Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
Getting started with online marketing can be seriously daunting. No matter who you are, you can easily get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there. With an ever-increasing amount to learn and so many contradicting opinions, I decided to write a checklist for anyone starting a new website who is new to Internet Marketing.
1. Learn The Basics
You need to get yourself oriented to online marketing and learn the basics. The basic process is:
Build a product > build a site > drive some traffic > make some sales > build a list > make more sales > optimize
If you’re reading this, then I imagine you have the first two already set up—a product and a site ready to process orders.
2. Build A Bad Ass Site
Before you start marketing your website, it needs to be ‘bad ass’. Design is becoming one of the primary driving factors of conversions. People like visually appealing websites, and developers generally can’t design. You’ll need a graphic designer to make it happen.
3. Optimize Your Sales Pages
Don’t just build a landing page, write some copy, and start driving traffic. A proper setup with high-converting sales pages and variations to test is crucial.
4. Focus On Tracking and Monitoring
Tracking is essential. Use tools like Google Analytics or Get Clicky to monitor how your website performs.
Remember, online marketing is all about optimizing and tweaking, so monitor your efforts carefully and make adjustments based on data.
====>> Click here to continue to part two.
Comments
TyronneRatcliff
Great post Dave, that is one of the beauties of the internet, all of your marketing can be tracked, which is harder to do offline, lookin’ forward to reading the other two parts of this blog post, keep bringin’ the value like you always do!
December 29, 2012
MariaHernandez
This post is absolutely amazing, Dave! Your checklist really breaks down what can feel like an overwhelming process into simple, actionable steps. I’ve been struggling with my website marketing strategy, and this has really given me a clear direction on how to move forward. I especially appreciate your advice on building a high-converting sales page—it’s something I definitely need to work on. Can’t wait to implement these tips and see the results! Thanks for always sharing such valuable insights.
January 10, 2013
MichaelPark
While I find this checklist helpful, I’m a bit skeptical about how fast the traffic and conversions can really come in. You mentioned using Google Ads or Facebook to drive traffic and seeing instant results, but is that really the case? I’ve tried both and haven’t had that much success. Is there any specific data or case studies you could point to that back up these claims? I want to believe it works, but I need some evidence to be fully convinced. Looking forward to your reply!
January 11, 2013
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This is such a comprehensive guide, but I have a few questions. You mentioned split testing for different sales pages, but how many variations should we be testing at a time? Also, when it comes to tracking tools, do you prefer Google Analytics over other options like Get Clicky, or is it better to use both? I’m also curious if you have any recommendations for graphic designers since I’ll need help revamping my site design. Thanks for the detailed post!
January 12, 2013
NathanCooper
I appreciate the effort you put into this post, but I think there’s a bit too much emphasis on paid advertising strategies like Google Ads. Not everyone has the budget for that, especially when starting out. I would have liked to see more tips on organic traffic strategies, like SEO or building a presence on social media platforms. While the checklist is solid, I feel like it could be more accessible to people with smaller budgets. Maybe that’s something to consider for a future post?
January 13, 2013
JessicaLee
Hey Dave, it’s been a while! Loved reading this post. It reminded me of some of the marketing challenges we discussed at that seminar last year. How have you been? Would love to catch up and hear about what you’re working on these days. Also, these marketing tips are really helpful—I’ve already started implementing a few things, especially around tracking traffic. Let’s grab coffee sometime soon and chat more about this. Hope all is well with you!
January 14, 2013
RaviPatel
This post really hit home for me. I’ve been working on a new website for my business, and I ran into the same problem you mentioned about not having a high-converting sales page. I spent months driving traffic, but the sales just weren’t coming through. It wasn’t until I started split testing different versions of my sales page that things started to turn around. Your advice to optimize before spending more on ads is spot on! Wish I had found this checklist earlier—it would’ve saved me a lot of time and money.
January 15, 2013
OliverSmith
Great checklist, Dave! For anyone looking for an additional tool to help with their marketing, I’d recommend trying out Hotjar. It’s fantastic for tracking how users interact with your website, and it provides heat maps and recordings to show what’s working and what’s not. I’ve found it super helpful alongside Google Analytics for figuring out where my site visitors are dropping off. Definitely something worth checking out if you’re serious about improving conversions!
January 16, 2013
SophieMartinez
Wow, this post was just what I needed! I’ve been trying to piece together a solid online marketing strategy for months, but your checklist made everything so clear. The step-by-step approach is exactly what I was looking for, especially the part about tracking and split testing sales pages. I’ve been neglecting that, but I’m excited to implement it now. Thanks for sharing your knowledge so generously—it’s really helped me get focused and confident about my next steps.
January 17, 2013
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What’s being missed when people breeze past this: the order of operations. Build the product and site first, track second, optimize third. Most people I’ve watched reverse it — buying traffic before the sales page’s even been tested at all.
Ade, the order makes sense for whoever reaches the optimize step. What’s missing is how many people building a product and a site never get anywhere near enough traffic to split test anything at all. That’s closer to the median outcome than the exception.
Fine. ‘People like visually appealing sites and developers generally can’t design’ — is that true, or the excuse that keeps design agencies employed? The checklist assumes professional design is the bottleneck. For plenty of small operators the bottleneck is not having an offer worth designing around yet.
Bottleneck for me isn’t design or offer. It’s that step four says ‘monitor carefully’ and I have maybe twenty minutes most nights.
Marla’s question is the right one and it’s answerable, sort of. ‘Developers can’t design’ is a folk claim, not a measured one — nobody’s tracking conversion rate holding copy constant and varying only who built the interface. What we actually have is correlational evidence that professionally designed sites convert better, which could just as easily be explained by the kind of business that can afford a designer already having its other fundamentals in order.
I should say upfront that I spent eight years on the company side of a large direct-sales business, so I’m predisposed to notice what a checklist like this glosses over rather than what it gets wrong. What I can say with some confidence is that the gap between ‘build a bad-ass site’ and ‘optimize your sales pages’ is where almost all of the actual variance in outcome lives, far more than which analytics tool you pick between Google Analytics and Get Clicky. Companies that hand distributors a checklist like this one rarely spend real time on step three, because it’s the least teachable one — you can hand someone a plugin list for tracking, you can’t hand them good judgment about what to test first. That’s less a criticism of this specific post than of the entire genre it belongs to.
Split testing sales page variations sounds great until you’re doing this in the gap between bedtime and collapsing. ‘A proper setup with high-converting pages and variations to test’ is not a quick task, it’s a whole weekend most of us don’t have. Would take the checklist a lot more seriously if it said how long step three actually takes.
The process line at the top — build product, build site, drive traffic, make sales, build list, make more sales, optimize — has no branches. Real processes have failure points at each step, and this one has none marked. What happens when ‘drive some traffic’ produces zero sales? Does the reader go back to the sales page, the product, or the traffic source? The checklist lists seven steps and doesn’t say what triggers a return to an earlier one.