My Epiphany About Traffic

One of the things we talk a lot about, and that is a huge bottleneck for most businesses, is traffic.

And of course when we say traffic, we don’t say it in some sense of just, where’s the traffic, how can I get anyone to my site, some generic traffic source.

And yet we do.

We are exposed to the idea of “traffic” so much so often that we begin to think of it as some generic ether, like air, like noise, traffic is just “out there” and all we have to do is “plug in” to that traffic and it comes to our site.

Except that it doesn’t.

Right?

Right!

There’s so much hub-bub and noise out there, endless prattling (did I just write that?) about “just do this and get traffic” that we think of it as this ever-present and yet elusive “thing” that we really need and somehow just keep missing, so close but never there.

Am I getting close to home for you?

I know I am for me!

I am in the business, I know all this – and yet I still fall into the same thought patterns I just shared – even though I know the underlying truth is NOT what we think, NOT what I just wrote.

It’s almost like we hear so much about it, in a certain way, that our thoughts shift and we begin to THINK that way.

So . . .for my personal epiphany about my own traffic.

Over the years I’ve generated hundreds of thousands of visits that have turned into tens of thousands (well over 100,000) subscribers and buyers.

In fact, most of my list right now (80%++) are buyers.

Obviously, I feel blessed to have done it.

And to wake up in the morning and see the new stats for new subscribers and entry-level buyers coming in from the day before.

But the crazy thing is, I’ve even fallen victim to thinking about my own traffic from the perspective that I have somehow created it, or driven it, “out of thin air.”

And my realization recently has been that I haven’t.

Instead, I realize that nearly ALL traffic

Comes from somewhere else online.

Like 99%.

Like if I weren’t so literal and specific, I could probably just say ALWAYS.

Like in, all visits to your site come from somewhere else online.

No one just “finds” your site from thin air.

They are somewhere else online they already know about and looking for information to help them with a problem.

And you are there and they see your link and they click on it and come to your site.

Examples:

they are in a forum and see your post

they are reading articles online and stumble on yours on someone else’s site.

even if they find you in google, the ONLY way google puts you in their rankings is if they see that others are linking to you and you are relevant.

Look, I know this intellectually.

But I realized recently that ALL my own traffic has happened in this way.

And I realized that my first 3-5 years, I didn’t just write articles and get traffic.

It felt like that.

But what I was REALLY doing was infiltrating ( a rough word, but with their permission and even their welcoming arms) the article directories and people who were already there reading articles, found mine and thought my thoughts were interesting, so then came to my site and joined.

Then some people liked my work and asked if they could tell THEIR subscribers about it (like affiliate marketing). But note that affiliate marketing started for me because they found me on an article platform.

So almost ALL of my own traffic came from a platform online . . in my case ezinearticles.

And think about it, when you think about getting traffic . . . you see that others in your niche are getting traffic from . . .

Platforms.

One person dominates pinterest for your niche.

Another dominates facebook groups.

Another linkedin groups.

I did the same thing, not even really realizing it, when I got involved in the warrior forum back when Mike owned it.

I put offers in the wso section, Mike’s traffic, Mike’s groupies, Mike’s PLATFORM

Mike’s PLATFORM fueled my business for years.

Then when he sold, I leveraged his affiliate system for referrals – all on someone else’s platform!

And that’s when it came to me . . .

Almost ALL of my own traffic has come from a PLATFORM where people are hanging out looking for answers.

So my next logical step in my thinking was, okay, how can duplicate that today?

And then I realized . . .

DUH!

It is VERY VERY hard for people to find a match of their topic to a relevant platform.

Isn’t that what’s really going on with you?

Think about it, you try to drive traffic.

You do all the right things.

But no matter what you try

articles (don’t work like they used to)

facebook (totally saturated)

pinterest (for visual 35-45 stuff)

warrior forum (loaded with newbie lookie-loos)

and so on and so on

nothing works

Like there IS NOT PLATFORM that’s young enough and relevant enough to be worth your time to really do what I did – and what they other masters of the last decade have done to drive traffic.

Notice how most everyone teaching traffic is teaching what they DID not what they are currently doing?

So then I thought:

what if there were an online marketplace . . . kind of like the old warrior forum wso thread before it changed . . .

that instead of being filled with newbie lookie-loos were real people who needed (and wanted) real help?

and that, just like you could infiltrate linkedin and facebook groups today, trolling for the right traffic

but they are so saturated and competition is so high . . .

what if there were a NEW online marketplace for info products

where you could list your products

and a community of high-quality people looking for solutions

were exposed

like in the warrior forum of old

but without the spam and negative comments and trash-talking

would something like that be helpful to you?

Could you see really participating in a site like that, and using a site like that as a PLATFORM that YOU could be dominant player on, actively inviting people on THEIR platform to come to YOUR site?

Please tell me your thoughts . . .

Shoot me an email!

Respond to the one I sent that got you to this page!

thanks

Sean