7th
Feb/08

Ego Traffic

Posted: 1:06 pm by tom in Blog, Marketing

thumbup.jpgAfter making it onto several CSS Gallery websites already I have just been accepted onto CssMania.com. Unsurprisingly my traffic has spiked, and subsequently I’m feeling pretty happy with myself. After all, why shouldn’t I? People are appreciating my design and I’m getting lots of hits.

However, this kind of traffic I choose to call Ego Traffic, and it’s all well and good, as long as you don’t take it too seriously…

I like to define Ego Traffic as:

  • Short Term - This spike of traffic is called a spike for a reason, in a day or two it will be right back to normal. A good webmaster will appreciate the traffic while they can, and perhaps even use it to their advantage (reposition ads for a few days or something). A bad webmaster will cling onto this increase in traffic like it’s the holy grail - telling everyone and anyone how well their site is doing, and not thinking of how long it will actually last.
  • Useless - As a designer myself I’ve used Css Galleries for a few years now, and know how they work. Think what people are getting out of your site and their expectations. They didn’t come to your site expecting to read great content, they came to glance at your design for ideas for a few seconds and then leave. Live with it.
  • Flattering - Useless traffic doesn’t have to be totally useless. I’ve already been receiving emails complimenting me on my design. Whilst realistically I know that these same people won’t stick around to read about my thoughts on blogging and marketing, I can take their words as motivation. Compliments are the best catalyst to your creativity, if you know that people like what you do, you’ll be more inclined to want to keep doing it. Take the analogy of being hit on by someone that you don’t find attractive - you won’t get anything out of it, apart from a little boosted confidence.

    • Of course, Ego Traffic isn’t confined to links from Css Galleries. It is widely debated how useful social networking sites are, but it is undeniable that sites such as Digg do close to nothing most of the time. The absolute best you can hope for is the dreaded spike. Have a look through this article by Sujan Patel which sums up the pros/cons of Digg traffic nicely.

    It’s not all bad:

    It would be ignorant to push aside Ego Traffic as all bad, as a small percentage of it can usually be converted to desirable traffic, and perhaps even ongoing readership. In this case what’s important is to look past your traffic spike and focus on what’s useful. Instead of bragging about receiving 1000 visitors in a few hours, be pleased with those 5 new RSS Subscribers, and appreciate the few backlinks that may arise from your new exposure. After all, those are the things that really matter. Similarly if you are a website designer you may receive job enquiries from people who like your style - in this sense you are in the best niche to exploit Css Gallery ‘Ego Traffic’.

    My Tips:

  • Don’t boast about Ego Traffic, it’s unprofessional.
  • View it realistically, focus on the worthwhile minority, and what you can achieve from them.
  • Don’t spend more time than you have to trying to attain Ego Traffic. By all means submit your articles to social networking sites and website galleries, but don’t spend more than a hour or so total time doing so.

    • I would also like to announce that I will soon be blogging about a few new projects of mine that I’m working on. One of them will be highly relevant to this article as it will take all the time and effort out of submitting to galleries. I believe that this will be a useful resource for webmasters everywhere, as far too many people spend too long on ineffectual submissions. Apart from this I have several other much larger ideas in the pipeline, so check back for updates soon!

    PS: I’m still giving away $100 worth of free ad spots, so if you haven’t entered that contest yet please go ahead!

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    3 Responses to “Ego Traffic”

    1. Jim | BloggingStartup, on February 7th, 2008 at 3:11 pm Said:

      I love the term…Ego Traffic.

    2. 15 Tips to Boost your Blogs Traffic! : pushstandards.com, on February 7th, 2008 at 3:20 pm Said:

      […] Submit to every good Css Gallery you can. I just wrote an article about the pros/cons of this kind of traffic, but seeing as there are some definite pros it’s […]

    3. tom, on February 7th, 2008 at 4:45 pm Said:

      Thanks Jim :) I don’t know what made it pop into my head to be honest, but it’s catchy enough.

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