Traffic Is B.S. – Influence & Attention Are Far More Important

I recently spoke at the Postiecon conference and during my panel I was asked to talk about web traffic and the biggest tricks I’ve used to boost it. My answer?…

Traffic is b.s. Don’t waste your time worrying about traffic.

The truth? The ONLY people who really care about traffic are publishers who sell CPM or make a ton of money off of Adsense. Guess what though? Those people are few and far between. Real people, like you and me, who have less than 1 million page views per month… far, far much less, aren’t going to, or ever have made any real money from “traffic”.

Yes, traffic is b.s.

That’s why sites like Blogrush don’t work. Look around. Nobody is getting a “flood of traffic” from Blogrush, except those at the top of the food chain with more readers than you will ever have.

Yes, traffic is b.s.

Quit wasting your time and energy on traffic. It will NOT get you want you want because you’re not going to get enough of it to really make a difference.

Look, I’ve had this blog up in many forms since August 2001. My rss subscriber list is only in the hundreds and I average maybe like 500 visitors a day. I have tried to monetize through Adsense for a long time, off and on, and it always returns the same results…

A few pennies per day.

Yes, traffic is b.s.

I make money from influence, and off of my brand. I have built a powerful, long-term brand for myself as an expert in my industry. Because of this blog, I get asked to speak at conferences, and I get fantastic partnership opportunities and private deals from companies that care about what I have to say and my opinions on their business. Heck, the last three jobs I’ve had stem from this blog… getting attention for myself.

Sure, it takes time, but that’s not what you want to hear. You want to hear “flood of traffic”, then you believe that once you get it, you’ll just get rich. I’m here to tell you it ain’t going to happen for 99.9999% of you. You have a much better shot at building influence and attention.

I may not have 14k rss subscribers like John Chow or Shoemoney, but you know what? My brand is strong and I’m influential in my industry. Note: I’m not saying John or Shoe aren’t influential, they are (very), but in a different way.

I’ll take influence over traffic any day of the week. It’s easier to get, and keep, and monetize long-term.

Summary: There are better ways to “make money online”, and you’ll have a better time doing it if you stop worrying about traffic. Don’t believe the hype.

You want to know more? Subscribe to this blog’s feed. Not because I need more readers, I don’t, I could care less about reader counts. I honestly just want to help you be successful.