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Where's
the Traffic?
By Chris Wilson
If you have been studying the web, you have
probably realized two vital points about your commercial
site on the internet:
1. All commercial web sites are advertisements. Whether institutional
advertising or customer service or place-an-order-now catalogs, they
are still an ad!
2. People have to see your ad (commercial web site) for you to benefit
from having an ad, i.e., commercial web site. If traffic is sparse at your site, you
are wasting your time and your money advertising on the internet.
This brings us to the two questions of the day:
1. How can I get people to my web site in the first place?
2. How can I get them to return to my web site?
The answer to both is content that will interest them.
Almost without exception, people return to web sites that contain content that informs
them or entertains them.
Think about the real world for a moment: Where do
companies advertise? They advertise in places that entertain or inform some segment
of the population they wish to reach.
Four examples, predominantly from the Dallas, Texas area:
1. The Dallas Morning News informs with some entertainment. It reaches
a broad audience because the content is quite varied.
2. Narrow the Dallas Morning News down to the Friday Guide. The Guide informs
people about entertainment. Apparently a good place to be for attracting people and ads
because the Dallas Observer, the Met, Star Time, and FW Weekly, to name
a few, do the same thing. Many advertisements in these types of
publications have nothing to do with the entertainment business. They are
there to take advantage of the traffic generated by the
entertainment information.
3. Most radio stations entertain while providing some information. They
reach a certain segment of the population, often that segment who enjoys a type of
music. If you like the music on the EDGE, you are unlikely to stay tuned or
return to KAAM. Radio stations reach a large audience, though, who may or may
not have other characteristics (besides music preference) in common.
4. A trade magazine informs but rarely entertains. It reaches a small portion
of the population. This small portion could be all important when it is that
segment of the population most likely to benefit you. It reaches your targeted
market. Very few construction businesses, however, will benefit from
advertising in Women's Wear Daily.
If I pick up a newspaper or trade magazine that neither entertains nor
informs, I won't pick it up again.
I set my car radio to return automatically to the stations that inform me or
entertain me in some form that I enjoy.
When I go surfing on the net, I am looking to be entertained or informed.
If a site does neither, I might look once, or maybe even twice,
but I won't keep coming back.
So, if you want people to keep returning to your site, you
must inform them or entertain them. If you can't do this on your own, and many
companies don't have the time, the talent, or the inclination to do this, you need to
attach yourself to as many different sites as possible that do inform or entertain.
That traffic will spill over into your site and keep people returning.
You can do this through actually having your web pages in an
informative and/or entertaining site, through links, banner ads, and malls. If you
can afford all four, do all four, and generate the most amount of traffic possible
for your commercial web site, i.e., advertisement.
Whatever you do, don't just sit there all alone. You'll waste your
time, money, and energy for no reason.
Since most companies have limited funds for buying banner ads, mall
spots, and the like, the web is emerging as a good spot for cooperatives.
Banding together allows the small companies to compete
with the larger ones. But that is another story.
So where is that traffic? At your competitor's site that has ample
content that entertains and informs!
Chris
Other articles on web marketing by Chris Wilson:
What Is a Web Site?
Traffic Jam |
