Why you're not getting traffic to your website and how to fix it

Why You’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Website (and how to fix it)

Here’s a great question from Daniel. He writes:

“I have an idea that I am almost done implementing. It is a job board for a very targeted niche. Since I’m a Web developer I was able to purchase the domain and the template, and then build it during my spare time for the past two months. My question is, ‘Would it have been beneficial to test demand for this niche job board?'”

That’s like asking,”Do humans breathe oxygen?” Yes, of course, it would’ve been beneficial to test demand first.

This the most common mistake I see people make when they’re starting an online business. Just sitting in their room or behind their computer, they come up with a random business idea.

Then, without even hesitating or seeing if anyone would actually pay them for their idea, they jump right into the tactics.

“Let me get a domain, a website, and write million blog posts.”

And then, after two or three months, what happens on their site?

Crickets. Nothing at all. Virtually no traffic.

What’s happening here is that they’re becoming victims of the idea that “if you build it, they will come.” But, that’s just not the way it works when you’re building your site.

Instead, you should think about it like this: for every hour you spend, right now, in the research phase, you’re saving 100+ hours down the line.

Research

We call this concept “front-loading” the work. We want to do the heavy lifting BEFORE we dive into the tactics, so that means:

  • We want to know exactly who our customer are (Where do they hang out online? What sites do they read? Who do they follow?)
  • We want to uncover their hopes, fears, and dreams (What keeps them up at night?)
  • We want to spend time talking to them (via surveys, emails, and even on the phone or in person)

If we set aside time for this in the beginning, we know EXACTLY what to build for our market later on.

It’s very similar to the way you’d write a book. You don’t just sit down one day and start writing.

You come up with a table of contents first. If you get lost or confused, you can pause and say, “Okay, I’m supposed to be on Chapter 3, where I’m talking about conscious spending. Let me start again, writing about that.”

That’s the way you write a book, and that’s the way you build an online business — by knowing where you’re going BEFORE you start.

So to go back and answer the question “Would it have been beneficial to test demand first?” in one word: Absolutely!

Now, if you’ve already got a website, I’m willing to bet that you’ve launched it and you’re not really seeing the results or the traction you want.

That’s fine. That’s actually normal.

Most people do this because it’s easy to sit around building websites and printing business cards all day.

It’s actually harder to go out and talk to people to see what they want.

But, the reason we have built more than 17 successful products is that we actually spend time in the research phase, talking to people, and finding out what they need. And then — and only then — do we decide to build a product.

Don’t build the website first. And don’t even think about what product you’re going to build or how you’re going to price it and package it just yet.

The first thing to do is understand

  • Who is my customer?
  • What do they want?
  • What does my competition look like and say?
  • And why should people come to me for a solution?

Let me know how it goes with the job board, Daniel. Thanks a lot for the question.

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