The Good Kind of Traffic
Would you rather have a little bit of traffic that you can monetize or tons of traffic that you can’t?
Seth breaks down a comparison of MySpace and Amazon in his latest post, different kinds of traffic.
Amazon users visit to buy stuff, and MySpace users visit to flirt
This is a great reason why search engine marketing works so well. You’re able to bring people to your site that are actually seeking out the exact products/services you sell. Provided all your ducks are in a row this kind of traffic is very valuable. It converts at a very high rate.
On the flip side there’s a ton of marketing techniques that will bring lots of traffic, but it’s all fluff. The only thing it’s good for is your ego, or in other words, boosting your Alexa ranking. I’ll admit, it’s easy to get hung up on trying to improve your Alexa rating, I’m guilty of it too. But don’t loose focus of the main goal.
To many people are hung up on trying to bring the most amount of users possible to their site. What they fail to realize is that it doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is bringing the users that will convert. That’s what it’s all about, monetizing your site.
Even though MySpace is always boasting about their traffic numbers I guarantee you they would take a tenth of that traffic if they could monetize it like Amazon.
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of
The Quality of Your Sales Lead Traffic
Seth Godin’s discussion about the quality of your website’s traffic, in terms of quantitative business that results from that traffic, has an important lesson for sales professionals and the sales leads that you are looking for in your day…
Good read! Though I agree that it is about quality, I am not sure the only way to measure success is in money. Though it is a VERY IMPORTANT point - some sites are not built to receive money - some are purely informational or educational. How does one measure success on those sites?
Overall - I think MySpace is a HORRID site. Everything about it is just plain tacky. However, it spread like a wildfire because PEOPLE could easily find their friends and family. I agree with Seth that most teenagers dont take the Internet seriously, or even understand it (do they really have to?).
So - to the flipside, how to you adequately measure your traffic when money is not involved? That is an important question as well.
Nice take!
Peace,
Nate
Nate - You’re right, it’s not always about money. I also agree about MySpace, personally I don’t care for the site. MySpace is a huge success though, I can’t deny that, it’s just that their traffic isn’t worth nearly that of a site like Amazon.
Re: your last question. Good question, I’ll try to answer that in a later post.
take care.