Traffic Generation… String Theory?
Traffic Generation is a critical task for any blogger or webmaster and takes place across multiple online ‘dimensions’.
Thing is, if you don’t know how your different traffic sources relate, then you’re losing opportunities to build social influence, and increase connection and trust within your readership.
Superstrings for Bloggers
‘Superstrings’ or ‘String Theory’ is a modern set of equations created as part of the ongoing scientific quest to model the nature of reality. It builds upon the work of Albert Einstein, is incredibly complex, and to be honest I’m not really sure what the guys in white coats are going to do with the ‘ultimate equation’ even if they do eventually find it.
The goal of String Theory to produce a single unified concept which describes universal forces at all levels, combining the understanding revealed in Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with that of Quantum Mechanics
This post is no science lesson, but the principle of unification is an important one.
“Blog Traffic String Theory” demonstrates how the different elements of a total blog traffic generation strategy fit together, thereby enabling us to maximize the benefit from every seperate piece of the blog traffic puzzle.
The map you’re about to see has some basis in Alex Mandossian’s “Grand Unification Theory of Social Media”. I had the pleasure of learning about it from him at Harv Eker’s Guerrilla Business Intensive Seminar earlier this year, and have adapted and built upon to it to produce the “Blog Traffic String Theory”
Blog Traffic String Theory
(click to enlarge)
NOTE: it’s fine to use more, less or other social media platforms in the social media bubble, though the five here are the most significant players in the social influence game today. The key is to know where your target market are hanging out
Understanding the Map
The key elements of Blog Traffic String Theory are the Social Media ‘Bubble’, the Satellite Traffic Sources, and (of course) Your Blog which ultimately leads to Your (Irresistible) Offer (via opt-in, sales or squeeze page etc)
But what makes this more than a simple list of traffic sources is the arrows linking each aspect of the chart.
The direction of each arrow on the chart indicates flow of traffic.
Notice the interlinking between all social media platforms, articles, guest posts and your blog. The traffic is free flowing between these elements in every direction.
Complete Interlinking Increases Social Influence
The more traffic and connections you have on each one of these sites, the more traffic you’ll get flowing around your network, and the greater your social influence.
As people connect with you on one site or platform, then another, then another, familiarity develops, trust increases, further channels of communication between them and you are opened.
Unifying Your Strategies
Unifying your traffic strategies means seeing all your social media properties and profiles as a singular web entity.
Driving Traffic around your social networks and ultimately linking it all back to your blog (then round again) gives your message and marketing far greater reach across the internet. Over time it leads to far greater traffic pulling power than operating multiple isolated platforms connected only to your central marketing hub (your blog)
Turning Theory into Practice
I’m only just beginning to implement this strategy for Blogger’s Alchemy, but you can already see the essential elements in place.
Check out (and connect with) me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and G+ to see how my key Social Media Sites are being linked together.
Look for the links between sites, and the shared updates across different platforms. This step harnesses the power of the unified network.
I’d love for more people to see this post and chart – so please share it with your networks, and feel free to use the chart itself within your own content (please link back to this post if you do).
Future posts in this series are going to build upon Blog Traffic String Theory with specific practical action steps to apply it to your own blog and website marketing, so… Stay Tuned!
Image adapted from Mood String by echoln
Traffic Generation Strategies Unified: Superstrings for Bloggers © 2011 Blogger’s Alchemy
Here at Blogger's Alchemy, Jym shares simple tips, tricks, strategies and techniques to make blogs remarkable, successful and exceptional. For a long time, he felt like his blogging career was going nowhere fast. That is, until he learned and implemented the things that you'll learn if you stick around... Get the best from this blog by Subscribing Now
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Very nice Jym, almost over my head but I held onto most of it. lol I like the way your infographic shows the five major social networks connecting with one another before moving to the blog. That interaction builds strength in our relationships and help build trust.
Brian D. Hawkins invites you to read…Blog Comments Are Not Everything – Niche Blogs
Thanks Brian. Sounds like you go the point perfectly though! (Perhaps it would be easier if I created a neater diagram!)
The whole idea of encouraging your networks and visitors to move between different platforms, and integrating all the media you’re active on is exactly what you said: building strength and trust in our relationships.
Operating our separate media profiles independently prevents this build up from happening so effectively. So integrate we must!
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It says here about something to offer. But what if my blog has nothing to offer?
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Offer ultimately means the sharing of your product or service.
If you’re not selling or promoting anything, that’s fine of course, the rest of the system will still serve to bring you traffic.
If you are however, having some kind of offer (like a free gift for joining a mailing list) is a good way to step up the opt-in rate, so that you can build a list of subscribers and then develop your relationship with them, as well as sharing your products, services or recommendations with them over time.
So to answer your question – it doesn’t matter. But if you want to build a business with your blog – you need an offer.
Jym invites you to read…11 Popular Places to Promote Your Blog Posts
Hey Jym,
You have highlighted a great example of how to do “rocket your social media presence/authority” and drive targeted traffic.
Thanks
James
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Glad you got the point of the model, James!
Thanks for commenting mate
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Hi Jim, That’s a great advice that you have shared with us, it is valuable. I have just started the sharing strategies and they work wonders. thanks for sharing this wonderful post.
Cheers..
kenny
You’re welcome Kenny. Glad it’s working for you too.
Thanks for coming by and stopping to comment mate
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Jym,
I love your point on having a unified concept for Seo. It is so easy to get bogged down in the minutia of Seo and miss the whole big picture. While it’s not quite string theory, it is important to have that unified concept and understand the big picture of everything that’s going on with Seo.
Steve
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Certainly is Steve. Our activities as bloggers and webmasters do not exist separately from each other.
Therefore it makes far more sense to look at our traffic generation strategy in a holistic way, and maximize our return on time and effort invested in each separate area by leveraging the momentum and social influence built through each other element as well.
Thanks for visiting
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Jym, my man. I love how you “tie” the concept of social media strategy to physics. (Have you read Hyperspace by Michio Kaku?)
I learned a similar strategy while I was a member of WealthyAffiliate Academy. Also, this is quite similar to what John Reese was preaching about minisites (back before minisites were “cool”.)
In the case of WA, the strategy was to link “feeder” sites like Squidoo and HubPages to your main site. John Reese advocated interlinking mininets (clusters of related minisites) to each other in some complicated fashion that I never mastered – obviously.
So, if I understand the Blogger Academy strategy, the social media platforms are a cluster which should feed your blog? I know you say that it’s potential is greater than if the platforms operated in isolation to link back to the hub. However, it’s not clear to me how what essentially amounts to cross-posting actually achieves this larger potential. Did I miss something?
Cheers,
Mitch
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Sounds very similar in some ways Mitch. I wonder what the thinking was behind John’s approach?
Cluster is a great word to use here in the strategy I’m describing – simply put, your different social platforms operate as a fully integrated cluster, not independent nodes.
By sharing updates and encouraging those who connect with you at each node to move through and interact on your other sites and profiles as well, you capitalize on every hit, like, follow, visit and fan.
Also, it enables you to share more dimensions of your message since each platform lends itself to a different style of communication.
By the time readers or users find their way to your blog and opt-in or sign-up point, (which they can do from anywhere in the cluster), they are more familiar with you and your message, and subtly more ‘committed’ by means of interaction across multiple platforms.
The ‘cross pollination’ builds up followers, connections, friends and fans far faster by basically ‘sharing’ them between all your profiles, thus improving the odds of viral growth.
Does that make it any clearer? Hope so…
Thanks for you insightful comment mate!
Jym invites you to read…How to use Strategic Blog Commenting to Market Your Blog
Jym, all I remember of John Reese’s philosophy was that it was easier to”build out” a related set of sites than start from scratch. So, if you were doing a golfing site and started making money on it, don’t turn around and do a survivalist site – even though it might be lucrative. Instead, do a golf schools site, a golf gift site, etc.
Nowadays, I suppose those would be categories on the same site.
As for your explanation of clusters and the cross-pollination effect, it’s much clearer now. In the lead-gen business, that’s called touches, right? Get seven of those and your prospect is primed.
Cheers,
Mitch
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Synergy, Jym!
I just started a strong sharing campaign across all my networks. Twitter, LI, FB, SU and Plus. Wonderful advice which makes perfect sense. Once you set up a massive presence it makes sense that your traffic will rise.
Thanks for sharing!
RB
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Synergy indeed my friend…
I noticed you’d upped the sharing… Getting the flow between multiplies platforms and really opening up the tap allows far more energy to flow through the whole system.
And of course, the system ultimately leads back to your blog, squeeze or capture pages.
Traffic rises, so does social influence and reach…
Thanks for the comment Ryan
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Although I don’t have a clue about the science, I understand the idea that everything is tied to everything else. I saw a picture earlier today or yesterday of a glass with about 1/2 of it having water. A sign said the other half was air and that the glass is always full. To me that is what helps me understand how I am connected to everything else. It’s not just air since there isn’t any in space, but there is space and that is the connection. No matter how far away you live from me, you are connected to me. Thanks for the idea.
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Nice! love ‘the glass is ALWAYS full’ Ann. Puts a new spin on the ‘half full, half empty’ debate…
But the point if the post isn’t really about science – it’s about the effectiveness of a unified approach to traffic generation and especially social media presence.
Not to integrate your various online properties is to miss out on their potential to generate traffic and build your brand.
Thanks for coming by
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Hey Jym,
I love your analogy buddy: The ” String Theory” with traffic generation. And the map is great.. really makes sense. In fact we already use this concept when interlinking more related posts for SEO purposes. Why not expanding it ?
Until now I have few social networks interlinked but I’ll keep going with this process.
The main idea is to create a giant “online web” able to send traffic to our blogs and capture pages. Simple but powerful.
Thanks for sharing your creative post Jym. I like it
Cheers,
Radu
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You’re welcome Radu, and I’m glad you liked it mate.
You nailed the ultimate point of it all – wherever your Offer is, be it capture page, blog opt-in, sales page – all traffic is eventually driven there.
The web across multiple platforms builds social influence and impact, enabling acceleration of positioning and trust building with your target market or readership.
Thanks for your comment mate
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