This is going to be rapid fire, short quick.
Here’s the basic jist of it all.
Over the past few months, a couple of friends of mine and I have talked more and more about how much of a crock and a crap shoot it is to focus on search engine marketing, and how funny and rediculous it is to think that you aren’t doing search engine marketing when you are taught to do video submissions, article marketing, whatever. It is all based on getting your site infront of people typing in keywords.
There are some big problems with that, and this isn’t necessarily the place to discuss that. I actually have a webinar called the dark side of SEM, where I’ll explain this in more detail.
So, here’s my point. Making money online is as simple as getting the right people on a page that says the right thing so they give you their money for your product, or the action you get paid for.
Basically, it comes down to getting traffic and getting it to convert, to do what you want it to do… (i.e. take actions that make you money)
Since that’s the case the traffic part almost always seems to be an issue for people. It’s kind of like cracking a code to a combination lock. As soon as you have all the numbers dialed in, you are home free and you are off to the races. I have to tell you, when you do crack it, there is nothing cooler. You know that for every visitor you get, you’ll make $____.__ in profit. It’s awesome.
Now I need you to follow me on two more points here.
1. The easiest, best most scaleable way to get more traffic, is to buy it. If you want to know why I’ll link to another post or video that explains it.
2. If you’re going to buy or create traffic on demand, doesn’t it make sense to focus on the type of traffic that is the most valuable, highest leverage, most important type of traffic to figure out. I mean the kind that will serve you the most traffic, the longest and is most scale able? Obviously my answer to that question is yes, so you might be wondering, what is that type of traffic?
I think my answer will surprise you. The great thing about it is, this isn’t going to change, it’s nothing new. It’s evolving and will always continue to advance but more or less this will stay around for the inevitable future. I dare say, this will always be here.
So what is this traffic source? Banners.
Adding a second, the other king is email.
There is no question that you need to actually master both and learn how to combine them correctly and effectively.
Let me tell you why I’m saying this. After being so indoctrinated in doing search engine marketing (which I still love and drive a lot of quality highly profitable traffic with) I have made a critical distinction and differentiation in my understanding.
Optimizing your site purely for search engines is stupid and it’s not a business.
Optimizing your site and business for sales, and building a monetization process is smart.
This entire issue came up on a call with a client today and I had to bring sense back to myself and everyone involved in the conversation. We have put this sales process in front of many different types of traffic and we got a lot of different types of results. We actually did really well with search, but there were some complications, and limits, and it was turning out to be a whole lot of work.
To make a long story short, I finally ended up saying, “look!” Cracking the code with anything other than display advertising (banners) has way less value and limits. If we can optimize and figure it out on banners, the amount of traffic is virtually unlimited, and we can scale for a long, long time.”
And that’s the truth my friend.
I guess I need to explain this even better and I will over time, but here is the truth. Crack the conversion code on banner advertising and display and you will be set for a long long time. Add email into the mix and you have almost all the on demand traffic you can handle. By the way, if you aren’t getting all that banner traffic to an opt in page and following up, you’re missing the point.
The system is two parts.
By banner ads to get clicks and opt ins, and usually make enough sales to break even or generate a profit. Then follow up in email to make more sales and more profit.
That’s all of it boiled down to the essence of the biggest traffic and profit drivers online. Email, banners. Figure those two out and you really won’t ever need much else.
Please ask questions, make comments, etc. Please disagree with me, if you do. I’d love to clarify and explain further and better articulate this, but I think a question or two is needed to make it happen.
