One of the most eagerly anticipated seminars is always the one dealing with "traffic" — the lifeblood of any e-commerce operation — with this particular seminar focused on "Building Traffic With Higher Conversions," and covering several hot-button topics.
Held in the Mission Palms' Palm Ballroom, the seminar was formatted as a round table type of discussion. Moderated by CCBill's Doug Wicks and featuring Sleazy of SleazyDream, Connor Young from YNOT, Craig Tant of Mansites and Johnny V of Wildline, the seminar was conducted on the basis that managing affiliates and finding profitable affiliate programs is a challenge.
Wicks led off the seminar by asking the panel, "Is traffic the key to making money on the Internet?"
"The easiest place to start is the TGP marketplace and the search engine marketplace," Sleazy responded, providing an overview of the TGP marketplace and how webmasters could benefit from both free and paid listings. This basic approach is similar to that for obtaining search engine traffic where both free and paid listings are available.
While the message to attendees was that you can get some level of traffic for free, the general consensus is that meaningful traffic levels will require cash payments, either upfront in a straight traffic buy or through affiliate pay outs on referred customers.
"One of the easiest ways to get traffic is to swap it with synonymous sites," Johnny V said. "Get as much as you can, measure it, and see what works for you."
Young agreed with Johnny V, commenting on the value of traffic trades and the relationships required to establish them.
"Always talk to people and see if there's an opportunity to work together," Young said.
"Look at your site. What makes it unique? What is your niche? How are you reaching out to the community that supports your niche?" Tant asked.
Wicks then brought up the use of a well-defined marketing plan as a means of guiding traffic acquisition strategies.
"Coming into the marketplace today you need to specialize," Sleazy said.
Johnny V agreed, while Young offered some basic advice on coming up with a traffic plan: "Sit down and write out every source of traffic you can think of. Put them all down and analyze them."
Young then went on to say that the basis of this analysis will then depend upon your site's specific needs, adding that "You've got to know your site."
While the discussion covered the basics of affiliate programs, Young offered another take on how they may be used, discussing how programs setup under third-party billing companies such as CCBill, can offer “shave free” assessments of the quality of traffic trades.
"Part of the trick is to get the cleanest set of eyes on your site," Johnny V said, referring to how sites that can get visitors before they've been traded too many times, or otherwise exposed to many other offers, will have a better chance of making a sale. "You have to invest in your site — billing and traffic are the key ingredients," Johnny V added.
As for finding affiliates, webmaster message boards seemed to be a favorite source, along with industry trade events such as the Phoenix Forum.
"The more people see you around, the more comfortable they'll be in doing business with you," Young said. "It's a great way to build relationships."
Branding and the importance of stats also came into play, with a consensus that some of the best traffic comes from surfers directly searching for your products. "The very best source of traffic is your current members," Tant said. "Branding is huge, and one of the best ways to do it is by integrating your personality into it."
On the topic of stats and being able to measure where your traffic comes from and where it goes to, Johnny V summed it all up: "You have to monitor your stats. If you don't, it's like making money but not being able to count it — it's a fool's paradise.”
