least getting most of that $50 back. So know how your squeeze page converts, how many people will buy from your funnel and how many people will buy from your recommendations. This is something I wasn’t doing in the early days and something I quickly realized I needed to do so I could be sure I wasn’t wasting money.

Only use recommended sources.
This is the big one, just because someone can deliver 100 clicks doesn’t mean the traffic is genuine. There are a lot of scammers out there who will deliver false clicks or worse still take your money and run. Even if you use a reputable source such as Safe Swaps be sure to research each provider and as I said earlier only buy in small chunks. For the record the only source I have purchased Solo Ad’s from so far is Safe Swaps, my advice would be to start there and do your research before buying any ads.

You must have a killer free offer that converts.
First of all most Solo Ad providers will only promote free offers, in fact I quickly found out that getting people to promote a paid offer is almost impossible. So if you want to start paying for Solo Ad’s make sure you have a killer squeeze page that converts well. You should be looking at converting at least 40% of your traffic into subscribers. This is the free offer I am sending Solo Ad traffic to at the moment.

You must have a killer sales funnel that converts.
As most Solo Ad providers will only promote free offers we need to try to monetize our site from our sales funnel so make sure you have a killer funnel in place that converts. This usually means making sure that any upsells are directly related to your free offer. You don’t want to have people opt-in for a traffic product only to upsell them with an eBay related product.

TIP! If you can just earn enough to pay for your ads or even run at a slight loss from your funnel you’ve cracked it as this means you are building a list for free or at a very low cost, now you just need to ramp things up.

Here’s my sales funnel in all it’s glory

Free Offer – Traffic Package

This traffic package is a collection of free material from Simple Traffic Solutions, it consists of an eBook, MindMap and Worksheet. This free offer provides incredible value.

Upgrade – Simple Traffic Solutions

When you consume the free offer you are regularly given the chance to upgrade, I also use a membership script that locks you out from the paid for content. This shows people what they are missing.

When you try to access paid for content such as training videos.

 This message appears.

I also push my upgrade offer via autoresponder email. I am constantly mentioning the benefits of upgrading your membership. Here’s an example email I send out 24 hours after registration, note how I offer support and start to form a relationship with the subscriber?

Hi {!firstname_fix},

I hope you are enjoying your Simple Traffic Solutions traffic
package.

Please remember that if you need any help you can contact my
support desk here.

http://www.johnthornhill.com/support/

I also want to make sure you are aware that the Simple Traffic
Solutions traffic package covers just a fraction of what is
covered in the full program.

For the price of a small pizza investment you can upgrade your
membership to the full package and receive a ton of additional
training material.

To upgrade your membership simply go here.

http://www.simpletrafficsolutions.com/upgrade

Until next time…

John Thornhill

And it doesn’t stop there, here’s the email that goes out the next day.

Hi {!firstname_fix},

I hope that you have had time to go through all of your Simple
Traffic Solutions traffic package.

Be sure to check out the Mindmap and Worksheets as these give
you instant traffic methods that will help you drive more traffic
to your websites.

I also want to remind you that for a tiny investment you can
upgrade your membership to the full package and receive a ton
of additional training material.

This includes:-

# Over 50 video training modules covering every
traffic method in great detail.

# My unique traffic rating system that reveals the best traffic
methods for you.

# Even more PDF training modules

# Advanced training revealing my most closely guarded traffic
methods.

# Access to the Simple Traffic Solutions Secret Facebook Group.

# Ongoing training.

And much much more.

To upgrade your membership and receive instant access to all
of the extra materials simply go here.

http://www.simpletrafficsolutions.com/upgrade

Until next time…

John Thornhill

P.S. Remember that your investment is covered by my 60 day no
questions asked money back guarantee so there is absolutely no
risk.

http://www.simpletrafficsolutions.com/upgrade

Once again it doesn’t stop there, I keep pushing the upgrade and once someone buys the upgrade offer they are then removed from the free traffic list and added to the paid traffic list where I make further offers. Here’s an outline of the whole funnel that consists of various products and services I offer.

This funnel has generated over $200,000 in sales in just over 6 months, and since I started running solo ads I’ve managed to add thousands of extra subscribers to my list and generate even more sales. As I have already stated I am no Solo Ad expert but I have manage to turn a profit. Once again my advice if you want to try this is to start with Safe Swaps and take things easy to start with.

Let me help you build a list from Solo Ad’s for free.

I know that you may be reading this blog post and you may not have a product of your own or a funnel that can bring the same sort of results. Well the good news is I have a system set up that will enable you to promote the funnel above as an affiliate while you build your list for free.

That’s right, I can help you build your list while you earn an affiliate income at the same time.

To find out more simply go here and watch the 2 minute video where all is explained.

As always your comments are more than welcome. If you have had any success with Solo Ads and can add some more advice please do so.