Can you imagine buying a Walmart store with thousands of products and a half million dollar inventory for $300?
How many of us would jump on that?
Imagine the CEO of Walmart coming up to you and saying that you can have the newest, most modern Walmart store with all of its inventory, utilities, and employees for a lease of $300 per year.
Would you take it?
your bet
You would be excited. Your partner would be excited. Your mom and dad would be excited. Your kids would be excited and I know your dog would be.
So she signs the lease with the Walmart head cheese, shakes hands, and he hands her the keys to the Walmart doors, and she walks out of the CEO’s office with a big smile on her face, shaking her head in disbelief that he would be stupid enough to give you a Walmart store for $300 a year. What a fool!
Then it occurs to you.
You run back to the CEO’s office and say “by the way, where is my new Walmart store?”
The CEO says “in the middle of the Arizona desert.”
The grand opening is only 2 weeks away and you hop in your SUV and head to Arizona. Twenty-five miles west of Tucson, in the middle of a cactus-infested sandy field, you see your tent in the distance as you approach carefully. You arrive and greet Grandpa at the front door, you run in and introduce yourself to all your smiling employees, you admire the half million dollars in stock, you look at the shiny new cash registers, the credit card processors, and you sit and wait for the money. to roll After all, millions of people love Walmart, don’t they?
Twenty-four hours later, after you wipe your eyes, you look at your cash registers to find them empty and as dry as the Arizona desert.
“Why me Lord”?… you cry.
I have this beautiful store, great employees, free inventory, and I didn’t make a dime on grand opening day?
Why did I get hurt at the only Walmart in the world that sucks?
I guess Walmart’s success is just a big lie and I bought it like the fool that I am.
Here is my question…
Don’t you want to yell at this poor guy and say “hey stupid, you don’t have any traffic?” have a yellow page ad, a newspaper ad.
In fact, you don’t even have paved roads leading to your store, even if you did have the billboard and advertisements. You’re an Idiot.
Hey?
I did the exact same thing with my first website. I had a great store, great products, great tools, and I didn’t make a dime.
How many of us do this with our websites?
We have great graphics, beautiful colors, exceptional looks, a large inventory of products, and the best credit card processing equipment available. We have answering machines that would sell an Eskimo a freezer…
But we are missing the third piece of the puzzle.
TRAFFIC.
Our website is like the Walmart in the desert.
You have the potential to make us rich with your great products and services, but no one knows where we are or how to get to our site.
It is a pity.
You know customers will drive the extra 15 miles to get a good deal and you didn’t let them know where you are and how to get to you?
So what do you do now?
Do you throw up your hands and say “Walmart sucks”?
Blame the employees?
Maybe you listen to all the gurus and try to get free traffic.
No.
You go to work and tell people your address. You give them direction.
After all, you didn’t have to spend millions to get your Walmart, so open up that tight little fist and pull out some ad money. If you don’t have the money, then be prepared to invest the time.
I don’t care if it’s PPC search engines, newspapers, bumper stickers. It doesn’t matter. You have to get traffic! You have to let people know that you are out there with great products and services at great prices.
In my opinion, the Internet is the last great frontier for small business owners with the passion and time to build the life of their dreams.
But you have to have all three pieces of the puzzle to be successful on the web.
Qualified traffic is only one piece of the puzzle and you need to invest money or time to make it work for you.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is the real world of building a web business.
A “get rich quick” free zone.