Why Getting Tons of Traffic is not Everything
Seeing a graph of your hits go up can definitely give a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Aside from the money it can bring, high traffic provides a sense of accomplishment. It is, undoubtedly, good for business, but some people, especially those who are just starting out, tend to make it the only goal, and therein lies the problem. There is more to making money online, and there is certainly more to traffic than just volume.
1. Targeted audience. In this era of a crowded Internet, people are increasingly creating niche sites to cater to a certain crowd. In order to work, these sites must attract people who are more or less predisposed to listening to what they have to say. Otherwise, they’ll just click away faster than you can say “Web 2.0”. This is why SEO and your overall marketing plan are very important.
2. Sustainable traffic. With sites like StumbleUpon and Digg, it’s fairly easier now to get huge spikes in traffic. However, these spikes are often unpredictable, and not really that good for business – that is, unless you can convert them into regular readers and sustain the momentum. There are various strategies for these and I may take them up in future posts.
3. Reader engagement. Let’s say you’re getting tens of thousands of visitors a month, which isn’t bad in any case, but nobody is commenting on your blog. Needless to say, it’s not a good sign. A successful site is one that can connect to its readers. It’s also validating to receive comments, even criticisms, because at least you know that people care enough about what you write to say what’s on their mind. There are even bloggers who purposely rile their readers to get tons of comments and generate buzz, but then that’s a different story.
4. Monetizability. Of course, the bottom line for online businesses, whether directly or indirectly. Can you convert your traffic? In Internet marketing, high quality leads will result to high conversion rates, whereas casting a wide net randomly is less effective. Observers have also noted that StumbleUpon traffic, though substantial, yields a poor AdSense clickthrough rate (although there are some workarounds on this, such as putting up CPM ads).
All in all, what traffic means to you really depends on what you want to achieve. Not everyone is aiming to convert through product sales. Some bloggers don’t even have ads on their pages, and that’s because they only write to gain credibility and establish their own personal brand (then make money in consultancy, public speaking or other services). In this case, catching the attention of the right people and expanding your network may be more beneficial than tens of thousands of hits. So unless reaching the mass market is truly your goal, it might be prudent to start looking at other aspects of your website traffic.
