Before you go out and buy traffic to your site, read this short article, it could save you a lot of time and money (oh and if you are not familiar with the term “Traffic”, that just means getting exposure to your website so that humans come and visit it ).
There are different kinds of traffic: Organic Search Engine traffic, Pay Per Click traffic (i.e. Google Adwords), Banner Ad traffic, Social Media traffic, email marketing traffic, Adsense traffic, affiliate marketing traffic, word of
So pause, and think: What kind of product and/or service am I offering and what kind of traffic would be best suited for my biz?
Do you have an evergreen product that is for sale all the time on your site?
If so, then search engine, either paid or organic, would work well for you. And getting a steady consistent stream of folks is what you are looking for.
Do you sell a boot-camp that is event based, and when the event is over it’s not for sale anymore?
If so then affiliate traffic (that’s where people recommend your program to others and you pay them a commission) would work well for you because you need a surge in traffic to fill your bootcamp
Are you a coach or a consultant that sells your consulting services?
Well word of mouth traffic, would work well for you. In addition, search traffic for specific keywords would work well for you.
For example, let’s say you are a coach, you wouldn’t want to pay for Google Adwords on the word “coach” that woud not get you good traffic. But instead if you paid for the term “San Diego small business coach” that would give you a better stream of people who are looking for a specific kind of coach.
Also compare different types of traffic. With social media traffic such as Facebook and Twitter, people are in “play -fun” mode. They are looking at their friends and distracting themselves with “fun”. Versus when people do a Google Search, they are looking for a solution to a problem they have. And with email marketing traffic, you are sending traffic to your site from people who already have a relationship with you. That is very different from banner ad traffic where the person just saw a graphical ad and clicked, not knowing anything about you.
So think about it: What are you selling, and what kind of traffic would send you the kind of people you are looking for?
Hi Christina
Excellent summary of the different kinds of traffic. Thanks for taking the time to write about it — I find that there is a lot of confusion and a whole lot of technical talk when trying to do research around traffic and how to get some.
Your article is clear and concise.
Thanks
Kathleen,
yes I see people running out to buy pay-per-click when that’s not the right kind of traffic for them
Hi Christina,
Thanks for this. You have given us good food for thought. We have some evergreen and some event based, and we really hadn’t thought much about different marketing approaches. One thing we have done is to write short niche articles and place them in article directories. These frequently get picked up by other blogs and websites and serve as ‘evergreen’ traffic generators for us.
Gary,
Article marketing is a good one, and it’s something I also do. I wrote this article when I started thinking about why PPC would not work well for my next Website Creation Workshop which starts in about 2 months. Because for an event driven product/program PPC does not work as well, and I wanted to share that
Thank you. This was a helpful article.
You do a very good job explaining terms and concepts.
I have passed the article on to other people.
Arona,
That is my goal: to explain things in easy ways so that people can understand and implement these online concepts.
That is why I teach WordPress as a website
🙂
Thank you Christina for clearly explaining these options and clearing up confusion for me!
I really like your WP tips and articles, I’m venturing out and doing a Web Site – if it wasn’t for you I would not have known a web page was possible in WP I thought it was just for blogs. Yes I will be using WP.Org and hosting with bluehost, thank you for your recommendations.
My only other comment is that there are so many free themes to chose from but many don’t appeal for a professional consultant site – yes it may be worth paying for one – do you have any Theme recommendations? I know you use Flexx and I Themes Builder – why do you like these?
Your words provide a workable and savvy conceptual framework for this important topic. Strategy before tactics, where possible, is something I need to keep in mind daily. Thank you for reminding me to keep the horse in front of the cart.
Nicholas,
You hit the nail on the head!
Yes, we all get caught up in the next ‘bright shinny object’ and often forget strategy.
Thanks! What’s a good affilliate program to use?
Jill,
the answer to your question depends upon how you are looking at it.
If you are the business owner, then it will depend upon which shopping cart system you are using
If you are the affiliate, then it does not matter, because it’s the business owner who decides what
affiliate program to use.
so are you coming from the side of the affiliate or the business owner?