In this article, I will discuss different ways to make money online with paid traffic which is another name for paid advertising online.
I have previously discussed how you can make money online for free.
That is the best way to start, and if you are a beginner, that is where I recommend that you begin, but the downside of using free methods to make money online are:
- It is NOT scalable
- NOT consistent
- It will NOT free up your time
In order to take your affiliate marketing business to the next level, you need to be able to invest the money you have made with free advertising into paid advertising.
Paid advertising will help you free up your time, create consistent income, and it is scalable.
Of course, there is no guarantee that you can make money online with paid advertising, and in order to succeed, you need to get the right information.
I will reveal how you can do it below.
How to Make Money with Paid Traffic
First, you have to realize that there is not only one way to make money with paid traffic.
There are at least three different ways that you can use to make money with what I like to call investment traffic.
With this kind of traffic, you pay to get visitors to your newsletter, blog, or social media.
In order to continue to make money with paid traffic, you need to make money, so you can continue to invest your money into buying more traffic.
It might not be what you want to read right now, but it is how you become profitable.
I will now discuss why paid traffic is better than free. You will also understand what paid traffic is, and different methods to make a return on the money you spend. Lastly, I discuss the three different ways to make money with paid traffic.
Why Is Paid Traffic Better?
Paid traffic is better than free traffic since it is scalable.
With free traffic, you can not:
- Control the number of visitors you get every day. Since Google is changing its algorithms constantly, what works today might not work tomorrow which may result in a decrease in the number of visitors.
- It takes a lot of time before you see any results.
- Traffic will vary. If you are lucky, you can get viral traffic, but that will not happen very frequently.
- It will not help you to make money consistently, which is vital for every online business.
- Your social media accounts can get shut down if you violate their everchanging terms consistently.
Paid traffic is better than free since:
- You can control how many visitors you will get each day.
- You will get instant, consistent, and controllable traffic (visitors).
- Increase the amount you spend to get more visitors. It is what scalable means.
- Spend more money to get more sales.
- Get in front of the right people who are actively looking for solutions to their problems, and are willing to pay for it.
- You will immediately know whether your ad is accepted or rejected, and why it was rejected so that you can fix it.
What Is Paid Traffic?
Paid traffic is traffic that you pay to get, which falls into three main categories:
- Traffic Exchange Networks (i.e. Solo Ads)
- Social Media Networks (i.e. Facebook Ads)
- Pay Per Click/Pay Per View (i.e. Google Ads/Native Ads)
The best part with paid traffic is that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your advertisement.
That is the real power of paid traffic.
However, there is a very important difference between “free”, or organic traffic, as I like to call it and paying for traffic.
Ready for a reality check?
The main difference between investment (paid) traffic and organic traffic is the same as the difference between hoping and knowing.
I know that I am brutally honest here, and that not everyone likes it.
The great thing with paid traffic is that you will know if something is working for you or not a lot faster than with organic traffic.
Paid traffic helps you speed up the process, which I will discuss too in this article.
How Does Paid Traffic Work?
In order to make paid traffic work, you need to make money with it, so that you can earn money and re-invest them to make even more money.
That’s pretty obvious to you, right?
Here is an overview of how paid traffic works:
- You write some text, often referred to as a copy, and upload what is called a creative, which is an image or video to the platform.
- Most platforms that I mentioned above will allow you to decide on who you want to target, where they live, their gender, their income, and of course, what language they speak, which is often referred to as demographic. Make sure that you know this BEFORE you write your copy and upload any creatives. This alone can make or break your campaign when you are running paid traffic.
- You need to understand the language too and be able to read the data you get back properly. Otherwise, you might not stop your campaign, if it is losing money. Most platforms will educate you on how to do it for free. They do it because they want you to spend more money on their platform than on their competitors.
Once your ad is approved, you will receive and pay for traffic.
What I have shared with you above, is how paid traffic works in a very basic, schematic kind of way but I will go into more details below.
The Right Mindset Is Important Too with Paid Traffic
However, you need to have the right mindset as well.
Instead of thinking that you are losing money, you should be thinking that your paid traffic is an investment in data and that data is unique to you and the campaigns you are running.
Now, you shouldn’t go crazy about investing.
Especially if you are a beginner, you need to take some time and invest in your education first in order to learn the platform you will use.
If you don’t, it might result that you will lose money.
In worst case you will lose your account for violation of their terms of services. If it happens to you, you have to appeal it.
All advanced affiliate marketers know one thing that separates them from new or beginner affiliate marketers.
Surely, they have more money than you do if you are a beginner.
That means that they will get the data much quicker than you do, and even if they might be able to wait for their campaigns to be profitable, they will want to become profitable eventually, or they will shut it down.
Let me share the secret that most advanced affiliate marketers or gurus WILL NOT share with you about paid traffic. If you are a beginner, I know how much you will appreciate it.
No matter which platform you will use, you need to let data tell you the truth.
DO NOT let your emotions take control of your decisions, even if you are losing money because that will be the worst decision you can ever make.
I personally learned this myself from someone who is very successful in affiliate marketing.
That made me go from a zero to a hero, being able to do this full time, instead of part-time, and I am sure that it can help you do the same thing.
All you need to do is to click here to sign up for John Crestani’s free training.
If you decide to purchase through our link, we will earn an affiliate commission from your purchase, which means that without any additional cost to you, we will make money. So, as you can see, we practice what we preach.
He will help you with every step of this process and help you work on your mindset too.
You need to realize that it is a process and that a shift in your mindset needs to take place in order for you to become successful.
That is the reason why I am writing this on a free blog.
I could easily have charged you $1,000 for sharing this information with you but I hate to see honest, hardworking people fail since there are so many people who are trying to scam you.
I am brutally honest with you here.
There are many so-called gurus or millionaires who want to scam you of your hard-earned money.
I don’t do this for the money, I do this to help you.
Getting Over the “Analysis Paralysis” When You’re Doing Paid Advertising
When you start to purchase traffic, you have to analyze your results.
I recommend that, depending on your budget, you start with a small budget of just $5-$10 per day if you are using Pay Per Click (PPC) or Pay Per View (PPV).
Don’t consider purchasing Solo Ads unless you have at least a $300 budget, and Native ads require you to spend at least $100 a day. If you can’t afford it right now, I recommend that you start with what you can afford and combine one of the free methods that I have previously shared on the blog.
When you spend money, you want it to be as effective as possible.
For that reason, you will log in to your ads account manager and try to determine which keywords, phrases, or ad groups bring you the best results.
It is something you need to when you are paying for visitors.
However, you can get stuck in the analysis of this, which may prevent you from taking action, and this is what is commonly referred to as “analysis paralysis.”
It is a real thing and will happen to every one, especially if you are starting out.
To overcome it, you might want to learn how to analyze your results the right way, which this free webinar will discuss in further detail.
If you decide to purchase through our link, we will earn an affiliate commission from your purchase, which means that without any additional cost to you, we will make money. So, as you can see, we practice what we preach.
How to Get Paid Traffic to Your Affiliate Offer
I have already told you how you can get paid traffic above.
You can do it through:
- Traffic exchange networks like Solo ads (Udimi is my recommended traffic source but only if you are using paid traffic to a certain kind of offers, which I will discuss in the last part of this article)
- Social media networks like Facebook (Instagram, Twitter, Kik, Snapchat, Pinterest, are other places where you can get this kind of paid traffic)
- Pay Per Click- (PPC) or Pay Per View-networks (PPV) like Google (Youtube, Bing, Yahoo, and Quora are examples of other platforms that use the same kind of traffic)
The reason why I didn’t include Youtube in the social media section is that Google owns it. Therefore, Youtube is primarily a search engine.
I do give you a recommendation above.
If you’re not a member of Udimi yet, you can sign up for free, and if you use my link, you will get a $5 discount on your first order. I will also get $5 to use for my next promotion on the platform.
Social media is a great way to use too, don’t get me wrong.
I discuss Solo ads, Facebook ads, and PPC/PPV-networks in greater detail in my article Can I Make Money Online?
Before you read that article, I would recommend that you finish reading this article.
To help you understand the value of what I am discussing in this article, I have decided to be very transparent and share something that hopefully will help you appreciate what I am sharing here.
What I will reveal to you now is something that I paid another marketer $197 for, but I am giving it to you for free.
3 Ways to Get Paid Traffic to Your Website
Not all traffic works with all offers.
I will now share the three ways to get paid traffic to your website in this article. I had to pay to learn all of them, but you will get it for free.
The three most profitable niches on Clickbank is wealth, health, and relationships.
However, you can not send all kinds of paid traffic to these kinds of network. I will share my best knowledge with you about what kinds of paid traffic will work.
I do not discuss specific offers in this table since they will change over time.
You can promote whatever kind of products you like.
There are both private affiliate programs such as ClickFunnels and affiliate networks such as Clickbank, which gives you a multitude of offers to promote.
The sky is the limit.
I have used Clickbank’s marketplace to construct the table below to help you decide which traffic method you should consider if you decide to use paid traffic to your offers.
| Niche/Market | Best Platform(s) | Works Best With |
| Arts & Entertainment | Instagram, Facebook, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| As Seen On TV | Instagram, Facebook, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Betting Systems | Google, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Business/Investment | Google, Udimi, YouTube | PPC, PPV, Solo Ads |
| Computers/Internet | Facebook, Google, Instagram | PPC, PPV |
| Cooking, Food & Wine | Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest | Native Ads, PPV |
| E-Business & Marketing | Google, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV, Solo Ads |
| Education | Google, YouTube | PPV |
| Employment & Jobs | PPC, Networks | |
| Fiction | Google, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Games | Google, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Green Products | Google, YouTube, Instagram | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Health & Fitness | Google, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Home & Garden | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Languages | Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest | PPC, PPV |
| Mobile | Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Parenting & Families | Facebook, Instagram, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Politics/Current Events** | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Reference | Google, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Self-Help*** | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Software & Services | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
| Spirituality, New Age & Alternative Beliefs | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Sports | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | Native Ads, PPC, PPV |
| Travel | Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube | PPC, PPV |
NOTE: The information in the table above is my research from promoting different affiliate offers on Clickbank. I decided to share it with you here.
Even if I use Clickbank, as an example, the information is still useful on other networks as well.
If you decide to go with Facebook or Instagram, you can sign up to get a free Business Manager Account here, but if you prefer to use the paid methods on Google or Youtube, you can access or sign up for a free Google Ads account here.
Some Things to Consider Before You Buy Traffic
As you can see, there are two categories in the table that have asterisks (stars) after them.
If you want to promote offers in the Politics/Current Events-market, you need to be pre-approved first on all platforms.
Self-help is a great market, but that one has three asterisks.
You need to be pre-approved if you are running dating and relationship offers on Facebook. Otherwise, you can just run them on native ads, and search engines (PPC) and YouTube (PPV).
I highly recommend that you do your research on what kind of traffic methods that work the best for the offer you want to promote.
It might have changed completely if you are reading this article after 2022.
The best way to do it is to reach out to the product owner. That person is known as a publisher or vendor. Ask him or her what traffic methods work the best for them.
Some owners have affiliate managers, who will answer your questions instead.
If you wish to learn more about how you can make money online with paid traffic, I suggest that you sign up for this free training.
If you decide to purchase through our link, we will earn an affiliate commission from your purchase, which means that without any additional cost to you, we will make money. So, as you can see, we practice what we preach.
You will get the best information possible to start your own profitable affiliate business.
To become successful at online marketing, you need to have the right toolkit to work for you and help you make sound decisions based on data, not on your own emotions or guesswork.
If you find this information valuable, please share it.
