Why Johnny Can’t Get Traffic

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There is a wrong way and a right way to get traffic. 99.9% of people choose the wrong way.

The wrong way

People ask me all the time how they can get more traffic to their website and what they’re looking for is a short list of 2 or 3 things to do. And that’s okay. But it probably won’t lead to lasting traffic because they’re starting in the wrong place.

(For those of you looking for a simple list of things to do, go check out 13 Ways To Get Traffic To A New Blog)

The right way

The right way to get traffic starts with understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all solution; different websites should pursue different techniques for generating traffic.

There are literally 100 different ways to get traffic and what works for others may not work for you and vice versa.

So the question is this: What is the best way for you and your particular site to get traffic?

In order to answer this question you need to know a little bit about yourself, your motivation for getting traffic, your time commitment, your budget, what kind of visitors you want, the wants and needs of your visitors, how much you’re willing to interact with visitors, etc.

I put together a series of questions for you to ask for help you better understand why you want traffic and what your business model is.

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–Getting started–

Photo by Rennett Stowe

Why do you want traffic?

Why do you want traffic? What are you trying to accomplish? What is your end goal? What would you gain by having limitless traffic?

These may seem like silly questions but the answers are actually very important. People want traffic for different reasons.

Example: Fred is an attorney in Florida and specializes in representing clients who have been bitten by rabid squirrels while riding public transit. The purpose of his website is to connect with potential clients. While he always wants more traffic he is really only interested in website visitors who are potential clients.

Example: Alice is a real estate expert in Seattle and knows exactly how to flip an ugly house to make serious cash. She sells a series of 3 DVDs that show you how to get started in real estate. The purpose of her website is to sell these DVDs. And she wants more traffic so she can sell more DVDs.

So what is your purpose?

Do you have more time or money?

Most people starting out either have a bunch of money and no time or they have very little money but lots of time to spend on their website.

So which category do you fall into?

People with lots of money and little time will often outsource (pay others) to do things like: build content, build back links, search engine optimization, etc. They also more likely to use tools like pay-per-click advertising.

People with lots of time and little money will do everything on their own. They will spend countless hours reading, studying, and learning how to build back links, use social media, optimize their site for the search engines, build valuable content, etc.

What is your budget?

Getting started with your online business is just like starting any other business and you’re going to need a budget. This may sound complicated but it’s really not.

Make a list of all the expenses that you have each month. Expenses may include:

• $10 a year for your domain (or $1 a month)
• $10 a month for your hosting
• $20 a month for an autoresponder like Aweber
• $30 a month for educational products i.e. e-books and videos

Once you have your list of expenses, add them all up, and write down the total. This is the amount of money you’re going to have to set aside from your regular job or other income sources every month.

Do you have enough money to support all of these expenses from your regular job? Could some of your expenses be reduced or cut out completely?

How much time do you have each week?

If your website is going to succeed and get the traffic you desire then you need to set aside a block of time each day to work on it. The absolute bare minimum amount of time you need to succeed is 5 hours a week. But I recommend you set aside at least 10 hours.

If you don’t have 5 hours a week to devote to your website then you should probably not bother trying to get traffic. There is no silver bullet; it takes time, effort, and patience to get traffic.

I work full-time as a software engineer and have 1.5 hours set aside each morning before work to develop my site. I also spend 3 to 6 hours on the weekend working on my site.

Figure out what time works best for you and stick to it.

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–Making Money–

Photo by emilyonasunday

How do you plan to make money?

Most people build a website with the intention of making money. And in order to make money you have to have something to sell.

Example: The New York Times online makes money by selling advertising space. It also has a premium subscription service.

Example: My blog, Nick’s Traffic Tricks, makes money by advertising products that I created and products that I am an affiliate for.

How much traffic do you need?

How much traffic do you want? Sure, I know you want 10 gazillion hits a day. Who doesn’t?

Let’s be serious here; you’re not going to get 10 gazillion hits your first day or your first month. So how much traffic do you really need?

One thing I find helpful in determining how much traffic I want is to go back and look at my purpose.

If my purpose is to make money and I am selling widgets for $10 each, and I want to make $1,000 a month, then I will need to sell 100 widgets each month.

If 1 out of every 50 visitors purchases a widget (and I want to sell 100 widgets) then I need 5,000 visitors each month to earn $1,000.
I explain this in more detail here.

Take a few minutes and figure out how much traffic you need based on your monthly income goal. If you’re currently not making any money then a good monthly income goal is $30.

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–Search Engine Optimization–

Photo by dullhunk

What are the top 5 keyword phrases that you would like to rank #1 in Google for?

Search engine optimization begins with selecting the keywords that you would like to rank for. So what keywords best describe your website?

If you could rank #1 in Google for any keywords what keywords would you pick? Take a couple minutes and write down at least 5 keywords that you would like to rank for.

Beware of keywords that are vague or have a ton of competition i.e. computers, real estate, news, etc. (Learn more about why these keywords should be avoided: 2 Reasons Your Keywords Suck (And How To Fix Them))

Have you done your keyword research?

Once you know what keywords you would like to rank for you must do some keyword research to determine which keywords have the most searches and the least competition:

• Keyword Research Part 1: Finding keywords with lots of searches
• Keyword Research Part 2: Finding keywords that are profitable
• Keyword Research Part 3: Evaluating Keyword Competition

Do you have the best domain?

Having your keywords in your domain is a huge component of successful search engine optimization.

Read Do You Have The Wrong Domain? 4 Tips For Choosing The Best Domain

Is your website optimized?

If you’re using a blogging platform like WordPress then your website is most likely optimized and there’s really not much for you to do except craft titles and blog posts with your keywords in them.

I know a lot of you are tired of hearing about search engine optimization so I am not going to spend a lot of time here talking about it. If you really want to dig into SEO then you should read Your Grandma’s Guide To Search Engine Optimization and Keywords

Do you plan on building backlinks?

The best way to build backlinks is to generate great content on your site and then interact with bloggers and people on forums. However some people want to jump start the process and build backlinks quickly so I have written a few posts about this topic:

• Link Building Part 1: Why Your Site Needs Links
• Link Building Part 2: Why nofollow matters and how to find blogs that don’t use it
• Link Building Part 3: How To Build Backlinks Super Fast
• Link Building Part 4: Huge List Of DoFollow Blogs

Should you even bother with search engine optimization?

I personally don’t even care about search engine optimization anymore because it is increasingly more complex and competitive. In most niches there are thousands of people competing and only 10 make it to the front page of Google.

But don’t let me dissuade you from pursuing search engine optimization; I just want you to consider whether it’s worth your time.

Sometimes people really don’t want to fight the search engine optimization battle but they don’t know how else to get traffic. So I made a short video outlining different ways to get traffic without SEO:  9 Ways To Get Traffic Without SEO Or Ranking In Google

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–Social Media Involvement–

Photo by Esparta

How involved do you want to be with social media?

Social media is a great way to get attention and spread your message to others. But it can be very time-consuming. So you need to decide how much time you’re willing to spend on social media.

If you’re like me, and you don’t have a lot of time, it is best to choose a couple social media venues. I personally use twitter a fair amount and Facebook to a lesser extent. I know there are hundreds of other social networks out there but I don’t have time for them.

The real power in social media sites, like twitter or Facebook, comes with the interaction with other people. It’s not enough to spam your twitter account with links to your blog. You need to find people that are interested in your niche, introduce yourself to them, and retweet some of their stuff.

You need to build a relationship with them. Pretty soon you become friends and you answer each other’s questions, tweet about each other’s blog posts, and refer your website visitors to each other.

Do you have a twitter account set up?

Before you can get any traffic from twitter you need to set up your account and profile. Read 7 Ways To Create A Professional Twitter Presence.

Do you tweet stuff relevant to your niche?

If you want to increase the number of followers, and just as importantly keep the followers that you already have, then you need to only tweet about stuff that is relevant to your followers.

The fastest way to lose all of your followers is to start spamming them with links to affiliate products. So please don’t do this.

Whenever I post something new to my blog I also tweet about it. In addition a tweet about other blog posts and articles that are relevant to my niche.

Are you going to make money directly from twitter?

I don’t actually make money directly from twitter but instead use it as a tool to drive more traffic to my website which has advertisements.

I know some people have had success having 1 out of every 10 tweets be an advertisement for a service that they offer. For example Jenny is a writing expert and everyday tweets links related to improving your writing. And 1 out of every 10 tweets is an advertisement for her writing services.

When people retweet your stuff do you thank them?

Whenever someone retweets something of mine I always respond with a thank you. A little kindness goes a long way.

Do you know how to get traffic from twitter?

Often times people have your twitter profile completely set up but they haven’t the faintest clue how to actually get traffic from it on a consistent basis.
Checkout: 10 Ways To Get More Traffic From Twitter

Do you have the right WordPress plugins?

If you’re running a WordPress blog and there are few plug-ins that will make it easy for visitors to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, etc.
Checkout: Get More Traffic With These WordPress Plugins

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–Connecting With Others–

Photo by Antonio Machado

Do you understand what people really want?

There are probably 10 or 100 websites just like yours that offer the same products and information.

But most of your visitors want more than that, they want a chance to interact with you and ask questions and get answers. Your visitors want to know that you’re a real person and that you are genuinely interested in helping them.

But are you willing to spend the time to connect with them?

Do you allow people to comment on your blog or website?

Most blogs come with the ability to leave comments on posts. And this is usually enabled by default. Make sure that the comment feature is working on your blog.

Do you invite people to ask questions?

Sometimes people just need to be invited to ask questions before they will leave a comment with their questions.

At the bottom of every one of my posts I have a short invitation to leave a comment and it looks something like this:

What do you think?

I would love to hear what you think so leave a comment below!

I’ve even gone so far as to bribe people with free stuff if they leave a comment with a question.

One of the biggest benefits of people asking questions is that you get a clear idea of what their wants and needs are. Using this knowledge you can better focus your content to your visitors and have super relevant advertising.

Do you respond to all comments in a timely fashion?

It’s kind of pointless for people to ask questions in a comment if you don’t bother responding. So make sure that you respond in a timely fashion.

You don’t have to spend every waking moment checking to see if you have any comments that you need to respond to. But at the very least check your comments once a day.

Before I leave a comment on a blog I will usually go down to the comments section and see how often the blogger connects with visitors and replies to questions. If I see people asking questions that are never answered I won’t bother leaving a question either.

Do you post your email address so readers can email you with questions?

If people need to ask you a question or contact you then you need to make it as painless as possible. And that means that you don’t make your visitors fill out one of those stupid contact forms. I don’t like them and neither does anyone else.

People are way more likely to contact you if they can simply send you an e-mail.  So put your email address on your website. At the very least you should put on your “about” page and your “contact us” page.

I have an e-mail account specifically for my blog that I check every day:  nickstraffictricks@gmail.com  (If you ever have a traffic question though free to send me an email.)

Do you encourage first-time visitors to become return visitors?

It’s not enough to get visitors to your website if they just leave and never come back. You need to give people reason to stay and look around for a while. They need a reason to come back.

In a nutshell return visitors are so important because they are the ones who will trust you, trust your product recommendations, and make you money. A return visitor is 10 times more likely to buy your products, leave a comment, and submit your content to social media.

How well do you know your visitors and your target audience?

I’m surprised at how little people know about their website visitors. There is several questions you really need to be able to answer:

• Who is your target audience?
• What are their most pressing needs and concerns?
• Where do they shop?
• What kind of things today like to buy?
• Are they male or female?
• How old are they?
• What websites do they like to go to?

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You have a choice to make

You have 2 options.

1. You can do what is easy and throw together a website, do a little search engine optimization, dabble with social media, and hope for traffic. This is what 99.9% of people do.
2. You can start by figuring out your motivation for getting traffic, your time commitment, your budget, what kind of visitors you want, the wants and needs of your visitors, and how much you’re willing to interact with visitors.
   You can start by caring about your visitors and providing value to them. It’s hard but it’s the option chosen by every successful website.

Tagged as: traffic