Most of us who have started an online website have experienced disappointment of some shape or form during our promotion. The first time your new website goes live, expectations are usually high but it doesn't take long to discover not many people are beating down the door. So, is it possible to purchase traffic in a meaningful way to guarantee Internet success? Here's a personal account of my experiences marketing online.

With countless services promising they can deliver high quality, targeted traffic to your website...for a price of course. Do they work? The obvious answer is that some do and some don't and, as you expand your promotional plans, you are bound to experience both scenarios. They key is not be discouraged when you encounter an idea that does not work.

One example is the press release. Many online sites accept press releases, sometimes for a fee and sometimes for free. The key is to make sure you have a newsworthy story and don't expect to submit a press release every day and get the same exposure. For example, the first press release we sent out for DateAGolfer.com receives a lot of great exposure. It was included on Yahoo News, and as a result our hits went from virtually nothing to 1100 unique visitors a day. Needless to say, we thought this was going to be easy but the key here was that we had a unique idea that caught the attention of some media. As with most things though, our hits quickly dropped off as we became yesterday's news and life goes on.

One of the most popular options on the Internet is pay-per-click advertising. Search engines like Google and Yahoo offer reasonably priced text ads based on the keywords searchers use to find things online. By bidding on keywords, the idea is that people who are looking for what you offer are the ones who will see your ad. The most popular keywords are usually the most expensive and you need to track what you are spending and balance that with what you earn from your ad campaign.

Another option is purchased pure traffic. This usually works by having a site drive a guaranteed number of unique visitors to your site and this is done in most cases through redirecting traffic from parked domain names. For example, if the theme you choose is golf and a visitor goes to a golf domain that is not being used, they can be redirected to your site. While the sellers of this service claim this is highly targeted traffic, it usually results in visitors who did not want to go to your site in the first place and quickly move on. In our experience, this is a complete waste of money although they do deliver the visitors they promise and your hit counter will quickly rise.

So can you buy your way to Internet glory? You probably can if you have deep enough pockets. For the rest of us, it takes a lot of hard, persistent work. The more you get your name out there, the better. If you can do something each and every day, you can get to the promised land. Just keep at it.