The Real Truth About Traffic
In today’s post we want to share the real truth about traffic with you.
These are things that we’ve learned along the way over the past six years (sometimes the hard way). We don’t hear a lot of people talking the real truth about traffic and it’s a shame really as a lot of people give up on their dream of making money online because they don’t understand traffic, how to get it or what it is even.
Being around newbie entrepreneurs much of the time we get asked constantly about traffic or answer questions about traffic that they didn’t know or understand. We want to tell you the real truth about traffic as we see it and with your help spreading the message maybe we can keep the hopes and dreams of aspiring entrepreneurs alive.
What is Traffic
Traffic is people (often known as visitors to a website) who are interested or ‘may be interested’ at some point in what you are selling (your products, services, opportunity etc). There is a whole process around that which we will cover in another article but suffice to say traffic is people.
The Real Truth About Traffic # 1 – Not All Traffic Is Created Equal
What we mean is that there is high quality traffic and low quality traffic and you really need to know the difference. When we began our journey online we just knew we needed traffic but we didn’t really understand there for a difference. We want to shortcut that learning for you today.
High quality traffic comes from things like writing reports, articles, blogs, webinars, video marketing etc. They are good because they are usually giving high value before asking for anything in return. So for example you are reading this blog article without having to give anything in return to read it. You may leave a comment (please) or share with others on social media (please) – reciprocating because you want to and you can and because we are not pitching you anything. It’s just pure value. You might know it as “pre-selling”. It creates what we call an audience or “warm traffic” who because you have given value up front will later most probably buy from you because of the trust you have built up and the high quality free information you have provided.
To be honest, this is exactly how we have built our business and respect in the industry.
Let’s look at low quality traffic sources so you can easily see the difference.
Low quality traffic comes from things like safe lists, traffic exchanges, free postings and auto posting commenting. Whilst this type of traffic can create clicks they are usually of a very low quality and will probably NEVER buy from you because they are people getting paid to do things with no intention of every buying from you. We’re just giving you the benefit of our experience here because like all newbies we tried this stuff.
Then there are these sites that tell you that when you subscribe (for peanuts pretty much) and pay a monthly subscription they will provide you with 200 leads for a dollar a day. Seriously! Think about it. Where do you think the leads are coming from? They are coming from all the people who subscribe to the site so your name goes into the melting pot of the 200 leads you get access to each day…
The real truth is that bad traffic methods hurt good people. Sad but true!
So that’s the real truth about traffic number one spoken from experience.
The Real Truth About Traffic #2
As someone we respect hugely in the world of traffic once said “there are only two sources of traffic. There is traffic that you buy and traffic that you earn”
Let’s look first at traffic that you buy. That is the most powerful traffic and is available to anyone with a shall we say “modest” budget. It includes such things as banner advertising, solo ads and pay-per-click (especially Facebook). There are a host of other ways but we’re just looking at the best known and those that someone new just starting out would be looking at. Even solo ads (which we get asked about the most often) come under “good traffic” and “bad traffic” It pays to thoroughly research solo providers and always test small to begin. If what they offer sounds too good to be true it usually is! If they approach you (say on Facebook) to sell their traffic it’s a good warning sign to stay away. When you do buy then please test and measure your results ALWAYS.
Then there is traffic that you earn. This comes from things like article marketing (very popular when we first started out), blogging, posting and taking part in forums, social media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, viral marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO). In all of these it’s about providing high quality and original content and establishing an audience who consume your content and the most likely to join your list and buy the products that you recommend.
Regardless of how you choose to get traffic to your offers you are responsible for the follow up. No one else will do that for you. You’ve heard the expression “the fortune is in the follow up” it’s absolutely true. Actually the fortune is the relationship you build with your subscribers through the follow up!
The Real Truth About Traffic #3
When it comes to traffic you need less than you think. It’s probably the polar opposite to what you have read or heard where everyone is saying you want masses of traffic. The truth is that you need much less than you think and that’s because of what you do with the traffic you have not how much you have!
To explain we will have to cover something we call list building here and we’ll write more on that in another article. Basically if you don’t build a list, you might for example just promote a site (send traffic to it). Maybe you get 1,000 visitors and make say 10 sales. You make money there and then. After that it’s over. What if instead you sent sent those visitors to a lead capture page (sometimes known as a squeeze page) and a good proportion of those people opted in to your list. Well now you have a mailing list of real prospects that have raised their hands and said they want to hear from you. This is what those successful online entrepreneurs do and how they are able to sell to their list over an over again.
Attracting quality traffic to what you have on offer if by far a away the best way to build your business. These people will over time buy from you provided you build a good relationship with them and cover all the reasons the were attracted to join your list in the first place.
To explain better, we are in the business education and training for entrepreneurs niche so we produce content like this and on social media, videos, articles, e-books, webinars, free training etc to build an audience interested in what we do. When they sign up to one of our lists we send them the information they asked for (held up their hand for) and continue to answer their questions, cover their objections and many will eventually buy from us. Those that don’t we continue to communicate with sending our regular newsletters covering topics of interest and introducing them to offers they may be interested in.
The whole point of this article is to provide you our readers with the real truth about traffic and show you how with the right education you can achieve success in your business and build a list that will serve you if you serve it well. Don’t fall for hype like clicking on websites saying you can make a $1,000.000 or “go from zero to $10K in 10 days”. It isn’t going to work. Do what every successful marketer does. Build a list and use follow up email marketing.
We hope this has given you an insight and shown you the real truth about traffic
If you would like our free online business training series – click here
Traffic Generation Resources
We only recommend resources and tools we use ourselves. These are what we use for capturing leads (traffic) and then to follow up with that traffic.
Recommended Reading
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Who Are We
We’re former accountants of a certain age (60+) with 5 great kids and 3 grandchildren. We love skiing and travelling the world and have achieved a fabulous life helping others to start and build a successful business online and now speak on international stages following that passion. Our worldwide educational business is centered on online marketing business education and wealth creation and a desire to help you create financial freedom online through entrepreneurship whatever your age or experience.
Authors : The Mindset Shift
Skype : chrisbeesley1 susanbeesley1
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