Recently, I’ve had a decent amount of traffic to my website which resulted mostly in newsletter signups. Ofcourse that’s exactly what I want for my business.
About 40% of this traffic came from the promotion which you’re going to read in the last section of this editorial, 3% traffic came as usual, while 57% of traffic came from Allan Gardyne’s Associate Programs newsletter issue #163 in which he graciously plugged a link to my site.
There’s also a sad story I’d like to share with you here. At the time when Allan’s Associate Programs newsletter issue #163 was broadcasted with a link to my site, the page where he directed his readers on my site got corrupted. Stupid really, I tried to strip off a very minor typo from the page, and tried to upload it on the server.
Guess what? The page never got uploaded, until 5 hours of consistent efforts to get it up on the server. As a result I’ve lost many signups. Some nice people dropped me a note informing that the page is not viewable.
As many of you probably know, Allan knows his stuff. He is among a very few marketers on the Net who has worked very hard to build trust and credibility in the affiliate programs business. His subscribers actually loves him for what he provides them for free.
By the way, his niche is also one of my favorites, too.
Why am I telling you all that?
Well, there’s a good reason for this. I want to convey you a very important message about building traffic. Not just any traffic mind you, but “Targeted Traffic”.
This week, although I knew what the results are going to be, I myself tried something that I always advise people not to get involve in. I did that because I just wanted to give it a go and see if it really works, or not. 😉
Quite recently, there are two websites launched with the sole purpose of generating thousands of hits for people who become their members. One is nomorehits.com and the other one using similar technique is startblaze.com.
I signed up both. Tried and tested their workings, and tabulated the following data:
The Result: Impressive (Only in terms of hits)
Conversion: Below 0.3% (Collectively)
Conclusion: Increased traffic doesn’t guarantee business
Here it’s worth mentioning that my site has had an average conversion rate of 21-27% since the last 4 months, which is quite impressive, I guess.
This week calculating from those two traffic generators, it’s a little below 0.3%, while the usual conversion rate continues to be just above 30% this week.
Why there’s such a big difference in conversion rates?
Because those hits from the two traffic generators are just hits, with no intention or interest in what I provide on my site. Conversely, people who do have interest in niches, and are aware of its significance, actually loves to get and stay subscribed.
Those two programs and the likes are not junk. They are good for generalized sites. Sites that tries to offer everything under one roof. Since these sites doesn’t have a much longer lifespan, this sort of traffic normally pays off a little sometimes.
But if you’re serious about building quality traffic, I think the best way other than SEs, ezines and JVs is to INNOVATE. Very few people even think about this technique. Needless to say, if done correctly, coming up with innovative ideas can prove to bring a flood of qualified traffic. There is NO need to be a creative genius, simple things does it all.
For example, recently, as many of you already know I gave away Yanik Silver’s new ebook “Million Dollar Emails” with full resale rights to my list of subscribers. The catch was to refer The LASER to 5 of their friends and associates. Since everybody knew that the book is of great value, and it’s a real steal to get such a book as free just by referring it to 5 friends, almost everybody took part in that promotion.
It costed me just $20. However, using the power of Internet and by leveraging the true power of word of mouth advertising, I was able to get a substantial amount of signups within just two days.
Bottom line is you don’t need hits, you need people with a strong interest in YOUR area of business. You need targeted page views. Page views that must be converted in your most wanted response. There’s a big misconception in people about traffic. You may have heard a lot of people saying traffic is the cure of every problem. It’s not. In some cases it can prove to be a burden on you.
Why do you think that CD with 1 million email addresses despite of having such a huge database of emails never brings any positive news? … Because, it’s untargeted, SPAM, have no way of reaching to the hearts of people who never asked to get your product.
So what do you say, would you like to be with the herd or not to be with it? I leave that on you. You be the judge. Think about it, and send me your comments.
I’ll be glad to hear from you.
Amin Khan of http://www.NicheChallenge.com is the active soul for helping you develop a successful niche based business. Subscribe his FREE ezine ‘The LASER’ to join the select group of pros who are driving the Net for success. Send a blank email to: majordomo@NicheChallenge.com with the word “subscribe laser” (without quotes) in the body of your email.
