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!
I’ve taken a look at their site, but I don’t see any information about how to make it work, unless I were to sign up for an account. The fact that they are not replying to your support requests for a month would lead me to believe it’s not the kind of service I would want to invest in.
Hi Eric,
This is Ramesh from India…all your lessons were very helpful…i have started my new blog and wanted to make money out of it …plz mail me more tips & tricks to improve my blog
Thanks a lot for all your support
Ramesh.G
Hi Eric, I did not see any special deal. Just their fees of $497 and if you join as an affiliate you get $100 off of the first level when someone purchases from your link. Does this mean you can purchase from yourself and get the $100 off the first month? Also, I am wondering if this is a unique service? Arn’t there lots of companies who provide this? Knowing how much time is involved it does sound like a good deal. Traffic is not easy to come by. Pardon my hesitation, but I question every deal as most people who point a deal out to me are affiliates so they have much to gain to promote a company. So far I have no reason to doubt you Eric. Good stuff so far. Even when I have had traffic I cannot seem to sell anything! I plan on using the concept on your old site- Insider System to sell some new products. Not sure what to focus on. How do you figure what to market? Thanks for any info.
As far as I know you are not supposed to order thru your own affiliate link. Try this link, you will see there is another package that is cheaper:
Traffic Sage
There are many companies that provide outsourcing services, but I have not seen a lot that specifically focus on the SEO needs of Internet marketers.
There are plenty of SEO firms, but most of them cost multiples of what you would pay for Traffic Sage.
You could get it done cheaper if you hired one or two fulltime workers from India or Philippines and trained them to do the work. But that’s the trade-off… then you have to manage and train them… or hire a manager, etc.
But if you’re planning on building your business over the long term, then building your own team is not a bad idea either.
As far as figuring out what to market…
This will sound oversimplified, but the key when it comes to selling infoproducts is to sell them what they WANT. There are various ways of finding what they want, some of which are covered in my lessons.
Thanks Eric for the tips. But it’s a bit too costly at this stage. Do you have any tips on getting more traffic for a free dating site?
Yes I will be covering traffic methods throughout several lessons soon.
Bonjour from sw France, hope you enjoyed your visit France, I am Irish , & my Husband &I just love living here. thanks for your wonderful lessons, Traffic Sage sounds terrific, but a bit expensive for the moment. Au revoir Nuala
Wow. $500 is pretty steep for a start up site to have to pay … and it seems high for a company from India.
Mr Eric, i envy you o! Am just struggling to float my own website and start making money so that i can afford things like holiday and the rest. Have a great time . Thanks.
Aisha are u nigeran
Iv used alot of web marketing business to get my web site out. The first one just rip me off, and the 2nd one just gave me traffic, but 95% of it was from out of the u.s and most of my items dont ship out of u.s My question is do you see the traffic? are you getting a higher sales each month.
Iv had my store open on the net now for going on 5yrs Iv never seen it for FREE. That is doing you good and not harm. If you cant put any money into marketing your site, then do it yourself then you know who your getting too
yeah wow….it’s a bit expensive for new starters.
Eric Like I explain on my blog at http://secretmarketinglinks.com/2010/02/09/pros-cons-of-outsourcing/ there are people (like John Jonas) who can do the training in your place, this cost +/- 99$ extra each month. Traffic Sage seems also interesting, but will they also update your blogs, or create your products and articles following your instructions, or read an Ebook and follow the instructions in it for you?
You’re right… and if you’re willing to build your own team it’s a great way to go.
Is the $1 per visitor, “the How To” outlined anywhere within your course. Great info is so!!
Lessons #59-70 is where I cover list building, and that’s really the foundation of it. Let’s say 10% of your visitors join your list. And let’s say you have an average LTV of $10 per subscriber. Right there, that would be an avg of $1 per visitor.
Too early for me Eric… Still doing my own writing, linking posting etc! I would be happy to outsource later, and have bookmarked this page in its own categorie!
Hi Eric,
Your tips are very helpful keep up the good work! I am looking forward to your updates
I will definitely give traffic sage a try someday.
Regards,
Erwin Ensing
http://www.guaranteedtraffictsunami.net
Hi, thanks by the share, as one of the comments says, it’s not for me yet, hope some day would. In the meantime let me askyou, what do you think about bots software, they could be cheaper, most of them are one time payment. Yesterday I received an email with a 27$ offer for a rss bot with captcha support, do you recommend that kind of tools ?
I do recommend some automation tools… it just depends on what it does. Some of them are spammy and I do not recommend using those ones.
I think you’re a bit off here. Your article is based on the idea of using comments to create traffic. As commented that should not be a primary goal
Eric, love your tips and appreciate all you are doing here. But at $500 per site, yikes that is about my total monthly income from IM stuff. I’ve been ripped off over the years for more but I hesitate to put all my eggs in one basket. True, you have a great amount of credibility in recommending them and I know you wouldn’t recommend a ripoff, but for people who are not yet well into at least 4 figures a month, that is kind of out of reach unfortunately.
Eric,
Nice review as always also hope you enjoyed your vacation.This sounds like something I might be interested in doing in the future as I know for a fact how time consuming SEO and traffic can be. Anyhow thanks for the tip and keep up the good work.
Absolutely, this is only for those who are at that the point in their business of being able to afford outsourcing and understanding how to monetize it.
Love all your video training Eric, I am completely gob-smacked at all this top quality info, for a rank newbie its exactly what I needed to cut through all the hype and confusion!!! I’m up to lesson 40 . . . but in one of the first lessons you said “Stop buying stuff” so I have. But you keep sending these interesting email promos sometimes. I have resisted because I keep in mind your “stop buying stuff” message. This means I have missed out on some great time limited stuff . . . at the end of these lessons are you going to say “glad to see you didn’t buy any stuff along the way, well done, so here is a great package with all the right stuff your gonna need right here, only $97” ? Just a thought. : )
As you’ve seen, I do offer you several things for sale and recommendations throughout the lessons. I do not try to hide this. But I try to give you the info to make educated decisions for your own business. I recommend things that I believe will help you. But not every recommendation is right for every person.
No there will not be one package offer at the end of the lessons, not a bad idea though 😉
At $497 per month per site it’s probably great value if you’re already earning at least a consistent $1-2k per month.
For those that are not or are just starting out that’s probably going to be seen as a high ticket luxury.
You mention list building is going to pop up at about lesson #59 so we just wondered … how many lessons in total are there ? 🙂
Gary & Val
Exactly.
There will be 100 lessons.
Thank you Eric!
You know how to help us beginners!
Lessons and information’s you provide are so helpful!
Thank you for your time!
Thanks for the great information. I am doing research as I begin my new business. You’ve been very helpful.
hi Eric,
are you familiar with ebrandz? they are an indian company as well … do you know if they provide a good service?
I also want to know your oppinion, i am interested in reselling their services (private label service) but not sure if its a good idea, specially if i don’t have much money to invest
Hello Edgar,
Thanks for pointing out the service. We are unfamiliar with Ebrandz.
If Eric feels that it would benefit his readers at this stage, he’ll be sure to do a review.
Hello Edgar,
You might want to get started as an affiliate first, to get practice promoting products and services online.
Have you tried out Eric’s free Writing Cash Program?
http://www.writingcash.com/
Many have found this program to be a great place to begin their careers as affiliate and PLR marketers.
Hi Eric,
I just wanted to say thank you for your lessons i know there are guys on the internet charging loads of money for what you give away for free.
Im just staring out with my new websites and must say that traffic has been the biggest challenge for me so far.
But im really enjoying all the new stuff im learning which hopefully will start to make me some money eventually.
Keep up the great work,
Gaz
Eric, you are doing a great job helping all of us who really need it… Not know how to earn any income, but sure need extra… hope soon I will be able to create income so I can afford Traffic Sage and all the other tools you recommended so far and earn enough to pay all debts and live a financially secure lifestyle.
Love to read more of your tips… they are all so helpful… thanks so much again.
Hi Eric,
many thanks for all your lesson and advice, sorry if this aliitle bit out of topic.
I found the program call traffic travis, what do u think about it ?
thanks for your answer and best wishes,
Jefvz
Hello Jefvz,
Eric recommends Traffic Travis in the following lesson:
Hello Eric,
I’ve been working day and night to make ends meet with programs to be successful it has been a challenge for me to reach the level I want to be comfortable with in enjoying my future with the success I hope to have in the near future being limited to what I can do is blocking me from developing more profits with programs that can make me huge amounts of income to move forward thanks for sharing
Hi Eric,
Their website is not working.
Do your health issues include a fever? Cause that video doesn’t seem to be working ;)[for the ‘$1773 advantage’]
Much appreciate all the knowledge you are sharing so freely, keep up the great work! If you’re interested in some powerful transformational tools, I would love to offer you our whole suite of tools and comprehensive system as a little thank you, just let me know…
Get better soon & enjoy everything!
Michael
Hello Michael,
Here is a link that should help you to be able to view the videos properly:
Hello Eric,
This sounds great. And I’m glad you had a chance to vacation, worry free in Europe. I come from the French part of Switzerland myself, so I can relate to travelling in these parts of Europe, love it!
I do not have an operational internet site yet but I read your blogs because I find it interesting.
Question: Have you determined how much more traffic that company helped you generate traffic?
Well, thanks again for your interesting articles and videos!
Wonderful weekend to you and yo
Hi Eric,
Maybe they are good but they are not taking any new members at the moment (23 Nov 2011). Just add name to list for notification when they will be doing
Hi Eric..thaks for sharing on outsourcing. i have hired someone at Odesk for writing an Ebook on health niches (skin care). But i think i want to find someone again for review back my ebook and add additional contents to make it more attractive. I dont regret with the first hiring ( cost me less than $100).but is it okay for rhiring somewhere elso for more improvement? and how much should its cost?
Hi Abdul,
Eric actually has an entire lesson devoted to Outsourcing tips:
Your lessons are awsome. I learned so many tricks! Thanks
I’ve lost thousand of dollars by outsourcing my projects in the past. I didn’t have enough experience at that time. However, I spent many years of searching, looking, testing what works and what doesn’t work with outsourcing. I’ve learned about reputable companies from India, and other places to outsource. For example, one company is working on my website: http://www.mysearchbug.com, I will not hire any other company to do that job for me. But I also know the company’s weakness. I don’t ask them to do everything for me. I outsource to another company.
Thanks for the info this sounds very helpful can you recommend a good company or person to outsource to? thanks again 🙂