It seems to be in vogue these days to downplay the importance of
web traffic. It's popular (and perfectly valid) to say things
like: "Traffic is worthless if you don't turn it into money."
Excellent point, but this assumes that you actually have some
traffic to begin with. Each step of the Internet Marketing
Process is not just important - it's required for success. So,
let's focus today on getting traffic to your site, and remember:
A. Getting traffic to your site is like putting gas in your car.
You can have a great engine, but it won't go anywhere without
the gas. Likewise, you can have a perfect sales letter - but
without traffic, it's just pretty to look at.
B. The highest traffic sites of the world do not just get a
little more traffic than the next guy - they get exponentially
more traffic than the next guy. For example, according to Media
Metrix, AOL's network weighed in at #1, getting more traffic
than any other site in the world in April of 2001. Amazon was
ranked #10. Both are top ten sites... And the difference? AOL
had 89,000,000 visitors that month and Amazon had 19,000,000.
That's a whopping difference of 70,000,000 visitors between the
#1 site and the #10 site.
Interestingly, the higher up the ranks you go, the greater the
gap between each site.
So, what's the difference? Why is it that the better a site
gets, the further behind it leaves its closest competitor? Here
are their secrets:
1. They Set Up "Multiple Streams of Traffic"
Back in 1995 I observed an interesting phenomenon. I found that
the likelihood of someone responding to your website was highly
dependent on the path they took to get there.
People may ask you "what is the conversion rate of your
website," but that is really an irrelevant question. Conversion
rates are meaningless unless they take into consideration how
someone gets to your website. (Test this yourself and you'll
find it to be true.)
So, I coined the phrase "All Clicks are Not Created Equal." For
example, traffic from a site recommending your product is more
likely to generate a sale than traffic from a site criticizing
your product. That's an extreme example, but you get the point,
right?
When people discover this, their natural tendency is to start
getting picky about how they get their traffic. Why waste your
time on traffic that won't generate a sale, right?
If you're paying for advertising, this makes perfect sense.
However, many people mistakenly throw away traffic from free
sources as a result.
High traffic sites never throw away traffic and constantly
endeavor to set up new traffic streams.
Let's take the worst possible traffic source imaginable: FFA
pages. Traffic from FFA ads is extremely sparse. To make
matters worse, this traffic is rarely the source of an immediate
sale. Very little amounts of the lowest quality traffic in the
world - yep, I think that qualifies it as the worst possible
traffic source.
If, however, you have an automated FFA promotion going that
doesn't take you any time to maintain and still brings in
traffic, should you throw it away?
Maybe not...
I still have in place free automatic traffic building sources
that I set up years ago. Much of the traffic that comes from
these free sources is of low quality, but hey, I don't lift a
finger to get it any more.
Most super-high-traffic sites are constantly working on new ways
to bring in traffic - many of which are not very sophisticated
at all. Even Yahoo, for example, uses a low-budget "tell a
friend" script on their site to encourage people to forward
articles to their friends. Does Yahoo care that anyone can do
this with a free CGI script? Of course not. It's just one of
thousands of traffic sources they've established.
When you read #3 below, you'll realize why "low-quality" traffic
may not be so bad after all...
Remember, though, if you're paying for "cheeseburger" traffic,
don't pay a steak-and-lobster price. Better: get your
cheeseburger traffic for free from as many automated sources as
you can.
2. They Use Viral Marketing
"Viral Marketing" was the vogue buzz-phrase of 1999. Several
books have been written on the subject in hopes of cracking the
code, but still very few sites are taking advantage of this
incredible concept.
Viral Marketing is any type of marketing that encourages people
to spread your marketing message around for you.
Think about this - it sure would be great if people advertised
your product for you, wouldn't it? It beats the heck out of
paying for advertising.
Here's a viral marketing story for you:
When I started the e-book marketing craze back in 1995 with the
release of "Search Engine Tactics," I promoted the book with a
very simple viral marketing scheme.
Here's what I did:
I put a note in the book itself that everyone was granted
permission to give away or even sell the book on their sites.
They would benefit by giving something of value to their
visitors - I would benefit by advertising products in the book.
The people that they gave it to saw the note in the book, and
they gave it away on their sites - and so on...
So, did this work? You be the judge:
a. The e-book was downloaded over 1,000,000 times when we last
counted in 1998.
b. The e-book was noted by ZDNet as one of the top downloads of
1999, and is the only e-book ever to be given 5 Stars by ZDNet.
c. Experts have since written entire books about my little ploy
showing people how, they too, can unleash the viral power of
free e-books as traffic builders.
The point? Well, one simple viral marketing tactic put my name
on the map. Granted, it was an unusually successful virus, but
this was just one simple tactic...
People are still giving this book away on their sites today, and
I haven't done anything to promote it in years.
High traffic sites are always looking for new ways to spread
their message virally.
3. They Turn Traffic into More Traffic
This is where most people blow it. Allow me to explain...
Whenever I consult for businesses I always teach my "Internet
Marketing Battle Plan" concept and use that as the basis for
everything we do. This lays the groundwork for the best
marketing possible. (Side Note: I very rarely do any consulting
anymore - and usually only as a favor to close friends. I just
don't have time for it - I love it, but my own Internet business
is too lucrative to spend time doing anything else.)
The Internet Marketing Battle Plan is a cohesive system
consisting of 5 unique tactics that represent each step of the
Internet Marketing Process. All successful Internet Marketing I
have encountered follows one form or another of this plan.
Step 4 is: "A Tactic for Getting People to Come Back to Your
Site."
If you're selling a product on your site, remember that most
sales are not closed the first time someone hears about a
product. Obviously, getting people to come back will greatly
increase your chances of closing a sale.
If you're selling advertising on your site, clearly getting
initial traffic to come back over and over again will snowball
your traffic.
There are thousands of ways to do this, but you always need to
have:
a. An incentive for getting them to come back.
For example, at the killertacticsjournal.com site, we entice you
to come back by offering free marketing advice each week from
world-leading experts. This incentive needs to be truly
valuable or it won't work.
If we offered misguided advice from self-proclaimed experts, it
would not be nearly the same incentive. Instead, we offer
battle tested advice from undisputed world-leading experts like
Jay Conrad Levinson, Brian Tracy, Joe Sugarman, Ted Nicholas...
If we didn't offer you value each time, you just wouldn't come
back, and you wouldn't be reading this article right now!
b. A method of informing them of the incentive.
For example, you sign up for our newsletter and we inform you
whenever this new information is available. You come back and
this starts the cycle again.
Can you think of other ways to inform people about your
incentives? Use your imagination.
High traffic websites always keep people coming back for more.
You now have the plan - it's up to you to put it into action.
Work on all three of these secrets every single day and I assure
you that your traffic will increase dramatically.
About the Author
Mark Joyner is the CEO of Aesop.com, editor of the Killer
Tactics Journal, and author of several books including 1001
Killer Internet Marketing Tactics - a must have tool for
anyone serious about doing business on the Internet.