Program Transcript:The Truth About Free Web Traffic
Hi welcome to Tip 8, I’m Andre Vatke.
Today’s tip comes from a question submitted by Thomas in Virginia. He writes...
“I see a lot of promotions about generating free traffic. Do any of these actually work or can you recommend any ways to generate free web traffic?”
Well Thomas, you are certainly not alone in wanting to get more people to look at your site and what you have to offer. However what we’ve
found is that the promise and the reality of those free traffic programs and courses don’t often line up.
If you take a look at some of the most successful advertising venues of the past and present you’ll notice a common thread... the venues - whether magazines or Google - all convert a successful medium into a “pay to play” model.
That’s the nature of business after all. The more
successful a particular medium is, the more it will cost to advertise there. It’s basic supply and demand at play.
So while there are places to promote that don’t cost money directly... relying on them as the foundation of your business is taking a real chance.
I think web marketing expert Perry Marshall said it best when he said that, “A business that requires free traffic in order to stay in business isn’t a business. It’s a bankruptcy waiting
to happen.”
Now, considering all this, there are some sources of what could be considered free traffic that you really should be using - especially if you are also spending money on ads.
The most reliable and consistent I have found for my own businesses and many small business clients I work with is search marketing.
You see the most important part of any ad is reaching the right audience. You want to present your offer to those most likely to be interested.
This takes out things like traffic exchanges and safelists - because they consist mostly of people like you. They want to show you their offer, not look at yours.
In fact, in a recent social media survey Leaders Club conducted, we found that while over 75% of network marketers using Twitter wanted to use it to tell others about what they have, only about 20% were interested in reading about the offers of others.
In other words, everyone wants to talk, but no one is listening.
Which brings us back to search marketing... in search you are at least targeting people as they have a question or problem they are trying to solve. This is super targeted traffic that’s much more productive than traffic from other means because they are actively searching rather than being interrupted with an ad.
This is an important factor we don’t have time to get into - but know that there is a big psychological difference between me trying to get you to pay
attention to something and you search it out.
In fact, while still not as effective as personal recommendations, it’s the most effective online marketing method when it come to trust.
The trouble with search marketing is that getting ranked and generating business from it takes quite a bit of time, patience and skill. I’ve helped small businesses increase their online orders by over 500% but it can take months to start seeing results and years to gain true
mastery.
Now keep in mind that despite courses and companies that claim they can get you listed on the first page of Google for a keyword, there are only so many spots on that first page. It’s just impossible for everyone to be number one and the more people are trying the harder it actually is.
So when you consider all this... even free isn’t actually free. It still take knowledge, skill and work. Simply keeping this in mind will help you make better decisions
regarding your own promotional strategies.
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