Traffic or product: which comes first?
The phone call goes something like this:
“I had this really good idea for an e-book/product/website. What is the best way to get it produced?”
Whenever someone asks me the best way to make a product or make a website, my first question is always the same.
How are you going to get traffic?
Personally, whenever I am considering a new project the first thing I always think about his traffic. What are the different ways I can drive traffic to this new venture?
If I don’t have several good ideas, then the project is a no go.
There is no point in spending all the time to create a product or website if you don’t know how you will be getting traffic.
Fact is: nobody is going to beat a path to your website. You need a solid strategy to drive targeted traffic if you have any hope of your project becoming a success.
One I am brainstorming traffic ideas, I spend a lot of time on free or strategic traffic sources. I’m trying to find ways to get other people to send traffic to me.
Obviously, there has to be something in it for them, too. That’s one reason that many of my projects include an affiliate program. If I can offer to pay another website a percentage of the sales that traffic generates, they are much more likely to listen to my ideas.
For example, in my pilot niche site, there is a very popular aviation website that thousands of pilots visit every day. I spoke with the owner and arranged to have him install an opt in form for our newsletter. Everyone who signs up through the opt in form on his website is cookied with his affiliate ID.
It’s a huge win-win. He has made thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions for about 20 minutes of work. We have added thousands of subscribers and thousands of extra dollars in revenue.
There are examples and ideas for this kind of thing in virtually any niche. It is amazing how many websites are not collecting email addresses. And you could create a massive traffic and revenue source.
You can talk to a website owner and arrange something like this before your product is created. Sell the concept. If you succeed, then create the product.
If you have expertise in a particular area, look for newsletters in that niche and offer to provide a weekly column. If your content is good and the newsletter owner agrees, you have just created a nice ongoing source of traffic with no cash outflow.
Here is one key. Pick up your telephone. It’s much easier to structure a deal like this when you are actually talking with a person. Something like this often requires a lot of questions and answers, and is much more efficient in person. Virtually every good deal I have structured like this has been done over the phone.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Hey Jeff,
You are so right. Business owners often focus on creating their product or website and have no plan for getting traffic. They haven’t given thought to how they’ll generate sales.
I tell my clients they need to have multiple sources of traffic in order to succeed. Your suggestions of recruiting affiliates and providing columns to a relevant newsletter are great methods. They’re win-win situations for everyone involved.
August 5th, 2010 at 7:13 am
You are truly worth listening to.
Thank you for letting me share your thoughts and ideas on my blog! (With your name of course.)(That is, if/when I have solved my problems with Word Press)
August 5th, 2010 at 10:47 am
It is about time I tried to get traffic to my affiliate sites. One mistake I made is going after FREE safeliss. Between my servers they were clogged with over 1,000 junk
August 5th, 2010 at 10:55 am
I apreciate your article on traffic. One of the most things I learned FRE is not the way to go with traffic. That’s the way I started was with FREE safe lists. I AM NOW WORKING WITH jEFF’S Dedricks automatedtraffic. It’s not FREE but it looks promising. The trouble with safe liss my 2 servers had over 1,000 junk emails,
August 5th, 2010 at 10:57 am
and that’s no way to make money.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:41 am
That’s why it is important to research the market first.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Freda is completely right about safe lists. Not only are they a waste of your time, but they can get you in trouble with your server company. Worse, I know one person who spent over $75,000 on legal fees because of a spam complaint generated by safelists. This person thought they were doing everything right.
Avoid safelists like the plague. They are NOT safe – no matter what you are promised.
Jeff
August 5th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Great idea, to put opt-ins in third sites. I’ve never listen such a thing, but this is a good way to find new traffic, even if you don’t dominate those markets.
August 5th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I’ve heard of this idea before. The problem I sometimes had was the person saying it was a great idea or a great product but they didn’t think that a 50% commission on the sale of a product was worth it to share their hard earned traffic.
So should we take this a step above and beyond and do more to secure the partnership, i.e., upsells that you also split 50/50, helping them with something they want to achieve, etc?
August 5th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Jeff
a very valid point. I have spent 2 yerars developing an online education resource for an existing market which is not internet savvy. Numerous marketers and most mentors have advised on the usual miriad of traffic generation strategies which everyone knows about (articles, blogs, forums, social media, SEO, ect) with very modest effect and massive drain on resources. I know my market reads classified ad’s in professional journals every month yet I was consistently advised against this strategy. Perhaps it was lack of confidence on my behalf to not challenge the guru’s but from day 1 my plan was to place off-line ad’s to drive traffic. Yaro Starak told “go where the market is” adn having been actively involved in the market for 25 years I think I now where it is.
So a tip for those on the learning curve. Everything digital is not gold, don’t be fooled by techno babble, seek qunatifiable reasons why your “gut feeling” on traffic sources are wrong if they are challenged and don’t forget that not everyone solely depends on Google searches for their information.
David
August 5th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Ana –
Certainly finding ways to make and split more per sale is going to be a win win for both you and the web site owner.
But there are some people who simply won’t get it. So you put them in a file to try later – and you move on.
My best source of leads using the opt-in method took me several months of follow up and phone calls and emails to get him to do it. Mostly because he was busy. So I just played it cool and used gradual follow-ups every couple of weeks.
Eventually he got around to putting ONE LINE OF CODE on his web site. Took him a couple of minutes max. And he’s made thousands from that one line of code – and will continue to do so.
Once I had one guy doing it – I showed his web site to the other guys I was talking with and they “got it” and started doing it too.
Of course, the other part of this strategy is you have to have a product that converts. It all works together.
August 5th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Hi Jeff:
Thank you for the great ideas you offer for free.
Quick question: what type of code are you referring to? Is it an affiliate code?
Thanks,
Eva
August 6th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Well this may shake things up and people call me stupid…I have quit focusing building a list and creating traffic…I gone to sell my product by word to mouth..Not cold sales which is what is building a list for.Learnt how to convert 1 product and focus on that.Been in the mlm world and see that is all you are Focusing on…build a list for them not you and try to convert/be a cold sales-person and Hope that they will buy your product..You can have all the traffic but if you can’t convert your product it stays on the shelf.I worked on targetted traffic but again it’s conversion/the person has to Want to buy.Mlm is about building a list not about sales.Mlm misses one element and it is this that my mother-in-law found out.Go over and read about it.continuations is being built.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Eva – I use Aweber and when you set up an opt-in form, they give you one line of javascript code that can be put on a web site to make an opt-in form appear.