The Planning Cycle

There are two different, distinct forms of traffic on the internet. I’ve got no real statistics on what portion of traffic they make up, but I know how to manipulate them, and how to get them to go to your site and keep going here. Both types are very different from each other, they respond to different types of ads, they like different types of sites and they bring you money in very different ways. In order to do an effective job running a website, you have to pick one type of traffic, and focus your site towards that type.

The more recent of the two types of traffic are the Answer Seekers. They’ve come to prominence since search engines like Google and Yahoo started popping up, and are mainly coming to your site from those sources. An Answer Seeker wants the answer to a specific question, whatever it is on their mind. In order to get them to your site, you have to promise an answer to that question, and then provide it or a link to someone else who does have the answer.

The other type is the Loyal Follower. They’ve been the heart of the internet since its creation, and you’ll find them on every forum and many blogs. They’re on your site for the content you provide, it is something they can keep coming back to, and will keep amusing them. Most of the time this is because you have one of two things: Either frequently updated information or you have a Community, where Loyal Followers can discuss things with each other.

Since Answer Seekers are primarily after a single piece of information, that elusive answer to their question, the best style of website for them is some kind of a database. All they want is the Answer, they don’t want a discussion on it, or a bunch of blog posts about your personal life. They don’t care about anything except their Answer. Now, blogs can become points of interest for Answer Seekers, you just have to make a few changes to your blog, so that it is more accessible to them. Make sure you use as many keywords as possible. An Answer Seeker has a few keywords they’re putting into a website, you want to catch anyone looking for information on your site, and your keywords are the best way to do that.

On the other hand, the Loyal Follower has an expectation: they want something new every time they come on. You may have a game, and the “new” thing may be the same game, played slightly differently on their part. You may have a blog, and they check back daily for you newest posts. You may have a forum, and they’re there for the Community. Community is important, it’s the easiest way to build a Loyal Following, the Follower is very easily attracted to the Community, so a forum very easily attracts the Followers, as does a blog which encourages comments.

Answer Seekers have one important feature: they have a heightened information processing rate. Unlike Loyal Followers, the Answer Seeker will be looking at everything on your website. You don’t get that with the Loyal Follower, they know your layout, and they know where you put the useful information that they come to the site for. This means that a Loyal Follower is unlikely to click on an advertisement; they just won’t focus on it and read it. The Answer Seeker, on the other hand, wants the Answer to their question, they don’t care where its coming from, just so long as it gets them that Answer. They’re very likely to click on an advertisement, which is good for you. If you’re making a website for Answer Seekers, you want to stock it full of advertisements, that’s where your money is, they’re very likely to click on an advertisement while looking for the answer to their problem. They aren’t likely to do much else but come on your website once, look for the answer, and take a link away from it.

Loyal Followers are very different. Like I said before, they want a reason to keep coming back; they aren’t showing up randomly from a search engine, they’re coming back, exactly like they did yesterday and the day before. They’re also not likely to click on advertisements, which is a problem for any kind of advertisement you have. You’re not going to get paid much if you aren’t getting many clicks on the advertisement, and in some cases you won’t be getting paid at all. This means you’ve got to sell something to your Loyal Followers, if you can’t get an advertiser to pay you for their traffic, they’ve got to pay for it.

There’s two ways of doing this. The first, and simplest, is through a membership fee. All you’ve got to do is convince your Loyal Follower that your website is worth however much you’re charging. You’ve got a few options there, one is to charge a monthly (or yearly) fee, and you’ll then be expected to keep putting new, useful stuff on your site, that your members will be interested in. The other alternative is a onetime fee, which would require you to give some incredibly valuable piece of information; one that is worth paying your fee for. As a note, these types of websites have limited success. For the most part, the mentality of much of the internet is “I can find it for free someplace else.”

That leaves the other way of making money on your website. You’ve got to sell something to your members, and if you can’t sell your information, you’ll have to sell your credibility. Yes, that means affiliate marketing. If, for some reason, you don’t know what affiliate marketing is, you must have had your head in the ground the past few years. It’s simple, I get my viewers to buy X, and the makers of X pay me a portion of the products. It’s a little more complicated than that, and you’ve got a couple of options.

The first option is straight up affiliate marketing. It’s just as dirty as it sounds; you have to convince people who trust you that it is in their best interest to buy a product, possibly without you having even used it. Many people just don’t feel comfortable doing that.

The second option is referring a service of some sort. Generally you can find some games, or other online services which will pay you for referrals. They don’t necessarily charge their customers, many are ad-based, and so you don’t have to feel quite as bad about suggesting it to your readers, even if you haven’t tried it.

The final option is a paid post. Related to affiliate marketing, it is the process of getting paid to write some kind of a post. There are all sorts of variations, paid guest posting, ghost writing, paid reviews. You name it; you can probably get paid for writing about it. You’ve just got to find the right people to pay you.

The other big differences between Loyal Followers and Answer Seekers are the type of campaigns you should start in order to get their traffic. It’s very easy to get Answer Seekers, either go out and post ads on relevant sites, and steal their Answer Seekers, or work on SEO. You’ve got to get them here; either launch and SEO or advertising campaign, and they’ll come en masse. Loyal Followers aren’t going to be as easy to attract. They’re not likely to click on ads, so what is going to get them to your site in the first place? The easiest method is through some sort of viral campaign. Release a YouTube video, or take it upon yourself to go post on all sorts of websites and include a link to your website. It’s hard to attract a Loyal Follower, but once you’ve gotten them, they’ll stay with you. If you’re going to launch an advertising campaign for a site which features Loyal Follower-type content, remember the blogger mantra: “Content is King.” That’s what draws in the Loyal Followers; they’ve got to understand that your website has a lot of good, high quality content. Make sure that hits them right away, and you may just convert an Answer Seeker to a Loyal Follower, who just keeps coming back for more of that content.

To re-iterate, when planning, keep in mind the two very different sides of the internet. One side is purely question and answer. The traffic is just there for their answer, and relevant ads are the key to making a profit. The other side is the loyal following. Traffic there is the same people, day after day. They’re not going to click your ads, so you’ll have to get a profit elsewhere, which generally comes in the form of some sort of affiliate marketing.