2010 web traffic report

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the 2010/11 edi on of The Traffic Report; a first‐of‐its‐kind report revealing the remarkable findings of a unique study undertaken by Intellimon in conjunc on with The University of Bradford, West Yorkshire into 'traffic genera on' ‐ the lifeblood of every online business. This comprehensive research represents what is quite simply the biggest traffic survey of its kind, ever; thousands upon thousands of Internet marketers sharing their own personal experiences across every niche, from a whole range of different perspec ves, across the globe. Thought you knew everything there is to know about traffic? Think again... Seriously! We're incredibly excited to bring our findings to you in this comprehensive report. In the pages that follow we're going to be shining a bright light onto one of the least‐understood areas of Internet Marke ng today. The report findings tackle four of the perennial 'unknowns' faced by online marketers: #1: What are other marketers out there doing to drive traffic to their sites? #2: Which traffic genera on techniques actually work? #3: Who does it work for and will those techniques work for you, too? #4: Why do these par cular techniques work and under what circumstances?

And the analysis goes far deeper than addressing these ques ons alone. Within The Traffic Report's pages you'll be able to finally answer crucially important ques ons such as:

l Does social media really work for business? l Do you need to be educated to make money online? l Can you really make it, part‐ me? l Do you need experience to succeed? l What is everyone else actually selling? Digital products? Physical goods? Services? l Which traffic genera on tac cs work best in the early years? l How long does it typically take to achieve success online? l Which ac vi es are other marketers doing themselves, and which are they outsourcing?

And that's not all ‐ not by a long shot! As you study the sta s cs, graphs and tables you're also going to uncover some 'golden nuggets' like:

l How much me is everyone else commi ng to learning? l How hard is everyone else working at their online business? l Is there a difference in results when marke ng B2B compared to B2C? l Do younger marketers do be er or worse than re rees? l What do other marketers find most difficult about traffic genera on? l How much of a difference does training make? l What is everyone looking to next year, for improvement in their traffic?

These, and hundreds more ques ons like them, are all answered within the pages of this report. This really is the defini ve report when it comes to traffic genera on ‐ there's simply never been a report quite like it. One thing's for certain: once you've read through the extensive survey findings you're going to have an incredible insight into traffic genera on, that few others have. The background to this report: This report was produced by Intellimon as part of the research behind a brand new traffic training course, The Complete Guide to Traffic, which aims to plug the gaps in marketers' skills and knowledge when it comes to genera ng quality, relevant traffic online. For more informa on about how this detailed course can help solve your traffic problems once and for all, head over to the Complete Guide to Traffic website by clicking the link below: h p://www.complete‐guide‐to‐traffic.com Are you ready to explode your knowledge of traffic? I hope you enjoy the report and wish you every success with your traffic genera on,

Paul Smithson

http://www.complete-guide-to-traffic.com/index_r.html

CONTENTS

1. Section 1 - About You 2

2. Section 2 - Your Business 12

3. Section 3 - Your Target Market 23

4. Section 4 - Traffic in General 33

5. Section 5 - About Your Traffic 48

6. Section 6 - Training 61

7. Section 7 - Pay-Per-Click 66

8. Section 8 - Search Optimization 74

9. Section 9 - Social Media for Business 81

10. Section 10 - Affiliate Scheme 101

11. Section 11 - Display Ads 108

12. Section 12 - Article Marketing 113

13. Section 13 - Press Releases 122

14. Section 14 - Webinars and Teleseminars 129

15. Section 15 - Email Marketing 133

16. Conclusion 141

2 THE TRAFFIC REPORT 2010/11: FREE EDITION

SECTION 1 – About You

This introductory section to The Traffic Survey 2010/11 set out to learn more about

respondents themselves – those marketers who took the time to participate by filling out the

survey, online.

This section of the survey focussed upon questions relating to a number of areas including the

respondents’ education, employment and age.

The aim in posing these questions is to establish whether or not personal factors, unique to

individual respondents, have any kind of bearing upon the effectiveness of the traffic

generation techniques analysed in this report.

These questions effectively provide a social and demographic context for the report’s key

findings.

What is your age?

Fig 1.1.1: A breakdown of the ages of respondents

The top three age groups in descending order are “50-64”, “35-49” and “65 and over”. With two out of three of

these comprising of 50 and over, clearly there is an emphasis on more mature age groups for online businesses,

since 92.7% of respondents are within the 35-65 and over combined age group (a combined mean of 30.9% for

these latter three age groups).

THE TRAFFIC REPORT 2010/11: FREE EDITION 3

In addition, high numbers of older respondents are likely due to online businesses being started up and

managed by retirees (as a lifestyle business), that have easier access to time and money, or are keen to top up

pensions. This is corroborated with the high percentage of respondents that classify themselves as “retired”, as

described in the analysis for Fig 1.1.4.

The ages of respondents themselves can be a useful means of comparison. Ages for the owners of online

businesses can dictate the strategies that are implemented across a business, including the traffic generation

techniques that are utilized. The following analysis seeks to discover the degree to which the respondents’ ages

could conflict or benefit with the aims of the business.

As Fig 1.1.2 shows, the majority of respondents are male, with a combined mean of 84.8% from the “50-64” and

“65 and over” age groups. This could have a connection to a retirement-induced business, where time and

money are more freely available to maintain an online business.

Fig 1.1.2: A breakdown of the ages and genders of respondents


What gender are you?

Fig 1.2.1: A breakdown of gender of respondents

As identified earlier, the majority of respondents were male. Next, we will assess if gender is at all an influential

factor. When considering the annual revenue of the business, there are some notable gender differences. For

instance, there is a 7.0% difference for the $0 to $10,000 group, which is indicative of early success for females.

Also, a 5.1% difference for the $100,000 to $500,000 group is indicative of males able to achieve something

more long term.


Fig 1.2.2: A breakdown of gender and the annual business revenue of respondents

In which country are you located?

Fig 1.3.1: A breakdown of country locations of respondents

The majority of respondents (48.9%) are from the United States. 16.2% of respondents are from the United

Kingdom. While the majority of the locations with the highest response rates are western markets (accounting


for at least 89%), it is notable that the emerging market of India falls within the top 12, with 0.9%. Many more

emerging markets are contained in the remaining 9.4%.

The following analysis will evaluate this question against the countries with the highest response rate to the

survey; United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

While the majority of respondents from the UK or Australia (a combined mean of 29.7%) pursued a “vocational

qualification”, an average of 36.3% from the US or Canada pursued a “bachelor’s degree”. This shows that there

are national trends to consider towards what is required as a minimum level of training and/or education.

There are signs of continental trends, as indicated by the US and Canada’s joint majority for the “bachelor’s

degree”. These are in fact corroborated in the analysis for Question 4.

Fig 1.3.2: A breakdown of country locations and education levels of respondents


In which continent are you located?

Fig 1.4.1: A breakdown of continent locations of respondents

As Fig 1.4.1 shows, the majority (56.5%) of respondents are from North America, with 24.9% from Europe.

The following analysis refers specifically to the top five continents with the highest response rate. In descending

order these are: North America, Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Africa.

Across all continents, books and online courses are favored as the most effective means of traffic generation

training. In addition, Fig 1.4.2 shows that most businesses across continents did not really gain (or lose) from

employing social media marketing to drive traffic to their website(s).

Fig 1.4.2: A breakdown of continent locations of respondents against the effectiveness of social media


Which of the following best describes your current employment?

Fig 1.5.1: A breakdown of current employment of respondents

As found earlier, the majority of respondents are the “owner / proprietor / director” of their business. The next

largest response is “retired”, at 10.7%. It is also possible that many of these owners could also be retired, but

chose to classify themselves as the owner instead. There is evidence to suggest that many online businesses are

managed by owners that are retired or of a mature age.

The following analysis will evaluate the five employment categories with the greatest relevancy. In descending

order, these are:

1. Owner / Proprietor / Director

2. Retired

3. Higher managerial / professional

4. Intermediate managerial / professional

5. Unemployed


Reviewing what businesses state as their hardest issues for traffic generation, we can see that “all of the above

and many more” is still the biggest problem for online businesses, irrespective of current employment level.

However, this is only superseded by understandable problems for certain employment levels. For example, the

biggest problem for higher management is their lack of time (23.4%), whereas it’s a lack of resources for the

unemployed (21.9%).

Fig 1.5.2: A breakdown of current employment of respondents against the

hardest issues for traffic generation


What was the highest level of education you completed?

Fig 1.6.1: A breakdown of education level of respondents

As already identified in some previous analysis, education appears to be an important and beneficial factor in

the successful running of an online business. The majority of respondents (34.6%) have completed a bachelor’s

degree. 21.6% have completed a vocational qualification; this more practical skills-based training is particularly

popular in Europe and Oceania, compared to North America, that still predominantly favored the bachelor’s

degree. 90.9% of all respondents completed education beyond the junior high diploma level.

One of the biggest matters on education is the extent to which higher education improves revenue. The collected

responses show that the majority of annual revenue across all levels of education is in the first group, $0 to

$10,000 (a combined mean of 44.5%).


A notable spike in the data shows that a greater proportion of respondents with a degree of some nature (be it

bachelor’s or master’s) are more likely to earn between $100,000 to $500,000 in annual revenue for their online

business. This is evident in the combined mean percentage of 12.0% for the latter degree-based education

levels, compared with the 7.5% for the first three education levels.

Fig 1.6.2: A breakdown of education level of respondents against annual business revenue

CONCLUSION: SECTION 1 – ABOUT YOU

The majority of respondents are male (82.3%), across all age groups.

Irrespective of age, the majority of respondents (81.5%) are located in Europe or North America.

54.5% of the combined 18 – 64 age group classified themselves as the director or owner of their online

business. Interestingly, 47.6% of those in the 65 and over age group classified themselves as retired.


SECTION 2 – Your Business

The Traffic Survey 2010/11 aimed to identify the key business characteristics of respondents’

businesses, including such information as:

The number of staff employed (full-time and part-time)

The type of business

Customer type (B2B, B2C)

Approximate annual revenue

Details of who (in the respondent’s business) is responsible for the assorted traffic

generation techniques covered in this report.

This data allowed us to extrapolate the extent to which business conditions and the market

served has an influence upon the employed traffic marketing techniques.

The revenue analysis also facilitated analysis of the potential impact that certain traffic

marketing techniques might have on a business’ bottom line.


How much time do you currently spend working on your online business?

Fig 2.1.1: A breakdown of time committed to online businesses

The fact that most businesses operate on a less-than-full-time scale implies certain points, such as:

The individual already has a full-time job so the business is a side project;

The individual is pursuing a lifestyle business, which may be on a part-time scale.


In any case, this high response rate for part-time work is supported by the fact that 12.3% of respondents are

65 and over, and 10.7% are retired.

The type of business that is in operation is not affected by the time committed to it. Across all levels of time

spent on the business, the majority of online businesses sell digital products online.

Fig 2.1.2: A breakdown of time committed to online businesses against the type of business


How many staff do you have in your business?

Fig 2.2.1: A breakdown of staff numbers in the business

The average number of staff in the business is 1 full-time and/or 1 part-time staff member. This emphasis for

small numbers seems like the most cost-effective and generally productive way to establish the business in the

marketplace upon entry.


Which of the following best describes your type of business?

Fig 2.3.1: A breakdown of the various type of business

The majority of respondents (49.0%) sell digital products online (including e-books, music, and video and

software packages). These are typically of a download-upon-purchase nature, resulting in an instant Internet-

driven service. This business model is most likely adopted due to its low set-up and distribution costs (instantly

available to the end user), removing many physical barriers in the supply chain from seller to customer.


Analyzing this in terms of target market competition leads to some interesting observations.

Fig 2.3.2: A breakdown of the various types of business against how long businesses have been competing in their

target market

On average, 50.7% of businesses that have been targeting one specific market (for up to 6 years inclusive) sell

digital products online. It is also interesting to note that for businesses targeting for over 10 years, “consultancy

or coaching” shares the top answer.


Who does your business serve?

There are two major types of business, each catering to a particular type of customer. Business-to-business

firms (B2B) typically sell to other companies, including business partners and affiliates. Business-to-consumer

firms (B2C) typically sell to the wider general public. There are also firms that combine the two, selling to both

businesses and consumers.

This section aims to find out whether the type of customer served has any impact at all on traffic generation

techniques.

Fig 2.4.1: A breakdown of the customer type served by businesses

52.3% of online businesses target the general public and therefore run on a B2C basis. However, it is interesting

to see that almost a third run as a joint B2B/B2C operation. While targeting in a market where everyone is

potentially a customer, this offers the greatest scope to create awareness and eventually develop a niche. This

concept is supported by the fact that businesses targeting no specific range do so mostly in the first two years of

entering the market.


Looking at the difference from “full-time” through to “part-time (less than 5 hrs per week)” levels of work

commitment to the business:

The difference for B2B operations was just -6.1%. Due to the small percentage difference, it would seem

that time committed is not an influencing factor for B2B;

The difference for B2C operations was +18.2%. This large difference tells us that target the general

public and consumers can operate on a less-than-full-time basis;

The difference for businesses adopting both operations is -12.1%. This shows that businesses targeting

other businesses and consumers should be much more committed (ideally full-time) in order to get the

most out of the entire operation.

Fig 2.4.2: A breakdown of the customer type served by businesses against time committed


What is the approximate annual revenue in US dollars of your business?

Fig 2.5.1: A breakdown of approximate annual revenue in businesses

The majority of businesses (43.9%) achieve approximate annual revenue of up to $10,000. This is

understandable because most online businesses have only been competing in their particular target markets for

less than two years (see Section 3 – Your Target Market for further details).

Education level is an influential factor towards business revenue. The “Bachelor’s degree” is the preferred

minimum level of education. All of the highest percentages for each revenue group are within this education

level. What’s most important is that the highest proportion of businesses earning at least $50,000 has

employees with at least an undergraduate (first) degree.


Fig 2.5.2: A breakdown of approximate annual revenue in businesses against education level

Who does the following in your business?

Fig 2.6.1a: A breakdown of various roles within the business

Across the board, it is evident that the majority of activities in the business are done by one individual; more

than likely the owner of the business. A huge 88.2% of these respondents deal with traffic generation. A

complete set of the percentages is provided in Fig 2.6.1b.


Fig 2.6.1b: A breakdown of various roles within the business (percentages)

CONCLUSION: SECTION 2 – YOUR BUSINESS

70.1% of businesses are operated on a part-time basis of some nature (the majority of these are part-

time, for over 20 hours per week).

The majority of online businesses sell digital products online, which when compared with other those

offering services, require less time committed to the business. However, businesses targeting other

businesses (B2B) and multiple consumers (B2B and B2C) should commit more time to the business

because of the increased diversity and potentially non-specific target market age range. This increased

diversity results in a wide range of traffic generation problems for businesses.


SECTION 3 – Your Target Market

A target market consists of a group of customers to which a business aims its marketing and

products/services.

In the context of online businesses and traffic generation, having a crystal clear understanding

of who is being targeted, which profiles of visitor we are hoping to attract, can of course lead to

more effective targeting and, ultimately, better conversion rates.

The Traffic Survey 2010/11 aimed to determine several facts relating to the respondents’

target market, such as how long they have been competing in that target market, and the

perceived age groups and geography of their target customers.

In this section we will address whether or not targeting a particular market has any impact

upon which different traffic generation techniques ought to be applied, and also the

effectiveness of those techniques employed.


How long have you been competing in your target market?

Fig 3.1.1: A breakdown of how long businesses have been competing in their target market

Fig 3.1.1 shows that over half (approximately 56.1%) of online businesses have been competing in their target

market for less than 2 years. This perhaps highlights the constant changing of target markets for a business; for

example, a new product or service may require a completely new business plan to be adopted.

Another significant result is that 11.4% of businesses have been competing in their target market for over 10

years. Clearly, there is the need to be within one extreme or the other: constantly changing target markets to

maintain appeal, or encourage the growth of customer loyalty over time. As such, only 32.6% of online

businesses have been reaching their target market for 3-10 years inclusive.


Analyzing this in terms of the type of business leads to some interesting observations.

Fig 3.1.2: A breakdown of how long businesses have been competing in their target market against

the type of business

On average, 50.7% of businesses that have been targeting one specific market (for up to 6 years inclusive) sell

digital products online. It is also interesting to note that for businesses targeting for over 10 years, “consultancy

or coaching” shares the top answer, perhaps because of its long term benefits and wider outreach.


What are the age groups of your targeted customers?

Fig 3.2.1: A breakdown of the age groups of target customers

Fig 3.2.1 shows that over half of online businesses target to the age groups 18 – 64 inclusive. There is a

significant result in many respondents target “no specific range”. This is likely due to the fact that many

businesses have little experience of their marketplace, and have therefore yet to identify an appropriate age

group to target (as found in the analysis of Question 1).

Across all target age groups, the businesses that sell digital products online (such as e-books and MP3s) were

the most popular, with 49.0% of respondents.

Looking at what businesses find most difficult in generating traffic, across all age groups, it is clear that there

are many problems with generating traffic. A combined mean of 19.2% of all respondents stated “all of the

above and many more”.


Fig 3.2.2: A breakdown of the age groups of target customers against the hardest factors of traffic generation

Having seen that in general businesses experience a wide range of problems with generating traffic

(irrespective of target market age), we will explore various means of traffic generation technique to see if any

are particularly appealing to certain age groups.


What gender are your target customers?

Fig 3.3.1: A breakdown of the gender of target customers

Fig 3.3.1 shows a clear majority for a mixed target market of males and females. This shows that joint appeal is

more than likely to be beneficial, and this result would account for many new entrants into the market, that are

still targeting non-specific age ranges.

Targeting a mixed group depends on the product or service offered; this explains the smaller shares shown

above, that would apply to niche markets.


Looking at time committed to the business, it is interesting to see that if targeting females only, a less-than-full-

time commitment would suffice. Fig 3.3.2 shows that a full-time commitment to the business results in

targeting “predominantly male” and “mixed (male and female)” markets.

Fig 3.3.2: A breakdown of the gender of target customers against time committed to the business


What geographic area does your business target?

Fig 3.4.1: A breakdown of the geographic area of target customers

Fig 3.4.1 shows that 41.2% of businesses target worldwide. In addition, 36.4% of businesses target single or

multiple countries within a continent. It is apparent then that businesses (especially those that are online), due

to the impact of the Internet, are targeting at a much wider scale than ever before.

The geographic area that a business aims for can determine the business type that is most appropriate. Fig 3.4.2

shows that businesses that are more localized are mostly those involved offline or face-to-face services, rather

than products. As such, towns and cities are dominated with professional and offline services. States and wider

counties have a greater number of “consultancy or coaching” services, again focusing on services for localized

areas.


Once extended to a national, multinational or international scale, it is evident that distribution is limited without

having a stronghold in the marketplace. This would mean the management and running of vast sections of the

entire supply chain itself. Therefore, concerning the latter three categories, “digital products sold online” is the

feasible majority (often delivering a product or service directly to the customer), with “physical products sold

online” and “online services” in second and third place.

Fig 3.4.2: A breakdown of the geographic area of target customers against business type


CONCLUSION: SECTION 3 – YOUR TARGET MARKET

For new entrants, targeting a specific market (by age group, gender or location) is difficult, especially in early

establishing stages. Therefore, it is vital to keep an open mind on the target market, as it is more than likely to

change in the event of new product and service launches.

With Internet advertising and marketing tools, it is easier than ever to get noticed online, but the benefits of

Internet marketing are in a two-way street; equally so, criticism is now prevalent. Article marketing, supported

by customer reviews, are the best way around this.

Key Findings:

Over half of all online businesses have been competing in one particular target market for less than two

years. This is evidence of the constant need for change – tailoring the business plan to suit the ever-

changing needs of the marketplace. These businesses focus more on marketing in an effort to get

noticed.

Around 10% of online businesses have been competing in their chosen marketplace for over 10 years. In

this time, such a business will have a stronghold on the marketplace, commercial awareness, and

customer loyalty and retention. These businesses focus less on marketing and more on development.


SECTION 4 – Traffic in General

This section of the survey focused on establishing some baseline data about the respondent’s

online marketing experience and behaviour.

The questions established some general background, such as those areas of traffic generation

that people struggle with, and their general outlook on traffic – how hard (or easy) they

currently find this activity, and whether they feel this will change over time.

The questions in this section of the survey also determined respondents’ own view of their

current levels of ability when it comes to both traffic generation and internet marketing

generally. This data is of course crucial when interpreting the effectiveness of techniques

throughout this report.

The survey also identified, for all respondents, their three most successful traffic techniques,

which they are currently employing.

This section also delves into what, and how much the respondent has undertaken to

understand what’s working in their traffic marketing, so it reviews the respondents’ use of

analytics and testing to determine the effectiveness of techniques employed.

What do you find the hardest about generating traffic?


Fig 4.1.1: A breakdown of the biggest problems in generating traffic

Of the initial choices, not having enough time (14.3%), staying focused (13.5%) and lack of resources such as

staff or money (14.5%) were the top three specific problems that respondents highlighted.

As there are many businesses that are quite young, a lack of experience is also a major problem, accounting for

15.4%. With only 3.8% of respondents stating that they “do not find it hard”, it is evident that online businesses

can really struggle with generating traffic.

When comparing against how long the business has been competing in one specific target market, the biggest

problem for businesses, especially with regards to traffic generation, is getting past the early hurdles of a young,

inexperienced business. Naturally, this is shown in the majority for “less than 1 year”, which 56.3% of

respondents “have not had enough experience with it yet”.

Fig 4.1.2: A breakdown of the biggest problems in generating traffic against how long the business has been

competing in a specific target market

Observing traffic generation difficulties against the age groups of target customers, all types of problems are

relatively uniform across all age groups.


Has traffic generation become easier or harder for you, in the PAST 12 months?

Fig 4.2.1: A breakdown of shifting difficulty in traffic generation, in the PAST 12 months

Almost a third of all respondents found that there was no change to the difficulty in generating traffic in the last

12 months. 29.9% of respondents had experienced “difficult” or “more difficult” traffic generation than

previously, whereas for “easier” and “much easier”, this is 26.6%. Once again, it is clear that many online

businesses are relatively new, with 10.6% of them falling into this category.


Looking at what respondents have rated as their biggest problems with traffic generation, we can see that the

most difficult issues are those concerning multiple problems, whilst issues that have become easier include

“staying focused”. Motivation is not as huge a problem as may have been expected.

Only 3.6% of respondents, across all difficulty levels, “do not find it hard”.

Fig 4.2.2: A breakdown of shifting difficulty in traffic generation, in the PAST 12 months against the biggest

problems in traffic generation


Do you expect traffic generation to get any easier, or harder, over the NEXT 12 months?

Fig 4.3.1: A breakdown of shifting difficulty in traffic generation, in the NEXT 12 months

Over a third of all respondents (34.0%) believe that traffic generation will get easier in the next 12 months,

perhaps because these businesses intend on applying specific traffic generation techniques such as search

engine optimization (SEO), which they would expect to have a positive impact on generating traffic. 31.1% of

online businesses still believe that their problems will get “difficult” or “more difficult”; this could be attributed

to problems such as lack of resources, which in turn would affect the extent to which traffic generation

techniques can be applied.


Looking at what respondents have rated as their biggest problems with traffic generation, we can see that the

most difficult issues are those concerning multiple problems, whilst issues that have become much easier

include “staying focused”.

It is interesting to see that most respondents that feel there will be “no change” also think they will not have

enough time to manage traffic generation. Only 3.9% of respondents, across all difficulty levels, do not “find it

hard”.

Fig 4.3.2: A breakdown of shifting difficulty in traffic generation, in the NEXT 12 months against the biggest

problems in traffic generation


Have you ever undertaken a detailed analysis of your traffic statistics?

Fig 4.4.1: A breakdown of whether businesses perform traffic statistical analysis

Only 35% of respondents have performed a detailed analysis of their traffic statistics. This means that a huge

number of businesses have not done so. We will look to see whether performing such an analysis has effects in

traffic generation and its associated problems.


The majority of businesses that did perform a detailed analysis of their traffic statistics did so within the first

two years of competing in a designated target market. This seems to be a smart move, as this will allow for a

much more focused and practical approach towards the next action to take to improve traffic.

Fig 4.4.2: A breakdown of whether businesses perform traffic statistical analysis against how long the business has

been competing in its chosen target market


Do you regularly undertake split tests to decide which traffic techniques work best?

Fig 4.5.1: A breakdown of whether businesses undertake split tests

Split testing is simply testing two different variables on your sales page to determine which gets the most sales.

Variables can be any aspect of your sales page, such as the color and styles of headlines, images used on the

page, any special offers on the product or service you are offering, body text, and more.

The benefit of split testing is simple; it decides on a set of variables on your sales page that is most effective in

generating traffic and ultimately the selling of products and services. As such, it is quite concerning that over

half (54.2%) of respondents have never run split tests, and 40.1% barely run split tests if at all.


Looking at approximate annual revenue, in most cases, businesses “always run split tests”. This is good evidence

of split testing serving as a beneficial means for increasing revenue, through improved, more profitable (and

tailored) sales.

Fig 4.5.2: A breakdown of whether businesses undertake split tests against

approximate annual business revenue

This question supports the need for regular split testing. Along with search engine optimization (SEO), split

testing can be even more powerful in determining the best case scenario for a sales page. 77.8% of respondents

that always split test also always optimize their sites.


How would you rate your current level of expertise in traffic generation?

Fig 4.6.1: A breakdown of respondents’ current level of expertise in traffic generation

Only 5.8% of respondents classify themselves as “advanced”; this is a startling indication of the need for better

training and opportunities to improve upon existing skills.


Education level across all levels of expertise in traffic generation results in a resounding majority for the

“Bachelor’s degree (Undergraduate degree)”. While the range between beginner and advanced is much less for

this level of education, the majority of businesses with this level of education are advanced, so this does prove to

an extent that the influence of a university education can have a positive impact, in that individuals are more

likely to have a higher level of expertise.

Fig 4.6.2: A breakdown of respondents’ current level of expertise in traffic generation against

education level of respondents


How would you rate your current level of expertise for Internet marketing in general?

Fig 4.7.1: A breakdown of respondents’ current level of expertise in Internet marketing



Education level across all levels of expertise in Internet marketing results in a resounding majority for the

“Bachelor’s degree (Undergraduate degree)”.

Fig 4.7.2: A breakdown of respondents’ current level of expertise in Internet marketing against

education level of respondents


What are currently your THREE major ways of generating traffic?

Fig 4.8.1: A breakdown of respondents’ THREE major ways of generating traffic, in order of importance

The three most important traffic generation techniques are:

1. Search engine traffic (free)

2. Article marketing

3. Email marketing

The table on the next page summarizes the percentages from this graph.


Fig 4.8.2: A breakdown of respondents’ THREE major ways of generating traffic, in order of importance

CONCLUSION: SECTION 4 – TRAFFIC IN GENERAL

By far, the most important way of generating traffic is search engine marketing (search engine traffic

(free)). Word-of-mouth marketing is also particularly useful.

As explained in Section 3 – Your Target Market, word-of-mouth marketing can be applied locally in

terms of physically spreading the word, or on a global scale through virtual means such as social media

marketing


SECTION 5 – About Your Traffic

This section aimed to find out more about the respondents’ attitude to traffic; its importance

(now and in the future) to their business, the levels of success they feel they are achieving with

their traffic marketing generally, and their overall levels of satisfaction with their traffic.

A context was also set insofar as respondents were also asked to indicate how long they had

been doing business online.

A number of other questions were posed within this section of the survey to determine the

amount of traffic that the respondents were achieving currently, and whether that traffic was

organic or paid.

How would you rate the importance of online traffic to your business?

Fig 5.1.1: A breakdown of the importance of online traffic to businesses

Most online businesses (87.8%) see online traffic as “very important”, which makes sense, as these businesses

cannot truly perform without a target market that is online in some nature.


It is encouraging to see that respondents across all education levels do find online traffic at least “a little bit

important”. Looking further, most respondents considering online traffic “not important at all” have completed

education to a pre-university level. However, it is interesting to note that more master’s degree respondents feel

traffic generation is not that important.

Overall, traffic generation is extremely important, and since the respondents having a bachelor’s degree are in

businesses that are successful, online traffic generation should be taken seriously.

Fig 5.1.2: A breakdown of the importance of online traffic to businesses against education level


How would you rate your current success of generating online traffic?

Fig 5.2.1: A breakdown of the current success of generating online traffic for businesses

81.7% of respondents found that their success at generating online traffic was average or worse. This could be

directly linked to how businesses perceive the importance of online traffic, or a reduced commitment of time to

the business.


With a combined mean of 50.5% for excellent, good and average success in generating online traffic, it is clear

from Fig 5.2.2 that the majority of online businesses get their greatest success from working at a full-time

capacity.

Fig 5.2.2: A breakdown of the current success of generating online traffic for businesses against time committed to

the business

It is also notable to see that as less time is committed to the business, there is a greater chance of poorer success

rates in generating online traffic.


How would you rate your satisfaction with the current traffic volume to your website?

Fig 5.3.1: A breakdown of the current traffic volume to websites

There is a huge amount of dissatisfaction towards the current volume of traffic for websites. 87.8% of

businesses were undecided or dissatisfied to some degree with their current volume of traffic.


Put simply, Fig 5.3.2 summarizes definitively that success and satisfaction go hand in hand.

Fig 5.3.2: A breakdown of the current traffic volume to websites against

the current success of generating online traffic

In addition, it is interesting to see that 27.5% of those that had no strong feeling actually had good success in

traffic generation. Similarly, 22.2% of businesses that were satisfied had average levels of traffic. This is

indicative of the wide range of expectations that are naturally unique to individual businesses.


How long have you had an online business?

Fig 5.4.1: A breakdown how long online businesses have existed

This question corroborates the duration of target market competition as presented in the 1st question of

Section 3 – Your Target Market. It shows that 55.2% of online businesses have existed for up to two years.

This supports the idea that the target market can be quite difficult to tap into, and as such, competition in the

market decides how long the business will survive. Fig 5.4.2 explains this further.


Fig 5.4.2: A breakdown how long online businesses have existed against how long they

have competed in their target market


On average, how many unique visitors are you currently achieving daily across all of your websites/blogs?

Fig 5.5.1: A breakdown of the number of unique daily visitors across multiple websites and blogs

Here we can see that 58.3% of online businesses get up to 100 daily visits to their websites or blogs. This is

likely due to the fact that most online businesses are less than two years old (as found in Question 4). Logically,

as more time is spent on the business, the likelihood of increasing the daily visitor count rises.


However, there are a few notable points to mention. The first is that more visitors does not necessarily equate

to higher revenue for the business.

Fig 5.5.2: A breakdown of the number of unique daily visitors across multiple websites and blogs against annual

revenue ($0-$10,000) for the business

Here we can see that irrespective of the number of daily visits, the majority of online businesses generate less

than $10,000 annually. Once again this is likely due to the fact that most online businesses today have been in

operation for less than two years.

What percentage of your traffic comes directly from search engines such as Google/Yahoo, not including pay-per-click (PPC)?

Across all online businesses, on average, approximately 54% of traffic is directly from search engines, not

including pay-per-click (PPC). As well as being a (usually) free means of generating traffic, it is clear that online

businesses must not ignore the benefits of “search engine traffic (free)”, the most important traffic generation

technique recognized by online businesses.

What percentage of your traffic comes from paid advertising, including pay-per-click (PPC)?

Approximately 9.9% of traffic comes from paid advertising, including pay-per-click. While this may account for a

small set of respondents to the survey, this is the nature of paid advertising, and businesses should have

adequate resources (particularly financial) to support this technique. However, the benefit is much more

immediate, making pay-per-click a more responsive technique than other traffic generation techniques.


Do you feel traffic generation as a whole is becoming more or less important for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 5.8.1: A breakdown of opinion – the extent to which traffic generation as a whole will become more or less

important over the next 12 months

It is evident that most online businesses see traffic generation as becoming more important over the next 12

months, since the majority of online businesses are less than two years old, and have been competing in their

target market for a similar duration.


Considering geographical targeting of the market, it is clear that traffic generation is a much more important

factor to consider when wider regions are considered, such as global and multi-national. As such, it is far less

important in localized situations.

Fig 5.8.2: A breakdown of opinion – the extent to which traffic generation as a whole will become more or less

important over the next 12 months

Businesses finding pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing being

more integral and important also found that traffic generation as a whole will become more important to the

business.


CONCLUSION: SECTION 5 – ABOUT YOUR TRAFFIC

The greatest varying factor in the importance of online traffic to the business is geographical target

range; a localized target market (where it is most likely that services are the focus of the business)

considers online traffic to be not important at all. However, for a global or multi-national context (where

products – typically digital – are sold online), traffic for the business is absolutely vital.

The success rate of online traffic depends on several things:

o The time spent working on the business; a full-time commitment has generally resulted in

excellent-average success rates;

o The number of staff in the business.

Having achieved this, businesses are far more likely to earn more in revenue. 22.6% of online businesses

with excellent success earned up to $500,000.

Traffic satisfaction is generally in direct correlation with traffic success.


SECTION 6 – Training

Training, when it comes to traffic generation, is crucially important, and can make the

difference between adequate or amazing returns on applying the most relevant traffic

generation concepts.

With so many traffic marketing tools out there and with so many different traffic marketing

techniques – everything from banner ads to pay- per-click (PPC) and search engine

optimization (SEO) - the need to understand what’s possible and how to apply the different

traffic tactics is plain to see.

This section of the Traffic Survey 2010/11 sought to establish how much training was

undertaken by respondents, how effective it was and how much money businesses are

investing in the different forms of training.

Comparing these against issues such as success rates and ‘problems encountered’, we can

identify the training methods that are perhaps the most appropriate to online businesses.


Have you ever taken a course, attended a conference or read a book on traffic generation, search engine optimization (SEO) or Internet marketing, in the last 12 months?

Fig 6.1.1: A breakdown of whether traffic generation training has been taken in the last 12 months

It is encouraging to see that 78.2% of respondents have completed training of some nature to get the most out

of the business. 32% of respondents that have taken training actually work full-time, again a reference to the

long-term commitment to the business.

Whether respondents trained in traffic generation or not, an average of 19.0% said that they had “all of the

above and many more” (i.e. multiple problems with generating traffic).

However, it is interesting to see that that most businesses that did complete some form of training actually did

not undertake a detailed analysis of traffic. This could be explained by the fact that most businesses actually

completed very little training, far less than the averages (provided in Question 2).


Fig 6.1.2: A breakdown of whether traffic generation training has been taken in the last 12 months against

whether businesses have undertaken a detailed analysis of traffic statistics

How many of each form of learning listed below have you completed in the last 12 months?

Fig 6.2.1: A breakdown of how many of each form of traffic generation training has been completed in the last 12

months

As mentioned briefly in Question 1, the most used training method is books, with a rounded average of 6 books

in the last 12 months. There is also a high majority towards online courses, which is directly attributed to the

fact that the majority of online businesses target a wider geographical area, therefore depending more on online

resources as a means of training and distribution of products and services.


How effective did you find each form of learning listed below?

Fig 6.3.1: A breakdown of how effective each form of traffic generation training has been

As the graph shows, the techniques that are mostly effective are books and online courses. The one technique

that is very effective over the others is online courses.

As expected (due to the geographical targeting of online businesses as a whole), the latter three forms of

training are considered not applicable for the majority of businesses, simply because most target a wider area

and are typically more product-based in their targeting of consumers.


Approximately, how much have you spent (in US dollars) on books, courses, conferences or coaching on traffic generation, search engine optimization (SEO) or Internet marketing over the last 12 months?

The average amount spent on any training in the last 12 months was $2,335. Most businesses are relatively

young (i.e. less than two years old), and earn less than $10,000 in revenue annually (especially in the formative

years of the business in the marketplace). This shows that businesses are committing a huge amount (especially

in the case of lower-revenue firms) of their financial resources to ensure adequate training for their staff. This

needs to be done on a short-term basis to increase the long-term sustainability of the business.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 6 – TRAINING

The high proportion of businesses that have an intermediate level of expertise in Internet marketing had

completed training of some form in the last 12 months. In addition, most businesses that did take

training did not ever complete a detailed analysis of traffic statistics. As such, it seems that the training

taken may not always be appropriate or practical for the needs of the business.

Books are the single greatest resource for training. On average, businesses have studied at least 5 books

in the last 12 months. Online courses are also quite popular, with a (rounded) average of 4 courses taken

annually. The use of these training methods is in direct correlation with geographical targeting of the

market (as discussed in Section 3 – Your Target Market, Question 4); these training methods are

ideally suited for product-based businesses targeting on a global scale.


SECTION 7 – Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which advertisers pay an ad network

only if and when their ad is clicked. As such, PPC is a performance-based model.

If an advertiser’s ads don’t generate any leads (or clicks) there is virtually no cost to running a

campaign, which makes the risks of employing this tactic relatively low.

The PPC model is a very effective generation technique when correctly applied, but what the

survey set out to establish with respondents, was if they were actually employing this

technique and, if so, whether they were seeing positive results.

The section also identified who, within the respondent’s business is responsible for PPC and

how much money they are currently spending on this method.

Have you ever used pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate traffic?

Fig 7.1.1: A breakdown of the use of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate traffic

The split is relatively even; there is only a slight majority (51.8%) for respondents that do use PPC.


A major benefit of PPC is increased sustainability; it provides alternative routes to your websites and blogs via

affiliates, and can prove extremely useful in the long-term (especially if a good relationship can be maintained

with affiliates).

Fig 7.1.2: A breakdown of the use of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate traffic against how long businesses

have been competing in their target market

Success in the formative years of the business is vital for its long-term sustainability. As shown, the majority of

businesses that use PPC have generally survived longer, surpassing the crucial first two years.


Who does pay-per-click (PPC) advertising in your business?

Fig 7.2.1: A breakdown of who is responsible for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising in the business

The majority of respondents handle the PPC advertising by themselves. Only 6.2% of respondents delegated

PPC management to other staff either in-house, outsourced, or both. However, 7.3% say not applicable,

suggesting perhaps that PPC is not taken as seriously as it should as a traffic generation technique.


How much do you currently spend on pay-per-click (PPC) monthly?

Fig 7.3.1: A breakdown of how much money is spent on pay-per-click (PPC) monthly

50.8% of businesses spend less than $100 on PPC monthly. This is indicative of the low bands of revenue that

most businesses earn, as a result of their few years in existence and/or in the marketplace.


How often do you make changes to your pay-per-click (PPC) account (e.g. adjusting bids, adding/editing ads, etc.)?

Fig 7.4.1: A breakdown of how often changes are made to pay-per-click (PPC) accounts

This diagram clearly shows an overall lack of truly getting the most out of PPC, as only 27.7% of respondents

make changes at least on a weekly basis.

The current success of generating online traffic is dependent on how often changes are made to PPC. As shown

below, we can see that 62.5% of weekly updaters, and 57.9% of daily updaters, get at least an average level of

success.


Fig 7.4.2: A breakdown of how often changes are made to pay-per-click (PPC) accounts against the current level of

success of generating online traffic

How effective have you found pay-per-click (PPC) for driving traffic to your website?

Fig 7.5.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of pay-per-click (PPC)

for driving traffic

36.6% of respondents found PPC to be at least effective for driving traffic to their websites. This could be

because the benefits of PPC are limited by several factors such as target age group.


Which pay-per-click (PPC) networks do you use?

Fig 7.6.1: A breakdown of which pay-per-click (PPC) networks are frequently used

Google AdWords is clearly the most popular PPC network of choice, with 88.1% of respondents.


Do you feel pay-per-click (PPC) is becoming more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 7.7.1: A breakdown of opinion – the extent to which pay-per-click (PPC) will become more or less important

over the next 12 months

33.5% of respondents believe that PPC will become more or a lot more important, while 36.1% believe that PPC

will become less or a lot less important.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 7 – PAY-PER-CLICK

The most important (and necessary) benefit is increased sustainability. Success in the formative years

can be directly attributed to the use of PPC, as businesses that have done so have surpassed the 2-year

mark and more often than not, survived for over 10 years as a result.

Businesses that employ PPC typically have better overall traffic generation expertise, and frequently

optimize their websites using SEO, which is again vital for the business in the long-term.


SECTION 8 – Search Optimization

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often considered one of the most important techniques

for driving to an online business over the long term, and comprises ‘on-page’ methods (such as

including keyword-rich titles, body-copy, headings and so on) and ‘off-page’ methods (such as

quality inbound links, from relevant sites).

The survey aimed to establish several things including whether respondents were actually

undertaking any search engine optimization on their web properties and, if so, who within the

respondent’s business was responsible for it.

This section also sought to understand what level of expertise respondents felt they had when

it came to using SEO methods for driving traffic.

Do you optimize your website content for the search engines?

Fig 8.1.1: A breakdown of the proportion of businesses that optimize their website content for search engines

(search engine optimization – SEO)

Search engine traffic from the likes of Google is absolutely free, and can be plentiful if you achieve good search

engine rankings. However, to do so usually requires at least some search engine optimization, and so it is

interesting that the survey reveals that less than half of all respondents always optimize their sites.

However, it is encouraging that only 8.2% do absolutely no search engine optimization at all.


It is interesting to note that 93.7% of women either always optimize their sites or do at least some optimization,

whereas men are slightly less likely to do so with 91.4% falling into the ʻalways optimizeʼ or ʻsometimes

optimizeʼ groups. So, as far as SEO is concerned women have a slight lead over men.

When we break the figures down by age some very interesting facts come to light.

Respondents in the 18 to 34 age group are far more likely to always optimize their sites, and the percentage of

people who ʻalways optimizeʼ falls off steadily as we progress through the age groups. In addition, those over 65

are almost twice as likely to never optimize their sites.

Fig 8.1.2: A breakdown of the proportion of businesses that always optimize their websites against the age of

respondents

The likelihood that older people are less likely to do any search optimize may be due to the fact that older

people feel they are not as ʻadvancedʼ as those who are younger, who are considerably more likely to rank

themselves as SEO experts, as we will see shortly.


Interestingly, the highest level of education that people reached does seem to have some impact on whether

people are more, or less, likely to always optimize their sites, with people who have Bachelors/Undergraduate

Degrees being 12% more likely than people who finished their education after Junior High School. However, this

link to education does drop off once people reach Masters Degree/Doctorate level.

Fig 8.1.3: A breakdown of the proportion of businesses that optimize their websites against the education level of

respondents


Who does search engine optimization (SEO) in your business?

Fig 8.2.1: A breakdown of who is responsible for search engine optimization (SEO) in businesses

As with many other areas of traffic generation, search engine optimization is no different in the fact that the

majority (91.6%) of respondents manage it by themselves. Looking at the remaining categories, it is interesting

to see that 4.6% outsource search engine optimization one way or another. This gives an early indication that

some businesses can have problems with optimizing websites, either in the process itself, or from getting the

most out of the technique.

Interestingly, there is no significant gender difference regarding who manages SEO. Both male and female

respondents were only a few fractions of a percent from the average of 91.6% who do it themselves.

Age had little impact on whether people did it themselves or not. All age groups fell within less than two percent

of the 91.6% average. However, respondents over the age of 65 were far more likely to than those under 65 to

outsource the work. 6.2% of those over 65 either outsourced it completely or did some in-house and outsourced

the rest. This compares with 4.3% for those aged 18-65.


How would you rate your current level of expertise for search engine optimization (SEO)?

Fig 8.3.1: A breakdown of the current level of expertise for search engine optimization (SEO)




How often do you perform search engine optimization (SEO)?

Fig 8.4.1: A breakdown of how often businesses perform search engine optimization (SEO)

This diagram clearly shows an overall lack of truly getting the most out of SEO, as only 29.1% of respondents

optimize at least on a weekly basis.


Do you feel search engine optimization (SEO) will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 8.5.1: A breakdown of the proportion of businesses that optimize their website content for search engines

(search engine optimization – SEO)

A huge 82.1% of respondents believe that SEO will become more or a lot more important, while a mere 2.9%

believe that SEO will become less or a lot less important. This signifies what businesses think of SEO; that it is

highly important and beneficial to an online business, regardless of additional traffic generation techniques

used (see Question 1).

CONCLUSION: SECTION 8 – SEARCH OPTIMIZATION

Less than half of all respondents always optimize their sites, and only 8.2% do absolutely no search

engine optimization at all. Women have a slight lead over men with regards to search engine

optimization.

Those over 65 are almost twice as likely to never optimize their sites. The likelihood that older people

are less likely to do any search optimize may be due to the fact that older people feel they are not as

‘advanced’ as those who are younger, who are considerably more likely to rank themselves as SEO

experts.


SECTION 9 – Social Media for Business

Social media comprises a range of tools and platforms for social interaction among a

community of users. These platforms make it incredibly easy for users to communicate with a

substantial network of friends and contacts.

Many of the more popular social media sites rank among the most trafficked on the Internet

today – they’re a part of everyday life for most web users.

Increasingly, since social media sites allow people to reach out and connect with one another

so readily, they are being seen as a potential means of driving traffic for businesses too,

whether it be from a blog (e.g. Blogger.com), micro-blog (e.g. Twitter) or a social networking

site (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Orkut).

They allow businesses to communicate with their customers and prospects in a personable,

friendly way.

This section of the report has been split into several key parts, with a focus on the use of the

‘big three’ social network and micro-blogging services:

1. Introduction to Social Media, which covers who manages social media in the business, as

well as its overall effectiveness in generating traffic

2. for Business

3. for Business

4. for Business

5. Conclusion to Social Media, which covers the use of alternative social network services

besides the ‘big three’, as well as how many of various types of accounts businesses have.

The aim of this section is to find out whether the choice of social network platform has any

effect on traffic generation and the extent to which factors such as business type, customer

type and the levels of integration of social media within the respondent’s business affect the

performance of this traffic marketing technique.


Introduction to Social Media

Fig 9.1.1 shows that only 56.2% of online businesses officially use social media as a platform for traffic

generation.

Fig 9.1.1: A breakdown of the use of social media for business

There are immediate benefits for having social media as an outlet for traffic generation, as explained below.


Firstly, 71.3% of online businesses adopting social media have been in the market for up to 4 years. Across all

durations of market competition, the majority of businesses that have survived for longer periods have

implemented social media marketing.

Fig 9.1.2: A breakdown of the use of social media for business against how long businesses have been competing in

their chosen target market


Looking at who is responsible for social media marketing in a business, the majority once again shows that the

respondents to the survey deal with social media marketing by themselves. This is representative of the 87.6%

majority.

Fig 9.2.1: A breakdown of who does social media marketing

Annual revenue does have an impact towards who is responsible for social media. In general, businesses with

low annual revenue resort to handling social media for themselves. Naturally, as revenue increases, so does the

responsibility of social media. With larger revenue, there is inevitably a larger audience to cater for.

Businesses earning as much as $100,000 to $500,000 in annual revenue have a combined mean of 22.6% of (any

type of) staff managing social media.


On the whole, only 29.8% of online businesses found that social media marketing was at least effective for

driving traffic to their websites.

Fig 9.3.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of social media marketing for driving traffic

This lack of overall effectiveness from businesses that did employ social media as a traffic generation technique

could be down to the fact that not all business types or individual circumstances apply well to social media.

Brief Summary – Introduction to Social Media

Only 56.2% of online businesses officially use social media as a platform for traffic generation.

71.3% of online businesses adopting social media have been in the market for up to 4 years. Across all

durations of market competition, the majority of businesses that have survived for longer periods have

implemented social media marketing.


for Business

Fig 9.4.1 shows that 67.5% of online businesses officially use Facebook for business.

Fig 9.4.1: A breakdown of the use of for business purposes

As established in the introductory section, Facebook allows for more specific targeting of the market, by age

group. Across all age groups, a greater proportion of businesses use Facebook than those that do not. Therefore,

it is a popular means of reaching out to customers.

Fig 9.4.2: A breakdown of the use of for business purposes against

the age groups of target customers


The majority of Facebook for business users (41.0%) actually find that it has been neither ineffective nor

effective. Only 29.2% of businesses using Facebook find it at least effective at generating traffic.

Fig 9.5.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of at generating traffic for businesses

The introductory section showed that social media as a whole is most effective for businesses targeting other

businesses and consumers (B2B+B2C). The same is true for Facebook, with a combined mean of 52.5% of

businesses with effective or very effective Facebook use, that target B2B+B2C customers.

Fig 9.5.2: A breakdown of the effectiveness of at generating traffic for businesses against who the

business serves (B2B, B2C or both)


The majority of businesses already using Facebook in a business capacity (69.9%) believe that this particular

social network service will become at least “more important” as a traffic generation technique, in the next 12

months.

Fig 9.6.1: A breakdown of the importance of as a traffic generation technique



The majority of Facebook for business users publish wall posts on a less-than daily basis. 41.6% publish

monthly, 39.5% publish weekly, and only 18.9% publish daily.

Fig 9.7.1: A breakdown of the frequency of publishing wall posts on profiles for business

For the 18.9% of businesses that publish wall posts daily, an average of 8 wall posts are submitted. The

frequency of publishing wall posts on Facebook profiles for business can be directly related to the biggest

problems typically associated with traffic.

Brief Summary – for Business

In conclusion, Facebook is probably best suited for social media marketing on a small-scale, and can be managed

without the need of a dedicated individual for a reasonable return of traffic. If however, social media marketing

is central to the business plan, and the resources (staff and money) are available, Twitter will by far give the

greatest return on investment than the others.


for Business

Fig 9.9.1 shows that only 8.6% of online businesses officially use MySpace for business.


As established in the introductory section, MySpace allows for more specific targeting of the market, by age

group. Across all age groups, however, MySpace is much more effective at targeting a non-specific range than a

specific one, which contradicts the original statement. A greater proportion of businesses do not use MySpace

than those that do. It may not be as effective a means of traffic generation as perhaps first thought.


against the age groups of target customers


The majority of MySpace for business users (41.4%) actually find that it has been neither ineffective nor

effective. Only 17.2% of businesses using MySpace find it at least effective at generating traffic.


The introductory section showed that social media as a whole is most effective for businesses targeting other

businesses and consumers (B2B+B2C). The same is true for MySpace, with a combined mean of 75.0% of

businesses with effective or very effective MySpace use, that target B2B+B2C customers.

Fig 9.10.2: A breakdown of the effectiveness of at generating traffic for businesses against who the

business serves (B2B, B2C or both)


The majority of businesses already using MySpace in a business capacity (36.7%) believe that this particular


months.




The majority of MySpace for business users publish wall posts on a less-than daily basis. 61.7% publish monthly,

24.2% publish weekly, and only 14.1% publish daily.


For the 14.1% of businesses that publish wall posts daily, an average of 6 wall posts are submitted.


The average number of friends on MySpace profiles for business is 568, and businesses spend approximately an

hour daily on MySpace-related activity. Compared with Facebook, MySpace does not have as effective a return on

the time invested in its use, since fewer wall posts are made and fewer friends gained.


for Business

Fig 9.14.1 shows that 64.2% of online businesses officially use Twitter for business.


Across all age groups, a greater proportion of businesses use Twitter than those that do not. Therefore, it would

appear to be an effective means of reaching out to customers.

Fig 9.14.2: A breakdown of the use of for business purposes against the

age groups of target customers


The majority of Twitter for business users (43.0%) actually find that it has been neither ineffective nor effective.

Only 27.2% of businesses using Twitter find it at least effective at generating traffic.



The majority of businesses already using Twitter in a business capacity (54.0%) believe that this particular


months.




The majority of Twitter for business users publish tweets on a less-than daily basis. 25.5% publish monthly,

42.8% publish weekly, and a staggering 31.7% publish daily. This is most likely attributed to the fact that

Twitter is a micro-blogging site, and unlike MySpace and Facebook, regular updates are the quickest way to

gather followers.


For the 31.7% of businesses that publish tweets daily, an average of 11 tweets are submitted. The frequency of

publishing tweets on Twitter profiles for business can be considered alongside the data for problems

encountered generating traffic, to see if any interesting trends emerge.


As Twitter is a micro-blogging social network service, the nature of this service requires frequently updated

posts in order to keep followers informed and interested. So the 22 hours spent on Twitter activity daily can be

considered as 22 hours of ‘online presence’. While actual activity is not continuous throughout that period, the

survey results suggest that updates are frequent and spread out over the course of a day.


Conclusion to Social Media

There are a wide range of alternative social media platforms out there, and it is interesting to see that not all

continents favor the ‘big three’:

Fig 9.19.1: A breakdown of the use of other social network services for business

The 48.7% respondents stating “not applicable” represent businesses that use at least one of the ‘big three’

social network services: Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Looking at the top 5 specifically stated alternative

social media (Orkut, Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn and Bebo) for analysis, we can uncover some useful information.


The majority of businesses using social media marketing in a business capacity (75.9%) believe that (as a

whole) it will become at least “more important” as a traffic generation technique, in the next 12 months.

Fig 9.20.1: A breakdown of the importance of social media marketing as a whole, as a traffic generation technique



Brief Summary – Conclusion to Social Media

Finally, looking at how many of the following businesses have, it seems that many online businesses agree that

the social micro-blogging service Twitter is by far the most effective means of social media traffic generation.

Fig 9.21.1: A breakdown of the number of websites and accounts that businesses have

According to the results, there is an average of 2 Facebook and 2 Twitter accounts across all online businesses.

On average, there are over twice as many blogs as Twitter accounts. This is probably because blogs are much

more directly-linked to the main business’ website itself, unlike social media, which interact as add-ons to the

main website.

In conclusion, we can safely say that is the best social media platform available for businesses, as long

as the business has sufficient resources (staff and money) to manage its use effectively.


SECTION 10 – Affiliate Scheme

Affiliate marketing is a practice in which a business rewards its affiliates for each visitor or

customer referred by that affiliate's marketing efforts.

This marketing model is another great example of a pay-by-result marketing method insofar as

the affiliate only receives their reward – usually a commission of some kind – if they manage to

bring about the action required by the site owner (usually a sale of a product or service).

This section of the survey aims to find out more about respondents use of affiliate schemes,

including the percentage of traffic and revenue that comes as a direct result of affiliate

schemes, as well as its overall effectiveness.


Do you currently have an affiliate scheme for your primary business (i.e. where you sell your product or service through affiliates)?

Fig 10.1.1: A breakdown of the use of affiliate schemes for the primary business

It appears that affiliate schemes may not be completely appropriate for the businesses who participated in this

survey, as only 15.2% of online businesses actually use them.


Who is responsible for affiliate management in your business?

Fig 10.2.1: A breakdown of who is responsible for affiliate management in businesses

As with most questions regarding the responsibility for specific activities, the majority of respondents stated

that they handle affiliate management by themselves.


What percentage of your traffic comes from your own affiliate schemes?

Fig 10.3.1: A breakdown of the percentage of traffic generated through affiliate schemes

46.2% of businesses that use affiliate schemes stated that up to 10% of their traffic is generated through affiliate

schemes. This equates to approximately 7.02% of all businesses.


What percentage of your revenues comes from affiliate schemes?

Fig 10.4.1: A breakdown of the percentage of revenues generated through affiliate schemes

Much like the previous question, 47.4% of businesses found that up to 10% of their revenue was generated

through affiliate schemes.


How many affiliates do you have?

Fig 10.5.1: A breakdown of the approximate number of affiliates that a business has

86.4% of businesses have less than 100 affiliates. There are many reasons that explain this, including whether

the business targets the everyday consumer, businesses, or both.


Do you feel affiliate schemes will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 10.6.1: A breakdown of the importance of affiliate schemes as a traffic generation technique over the next 12

months

Logically, since many businesses have yet to fully get the most out of affiliate schemes, there is a majority of

68.2% stating that affiliate schemes will become more important for them.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 10 – AFFILIATE SCHEME

44.4% of online businesses with affiliate schemes rate their traffic expertise as beginner or intermediate,

compared with 58.9% that do not have an affiliate scheme, and rate themselves as beginners.

Affiliate schemes allow for the offsetting of some of the traffic generation that the business would

otherwise have to do in-house. Respondents that delegate affiliate management to dedicated staff (full-

time) are more likely be within the income band: $50,000 to $500,000.


SECTION 11 – Display Ads

Display advertising is a type of positional advert containing text (i.e., copy), logos, photographs

or other images, rich media (e.g. flash animations) and similar items. These ads also appear in

many different sizes, and in different locations across pages on the web.

This section establishes how, and to what extent, respondents use Display Ads in their traffic

marketing and along the way poses questions such as:

How much money are you spending on Display Ads?

What’s their overall effectiveness?

How important are they to the future of your business?

The aim, in asking questions such as these is to gauge the effectiveness of this particular

technique as part of the overall traffic marketing mix.

Have you ever used display ads (e.g. banners) to generate traffic?

Fig 11.1.1: A breakdown of the use of display ads to generate traffic for businesses

The majority of respondents (65.3%) have yet to use display ads to generate traffic.


Who is responsible for display ads in your business?

Fig 11.2.1: A breakdown of who is responsible for display ads in businesses

As with most questions regarding the responsibility of activities, the majority of respondents stated that they

handle display advertising management by themselves.


How much do you currently spend on display ads monthly?

Fig 11.3.1: A breakdown of how much money is spent on display ads monthly

65.0% of online businesses spend less than $100 on display ads monthly, while 12.7% spend between $100 and

over $5,000 on display ads monthly.


How effective have you found display ads for driving traffic to your website(s)?

Fig 11.4.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of display ads for driving traffic

21.4% of respondents found display ads to be effective, or very effective, for driving traffic to their websites.


Do you feel display ads will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 11.5.1: A breakdown of the importance of display ads as a traffic generation technique


Logically, since many businesses have yet to fully get the most out of display ads, there is a majority of 34.7%

stating that display ads will become more important for them to some degree.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 11 – DISPLAY ADS

Only 34.7% of businesses use display ads.

66.7% of respondents that use display ads to generate traffic also use pay-per-click (PPC). In addition,

55% always optimize their sites, while 44.4% update their Facebook profile for business on a weekly

basis.


SECTION 12 – Article Marketing

Article marketing is where a marketer writes a short article (usually about something wholly

relevant to their niche) and then uploads this piece of content to article directories online.

From here, the hope is that people searching for relevant keywords online will come across

this article content and end up clicking through to the author’s website.

Also, in many cases articles get picked up by third parties and republished on additional sites,

growing the reach of this content (and so the resultant traffic).

Well-written content articles freely distributed have the potential of increasing the writer’s

credibility and authority within their niche, and drawing visitors to the author’s website.

This section aimed to find out about who creates and submits articles, as well as their overall

effectiveness towards generating traffic.


Have you ever used article marketing to generate traffic?

Fig 12.1.1: A breakdown of the use of article marketing to generate traffic for businesses

The majority of respondents (65.0%) have used article marketing to generate traffic for business.


28.5% of businesses using article marketing have been competing for up to 2 years.

Fig 12.1.2: A breakdown of the use of article marketing to generate traffic for businesses against how long the

business has been competing in its target market


Who creates content for articles in your business (i.e. writing the articles for your article marketing)?

Fig 12.2.1: A breakdown of who writes the articles for businesses


create articles by themselves.


Who submits articles through article directories and other resources in your business?

Fig 12.3.1: A breakdown of who submits articles through directories and other resources in businesses

Most respondents stated that they submit articles by themselves.

Businesses earning up to $10,000 showed 52.7% of respondents submitting articles by themselves. Generally,

businesses with greater revenue (up to $500,000) delegate the task to full-time staff.

How many articles on average do you submit per month?

On average, businesses adopting article marketing as a traffic generation tactic submit approximately 5-6

articles monthly. The survey results showed that 88% of businesses that use article marketing submit less than

10 articles per month.

The results suggest infrequent submissions of high-quality articles might be more beneficial than greater

quantities of lesser quality articles.


How effective have you found article marketing for driving traffic to your website(s)?

Fig 12.5.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of article marketing for driving traffic

49.7% of respondents found article marketing to be at least effective for driving traffic to their websites.


Does the effectiveness of article marketing depend on how long the business has been in the marketplace? Let’s

take a look at the table below to find out.

Fig 12.5.2: A breakdown of the effectiveness of article marketing for driving traffic against how long the business

has been competing in its target market

Here we can see that businesses that have spent longer within their marketplace experience significant benefit

from articles. For 1-2 years, a combined mean of 32.0% found article marketing effective or better. As Fig

12.5.2 shows, more well-established businesses report greater success with article marketing, quite probably

because they’ve had a chance to master article marketing as a technique.


Do you feel article marketing will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 12.6.1: A breakdown of the importance of article marketing as a traffic generation technique



Logically, since many businesses have yet to master article marketing (perhaps due to the fact that most have

been in existence for less than two years), there is a majority of 74.5% stating that article marketing will

become at least more important in the next 12 months.

Fig 12.6.2: A breakdown of the importance of article marketing as a traffic generation technique over the next 12

months against the age groups of target customers

CONCLUSION: SECTION 12 – ARTICLE MARKETING

Businesses using article marketing are more likely to have better overall expertise for Internet

marketing in general (not as a result of them having used article marketing, but as a general observation.

69.3% of businesses that use article marketing are either intermediate or advanced in their expertise.


SECTION 13 – Press Releases

A press release, news release, media release, or press statement is a written or communication

directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something with some

news value.

Press releases are often a great way to attract favorable media attention for products or events

being marketed by a business online. Indeed, a well-written press release has the potential to

be picked up by multiple news outlets, greatly increasing the reach of this content, the

exposure for the business in question, and the traffic that results.

This section aimed to find out about who writes and submit press releases, as well as their

overall effectiveness towards generating traffic.

Have you ever used press releases to generate traffic?

Fig 13.1.1: A breakdown of the use of press releases to generate traffic for businesses

The majority of respondents (74.0%) have not used press releases to generate traffic.


44.5% of businesses using press releases have been competing for up to 2 years.

Fig 13.1.2: A breakdown of the use of press releases to generate traffic for businesses against how long the

business has been competing in its target market


Who writes content for press releases in your business?

Fig 13.2.1: A breakdown of who writes content for press releases in businesses


write press releases by themselves.

36.4% of respondents that write press releases themselves are in businesses earning up to $10,000, whereas

25% of respondents that delegate the task to full-time staff are in businesses earning between $100,000 and

$500,000.


Who submits press releases for your business?

Fig 13.3.1: A breakdown of who submits press releases for businesses

Comparing with earlier analysis that focused on who is responsible for certain activities, the majority of

respondents once again do activities by themselves. In this case, 77.1% of respondents that use press releases to

generate traffic submit them by themselves.

The annual revenue of the business can affect the extent to which the business itself is responsible for certain

activities. In the case of press releases, 36.3% of respondents that use press releases are in businesses earning

up to $10,000 in revenue. However, 36.8% of respondents prefer to delegate the task to dedicated, full-time

staff. These latter businesses can earn between $100,000 and $500,000.

How many press releases on average does your business issue per year?

For businesses employing press releases as a traffic generation technique, on average, approximately 5 press

releases are submitted yearly. The survey results showed that only 3% of businesses issued more than 10 press

releases every year.


How much do you currently spend on press releases monthly?

Fig 13.5.1: A breakdown of the current monthly spend on press releases

73.2% of online businesses spend less than $100 on press releases monthly, while 10% spend between $100

and $500 on press releases monthly.


How effective have you found press releases for driving traffic to your website(s)?

Fig 13.6.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of press releases for driving traffic

38.1% of respondents found press releases to be at least “effective” for driving traffic to their websites.


Do you feel press releases will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 13.7.1: A breakdown of the importance of press releases as a traffic generation technique


Logically, since many businesses clearly have yet to fully master press release submissions, there is a majority

of 42.8% stating that press releases will become more important for them to some degree.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 13 – PRESS RELEASES

Press releases are typically most used by businesses that have survived beyond the first two years of

operation, having accumulated some experience with the technique.

Looking at the current level of expertise of traffic generation for respondents, 62.2% using press

releases have an intermediate or advanced level of traffic expertise.


SECTION 14 – Webinars and Teleseminars

Webinars and teleseminars are regularly used for conducting online meetings, training or

presentations – and they’re a great way of getting large numbers of attendees together across

the globe to listen to a marketers’ message, driving traffic.

These live events are typically one-way presentations in which a presenter speaks live to the

attendees while (in the case of webinars) perhaps sharing their computer desktop. In some

cases a level of interaction can be offered to attendees, in the form of polls, quizzes and

surveys.

Used effectively webinars and teleseminars can provide a real focal-point for a marketer’s

promotional activity and can certainly generate some significant traffic to the marketer’s web

properties.

This section of the report aims to just how effective webinars and teleseminars are, as part of

the survey respondents’ overall marketing mix.


Have you ever used webinars and teleseminars to generate traffic?

Fig 14.1.1: A breakdown of the use of webinars and teleseminars to generate traffic for businesses

Overall, webinars and teleseminars seem to be most used by businesses targeting other businesses and

everyday customers (39.1%). This is evident in the use of webinars and teleseminars, as they can be used to

reach out to a diverse audience (consisting of businesses and individuals) and therefore is a useful means of

educating the target market directly yet in an informal way.

Fig 14.1.2: A breakdown of the use of webinars and teleseminars to generate traffic for businesses against the type

of customer the business serves


Who looks after webinars and teleseminars in your business?

Fig 14.2.1: A breakdown of who looks after webinars and teleseminars in businesses

As with most questions regarding the responsibility of activities, the majority (74.0%) of respondents stated

that they handle webinars and teleseminars management by themselves.

It is clear that annual revenue does have an impact on the level of responsibility that the business can uphold.

25.4% of respondents that manage webinars and teleseminars by themselves are in businesses earning up to

$10,000, whereas 33.3% of respondents that delegate the task to a combination of in-house and outsourced

staff are in businesses earning between $100,000 and $500,000.


How effective have you found webinars and teleseminars for driving traffic to your website(s)?

Fig 14.3.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of webinars and teleseminars for driving traffic

60.9% of respondents found webinars and teleseminars to be at least effective for driving traffic to their

websites.

CONCLUSION: SECTION 14 – WEBINARS AND TELESEMINARS

Overall, webinars and teleseminars seem to be most used for businesses that target other businesses

and everyday consumers (39.1%). This stands to reason, since both can be effectively used to reach out

to a wide audience (consisting of businesses and individuals).

Social media seems to be regularly used as a complimentary technique. 42.3% of businesses using

webinars and teleseminars find social media effective or very effective. Perhaps more ‘gregarious’

marketers find it easier to communicate across both these channels.


SECTION 15 – Email Marketing

Email marketing is a very well-established form of direct marketing used by online marketers,

a means of communicating with customers and prospects of a business with a view to:

Building relationships

Selling products

Giving information and value

Supporting customers

This final section of The Traffic Survey 2010/11 aims to find out more about how respondents

are using email marketing within their business, and answers important questions relating to

their level of investment in this traffic technique, its overall effectiveness, and how email

marketing affected by extraneous factors such as the type of business involved.

Have you ever used email marketing to generate traffic?

Fig 15.1.1: A breakdown of the use of email marketing to generate traffic for businesses

Over half of all businesses (55.5%) use email marketing to generate traffic. There are still 44.5% of businesses

that do not use email marketing.


Who sends out promotional email messages in your business?

Fig 15.2.1: A breakdown of who sends out promotional email messages for businesses

Of the businesses that use email marketing to generate traffic, over 86% of respondents handle email marketing

by themselves.

Businesses earning as much as $10,000 have a greater proportion of respondents handling email marketing by

themselves, whereas those earning up to $500,000 have a majority delegating the task to staff fitting it around

other duties.


Who writes promotional email messages in your business?

Fig 15.3.1: A breakdown of who writes promotional email messages for businesses


write promotional email messages by themselves.

It is clear that annual revenue does have an impact on the level of responsibility that the business can uphold.

4.0% of respondents that write promotional email messages by themselves are in businesses earning up to

$10,000, whereas 28.0% of respondents that delegate the task to full-time staff are in businesses earning

between $100,000 and $500,000.


How much do you currently spend on email marketing monthly?

Fig 15.4.1: A breakdown of the current monthly spend on email marketing for businesses

77.5% of online businesses spend less than $100 on email marketing monthly, while 9.6% spend between $100

and $500 on email marketing monthly.


How effective have you found email marketing for driving traffic to your website(s)?

Fig 15.5.1: A breakdown of the effectiveness of email marketing for driving traffic

50.9% of respondents found email marketing to be effective, or very effective, for driving traffic to their

websites. With email marketing being an incredibly useful and important tool for global outreach, it is not

surprising that most businesses find it effective, especially considering that most businesses using it target a

global market.


Fig 15.5.2: A breakdown of the effectiveness of email marketing for driving traffic against how long businesses

have been competing in their target market

Email as a whole becomes much more effective for businesses over time, as recipients develop a relationship

with the business concerned. The results from this survey indicate that the effectiveness of email marketing is at

its peak within the first four years of the business.


Do you feel email marketing will become more or less important as a traffic generation technique for you over the next 12 months?

Fig 15.6.1: A breakdown of the importance of email marketing as a traffic generation technique



Logically, since many businesses have yet to fully get the most out of email marketing, there is a majority of

62.0% stating that email marketing will become more important or a lot more important.

Fig 15.6.2: A breakdown of the importance of email marketing as a traffic generation technique over the next 12

months against the age groups of target customers

CONCLUSION: SECTION 15 – EMAIL MARKETING

Email as a whole is reported as becoming more effective for businesses over time, arguably due to the

fact that recipients develop a relationship with the business concerned. The results from this survey

indicate that the effectiveness of email marketing is at its peak within the first four years of the business.

This contradicts the suggestion that businesses get much more out of email marketing over time, but

could be explained by the fact that respondents classified themselves as basic/intermediate in their skill.

On average, a higher proportion of businesses using email marketing have survived for longer in their

target market.

40.5% of respondents that send out promotional email messages by themselves are in businesses

earning up to $10,000, whereas around 28.0% of respondents that delegate the task to staff fitting it

around other duties are in businesses earning between $100,000 and $500,000.

CONCLUSION Thank you for taking the me to read The Traffic Survey Report 2010/11. We really hope you've found the informa on within its pages informa ve, enlightening and enjoyable! Hopefully, now that you have read through the detailed findings from our survey you have a new‐found perspec ve on just what it takes to drive quality traffic to your site, discovered some new traffic techniques you might want to implement with your current efforts, and perhaps you've figured out some techniques you're best avoiding just now, too. This informa on really is crucially important when you're se ng out to drive traffic to your own website. Why? Well, to stand the best possible chances of succeeding we need to learn from our own experiences and those of others. A er all, as they say: Knowledge is power! And this report has given you plenty, and hopefully lots of food for thought along the way. By now you should have a much more complete picture about what other online business people are out there doing, what's working for them, the returns they're making, the amount of me they're spending on their traffic acquisi on strategies, and so on ‐ it's given you the inside track for your own traffic marke ng efforts. Armed with that inside informa on you're going to be able to make be er decisions than ever before, based on facts not feelings, and the benefits to your online business will be sure to follow. Want to take your own traffic skills to the next level? As we men oned in the introduc on we've put together an incredible new training course The Complete Guide to Traffic that will literally transform you into someone who can generate traffic to their website at will. In this massive new course we teach you everything you need to know about traffic genera on and some more on top for good measure.. To find out more about this course ‐ the only traffic course you'll ever need ‐ head over to The Complete Guide to Traffic website by clicking the link below: h p://www.complete‐guide‐to‐traffic.com Wishing you all the online traffic you want and deserve,

Paul Smithson


2010 web traffic report

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