How to get more traffic to your website / product / service page for free?
In this article, I am going to break down and share:
(i) the underlying principle of traffic
(ii) how to overcome “I have no value to give” or “I am not qualified to share”
(iii) 4 means of knowledge to extract and process value from
Part 1: the underlying principle of traffic
If you are not going to pay for traffic, instead of asking “how to get more traffic”, a better question would be “what value do you provide for people to be interested to go to your website / product / service page for more”?
People won’t come to you for nothing.
If we want more traffic, there must be more value provided that attract more people in.
A friend of mine run a very successful podcast. Each week he would share valuable summary and insights on a book that he read that week. The knowledge he provides via podcast saves people’s time to read the book in full and also provides practical insights on how the knowledge from the book can be applied in real life to make a difference. Furthermore, he insists on regular upload of new episodes each week for more than 130 weeks (i.e. around 2.5 years) now so the accumulative value he gives out through that free podcast has been growing significantly like a snowball. He has recently launched a new program and once he announced his program on the podcast, over 800 people immediately sign up for the early bird enrolment. He made more than $1,600,000 that week.
Can you imagine making $1,600,000 in less than 3 years? It is about traffic (without the traffic to his podcast, he would not be able to sell his course that well — it is not the best course on the subject). The secret to his traffic is his consistent effort to give value and create content that is helpful to his target audience (namely book readers and book lovers and people who love learning).
Therefore, instead of asking “how to get more traffic”, ask this: “what can I consistently create to provide value?”
Part 2: how to overcome “I have no value to give” or “I am not qualified to share”
You may now be thinking “I have nothing to give” or “I am myself a learner and so I am not qualified to share yet”.
The era where only those with teacher license can share has passed.
I used to collect a lot of articles I saw from social media to Evernote. I feel like these content are useful and maybe one day I will need some of them. There was over 1000 articles over a few years saved as a result (and was still growing).
In reality, I seldom, if ever, look back at the articles collected. When I face any problems, my first instinct is to go to google (rather than my Evernote). Hence the articles are basically dusted and never used, and the effort and time of saving them were literally wasted.
Again, I was satisfied with myself that I was doing something useful by collecting useful information when I was browsing the internet and scrolling through social media. It was a way to feel good and justify the hours I spent on social media. I would feel like working and being busy rather than wasting my time, but it has no effect or impact on my growth because I never really learn from these information. I was just being a collector.
As you can imagine, there is no value in the information I collected, because all I did was copy and paste. I did not process the information to turn them into mine.
Processing information is an essential step in the learning loop.
Also learning from my friend’s example, an idea becomes clear: we can share our processed information in exchange for traffic — this is a win-win strategy both for ourselves and also others.
My friend does not have any teacher license, nor is he any good at public speaking or communication, he just loves to read. And he wants to make the most out of reading so as to make a positive return on investment from the books he bought. He does not have a master degree in literature or any background in sharing books. In fact, he was a normal worker at a local engineering company. Being an engineer, he considers himself an introvert and a guy who does not speak well, but he overcome perfectionism and started the podcast because he learnt how to learn better — and sharing the information he processed is one of the best ways of learning.
If you think you have nothing to share → well you don’t need to have anything to start with but willingness to share.
If you think that you are not qualified to share → what you have learnt and processed or tried is good enough information to share.
If you think about many travel bloggers, the information they provide could be the itinerary they planned for their own trip, the money they spent on each meals. Yet those information would be valuable reference for others who also want to travel there.
Before you look down on the information you have or about to obtain, here are the principles:
#1 If you don’t share, you will never know who need the information you share.
#2 Your “unworthy” information could be super valuable in other people’s eyes.
Part 3: 4 means of knowledge to extract and process value from
If you have accepted the principles mentioned so far, next question is where can you get the raw information and knowledge to process and share?
There are 4 common sources of information and knowledge:
(1) online search
(2) books
(3) courses
(4) coaching
(1) Online search
Online search is the fastest option but the information found could be scattered. If you wish to learn by searching online, you need to have strong information processing and organising skill. Nonetheless, generally I would advise against learning from online information because:
a) not only because they are scattered, but they are also overly simplified for the sake of transmission and attention seeking. Hence the “nutrient” value of these information are generally low (unless what you are searching for online is the original research paper on the subject matter).
b) the information found online would usually be skewed and mixed with emotions for the creator’s purpose and background. Without understanding about the creator’s background, we may be mislead by the information found, namely “it could work for the creator but not suitable for you at the moment”. The creator of the information and you would be at different stages or looking to achieve different purpose, hence even though the information may not be wrong, it could be the wrong information for you.
(2) Books
Books are an affordable and easy option to obtain information — given that now we can purchase e-books online, books could be just as easily assessable as information obtained via online search.
Books are generally better information source though, compared to searched information because
a) it requires author to come up with a logical structure and framework for the book, which provides great referencing value to the readers
b) the author would spend more time to write, edit and compile the book
c) a lot of authors would gather a lot of materials and resources, validate them and then write the book. Most non-fiction books have references listed at the end of the book — these are the materials that the author has gathered as relevant information. If we want to trace the source of information, and even review the first hand information, books would provide that footprint.
I personally consider books a worthy investment because it could open the doors for a learner to have access to many structures and various perspectives on the same subject matter with ease.
(3) Courses (including Seminars and Conferences)
Similar to books, courses have structure in place. A good course should structure in a way that allows learner to learn the skill in the shortest time possible. I include seminars and conferences under the courses category — they are just one-time or ad hoc courses in nature.
Courses tend to have higher value than books, because
a) usually it offer multi senses experience — except for e-book only courses, most courses have audio or video included together with written lecturing materials. It helps if you feel bored merely reading.
b) courses is more similar to the traditional way of teaching at school, hence it could provide a better learning experience and result e.g. fixed schedule each week, Q&A session, homework arrangement after class, call to action etc. We seldom do these with books.
I attend at least 4 courses each year.
(4) Coaching
The common types of coaching are: (i) group coaching and (ii) 1:1 coaching. Coaching tend to have higher value (hence more pricy) than books and courses because:
a) while it has structure, it also allow some flexibility around individual needs — it requires the coach to understand about the student’s background and therefore would be able to adjust the coaching approach and examples accordingly to be more practical and relevant for the students.
b) Group coaching usually consists of small group of students so there are more rooms to ask questions then courses (where the number of students could be hundreds). 1:1 coaching is almost like tailored learning experience so any material and coaching approach would fit the student better (like when you tailor made any clothes rather than buy from retail stores). Due to the more personalised nature of coaching, students can dive deeper into their issues and obtain more relevant information or guidance, hence facilitating faster growth.
The difficulty in coaching is perhaps choosing the coach, since the coach is one key component of the whole learning experience. I have met both good coaches and bad coaches in my own experience. Unfortunately the selection is not usually linked to prices, but the level of responsibility of the coach and matchability with the student.
I have spent more than 6 figures on coaching so far and have met both good and bad coaches.
When you are looking to provide value for the purpose of getting more traffic, I would suggest you to start with books and courses, which are relatively affordable options to start learning from and if you process the information and share consistently, you will see increased traffic to your website / product / service page.
If the traffic is not increasing, 2 things could be happening:
#1 could be something technical e.g. your tags are not relevant to your content, you are sharing on a mismatched platform or website. In that case, you can map out the process to experiment adjustment in each aspects of the process to see where improvement can be made.
#2 you are not sharing consistently for long enough period for people to notice or discover you. In that case, you only need to close your eyes to the traffic number and continue sharing value.
2 things to pay attention to:
#1 traffic does not equal to conversion, you can have a lot of people visiting your profile or page but few people are purchasing
#2 it is not a get rich quick scheme, patience is required for organic traffic.
Read Next —
Where to find me:
IG: www.instagram.com/simplifiedbusinesscoach
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simplifiedbusinesscoach
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/2s44usvp
Pinterest: https://pin.it/2fZa2Uz
Course: https://bit.ly/3CoQkrC
