estimating traffic from a site not my own

[Josea]

Is there a way to estimate how much traffic another site has? For example if I wanted to buy an ad on their site but they don't give their traffic info or I just don't know if I could believe their claims.

Is there a site that can provide such information for free? I know of Alexa, but I'm not sure how to read their figures and I have read in some places that they are not very accrate.

I really only need a ball park estimate so I can decide if a site is worth paying to advertise at.

[Cozy Monica]

Alexa can give you a general idea, but no, it isn't super accurate. It can be fooled and also, their toolbar isn't used as heavily anymore so the stats themselves are skewed.

The lower the number, the higher the traffic a site has. So if they rank 5000, that's better than 100000.

You can also look at page rank. If they have a zero, they likely aren't getting a lot of google traffic yet, but if they have a three or more, you at least know they are listed and getting some traffic.

I also look at their link trades. What sites are they linking with, and do I know any of those, are they huge sites?

For the most part, you kind of have to form an opinion and just risk it. Then, if you aren't seeing enough traffic back from the link or advertisement you wanted, then you don't do it again, or remove their trade or whatever.

[Josea]

Thank you. I kind of figured it would be hard to get such data but was hoping some on knew how. I'll take your advice and test the site(s) I have in mind.

Once again, thank you.