Traffic Talks If you don't have traffic, something needs to change. If you have traffic but no response to your agenda, something needs to change. If they're not buying, subscribing, calling, visiting again, or what have you, something isn't working. The Net is a cause and effect medium, just like Direct Response. Not using the response aspect of the Net is like running radio commercials over TV. Sure you can do it, but watching a test pattern whilst a radio spot plays seems obtuse and out of place, because that spot isn't using the full potential of the medium, and by that I don't mean full motion video or sound or anything beyond simple actions that the visitor can take. People seem so wrapped up in getting traffic and not at all involved in what to do with it once it comes knocking at your homepage. Folks spend way too much time trying to figure out how to get into the top ten of search results. This is in some ways a fool's game. Why? Because everybody is trying to get into the top ten and optimize their site for the search engines, therefore canceling much of the efforts out. Search engines account for less than 30% of WDFM's traffic. I'm much more interested in having more sites point to WDFM. This focus pays of two ways. First, another site that points to WDFM (there are a few thousand) typically writes a nice review of the site which serves as a third party endorsement. Second, many search engines keep track of link popularity and factor that into their search results. So how does one get so many sites to point you? Consistancy. Deliver something of value consistently over a long period of time. It's proof in the pudding type marketing, or "Marketing by Doing." That commitment shows up in site referrals as well as media coverage. USA Today, BottomLine Business, DM News, I-Marketing News, CNN, CBS, and other outlets have featured WDFM in their editorial. Nothing drives traffic like editorial. Of course a web site may well be in place to inform or entertain, but ultimately something measurable somewhere along the line should happen. In this age where accountability is king, it's only natural to look at this extremely measurable medium for some kind of results. In WDFM's case, the results are by way of people who subscribe to this email newsletter. Thereafter, the response to ads can and is measured. People hire me to critique their site, speak to their groups, write columns for them and so on. But it all begins with getting traffic to http://wdfm.com and having them subscribe. The truth is, very few readers ever go back to the WDFM site. Sure, some people use the calculators and the Archives, or read articles I've written. But they only serve to bring people into the fold or keep them there. Actually, those CPM calculators are one of the attractions that other sites (including the University of Texas) point to. For years I obsessed over getting more traffic to WDFM. Then it dawned on me to instead work on optimizing the traffic I already had coming to me. I put in a pop-up window for subscriptioning to WDFM which boosted response by 25%. I then put an offer of Top Ten Tips for starting an email newsletter in that pop-up window which increased subscriptions by another 10-15%. So you see, it's not just about the raw traffic numbers you have coming to your site, but rather what you do with what you've already got. |
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