For the past 18 days, I’ve been on vacation in France (with brief side-trips into Spain and Italy). I’ll post some pictures soon, but first I want to tell you about how I was able to increase traffic to my website while on vacation, doing no work.
I outsourced it!
A few months ago I was introduced to a service called Traffic Sage.
Basically, it’s an outsourcing company specializing in web traffic and SEO services for Internet marketers (If you’re not familiar with outsourcing, check out lesson #39). They offer a package of services including…
-search engine submission
-article writing
-article submission
-video creation
-video marketing
-link building
-social bookmarking
-social networking
-and more.
All of those things are helpful to my business, and yet I rarely did any of them on my own because those activities are all so time consuming.
So I signed up right away, to get them working for me. I was pretty excited about it, but I decided to hold off writing about it until I had given it an adequate trial period.
They are India-based, and I’ve had mixed results in the past from various Indian contractors, so I really wanted to give it some time before reviewing it here on Eric’s Tips.
Now, after nearly 3 months of using their service, I’m happy to give them my recommendation.
When it comes to outsourcing to India, there are two main areas that generally cause me to be concerned: quality, and communication. Traffic Sage has met my expectations in both of those areas. The quality of their work is better than other sources I’ve used in the past, and their communication is clear and helpful.
All of the communication is done through a dedicated helpdesk. I haven’t really had to contact them for any reason, but they have asked me several questions in the course of their work, to make sure they are doing things to my liking. Each time I’ve responded, they have replied back within 24 hours.
One of the things I was initially concerned about was whether they would use any overtly spammy techniques, or represent myself or my business in any way that could hurt my reputation. Because of my concern, I was particularly explicit in my answers to the “welcome questionnaire” that I filled out after signing up for the service.
I told them my specific goals for my relationship with their company, and I explained certain activities that I did or did not want them to do in association with their promotion of my website. For example, I did not want them to impersonate me on forums.
Not only have they been accommodating to my requests, they have also come up with some creative solutions that I had not thought of. They have also gone the extra mile to help me on occasion. For example, I wanted to add my own voiceover to the videos that they made for me, and although it was not something they were trained in, they gladly added it to their monthly task list.
The only downside I’ve experienced is a few issues with the language in the articles and press releases. Their English is very good, so that’s not a problem. It’s more just a matter of nuances, and phraseology (OK, so I’m a picky writer). If you’re not a semi-perfectionist like me, you probably wouldn’t notice anyway. But if you do see anything you don’t like, they are eager to accept correction so they can improve their skills.
Who is this for?
This is for anyone who already has a fully operational website. They do not build your website for you; they only market it and help drive traffic to it. I will add that your website should also have some form of effective monetization (Otherwise what’s the point of getting traffic?). You could be selling a product (ideal), or promoting products, building a list, building a blog readership, etc.
Why Traffic Sage?
Why not just hire my own writers, and link builders, and build my own team? The reason is simple. It’s easier this way.
Traffic Sage hires the workers and trains them. I have a dedicated project manager assigned to me, and six other team members who work on the marketing of my website each month.
They specialize in this. They are not just a random group of Indian IT staff. They are trained in web traffic and SEO activities to help Internet marketers like us.
It was a GREAT feeling going to bed at night while on vacation, having not done a lick of work, yet knowing that there was a team who was working on my business for me.
The good news is that you can have them working on your business too, and you don’t have to go through the hassle of hiring people. All you have to do is sign up, and tell them your objectives and targeted keywords.
You can have an entire team for much less than it would cost to hire one assistant here in the United States. If that sounds like something that you could benefit from, I recommend checking them out at:
Click Here to go to Traffic Sage
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
Hey Eric
I was just curious about whether traffic sage
is better than say using something like Bishop Anders Traffic machines, which one would you personally recommend to your loyal subscribers?
Keep up the great work
Edward
Traffic Sage makes sense, at $15 US a day, try to do all they offer, AND develop your business without them.
Can you hire a staff for that?
People who don’t get this won’t get much else either.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your mail. I have read it carefuly and it looks like the Traffic Sage should be very helpful for my business. For me, personally, all of your lessons were very helpful until today.
Wishing you the best and waiting for the next lesson.
I’ll be covering video in a future lesson, thanks
I might… not sure… But if you have any specific services you want to know more about, I’m sure myself or the Traffic Sage team could be more specific.
You would need to talk to them (probably Mike Ambrosio) regarding your specifics to see if they can do it, but generally speaking I would say yes they could work with you on something like that. Also keep in mind that they are creating promo videos, not instructional. And the main benefit of the videos is simply the keyword ranking and backlinks that you receive from them submitting those videos to various sites. So the content of the video itself is not as important.
As far as a 5X-10X increase… honestly I don’t know. Is it possible? Yes. Would I guarantee it? No.
It’s two different approaches. One method leverages software, and the other method leverages cheap labor. With WTM, you pay $97/mo and you have a slew of software tools that can help you build back links and verious traffic streams with minimal work on your part (but it still takes some of your time). With TS, you pay $497/mo to have a team of real people doing some of the same things that those software programs do, PLUS writing articles, press releases, etc.
So which one would depend on your preferences. If your priority is to keep your costs down and do some of the work yourself, I’d recommend WTM (as long as you’re OK with what I would call grey-hat automation). If you want to free up as much of your time as possible, I’d recommend TS. If you can afford it, you might want to do BOTH… and then outsource the WTM stuff too, by hiring someone on Odesk and teaching them how to use it.
Hi Edward,
I wasn’t planning on making a post on this topic until I came across your comment today.
If your able to afford trying out Traffic Sage first, I would diffently give that a try before WTM’s.
I know Eric stands behind WTM’s but I’ve tried the membership out twice(about 6 months apart)on 2 different computers and trust me when I say these programs are full of problems and bugs.
Sorry for being so negative,
Gary
Majority of your visitors doesn’t make money–I might be wrong about that but thats what I have felt by looking at the comments on this site.
So i think spending this amount will be difficult.
If this was run by those 2 internet marketers, then I don’t think it was necessary to mention about the work being done in India.
Eric,
Thanks for the lessons, I read and listen with intrigue…..great. Again I refer to the Home Cash Course. My site is not active as I need to purchase Traffic Machines (Upselling again !!) What is the difference between “Real people” traffic and “Computer generated” traffic? I am told this is fake traffic
hey Eric, nice post.
I am from latinamerica(spanish people) and My question is… What is the best cutting edge strategy to use on spanish market that can catapult targeted traffic to any website? Looking forward to watching your tips and tricks …thanks
Thanks for the heads-up, Eric! I’ll let you know how it works out.
Eric
1. Completed all 39 lessons. THANKS!!!
2. Originally used WAH to get CLICKBANK,PAYPAL,JustHost,and a website.
3.I have gotten seperately a BOA acct, and Bishop Andrews.
4.I spent several hundred on Google advertising.
Not happy with my site appearence or .04% ROI from Google.
5.Devoured Bishops tutorials but had troubles getting its Software to install on WIN2K Prof. OP SYS.
A. I like what you say about TrafficSage but is my site even good enough to use them?
B. Could I add pages to it with other products first or could they provide other products?
C. I completed your 30 day book but I am not sure about doing this to add info products. I think maybe adding other affiliate products is better for me.
Any of your comments would be greatly appreciated, Thanks Bill
I am still waiting for Lesson #40 since one fortnight ago. Will you help me?
Hi Eric,
hi eric,
shafi from india, your all the lesson are great its help me lot
and Traffic Sage should be very helpful for my business.
Wishing you the best and waiting for the next lesson as soon
shafi
http://www.globalincomesolution.com
Thanks for the explanation….
as i know SEO is one of the hardest way to generate traffic.
Hope traffic sage will be the answer..
regards,
Lemy
http://RealTrafficSystem.com
Guaranteed Free Traffic Generation System
A) I would say yes your site looks good enough, but here is the real test…
Does it make any money?
Before investing in Traffic Sage, I would be sure to send at least a few hundred visitors to the site to make sure it actually converts visitors into income or subscribers.
B) I haven’t asked them about this, but yes I would think they could do affiliate product reviews for your monthly articles. You would probably just need to tell them what products to write the articles about.
C) I do recommend having your own product(s). We’ll be covering this more in depth throughout the lessons, so hopefully you can create your own product, in addition to the affiliate marketing that you’re doing.
It is possible to create “fake” traffic, by having bots (computers) repeatedly visit a site, potentially using different IP’s, etc. Of course Traffic Sages does not do that though.
The traffic methods would be the same for any language. Last time I checked, virtually every language other than English is still less competitive, particularly for PPC and SEO. So that means you could have some good opportunities to get traffic from your Spanish keywords. I will be covering traffic methods later on in my lessons.
May be you can try traffic sage and do a review on your site..:)
thank you eric for the great tips you are a great mentor ,waiting for the next lesson as i noticed you stopped sending them for me .
Hi Eric!
For 3 weeks, I have been waiting for Lesson #40,#41,#42,#43,#44 and so on but I couldn’t find them in junk or spam mail at all. Please assist me. Thanks!
Hi Eric,
I tried clicking on their “contact us” link to ask them a few questions but discovered that none of their links work except their “purchase now” button. Do you know how to contact them or if this is a glitch?
Thanks so much,
Chaszey
Eric has been away on vacation in Europe, but is preparing new lessons. Lesson 40 will be completed and posted soon.
The reason those links were dead is because that is my special affiliate page. Sorry about that. You can view their support page if you go to:
http://www.ericstips.com/trafficsage
I also have their email address.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the link, unfortunately the link you gave me doesn’t work either. 🙁 It says “page cannot be displayed.”
Can you send me their e-mail address so I can contact them directly?
Chaszey
Try going here:
http://trafficsage.com/support/
If you order from them directly, please just tell them I referred you.
Will certainly do if I decide to work with them. I’m a bit “put off” about the lack of contact opportunities. This is usually not a good sign in my opinion. We’ll see. 🙂
I’ll keep you posted.
Chaszey
I’ve not had any problems contacting them.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the response, regarding bots. I have now had 3600 visitors through trafficg, 63 hops on clickbank, and no sales! My website is active. I am worried about spending $297 with trafficsage as this monthly figure is not sustainable if it does not generate any sales. What should I do Eric?
Tim
http://yourfreewebsitesystem.com/wentworth8
BESTWORKATHOMEPRODUCTS.ORG
I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m going to catch up. Eric I’m so behind in my lessons. I got sidetracked with a vacation offer that took 495.00 out of my account and it’s taking me 2months or more to get it back. I’m stuck and can’t do anything until they credit this $$ back into my account. Thanks for the lesson. I’m trying to pick up where I left off. dp
I would focus on making sure your site converts before signing up for traffic sages. Send some PPC traffic if you’re not sure if it is real visitors.
The fact that you say $297/mo would not be sustainable would incline me to say you are not ready for TS. It’s not a silver bullet, and ideally it should be viewed as a long term strategy.
Get to the point where your business is bringing in $500/mo, then consider investing that in TS to ramp it up.
Hi Eric,
Continuing to follow your lessons. I took your advice and joined trafficsage. A bit pricey but you get what you pay for with them. I know it will take time, perhaps a couple of months, but they are very responsive. I’m impressed so far. My site is starting to show results.
Tim
bestworkathomeproducts.org
Eric, can you tell us about using press releases to launch websites. I just gave an interview to a local newspaper and wonder if I can release that interview as a way to pull traffic to my website.
Hi! Eric,
I am desperately searching for a video software which will allow me to upload welcome AVI video file. As soon as any person opens my website, a welcome video should play automatically.
How to make this happen ?
– Anthony
Lesson 41 shows how to put video on your website:
Yes you can use PR’s to get traffic. There are many free online PR sites where you can submit it. Of course there are submission services that you can pay for, but you could also just search for some PR sites and submit them manually.
Hi Eric,
Can you please help a bit more? Can you expand a little about making sure the site converts?
Tim
It’s simply a matter of whether your visitors are taking action on your website. If the purpose of your site is to sell something… are the current visitors buying? If not, then it’s not worth spending money on more visitors. If your objective is to build a list, are the current visitors opting in?
I will be doing a lesson on conversions in the near future.
Having read and listened to your theory on how to generate more traffic by outsourcing the work.This really makes sense as the general person out there still have a day job to deal with and cant always get as much done as they would like in the evening and at the weekend.
We all have other commitments
Hi Eric and fellow Eric’s Tips followers.
I realize that this lesson is now more than 3 months old, but I wanted to add my experience with Traffic Sage to it, to anyone who may come along later and read this.
Back in the middle of May shortly after this lesson was posted I decided to put Traffic Sage to the test on a brand new site that sells 1 clickbank product with no other forms of monetization. However, I selected the less expensive $297 per month option.
Still a pretty penny but as mentioned by an earlier poster, you get what you pay for. Perhaps that should be changed to “we hope to get what we pay for”.
First I would like to mention that this product is in the ever popular and competitive “golf” niche. However, I would like to add that I did my keyword research very carefully and selected phrases to target that were not overly competitive with a decent amount of searches as taught by many of the big name marketers.
To date I have spent $891 for the 3 months that I have been a member.
I joined on or about May 19th and my stats show 13 unique visitors for the month of May.
Just getting started so there’s no surprise there.
For the month of June my stats show 126 uniques. July = 334 and as of today (August 28th) the stats show 382 uniques for August.
So you can see that the traffic is growing.
The question is… is it growing fast enough to warrant a $297 payment each month?
Thus far my sales = Zero
If you add up the unique visitors to the site and do the math you’ll realize that I’ve paid over a dollar for each visitor.
I personally feel this is very expensive. Perhaps I’d feel differently had I made some sales.
I have canceled my subscription to Traffic Sage and believe that I can do better spending my traffic dollars in other places.
For example, I wonder how much traffic I would be receiving had I used that same $891 on having a bunch of articles written and submitted to EzineArticles.com???
Perhaps some of the other Eric Tips followers have had better experiences than me with Traffic Sage and I would encourage them to share it here as I did for marketers that come after us… to help them make the decision that is best for them.
Don P
Hi Eric, I have a quetion ….
I’d like to sign up for Traffic Sage, is it possible for someone to evalute my website and tell me if I would be able to benefit from this Service???
I’m sure Mike Ambrosio would be willing to take a look at it and let you know if it is suitable for their services.
If it’s the one linked to your name… I would not use that one. Since they’re working on SEO, it should be on your own domain, not webs.com.
See these lessons:
Hi Eric, traffic is what I need and I think at some point I need help generating some. Is that $497.00 per site? So if you have several sites ….it’s 497.00 times each site….every month???? choke choke choke…
Yes it’s $497 per site. Although you can optionally switch sites from month to month. I’m only using it for one site currently.
I am confused. At one place you say Traffic Sage is an Indian based Organisation.But according to it’s website, it seems Traffic Sage is run by you.
FQS & CONTACT US pages are also not reachable.
Will you please provide me clarification with means to contact Traffic Sage direct because I am a website owner looking for honest team to get assistance on a fair fee.
Please provide genuine details only.
Traffic Sage is not run by me. I am only their affiliate. I believe the company’s owners are US-based, but the workers are definitely in India. Try the FAQ on this one:
http://www.ericstips.com/trafficsage
Thanks Eric!
How do I get a hold of Mike Ambrosio … I went to their website (through the link above) to “Contact Us” but it takes to “The Page cannot be found” ….
Thanks so much for all of your lessons … they are amazing !
Blanca
Sorry, no need to answer the question above .. I kept reading and found the link you gave to Basil Perera they have a “Live Help Messanger” so I left a message and will wait to hear back from him.
Also, I did get a domain … and plan to forward to the webs.com … I understand it would be better to host it, but the way I have build my website in webs.com is just a lot of clickbank links for the traffic to end up at diferent sales pages. I would appreciate your thoughts on that … thank you so much
Blanca Ybarra
Hi Eric, I have a question please
I have started my site http://www.success-stuff.com (it is word press)
and added (add sense) for it and I am paying for the hosting every month but I did not gain any money yet which is a problem for me, I think now I need a lot of traffic and I want to outsource it, I can not afford the $500 of TS But I found another site that can make 250 back link for 50 sites for $20 a month and the first site is FREE ( http://www.linkserp.com ).
But the problem is that I have problem in getting my links up, I tried to do the steps they are saying so I begin to have back links but I failed, I think I did not understand their steps and I am trying to contact them through their support and forum for almost a month without any response, and I really do not know any one that can help me with this but you as you have been a great teacher for me and for a lot of people, also I think this site can be a good start for a lot of new people like me.
I know that you are busy but please if you may look at the site and explain what I must do to start making the back links (the steps is on the site but I am not professional so I think I made something wrong).
I will be wait for your help, thank you