One popular way of doing this is via invisible iframes embedded in popular, high-traffic websites such as gambling sites, forums and shopping sites.  An individual or company joins an affiliate program and then proceeds to acquire multiple hoplinks which are then placed in a webpage. This webpage is then secretly loaded into other webpages within a website via an inconspicuous or invisible iframe.  This allows for all the affiliate cookies to be deposited on your computer without your knowledge. Should you decide at a later point to purchase a product from one of the corresponding merchants, the cookie-depositing perpetrator gets credit for the sale.  And since it’s not uncommon for affiliate cookies to last 120 days or more before expiring, this leaves ample time for the cookies to do their dirtywork.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that can be done to safeguard against cookie stuffing.  The ultimate solution is one that must be implemented by the merchants themselves by issuing cookies that are not re-writable.  This way, once a visitor has received a cookie from a legitimate affiliate, it cannot be overwritten at a later point should this same visitor land on a page that has been stuffed with illegitimate cookies.

It helps to keep things in perspective. Think about the idea of guaranteed traffic in terms of the basic economic premises.  For example, I recently saw a company offering 1 million targeted, unique visitors for just $795. Say I’m selling product ‘X’.  One million targeted visitors for such a low price might seem reasonable if it weren’t for the fact that A) I am not the only one selling product ‘X’ and B) the company from which I purchased the 1 million visitors is not the only company selling targeted traffic.  If there are just 100 other competitors selling product ‘X’ and 100 other companies selling targeted traffic then there must also be 10 billion page views and/or searches for product ‘X’ (i.e., 1 million searches/visitors x 100 competitors x 100 traffic generation companies).  There aren’t even 10 billion people in the world, let alone 10 billion internet users!

No doubt there are legitimate companies out there.  Finding them is another task.  I have not used the following service personally but there are many people who seem to endorse it; it’s a site called traffictesters.com.  Feel free to post comments about it should you decide to try it.

There are many different ways of generating traffic– interstitial ads, expired domain redirects, embedding entire websites in a host page etc.–but the most common method as far as I can tell is the use of pop-under ads.  If you ask me, someone viewing an unrequested pop-under ad impression doesn’t really qualify as a “visitor”. To me, a visitor is a web user who comes to my website through his or her own volition.

In my opinion, effective SEO is hands down the best way to get traffic. If you’re not familiar with the concept of SEO then I’d suggest reading up on it.  If you don’t feel confident in your ability to optimize your site, then I’d suggest hiring a legitimate SEO company.

No doubt,  the raison d’être of any website is that it be seen by others.  Whether for vanity, the sharing of knowledge or making money via some business venture, no website can realize its full potential without traffic. In the case of the internet marketer, whose livelihood depends on selling a particular product or service, getting website traffic is not merely a preference, it is an act of survival.  Fail at this task and it’s time to start looking for a job—a frightening thought indeed!

The fact is, anyone can get “on the first page” of Google by simply opening an Adwords account and paying the market rate for a given keyword. Sure enough, your ad will appear somewhere on the first page of results among the SPONSORED listings–probably not what you had in mind when you forked over your hard-earned $600!  The promise of getting listed “on the first page of Google” is presumed to mean getting listed on the first page of natural search results.  The way these shady firms hide behind semantics calls to mind the character Benny Gibbs, who in the movie “Trial and Error” was a con man accused of fraudulently advertising copper engravings of Abraham Lincoln for $17.99.  Customers did in fact receive a copper “engraving” of Abraham Lincoln which, by the way, also happened to be a copper penny!  Sometimes semantics makes all the difference in the world.

The harsh reality is that achieving a true top ranking in the organic search results is most often neither cheap nor easy.  This is not to say that it’s impossible or takes forever; just that it isn’t likely to happen in a few days.  Part of this has to do with how the search engines work.  Google, for example, looks for one-way links, or “backlinks”, from relevant¹ authority sites.  But link-building campaigns, even when aggressively pursued, often start out slow. Webmasters must see the value in your content, which presumes you have content and plenty of it.  They must see how a link to your site adds value to their own.  It’s a process that starts by contacting one webmaster at a time.

So when considering paying an “expert” to accelerate your ranking in the search engines don’t be afraid to press the sales rep for clarification on exactly what is being promised.  Ask clarifying questions and get things in writing.  A little due diligence goes a long way when your hard-earned dollars are at stake.

^{1. Not all externally linking sites must be relevant in subject matter so long as they are quality sites; but all things equal, a link from a relevant site is preferred.}