In this training, I’m breaking down a simple strategy you can use to get website traffic and turn your visitors into customers.

If you signed up for this course because:

• You’re brand new to the online business world don’t know how to start marketing.
• You have a website, but you have no idea how to get traffic to it.
• You’re overwhelmed by all the advice out there and you’re not sure what actually works.
• You feel like you have to be on all the social medias constantly, and it’s EXHAUSTING.
• You’ve been going it alone, spending tons of time on research, not really getting anywhere, not sure what you’re doing and struggling to stay motivated.

Then you’re in the right place!

Most people start trying to get traffic to their website by focusing on tactics and strategies.

And after discovering that there are a million ways to get traffic, they get overwhelmed and come to me asking:

“How do I do SEO? How do I grow my Instagram? How do I explode my traffic with Pinterest? I hate Facebook, do I have to be on Facebook?“

But there’s one thing that’s more important than any tactic or strategy you use.

And you gotta be 100% clear on it before starting any traffic strategy – or you’ll just end up wasting a massive amount of time.

The thing you have to be clear on is… “Why?”

Why do you want to get traffic to your website?

Um, #duh Shannon, because how am I going to ever sell anything without traffic to my website?

I mean, yes, obviously that’s why you want traffic, but why do YOU specifically want to get traffic to your website?

What would be measurably different in your life if tomorrow morning you woke up with 10,000 page views on your website?

So many people want to “explode their blog/website traffic”.

We read blog posts. Listen to podcasts. Take courses. Reverse engineer what we see everyone else doing.

We obsess over how our website looks and spend endless hours tweaking it to death.

Yet no matter how much information we consume and how perfect our website looks in our eyes and how many blog posts we write and pin and share to our social media accounts – page views don’t magically turn into money.

And then you find yourself super frustrated , and you’re like, “Why am I taking time away from my family, my friends, my life, for this?”

But there are some people who manage to turn page views into money.

It doesn’t happen magically though, it happens very strategically.

But the people who find success don’t start with tactics and strategies.

They start by answering the question “WHY?” first.

………

Take me, for example. I’m 40 years old. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. And I’m not what you’d consider a “lifelong entrepreneur.”

Here’s a list of all of my failed “business” ventures :

• Girl Scout Cookies – um, thanks Mom for taking the order form to work with you.
• Marching Band Candy Bars – um, thanks Mom for paying for all the candy bars I ate instead of selling door to door.
• Mary Kay Cosmetics – um, thanks Mary Kay for taking back the $3000 worth of inventory I purchased and never sold because I was terrified of “selling” and now I’m banned for life from ever being a consultant.

So in 2014 when I was sitting in my beige, windowless office listening to a conversation about the flavors of Jello in 7-Up Salad (and having a mini-panic attack about doing THIS for the rest of my life…)

I had zero evidence that I could be a successful entrepreneur.

I knew I had one skill that I could offer as a freelancer: building websites.

So I built one for my new web design business: Limepress Development (I obsessed over that name).

The site was GORGEOUS. Beautiful fonts, colors, stock photos. (I obsessed over every detail).

I SEO optimized it for “web design Columbus Ohio” submitted my site to Google, and sat back and waited for the “Contact Me” forms to come rolling in.

Aaaaaannnnnnddddd….they never did.

I got my first client by telling a girl at the gym I was a web designer. My second client was my friend’s dad whose website got hacked. My third client was that guy’s wife. (My clients never even saw my website.)

And I was so weird about taking money from people that I charged a fraction of what I would have needed to charge to make an actual living.

It was a disaster. I was hustling like crazy, making way less than I was making at my day job, and I was miserable and burnt out.

So how did I go from a website that was getting no traffic, and collecting on a few invoices that could barely pay my bar tab …to replacing my 6-figure paycheck, quitting my day job, and writing this email from my deck, in yoga pants with my dog at my feet having just gotten home from a pedicure?

I had a compelling reason to keep going, even when it sucked.

Full case study here if you’re interested in all the nitty gritty details.

………

The framework I implemented can be used by anyone.

If you want your own business, to have more time for your family, to never sit in rush hour traffic or have your vacation request denied, then focusing on getting website traffic has got to be your #1 priority.

This mini-course is starting you on the path to doing just that.

So…

Your homework for today is to identify your “WHAT” and your “WHY”.

Because without a clearly defined reason for starting down this path, you will quit.

I 100% guarantee you will quit.

You may not officially say “that’s it, I quit!!” but you’ll let life get in the way.

You’ll be too busy. You won’t have the tiiiimmme to do all the things. You’ll be overwhelmed.

Why?

Because IT. IS. HARD.

It takes time away from your family, friends and hobbies.

It won’t happen as fast as you want it to.

You’ll hit obstacles.

When it feels like nothing is happening, it won’t feel worth it to keep going.

But the people that have a clear, compelling reason for putting in all that time and energy when there’s never any instant gratification or “traffic explosions”…they make it.

They keep taking action despite all the obstacles. And they reach their goal.

So…

What is your #1 goal?

Is it to quit your job and make $10,000 per month?

That’s what mine was.

Is it to be able to work from home?

Is it to be able to live anywhere in the world?

Why do you want to put in the time + effort that it takes to grow a business?

And why do you even want that goal?

Do you want to quit your job and make $10k per month so you can have more time and flexibility to focus on losing the 40lbs you accrued while you were miserable at your day job and going out to happy hour all the time for relief?

That’s what mine was.

Do you want to work from home so that you can have a flexible schedule so your kid doesn’t come home and ask “How come you never go on field trips with us???”

Do you want to work from anywhere in the world because now that you’re retiring and able to travel, you don’t want to have to worry about being on fixed income?

Your assignment for today is….

1. Spend at least 10 minutes brainstorming your WHAT and WHY.

2. Fill in your answers on pages 2 + 3 of the workbook.

……..

In the next lesson, you’ll learn how to get found online and how to market yourself (even if you hate selling as much as I did).

I’ll also share several pitfalls to avoid as you work towards your goal.

If you’re already in the Website Marketing Lab, you’ll want to revisit the Module 1 Lesson 1 where I talk about the “5 Step Formula to Marketing Your Online Business” and “What is Marketing?” (Module 4 Lesson 1). These will help you with the next lesson.

Here’s what’s coming up in the mini-course:

Lesson 1 – The very first step to getting traffic
Lesson 2 – Marketing 101
Lesson 3 – How to attract your ideal client
Lesson 4 – How to create a shareworthy freebie
Lesson 5 – Two examples of how to use your shareworthy freebie to get traffic.
Lesson 6 – How to turn your subscribers into customers