Posted by: Patrick Coffey
March 27, 2008
Issue #383

How to Get a Bunch of Useless Traffic
to Your Website

"Nothing succeeds
like the appearance of success."

– Christopher Lasch

The Internet has been buzzing with praise for "social media" as the way to drive traffic to your website. By "social media," I’m talking about sites that (1) allow you to submit content and (2) allow other people to comment - and even vote - on it. The higher they rate your submission, the more exposure you get, with lots of people clicking on your link.

But today, I’m going to show you that this massive traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So far, some of the major players in the social media world are:

Digg - digg.com

Stumbleupon - stumbleupon.com

Sphinn - sphinn.com/

Reddit - reddit.com

Del.ico.us - del.icio.us/

Myspace - myspace.com

Facebook - facebook.com

These sites - and dozens and dozens of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting - have quickly become behemoths in the online world. In fact, many of them are getting even more traffic then the all-powerful Google.

At first, this might seem like an online marketer’s dream …

"If I could only get my article or blog post on the home page of Digg or Stumbleupon, my site will be flooded with traffic."

It’s easy to see why so many marketers are foaming at the mouth over the idea of tapping into all that traffic. But real online marketers understand that traffic does not mean anything without conversion. In other words, if you can’t turn your traffic into sales or e-mail sign-ups, it’s pretty much useless.

You may have heard of website traffic referred to as HITS. I’m sure you’ve been to websites that have a little counter at the bottom that tells you exactly how many HITS the site has received.

Well, this is my definition of HITS: How Idiots Track Success.

Just think about it. What should you really care about? How many people visit your site? Or how many people buy from your site?

Now you might be thinking, "Patrick, how do you know the traffic you get from social media is useless?"

This thing is, Alexis Siemon, the resident Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Early to Rise (ETR), has been experimenting with trying to drive traffic via social media channels.

You can see how this is done by looking at the funny little logos at the bottom of each Early to Rise issue. These logos allow you to submit our content to various social media sites. And they have been helping us get "free" traffic. Through some trial and error, Alexis was able to help our natural health e-letter site get a boatload of traffic from Stumbleupon. In fact, in the last month, one page generated over 28,000 new visitors.

When I heard this, I thought it was great news. You see, when we get traffic from outside sources, we can generally convert at least 10 percent of it into e-mail sign-ups.

So how many of these 28,000 social media visitors do you think signed up for our natural health e-letter?

500? 1,000? 1,500? 2,800?

No! Try 80. That’s a conversion rate of just over 0.2 percent.

Compare that to the conversion rates we’re getting from search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, website advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and even direct mail. I’ve seen traffic from these sources convert to e-mail subscribers at rates of up to 50 percent.

That’s not the only reason I say social media traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Recently, several of the top marketers here at Early to Rise and I went to the Webmasters World Conference in Las Vegas. We wanted to learn directly from many of the world’s top search engine marketers and see what they made of all the buzz surrounding this supposed traffic goldmine.

When I looked at the schedule, I was excited to see a panel discussion titled "Monetizing Social Media Traffic." After all, isn’t making money the point of getting website traffic? So we all attended this session with great anticipation …

The consensus of the panel was that it’s difficult to monetize social media traffic. For whatever reason, this traffic is resistant to advertising and tends not to stay on the site very long. In fact, it appeared to them that one of the only ways to monetize this traffic is by using a CPM (cost per thousand) advertising model. This is where you sell ad space on your site and charge the advertiser based on the number of people who see their ads. Certainly not a good model for those of us who run direct-response websites - because not only are these visitors not buying from us, they’re also not clicking on our advertisers’ links.

Even worse, this heavy influx of traffic can put a strain on your hosting servers and cause your site to crash. So you have a bunch of people visiting your site who don’t buy, don’t subscribe, and wind up crashing your server. Talk about turning your social media traffic dream into a nightmare.

But I don’t want you to think social media is all bad. Of course, we are delighted to allow our readers to share ETR articles that they think are good. And we are very grateful that, in one case, 80,000 people read our extremely valuable content as a result of this free traffic.

Many of the top stories on Digg and Stumbleupon get picked up by blogs and other websites. And when an article from your site is being bounced around the Internet this way, you’ll get inbound links from various sites. These new links help you get direct traffic from the linking sites. Plus, they help you with search engine optimization, which can, in turn, lead to more converting traffic and more subscribers.

At Early to Rise, we will continue to test social media and use it as a link-building tool. But if you’re looking to build your online business, it’s better to focus on the proven direct-response marketing methods we’ve been telling you about. Don’t be afraid to pay for traffic through e-mail list rental, text-link ads, and pay-per-click advertising. These methods might cost a little bit of money … but you’ll be attracting targeted visitors who will buy from you.

Contributed by Patrick Coffey
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

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16 Comments »

1. Comment by John Scola — March 27, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

   I spent hours and hours on Social Media
   and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt…

   I’ve always suspected that social media traffic was more hype than not and stayed away from it.

   After reading your comments and Alexis conclusions, I’d have to say thank you(!) for confirming my suspicions. Because that little devil on my shoulder keeps whispering that I should just try it…
   
   And I would get dragged into a worthless marketing campaign that would suck my creativity and time…

   And bring no money into my pocket!

   Well done, Patrick!

   John

2. Comment by John C. A. Manley — March 27, 2008 @ 1:31 pm

   I did experiment with social media a while back… Still use it of course. Mainly just have a Share This plugin on the site. Nothing special, might as well, eh? But so far I can’t say I found all the work involved in really make social bookmarking work is really worth. Rather spend that time producing higher quality content and free gifts to get people telling others. I have some outrageous tell-a-friend usage on my free gifts pages, which is probably increasing my paid traffic by 30% or more.        

3. Comment by Allen — March 27, 2008 @ 1:39 pm

   Even with such a low percentage of conversions, it’s still 80 people who signed up, will become (hopefully) paying clients. And it all came form a plug in or button in your newsletter?

   What if you did a PPC campaign and only got 80 sign-ups out of 28,000 visitors. Now that… would be a disaster!

4. Comment by Liz Monte — March 27, 2008 @ 2:11 pm

   I know of one social media marketer, blogger Steve Pavlina, who earned over $20,000 in one month with one affiliate program.  Of course, he’s been establishing his presence on the Internet for quite some time, and has a huge readership.  What’s more, his readers trust him.  When he posted his endorsement of the affiliate product on his blog, over 250 of them bought almost immediately, earning him a cool $75 per. 

   This is how social media marketing works. Rule #1 - First build trust by being a regular person, giving out tons of free information,  and not coming across as selling something.  Then when you have a product you really like, people will listen to you. 

   It’s a whole different approach than simply putting up a sales letter, but for certain industries where establishing a long-term relationship with your customers is essential, it has definite benefits. 

   By the way, there’s a whole huge community of bloggers out there in cyberspace who will ignore anyone who tries to break in and doesn’t follow the "rules."  In other words, following the form (adding a bookmarking button to your site) without committing to the substance (see Rule #1 above) will get you nowhere.

5. Comment by Tommy — March 27, 2008 @ 2:16 pm

   Thank* Patrick!!!
   At la*t *omeone ha* the gut* to *tep up to the plate and pi** on the hype.

   Damn * key ha* gotten *tuck on my keyboard again.(WHACK)

   sssssssssssssssssss
   That’s better!
   Social is what it says and social is what it is. Business is not social.

   No serious business person has the time to spend on those sites unless their business is a hobby to them.

   John, keep that T-shirt out of the wash. They tend to shrink and squeeze like crazy!
   Keep it coming!! You guys at the MTP are on the money as usual.

6. Comment by Lisa Packer — March 27, 2008 @ 2:36 pm

   I couldn’t disagree more. The trick is, as usual, knowing the right strategies to use, and which social media sites bring which kinds of traffic.

   One person I know used social media exclusively to launch a service related to bluetooth owners. His site is generating more traffic than even the companies that created Bluetooth. And all of that traffic is coming to him free, and while he hasn’t shared exact numbers, he’s very happy with conversions and profits so far.

   Some blog owners have reported that front page Digg listings are disastrous, others that it has resulted in a spike in subscribers. It all depends upon your niche – just like a banner ad, if what you have to say doesn’t interest a Digger when he lands on your site, he won’t stay.

   The bottom line is knowing enough about the various sites to target them effectively. Of knowing where your target market hangs out and meeting them there.

   If you’ve established your social media presence correctly, they’ll arrive at your site having already gotten to know and trust you, and will already be pre-sold on what you offer. They’ll have seen that you provide value.

   It takes time to build this effectively. But even if you hire out the task, and let someone else build your social media network, targeted traffic comes to you much more cheaply than through PPC.

   So it’s not a waste of time. It just has to be done right.

7. Comment by Patrick Coffey — March 27, 2008 @ 3:07 pm

   Thanks for all the comments on this recent article.  Ultimately, I do think we will find a way to better monetize and use this traffic.

   And if it’s just adding a button or two to the bottom of your website I’d say go for it.  However I wrote the article to show some of the short comings. 

   The fact is there are people who are sinking all sorts of time into making this work.   They hear about the instant boat loads of traffic you can get on a site like digg or stumble upon and their eyes widen like a virgin on prom nite.  Though the truth is your most valuable asset isn’t: your list, your product line, or even your cash flow…

   It’s your time!!!

   So have fun with it and see what you can do to make it work but please remember to focus on your core and proven business building functions.  Like better copy, better products, and better marketing.

   I know this is an upopular thing to say in the I want something for free world that is the internet. 

   But why not try…

   PAYING for traffic!!!

   Pound for pound I have found this to be the most profitable responsive traffic your website will ever receive.  Just find the right lists that work for your offers and you’ll be sitting on a gold mine that doesn’t suck up the most precious resource TIME.

8. Comment by Shaun O'Hagan — March 27, 2008 @ 3:19 pm

   Each time I sit down to begin to really work on Social Marketing I read something like this post and it puts me off again !  Having said that I can say the same about most "techniques" including PPC and SEO.  Well one thing that might be worth considering is that I’ve noticed that Google really likes to spider these sites like twitter.com and therefore the content you add to these sites can make it into the SERPs the old fashioned way.  I guess with your post content benefiting from googles high PR of the sites themselves.  Therefore not strictly are you benefiting from "social" traffic, rather good old fashioned search.   Having said  all of this if i can get 80 "free" signups in my autoresponder i’ll take them any day.

9. Comment by Sheree Motiska — March 27, 2008 @ 4:20 pm

   Why do you have a bookmarking button if it’s so useless?

   That’s not even my point though. Social media marketing is so much more than just bookmarking sales letters and articles. As Liz said, it involves building an entire online presence. I’ve been using web 2.0 marketing for over a year and

   1. I don’t ever pay for ads.
   2. I don’t ever pay for leads
   3. I don’t ever pay for traffic

   So, it works if it’s done right. It’s not all hype if I, and others, have built their business this way.

   Sheree

10. Comment by Sheree Motiska — March 27, 2008 @ 4:22 pm

    But, by the way, you still need the foundation of an Internet business. Such as your site, great product(s), autoresponder, lead capture page, etc.

    Sheree

11. Comment by Alice Flanders — March 27, 2008 @ 7:46 pm

    I signed up for a yahoogroup for business exposure once. I then went to work. When I came home I immediately unsubscribed. It took me three days to clean up my inbox.

    Another idea here. that person who succeeded in the bluetooth thing was working with his target audience. my target audience is older. Not so likely to be in social media.

12. Comment by Chris — March 28, 2008 @ 5:33 am

    Very interesting article Patrick… but the most interesting part of it, at least to me anyway, is where you say ’Don’t be afraid to pay for traffic through e-mail list rental’.

    Are there any reputable e-mail list brokers you can point me towards? And which autoresponder system would I use, that allows the importation of these lists?

13. Comment by Forrest — March 28, 2008 @ 9:34 am

    From a techie stand point there is another danger from a flood of social media traffic.

    If you get your product on the front page of Digg you are going to get tens of thousands of visitors coming to your page in a matter of minutes. Unless your IT guy is on his game your site will crash. It will be off-line for the better part of the day. It’s called "The Digg Effect."

14. Comment by Julie McManus — March 28, 2008 @ 8:21 pm

    Well done Patrick!  Although I’m experimenting with social marketing, I too am a big advocate of paying for traffic and am very successful sometimes making $2 to $3 dollars back for every dollar I spend.  It’s all in finding your core demo online.Chris, it’s not about list brokers and importing names into auto-responder services.  It’s about buying an endorsed e-mail from a site that people trust.  By endorsed, I mean the e-mail is sent by the list owner… not some third party service that is nothing better than SPAM.  So as a for instance… if you were selling a financial service, you might buy an e-mail from Thestreet.com or fool.com.  They would send the e-mail on your behalf to their opt-in subscribers.  These are two very expensive list choices, but hopefully you see what I’m suggesting. Hope it helps, Julie McManus editor, In the ‘Net Trenches

15. Comment by bridge — April 1, 2008 @ 1:50 am

    If you get a load of traffic and you have something that most use or want, surely there are going to have  a certain percentage interested in your product and will buy. Some added clients are better than none and considering the cost and effort to get this traffic, isn’t it worth it to use this form of advertising?

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