If you ask anyone with a website what their biggest challenge is they will usually say, “Getting more traffic.”
Getting traffic is a big topic and we’ve covered this many times both on this blog and also in the members area.
But here’s the basic problem in 90% of cases:
People are trying to force traffic to come to them rather than going where the traffic already is.
A useful way of thinking about this perhaps is to imagine you run a local art gallery and you are putting on a special exhibition in 3 weeks time.
How are you going to get people to your event?
You could place ads in the local paper on Facebook or maybe on online art forums.
Or how about this…
Publish your event on Groupon and offer discounted tickets for a certain number of people.
This is a classic example of going where the traffic already is. Instead of spending money on ads in the local paper, on Facebook or even on online art forums, you simple put your offer in a place where there are already stacks of hungry buyers.
The art exhibition is obviously just an example, but you get the idea.
What if you have physical products to sell?
EBay immediately springs to mind. Again not a business model I personally favour as there are logistical and low profit margin issues. But many others like it, make money and that’s all good. The point is, the principle is the same – go where the buyers already are!
How about if you have an information/training product to sell or have hooked up with an expert who has skills worth sharing?
In this case a platform like Udemy.com (see recent post here on that) or something like skillshare.com may be suitable.
There are others like AppSumo.com and Startupsplays.com as well.
If you have the knowledge or want to learn it yourself then great, publish your own product. If not, then source the information you need from existing experts, repackage it and again, publish.
What about if you have a bit of software? Maybe a WordPress plugin, theme or phone app. Myself and my clients have done extremely well out of sites like Mightydeals.com and DealFuel.com with this.
How about if audio is your thing? iTunes springs to mind.
Fiction or non-fiction Books? Kindle…?!
There are many many sites and resources like these, they all vary and all have intricacies to learn in order to maximize your sales. But again I’m sure you get the idea from these few examples.
The key of course, is having something valuable to sell – that’s what really makes your money. Product creation/sourcing is a whole other topic which we have covered before and if you are up to speed on that you’ll know there are several ways you can approach it.
But right now, just think about the channels of distribution (a.k.a traffic) that are available to you.
10 years ago many of these resources simply weren’t available. Now more and more are springing up. Another reason why now is a great time to “get involved” and build your web-business.
Plus these things open other doors for you as well. For example, it’s a lot easier to get affiliates and joint venture partners to promote your stuff when you’ve already sold some copies on these marketplace, deals and product library websites. So now, you’re moving into the realm of affiliate network sites like Clickbank, JVZoo, Nanacast and so on…
In summary, just think about what pig farmers do. When the pigs are ready to be sold, they don’t put a sign up on the road outside the farm saying “pigs for sale” hoping buyers will come to them.
Instead, they go to market where they know, for certain, that hungry buyers await….
Agree/disagree? Please like/tweet if you found this useful and drop a comment below – would love to hear from you… Cheers, Rob 🙂
Hi Rob,
As always a worthwhile email full of worthwhile practical information.
Regards,
Leighton
Thank you for your comment Leighton – great to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Great email Rob – and yes, you are right. There are more and more sites like these popping up all over the place now. In fact, the two you mentioned the other week MighyDeals and uDemy I have been really impressed with.
Traffic is the biggie with everyone trying to sell products these days, myself included. I have seen a few examples in fact of marketers who have actually made great products or eBooks but simply not sold many at all due to the low volumes of traffic. The product has been great and the sales letter, but nobody knew about it. Like you say – if this was perhaps showcased in front of people as a special offer or something they would have got a lot more sales.
Then of course the knock on effect from sales brings in affiliates (digital products) and then your traffic really can soar.
Nice informative post.
John
Absolutely John, the internet is a graveyard for products that haven’t even sold a single copy! Sites like these coupled with some affiliate promotions can give more traffic than you’ll ever need though so well worth learning about them. Always great to hear your thoughts 🙂 Rob
Hi Rob!
You are so right! Udemy and Mighty Deals have been favorites of mine in the past. ^_^
Have you seen Inky Deals or My Design Deals? They are similar to Mighty Deals, and are also good places to go for design, art, outsourcing, or plug-in products. 🙂
Best,
Cheryl
Thank you for sharing another 2 sites there Cheryl – I hadn’t heard of those but it just goes to show that there are so many around!
Cheers, Rob
Great advice Rob,
I like how you share genuine information with your subscribers, you ‘walk the walk’ in helping folks to get moving; take your goods to market, yes indeed. Really it is all about getting that first project finished, selling that first product, persisting until you have completed it and ignoring the negative voices telling you it is not going to work! Thanks so much for your help Rob, you are definitely one of the ‘good guys’!
Hi Michael,
Great to see you on the blog and thank you for your very kind words really appreciate that. You are 100% absolutely correct on getting that first project finished; copy a proven method (E.g., use one or more of the sites above), put those blinkers on and go for it! It 10% definitely, definitely works 🙂
Cheers, Rob.
Hi Rob,
Thanks for the helpful information – I have checked out Udemy which looks very interesting, I see they have Free Giveaways too (not sure how that works as Udemy take a percentage of sales!) but seems like there’s no getting away from the fact that whatever we’re into it’s – Traffic, Traffic, Traffic that’s our Achilles heel!!!
Hi Stephanie,
Glad you found this post helpful and having started doing some research already. Not sure how the free giveaway works on uDemy in particular but a lot of these sites do allow you to give things away for free. However, it’s usually best to sell your product for a small amount I think because that way the site has more of an incentive to promote your offer (E.g., on the home page).
Cheers, Rob
Thanks Rob,
I am not sure why I have not made it to your blog until now but I will be here for hours checking out your posts as I love the way you think.
I hadn’t thought about the deal sites before for my products but I shall be using them for sure. Time to get some blinkers on and finish some unfinished projects so i can take them to market
Jenelle
Hi Jenelle,
Well welcome to the blog, great to see you and thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
You’ll be well rewarded for finishing those products. Once you’ve got a quality quality product in your stable there are so many ways to sell it including listing it on several deals sites as well.
Good luck with it and hope to see you back here on the blog soon.
Cheers, Rob
Hi Rob
And of course let’s not forget You-Tube. Which has an absolutely huge number of views per day.
If you are an affiliate or a product creator – you can partner with someone who has a video on You-Tube that is getting mega views.
Add an click through advert to the video and offer the video owner a slice of the sales.
This way you’re not chasing traffic but just placing yourself in front of already existing traffic.
The video you choose needs to be one that is attracting a lot of views in order to make it worth you while of course.
And your offer needs to be for something related to the video topic – ie a fat loss product attached to a health/weight video….
Cheers
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Good point – yes YouTube can be very handy for certain niches in particular. I know of several guitar/music sites which have built huge followings and lists from YouTube: http://sizzlingguitarlicks.com/ and http://www.jamtrackcentral.com/
The only difference I’d say (if I was being picky!), is that most of the other sites in the post are where people actually go to buy stuff. Whereas on YouTube people are often there just for entertainment. But still, well worth a mention so thanks for pointing it out 🙂
Cheers.
Rob
Hi Rob
Yes, good point. And thanks for the other recommendations.
I have told several people about your site and all the advice you give out – in fact yours is the only site I do this for.
This reflects the high quality of information that you always supply.
So more power to you…..
Kind regards
Kevin
I think quality traffic is everyone’s problem until they can get established and more importantly a list of good quality.
I think you have mentioned in the past but it may be worth repeating here, getting a link to your site from someone’s download page, is a way of getting warm traffic and those with the credit card already out. Obviously works well as JV offering commission to the marketer with the download page.
Thanks for the content
Paul
EXCELLENT point Paul! Yes, this is often known as “integration marketing”, i.e., where you have your banners, links etc on other people’s online real estate. Another variation for example is that I’ve added quite a few buyers to my list by giving away small products to other marketers so they can offer them as bonuses for their own products (people have to optin to my list to get them of course). Like you say they are all proven buyers so you can build really powerful quality lists here.
Cheers, Rob.
Rob – you have great and very useful information on here. Getting traffic has always confused me before, but now its much clearer. Hope you have a wonderful time on your special day. Happy Birthday Rob!
Christine