Driving Traffic like Drinking Water
As we become adults, we don’t really think about swallowing, but as infants, it’s something we all had to learn, and perhaps not in a short time but over many months. At first, it was confusing and a bit messy, but then we eventually mastered it as time passed. As an online marketer, you will also learn similarly — master your traffic strategy in much the same way—and in less time, too.
Learning to Drink
Just think if, as a small kid, you thought you had to learn about how to drink water before you actually drank some. Perhaps what you will do is that you would go to Google and search for “how to drink water.” There you would read some blog posts and get on the mailing lists of the better-known water-drinking gurus. You would also perhaps try downloading a free report on surefire methods to swallow more water than ever.
Following this line of thinking to its likely conclusion, you might actually die of dehydration before you knew you’d become educated enough on the subject.
That is the problem of a lot of new online businesses that sort of die off (or never even start) for the same reasons: too much study, not enough action.
We know that to really “know how” to drink water, you just go to the tap, fill a glass, and take a little sip. Then another. Then the next step is that you discover how it feels in your mouth, where it goes when you swallow, and how you feel after you’ve drunk it.
This is pretty much the same effect with your online traffic-driving strategy.
You Learn by Doing
Around 500 BC, long before there ever was such a thing as internet marketing invented, the philosopher Confucius said, “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” We all know that his words are timeless and are totally applicable to you and your traffic strategy.
In short: Doing is learning. I would even go so far as to say that the only way for you to learn something is by doing it, rather than reading about it or watching videos first.
Of course, some people who come into online marketing know what traffic is, but then others also don’t. For the latter group, some studying will still be necessary. But once you already are knowledgeable about what traffic is and the basics of how to create it, it’s time for you to close the book or click away from the video and do the following: (1) create your ad, (2) pay to have it run and, (3) see how it performs.
You get a surface understanding through books or videos but 1, 2, and 3—the actual contact with driving traffic—is where the real learning takes place.
A 2015 study from the University of Chicago found that physical experience with a subject creates a much deeper understanding of it.The experiment involved students to learn about the physical force called torque by having them hold a spinning wheel by its axle and attempt to turn it in various directions. This experience resulted in higher test scores on the subject for the hands-on students than for the students who’d only read about it.
Strictly speaking, you don’t achieve the ability to drink water or drive traffic by simply reading about it.
One or Two Hours a Day
This all reminds me of The Matrix. Did you ever see it? Do you remember the part when Neo exits the simulated reality of the Matrix and joins Morpheus’ crew?
Having been enslaved for much of his life in the Matrix, he’s weak and has to train to be able to fight the Agents. He does it via virtual combat training, which imparts to him the actual experience of fighting. In his first try, he gets battered inside the virtual reality, but you also see him feel every blow in actual reality.
Eventually, through the direct experience of fighting, he masters it, easily taking down Agent after virtual Agent: “I know Kung Fu!” he says, triumphantly.
And while we haven’t consciously set out to make this point, it’s possible that you might get your butt kicked a bit, get yourself beaten, on your first attempts to drive traffic. You might also lose money because it produces no sales.
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