Traffic Method #253 | Screw the Unconverted

That’s right. Screw em.

I don’t want to be on the front page of Digg like many of my friends do, and it ain’t sour grapes. I’m not even saying there’s necessarily anything wrong with Digg.

(Even though, yes, there is, that just isn’t what this article is about. On the other hand, Digg’s flaws created a cottage industry for Digg-like niche sites. Maybe I should thank them for the targeted, converting traffic I get?)

Hoardes of untargeted traffic to your site doesn’t help you. Even the bragging rights are temporary. The whole world is not your audience.

When I was first told this back in the late 90s, I thought that the big gurus were trying to trick me. They wanted the whole world of traffic all to themselves. Target my prospects? Why not just get my message to as many people as possible and let them get sorted out later?

No wonder it took me another five years to make a full time income from the Net.

You know how you have mail that comes to your house, and then you have junk mail?

That’s how an untargeted prospect feels about you.

You know how you have comments that come to your blog, and then you have spam?

That’s how an untargeted visitor feels about your blog.

You know how you get email you want, and then you get random messages telling you that you’ve won a free iPhone?

That’s how a person who shouldn’t be on your mailing list feels about you.

Who wants to fight someone to come to your site, wrestle them to the ground and threaten them into making a purchase? Not me.

Target people on the fence, or even better, those looking for your product. It’s one thing to have to help people realize that you are a solution to their obviously related problem. It’s quite another to try and sell a videotape to someone who only has a DVD player.

And what if you can’t find your audience? You either need someone to help you see what you’re missing, or you probably shouldn’t be selling what you’re selling because there is no profitable market.

I’ll end with easy math.

What do you think will make you more money? 100,000 untargeted visitors that convert to sales at 1% or 10,000 targeted visitors that convert at 10%?

The answer is neither. They both bring you 1000 sales. The second one is just easier to do.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.