TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow.
(Part 1 of 3)
Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton
If you're feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about
how to get visitors to your website and generate more
sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way
until I stopped listening to every "big time" marketer that
came along with the latest traffic generating trick.
You've got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and
every one of them has the solution to all of your problems.
Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic
explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.
Time out.
Take a deep breath.
Sit back in your chair.
Relax.
Now, if you will focus your energy on a very short list of
traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and
commit to continually improving your skills in these few
areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve... WILL
achieve.
Websites come in a wide variety of flavors, including...
- Minisites designed to sell individual products
- Portal sites designed to sell a broad selection of
products
- Content sites designed to provide information
Of the above site species (minisites, portal sites and
content sites), which do you think has the best chance of
selling a product and putting income in your bank account?
ANSWER: Minisites.
Let's talk about web traffic.
Imagine 5 different internet users going to Google, MSN,
Yahoo or whatever their favorite search engine happened to
be, and each individual enters one of the following search
queries:
Search #1: hazards
Search #2: household hazards
Search #3: chemical household hazards
Search #4: chemical household hazards for infants
Search #5: protecting infants from chemical household
hazards
If you had a website that sold a device that guaranteed the
safety of infants by locking cabinets containing hazardous
household chemicals, which of the above visitors do you
think would be most likely to buy what you're selling? I
know. I hear you. "That's pretty obvious, Ron."
We want internet user #5 most. We may also want #3 and #4.
Do we want #1 and #2? Maybe... Maybe not. The answer to
that is going to depend on what it takes to get them to our
site. But before we attempt to answer that question, HERE'S
SOMETHING CRITICAL...
My Question to You: "If you were assured that you could get
visitor #5 to your website, where would you send them?"
Let's say that your website had a variety of home safety
products available. You sell everything from fire
extinguishers to first aid kits to carbon monoxide
detectors to child safe locks.
Your site's home page has just a little bit of information
on each of your home safety product lines. Would you send
visitor #5 to your home page?
Or...
Since visitor #5 just did a search for "protecting infants
from chemical household hazards", would you have better
results by sending them directly and immediately to the web
page where they can order your device that guarantees the
safety of their child from chemical household hazards?
Please don't think that I'm trying to insult your
intelligence. I'm not. It's just that I have received
correspondence from other direct marketers online concerned
about the low sales of their websites only to find out that
whenever that person sent traffic to their site, the
traffic was going to their home page rather than to a page
that spoke directly to the needs and desires of the visitor.
Alrighty then? Traffic time.
There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.
Since #3 is not an option we're going to consider, that
leaves us with "buy it" and "borrow it".
Before we go any further, let's talk about the "Holy Grail"
of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it.
You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants
it.
Here's the truth...
It's a myth.
It doesn't exist.
There is no such thing as free website traffic.
"Ya but Ron, what if I could be #1 in Google for 'Internet
Marketing' or 'Website Tools'?"
If you were able to get there or anywhere close, what would
be required? What investment in time and resources would be
required to land a prized spot such as this? Would you be
able to get there for free? Furthermore, how long would
you stay there?
Let's face it, neither Google, Yahoo, Altavista nor MSN
wants any individual to be able to control the results of
their search engines. That's why they spend millions upon
millions of dollars every year taking steps to ensure that
nobody has the knowledge to control all of the top
positions.
Is search engine positioning something to aspire to?
Perhaps. Given time. But it will not put any money in your
pocket in the short term. That's pretty well guaranteed.
There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
Buy it? Yes, buy it. We're not talking about fortunes
changing hands. There's no need to take out a second or
third mortgage on you home to use this strategy. Traffic
can be generated to your site for literally pennies per
visitor.
Where will you buy traffic to your website? PPC Search
Engines. PPC ("Pay Per Click") search engines give you the
best opportunity to find the most motivated buyers and get
them to visit your website. This is what you should be
considering for your primary method of generating traffic
to your website.
Remember above where we considered searcher #1 - searcher
#5? We want searcher number five on our website, right?
Right. We can and will find searcher #5 on the PPC search
engines if we take the right approach. In a little bit I'll
give you a list of PPC search engines to consider using,
but first let's formulate a game plan.
Here's the basics of PPC advertising:
1) We have a product to sell.
2) We determine what the product has to offer and why
someone might want to buy our product. (hint: focus on
benefits, not features)
3) We do some keyword research to see if people are out
there actually looking for the solution that our product
offers.
4) Assuming that there's sufficient demand for our product
/solution, we make a list of the keywords and keyword
phrases that people are actually using to conduct their
searches.
5) We write an ad for our product in such a way that it
gets the attention of the searcher. This may mean changing
ad copy slightly from one keyword phrase to the next. Try
to put yourself in the position of the person doing the
search.
6) We bid on the keywords that we're targeting with the ad
that we've written and...
Wa-la! Traffic.
Is this a viable option? Absolutely. Google Adwords ads
can be had for as little as $0.05 per click. Overture
traffic can be had for as little as $0.10 per click.
If you're selling a product for $19.95, how many clicks can
you buy and still be profitable? One sale out of 199
clicks and you're profitable. At this rate you only made a
nickel, but that was at a conversion rate of only 0.5%!
What if you had a conversion rate of 3%? 3% (3 visitors
out of 100 become customers) doesn't sound like too much
does it?
If you did indeed have a 3% conversion rate on a $19.95
product and were able to buy traffic for $0.10 per visitor,
here's how the math works:
100 visitors cost you $10.00
3 visitors became customers and spent a total of $59.85.
Subtract your $10.00 advertising cost from your $59.85
revenue, and you have profited $49.85 (or somewhere close
after PayPal or other selling fees).
So now, how much can you afford to spend on traffic?
If you've been running the above advertising campaign long
enough to feel confident that a 3% conversion ratio is
something that you can count on, then do the math backwards.
Your net profit is $49.85 for 100 visitors. Therefore,
your "per visitor" value is $0.50 (I'm rounding up very
slightly). Knowing this is a huge advantage.
Can you find more visitors to your site for $0.20, $0.30 or
even $0.40? Of course you can, and it will still be
profitable! Obviously, the less you spend on advertising,
the more you keep. But if you could find a source of
automatic traffic that you knew was profitable, wouldn't
you buy as much as you could find?
This is exciting stuff! PPC traffic can work for you.
Yes, there's a little bit of a learning curve, but that's
true with anything new that you do.
Here's a list of PPC Search Engines that you should
consider starting with:
Google AdWords (http://www.adwords.google.com)
Overture (http://www.overture.com)
FindWhat (http://www.findwhat.com)
Enhance Interactive (http://www.enhance.com)
GoClick (http://www.goclick.com)
7Search (http://www.7search.com)
Kanoodle (http://www.kanoodle.com)
ePilot (http://www.ePilot.com)
Search123 (http://www.search123.com)
SearchFeed Interactive (http://www.searchfeed.com)
eSpotting (http://www.espotting.com)
Xuppa (http://www.xuppa.com)
There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
In part 2 of this series, we'll continue our thoughts on
"(1) Buy it" - traffic that is.
----------------------------------------------------
Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a
passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to "GoThrive
Online", for big juicy marketing tips in small,
easy-to-chew, bite size servings. 17 Free Cool Tools...
http://www.gothrive.com
