Many people have asked
Why do I need return visitors? My site is nothing more than a sales page or product review with an affiliate link. Why go through all the trouble of building a community and answering peoples’ questions? All I need to do is drive traffic and get sales.
I have given some thought as to the best way to answer this.
The problem with selling products online is that anyone can put up a sales page. Anyone can become an affiliate for the same product you’re selling, build a website, and compete with you. Anyone can figure out how to optimize for the search engines. Pretty soon there are 10 or 100 different people selling the same widgets that you are.
And there will always be a least one person with a lower price then you. This competition will kill your profit.
How can you expect to rank high in the search engines when everyone is employing the same search engine optimization tactics as you are?
If you do the same thing that everyone else does you won’t get any traffic long-term. And you won’t make any sales.
You must stand out
The only way out of this madness is to stand out and do something that no one else does. You must give value in a way that no one else does.
In a nutshell you need to give people what they want.
If you’re selling a product that cures arthritis then you need to do more than just have a sales page (everyone has a sales page). You need to have a genuine product review that outlines the pros and cons of your product. You need to have videos of different people that used the product. You should also review other products that claim to cure arthritis. You must also have a place where people can ask questions and get answers.
If you’re trying to sell products that teach people how to make money online then you should give an honest and genuine review of different products available on the market. Your product reviews must be more in-depth and detailed than anyone else’s product reviews. Just as importantly people need the ability to ask you questions and get answers.
It’s about trust
In the title of this post I mentioned return visitors but in the end it’s not really about return visitors. They are a byproduct of building a relationship of trust with your visitors.
And trust is what really matters. Return visitors just happen to be a good way to measure how trusted you are. Sites like ProBlogger have built trust with a huge number of people (look at the number of comments people leave at ProBlogger).
Building trust takes tremendous effort on your part. No longer is it as simple as spending 1 hour to throw up a sales page. Instead you’ll spend many hours every week writing reviews, building valuable content, and answering peoples’ questions.
If people trust you…
They are 100 times more likely to buy something that you recommend.
They are the ones that will come back to your website for more information.
They are the ones that will tell their friends about your website.
They are the ones that will send a flood of traffic to your website via social media.
They are the ones that will ask questions. These questions will give you insight into what your visitors really need and care about. This insight will help you craft better content and select more targeted advertising.
Conclusion
It’s all about trust. Anyone can put up a sales page but very few people are willing to expend be emotional effort to build a relationship of trust with their visitors.
Ironically, it’s the ones who build a relationship of trust that make all the money.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a really good point Nick and the benefit of building RSS and email subscribers. While I don't believe that all websites necessarily need return visitors, if you are looking to build a sustainable business with a solid reputation then you do.
What would be an example of a website where you are not "looking to build a sustainable business with a solid reputation"? Like maybe a personal blog or something?
Even a personal blog you want to create a business and build a reputation on something. If you didn't want to build your reputation then you wouldn't be online.
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Hey nick, I agree trust is pretty important.
On a related note, I was curious about why you reset the top commentators list on your page? It doesn't seem like that is the best way to build trust with your most active return visitors.
I was wondering if there is a marketing rationale involved? It encourages NEW repeat visitors to comment a lot? Or maybe something went wrong with your widget, or maybe it gets reset automatically after X days?
I remember in one of your other posts you recommended to your readers that they try to become top commentators, but it doesn't seem like a viable strategy if it gets reset.
Just curious, I can see how it is a piece of your website that you want to leverage for maximum traffic/comments/profit/etc. I'd like to hear your strategy.
That's a good question. The top commentators widget is a WordPress plug-in and automatically resets every month. So on March 1 all of the previous top commentators are wiped out and we start all over. There are certainly pros and cons to this. And if most people would prefer that I wiped it out less frequently then I can make that change.
Well nick it looks like it has worked out for you well. You have a very loyal fan base. If you look at your traffic it is loyal fans, along with a new growing fans.
Thank you. I do have a loyal fan base even though it's kind of small. I am working on expanding it to be much larger.
Trust is what its all about. Building trust generates more customers and hence fast business productivity. For the same reasons SEO has turned into the art of online reputation management where not only the brand is promoted but also its value sustained and developed.
This applies to online products and services. What if you are selling a service which is not online. E.g.: What if a Chartered Accountant is trying to get local businesses around his area to buy services from him. I have managed to optimize my website to get it to number 2 position on Google (for the appropriate keywords). It hasn't resulted in any new sign-up's. While writing this i realized that my website needs to have some call for action items. So i guess despite of being at number 2 i am not getting any new sign-up's. And i need to do something dramatic to the website.
Of course, return visitors means long term business. But you need to provide quality stuff to get them visit back to your blog/site.
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Very true. You have to give something of quality to get people to come back.