Traffic: The Holy Grail of Webmastering
by Kath Blackwell
Traffic - the single most important thing in a webmaster's life. We obsess over how to get it; how to filter it; how to target it; how to improve it; how to use it; how to sell it; how to buy it; how to get more of it. It's literally what makes the Internet go 'round, and getting it, using it and managing it is definitely one of the most important keys to success.
Getting It
Let's start at the beginning. You build your wonderful little site, open it up for business, and then just sit there waiting. You check your stats and see that NO ONE has visited. It's been TEN minutes - what do you do? You check around and that's when it hits you. You forgot to put your site "out there" for the world to find. How will they find you if you aren't "out there?"
There are many ways to get traffic, and not all will work for you. Why? Because we are all intricately different, our sites are different and the niches we're promoting are different. But beyond that there are many methods, generation programs and ways to go about getting some eyeballs on your pages.
Search engines are the number one, best bet method for webmasters to generate quality traffic. Notice I said quality, not quantity. A good listing on Yahoo.com, Google.com or any of the other engines or directories will get you good keyword-targeted traffic, provided you target your sites properly, with accurate and descriptive keywords and meta tags. You can now pay for listings at the biggest engines and directories, and some webmasters swear by it. Others say that simple, direct entries to the engine spiders help them get great rankings. Still other webmasters swear that those submit-to-all type programs are what "get them there" the best.
If quality isn't your bag, then quantity might be what you're looking for. Pic Posts and TGP sites are usually the best way to get the biggest bang for your buck, pardon the pun. Some TGP sites - with the most well-known being the Hun - have even earned a reputation for "killing" new webmasters with an overload of traffic that caused a huge consumption of bandwidth, literally breaking them within a few hours of their first listing. Oh yeah - there's really that many surfers [traffic] seeking adult entertainment out there.
But what you have to decide is what kind of surfer traffic do you want? Quantity - or quality? What is most important to you for your particular goals and objectives?
Filtering It
Filtering out the quality traffic from the quantity traffic can be a daunting task. Until you get the natural "rhythms" and knack for filtering traffic, you'll have to study and learn the science of it. Unfortunately, what works for one webmaster doesn't necessarily work for all. I know webmasters who could convert TGP traffic - like the Hun's - at a 1:200 ratio, and others who couldn't get above a 1:2000 average. Now that's a wide margin for error and a wide margin for bandwidth usage per sale.
So what do you do when you find out you've got "crap traffic," as TGP and Pic Post traffic is sometimes known to be? You filter it and move it on to a place where you can make the most revenue from it. To an in-house circle jerk, a blind links page, straight off to a sponsor, console hell - or whatever floats your boat. Whatever you do with it - do SOMETHING with it. Don't let it eat up your hard-built sites and bandwidth budget if you don't have to. Find ways to guide your non-converting surfers to other pages that will help you earn, whether it's just a penny per blind click, a buck for a free e-mail service or some other low-paying service. If you've got 2,000 crap surfers in your system, what's better - to earn 2,000 pennies off their volume ($20), or no money and a doubled hosting bill? Good answer!
Selling It
In addition to just sending your traffic off to cheap sponsors to make a few pennies off each visitor, you've also got to find ways to sell your quality traffic to the sponsors, so you can make more than beer money with all your hard work and effort. Selling your traffic to sponsors via well-placed banners, text links, full or half-page ads, consoles and other advertising methods is the most common way to sell off your traffic and make some cash from it. Other methods are sales via opt-in mailing lists, recommending your "favorite sponsor" to your faithful readers can increase profits - but of course only if your sponsor allows such advertising. Read your sponsor's TOS (terms of service) along with any other rules, regulations or guidelines posted. If you still aren't sure - ask. That's what they're there for. Sometimes your sponsor can give you an insider's point-of-view tip sheet of fresh ideas for promoting THEIR program to YOUR surfer.
You can also just "sell" it. Sell that traffic outright to a buyer - another webmaster who wants to buy your traffic in bulk. Whether you've got quality search engine or directory traffic - or if you've got thousands of "crap traffic" surfers, there's someone out there willing to buy it. Check webmaster boards, resources and want-ad-type places for folks willing to buy - or sell, depending upon what your game is in the traffic biz.
Using It
Use your traffic wisely. Remember they aren't just viewing your HTML page, they are viewing your logo and whatever other images you have on that HTML page, and each item viewed adds bandwidth to your monthly hosting costs. Using your traffic properly can help avoid big hosting bills and can help you increase your profits. Find out what your surfers want - what they're there for, whether it's straight, gay, lesbian, fetish, or whatever - and give it to them. Send them to that category on your site via the keywords that they used to find your site. Have different entry pages for each niche and target your banners and ads to them accordingly. The customer is always right, and the customer always knows what he or she wants. It's your job to give it to them.
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