Traffic. No business can survive without it. Whether it is a brick and mortar store or a website. Some traffic is required to make sales. No traffic, no sales, no business. "Where are you supposed to get the traffic from" is the lament that I and other businesses owners cry as one source after another dries up. Where are all the people? They don't seem to be online!
I like many others discovered that you can buy traffic. Perfect solution right? Of course it is! After all there is an entire industry built just from traffic. If that's so then these guys are the experts and they should be able to deliver tons of traffic. Good traffic or poor, does it matter? Who is to judge? Ok, enough polish. Here's what I've learned, over the last 6 months, about what I've come to call "fiverr" traffic.
It's more or less a fraudulent scam. Even as I sit here, I have a page that has received 70k views in the last 4 days. All "fiverr" traffic. All crap. In the last 6 months I've had several pages that have gotten loads of traffic and no conversions. One blog post got 230k+ views and zero conversions. Not even a click. All told between 3 pages I've gotten more than 500k views. That's half a million people! With no conversions. If the traffic was "real" as all of the sellers claim, there should at least have been a few clicks. That kind of traffic without any action is appalling. Especially, when I have one campaign, that I built and ran by hand, that got a job withing 150 views. Staggering right?
So what do we do about real traffic? Where do we find good traffic that converts? I don't know, but I'll let you know when I find out.
7 Things You Have To Do to be Successful in Social Marketing
These apply to any digital marketing really. I don't pretend to be a digital marketing guru. I won't claim to be one here. I am listing these as more of a starting point for those jumping into the field, and are struggling to stay afloat. I know how it is to be thrown in and told "without this" and "without that" you will be a failure. The reality is that every situation and marketer is unique. What works for one person won't work for another.
1. Use Photos. Whether you are using a banner ad or a photo, an illustration of some sort is almost required to get the most out of your post. In all of my testing, articles or posts with photos get far more views than those that don't.
2. Proofread. It's off putting to many readers to go to an article, and find it full of errors. A good many people go to writers for advice because we are supposed to be better at finding, collecting, and assimilating information than most other people. It undermines your position and authority when you can't even use the correct tense of a word. It worse when you can't use words correctly at all. My personal pet peeve is the usage of there, their, and they're. Any writer out of kindergarten should know which is used when, and yet you would be surprised how many writers use those words wrong, then blame it on the computer.
3. Be pushy, but not rude. Guide people with phrases like "buy here", "available here", or "this way...". If the reader doesn't know where to go to find what you are offering, they won't get there at all.
4. Keywords are nice, but not always necessary. Remember too, that less is more. It is common for people to list every keyword that they can think of. That is a bad idea! Why, it gets you traffic? Traffic yes, but junk traffic. When you have a ton of keywords you get people who have no interest in what you are selling. Not only are you more likely to piss people off, but you are very likely to never get any kind of click or order from that person.
5. One page per idea or topic. This might sound like odd advice, but it makes sense if you think about it for several reasons. One, it keeps the reader focused. Two, it gives you more opportunities to get ads in front of readers (I know, dirty trick). Three, it gives the reader a better chance to find the information that they are looking for, which makes them happy, and will make them more likely to interact.
6. KISS. Keep it simple stupid. Many people, myself included, often think that if a problem seems complicated then the solution must be equally complicated. Not so. In fact when you are faced with a complicated problem, the solution can be insanely simple. Marketing dilemmas are no different. Sometimes the solutions are so insanely obvious, or simple, that you wind up beating your head on a wall for a week, once you realize just how simple the solution is.
7. Keep trying. Rome wasn't built in a day. The Romans come to speak of them were some of the best road-smiths in the world. Their roads lasted for a very long time, but it took a long time to build them. Their roads were not the cheap ribbons of asphalt that we call roads today. I digress. My point is that they didn't just go out stomp on the ground to kill everything and call it a road. They tested, imagined, created, studied the successes and failures, rebuilt with new information, tested, and repeated the process. You have to do the same thing, except with marketing information at hand.
There you have it. Apply these tips to your marketing attempts and be successful. Sounds easy, but it's not. Trust me though, it will get easier as you go. Keep track of your failings and your successes. Eventually one will outpace the other. Ideally, that would be the successes.
False Economy and Your Stomach
I've been meaning to address this issue for quite awhile, but today the issue was pushed. How many of you know what "false economy" is? I'll let you know right now that it has nothing to do with politics or wall street. It has to do with consumers who believe that because it comes in bulk it is a bargain. It has to do with the idea that because you get more of anything for less, that it's a bargain.
Two "typical" examples could be TV's and cereal. Why? Because these are two areas that almost everyone can relate to. Yet let's take a look at some facts and you will see why the cheaper option is always more costly in the long run.
Let's take a look at the TV's first. In this example, we have two tv's that look identical in every way, but one is dramatically less expensive. There are some questions that you should be asking. One, is the less expensive one hot (stolen goods). For the more expensive one is the seller gouging you? Then compare the two. What is the durability like? How long does it take before the screens wear out? How long before the colors shift? Is one a lower grade of plastic? How long will it be before replacement is needed? There arre other things to consider, but in the end it comes down to replacement. If one model has to be replaced every year (cost $300 per replacement), and the other is a beast that doesn't need replaced more that once every five years ($500 per replacement), which is the better deal? If you said the $500 set is the better deal you are absolutely correct. In the time it takes you to wear out the $500 set you will have spent $1500 on the less expensive sets to maintain the quality and durability of the more expensive set.
Food is a bit harder to pin down because there are a lot of factors to consider. Edibility, age, ingredients, price per serving, health issues, all play a part in "false economy". If you can't eat it because it tastes so awful, you are going to throw away money, or torture yourself eating it. A lot of food sits on store shelves or in a warehouse for a long time before it is sold. That is time that the food is losing freshness, flavor, and nutritional value. You might save a few cents, but what have you done to your health? There is also the issue of what goes into the food. When you buy the cheapest food you can get, you are also often getting things that you don't want. What about food combinations? Often, food for the budget conscious is sold with an ingredient in mind (or the lack of one), just to use a tiny amount of the sellable ingredient and substitute the remainder with a cheaper ingredient. The sellable ingredient of blueberries is often replaced with apple. What about the health issues of mixing and matching? I found one cereal, for instance, that combines oat and corn flours. For people with gluten issues that is very dangerous. Each of these flours contains half of the chemicals needed to create gluten. When the food is eaten, the gluten forms in the gut, and makes the person ill. I think you are getting the picture. I do have to make one more point. Choosing between modern brands and foods is now a matter of choosing between evils. Biotech is a big evil to a lot of people, but the contest now is largely between partially and completely created with biotech help. If you can find it, there are the non-gmo varieties, but are usually very expensive.
So, I have to ask; If your choice tastes so bad it hurts, violates every food belief you have, contains more imitation ingredients than not, and makes you sick in the process, how can it be a better deal? Where is the benefit? In most of the instances of economy, the savings is a few cents. The difference that a coupon can make. In reality savvy shoppers can use a combination of shopping locality, sales, and coupons to get double the mass of better quality goods for the same cost as the generic or low cost goods. In the end live better by skipping the "economic" option. If it's to good to be true, it probably is.
Two "typical" examples could be TV's and cereal. Why? Because these are two areas that almost everyone can relate to. Yet let's take a look at some facts and you will see why the cheaper option is always more costly in the long run.
Let's take a look at the TV's first. In this example, we have two tv's that look identical in every way, but one is dramatically less expensive. There are some questions that you should be asking. One, is the less expensive one hot (stolen goods). For the more expensive one is the seller gouging you? Then compare the two. What is the durability like? How long does it take before the screens wear out? How long before the colors shift? Is one a lower grade of plastic? How long will it be before replacement is needed? There arre other things to consider, but in the end it comes down to replacement. If one model has to be replaced every year (cost $300 per replacement), and the other is a beast that doesn't need replaced more that once every five years ($500 per replacement), which is the better deal? If you said the $500 set is the better deal you are absolutely correct. In the time it takes you to wear out the $500 set you will have spent $1500 on the less expensive sets to maintain the quality and durability of the more expensive set.
Food is a bit harder to pin down because there are a lot of factors to consider. Edibility, age, ingredients, price per serving, health issues, all play a part in "false economy". If you can't eat it because it tastes so awful, you are going to throw away money, or torture yourself eating it. A lot of food sits on store shelves or in a warehouse for a long time before it is sold. That is time that the food is losing freshness, flavor, and nutritional value. You might save a few cents, but what have you done to your health? There is also the issue of what goes into the food. When you buy the cheapest food you can get, you are also often getting things that you don't want. What about food combinations? Often, food for the budget conscious is sold with an ingredient in mind (or the lack of one), just to use a tiny amount of the sellable ingredient and substitute the remainder with a cheaper ingredient. The sellable ingredient of blueberries is often replaced with apple. What about the health issues of mixing and matching? I found one cereal, for instance, that combines oat and corn flours. For people with gluten issues that is very dangerous. Each of these flours contains half of the chemicals needed to create gluten. When the food is eaten, the gluten forms in the gut, and makes the person ill. I think you are getting the picture. I do have to make one more point. Choosing between modern brands and foods is now a matter of choosing between evils. Biotech is a big evil to a lot of people, but the contest now is largely between partially and completely created with biotech help. If you can find it, there are the non-gmo varieties, but are usually very expensive.
So, I have to ask; If your choice tastes so bad it hurts, violates every food belief you have, contains more imitation ingredients than not, and makes you sick in the process, how can it be a better deal? Where is the benefit? In most of the instances of economy, the savings is a few cents. The difference that a coupon can make. In reality savvy shoppers can use a combination of shopping locality, sales, and coupons to get double the mass of better quality goods for the same cost as the generic or low cost goods. In the end live better by skipping the "economic" option. If it's to good to be true, it probably is.
Don't Talk About Money
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| Photo by Hidde Rensink |
I don't mean that we shouldn't discuss money matters. I mean, don't talk about money. How many of you are confused? Well have you ever heard about the elephant in the room? That's where everyone knows that there is a problem or other issue, but nobody wants to talk about it. The reasons are many, and usually varied. Like great aunt Ida that everyone hates and wishes would just die already, but she won't get the hint. The relatives will all want to get rid of her, usually for their own reasons, but she's still there being the elephant in the room. I'm not explaining it very well.
Anyway, money is often the elephant in the room. Except that everyone talks about it, and nobody has a clue as to what they are talking about. Usually, they are just complaining that there is never enough of it. Have you ever noticed that the more you talk about this elephant the less there is? Solution; don't talk about it.
Sounds stupid right? How will you make money if you don't talk about it? Did you ever consider that that is exactly why, you aren't making more? That you never have enough. Why is that so? It's largely a matter of mental barriers and self-defeating practices. In this case, it's because you are dwelling on negatives. You are constantly reminding yourself that you don't have enough. Many people equate money with success. When you are constantly talking about not having enough, you are sending the message to yourself, and others that you are a failure. As a result, money flees from you like the plague. Also, when you are constantly talking about money you aren't doing anything to earn it.
So let the elephant be in the room. If you want to talk about it say nice things. Talk very little about it. Whisper sweet nothings about it, or to it. You know, that's beyond weird. Maybe it's better to just say nothing about money, or to it, after all.
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