All Hits Are Not Created Equal

After all the debate over website design, shopping carts
and credit card processors, every website owner eventually
comes to the startling realization that they need one more
thing to survive - website traffic!

Without website traffic it's the same as building an
expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside a
busy highway, you hide it in your basement where nobody can
see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run
out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to
get "hits" to their sites, but they fail to realize that
all "hits" are not created equal.

In their quest to get eyeballs to their websites, most
online operators don't realize there's a big difference
between driving "general" traffic to your website and
driving "targeted" traffic.

Just getting any traffic is the same technique TV
advertisers use. They flash ads on the screen in front of
people who can't afford or don't need the advertised
product.

Since general advertising can't hit specific targets, they
hit everyone and hope that someone in their target audience
is actually watching at that moment. Spam, banner ads,
"safe-lists" and similar traffic techniques fall into this
"general" category.

"Targeted" traffic is made up of people who are genuinely
interested in what you have to say or sell online. These
people either share the same interests or have an immediate
need or problem they are trying to solve.

"Targeted" traffic is best because the people hitting your
website have a much higher likelihood of actually making a
purchase.

Targeted traffic comes from people following
recommended links on other sites, typing in relevant
keywords into the search engines, or even reading articles
you've written on a particular subject and then clicking
over to your site for more information.

If you don't already know where to find the best sources of
targeted traffic for your website, you will need to
experiment with lots of different sources to find the ones
that bring visitors who give you the most "bang for your
buck."

The fastest way to determine which avenues provide
the most targeted traffic is by using an "ad tracker". An
"ad tracker" is a simple program, residing on your web
server, that tracks how many visitors your site gets from a
particular source and how many of them purchased.

Though it sounds simple, most businesses don't do this!
Most businesses can't tell you their visitor to buyer
conversion percentage and, therefore, don't know exactly
how much they can invest in traffic generation and remain
profitable.

Whether you pay for your website traffic with cash (pay-
per-click search engines, ezine ads), or you pay for it
with the sweat of your brow (article distribution, free
search engines), you must identify your best and most
profitable sources of targeted traffic that convert into
buyers, subscribers, or leads.

Failure to identify and track where your buyers come from
and then calculate how much they really cost you ultimately
translates into failure for your online business.