How Is This Guy Getting So Many Hits To His Site?
on Nov 4, 2008 - 7:05 PM PSTThe full program
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A few lessons from this program
Chiropractor Michael Dorausch is growing his site’s traffic today, election day, by using one of the techniques he told us about when I interviewed him a few months ago, so I’m reposting the interview.
Basically, Michael anticipated that one of the hot search terms on election day would be “what time do the polls close.” So he created this page on his site, listing the opening and closing times for polls across the country.
As he expected, that phrase became a hot search on Google. (Here’s a graph.) That’s why his page kept showing up in people’s search results. (Here’s a screenshot that I took earlier today on Google.)
This is just one technique that Michael taught us in his interview. Download it to hear many others.
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November 5th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Andrew, its good and like Michael’s ideas. Hes been very open about sharing them at various mixergy events as well. However I did raise this point when talking to Michael and would raise it again – its poor relevance to site’s theme. Such traffic would not convert to sales, and would likely be monetized at a very low rate by ads. If possible, would be great to share some information on what kind of CPM rates such traffic see’s. My guess is its much below a dollar. Atleast thats what I have seen of such traffic on my site.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Sameer: You’re right about these topics bringing in traffic but not being relevant to the site. I did bring it up in our interview. Michael’s response seems to be
1) he believes chiropractors care about issues like “when do polls close”
2) many of the posts he does, like the about the Super Bowl, do bring in good ad sense revenue because they’re so targeted
3) all the extra traffic and links that come from articles like these raise his Page Rank so when he writes about chiropractic issues, they are ranked higher in google.
Thanks for the comment Sameer!
November 6th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
1. Adrew: Chiropractors also care about weather, food, clothes, music .. There is a bigger branding and website goals issues here. Big success comes when website goals are inline with audience goals and business goals. I can see how writing about polls meets Michael’s business goals but is that synergistic with the goals of the primary website audience? If not, it would dilute the brand & increase bounce rate.
2. Again even if they do bring in some revenue, it is diluting his brand. When competition is a click away, maintaining a strong brand is imperative. Perhaps alternate sources of increasing revenue can be to more relevant extensions in products & services related to the industry.
As an example: I come to mixergy cos it posts about such interesting web marketing tactics like this post. If you posted about fashion or dating, even if you do bring in some search traffic, you would start to lose some loyal readers like me.
3. Again its diluting website relevance & violating information architecture principles.
Without strong purpose & brand, it is like running on a treadmill, as opposed to bringing in sustained long term traffic. I get massive organic traffic at ProProfs. Pretty much on top for all search terms we have targeted (some of which are very competitive), but our single most important search term is our brand.
With that said, each entrepreneur needs to see what works for him. Though I disagree, it looks like this is really working for Michael. Its an interesting tactic but one that should be tried with caution after considering its long term impact.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
You’re making good points Sameer. I’ve been wondering the exact same things. I need to do some followup interviews with others who are doing this to learn more about it.
November 24th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I think you are right on the money, Sameer. Michael definitely knows his stuff about traffic generation and blog promotion, however quality many times is better than quantity. High conversion rates are key.
Chiropractors do want to know about those types of misc. things but I agree that it does risk brand dilution. There are plenty of ways to monetize the site so that it’s congruent with the main message or overall theme.
Even in those posts with high traffic, I was expecting to maybe see some affiliate links, opt-in box or subtle offers to at least try to capitalize on those targeted visitors. For example, if people are looking for election material and hours of operation for the polls, maybe there is some type of affiliate product or software that automatically updates the voter and provide up-to-date inside information (hypothetical example).
I want to credit Michael, though. Having a page rank of 5 and an Alexa under 95K are the type of stats most bloggers dream of and I think he’s done a phenomenal job.
November 29th, 2008 at 6:57 am
First of all, thank you for another excellent post, and as well to Michael for sharing his insights and experiences.
I’m a newbie to blogging and really in the sponge mode. I’m finding that information like this is excellent, because ideas, like cooking ingredients will generally be found in meals they compliment.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
No wonder why he is getting so many hits on his website, it seems like he's doing well in starting a conversation with his fellow readers, encouraging others to participate on your blog post gains loyalty and trust among fellow bloggers and visitors.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Sounds like you know Michael.
Thanks for the comment.
March 26th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Sameer, Thank you for your thorough commentary. I think you make some very strong points. I agree that focus on specific topics or industry tips is very helpful. There is definitely a balance to talking about new, cutting edge topics and sticking to the core purpose. The strategies talked about could also be used as a focused approach or to hit the latest and greatest news event. The balance with patients or with the company above could be entering the conversation and tying it in to the main purpose. Ex: patient brings up the latest election and you as a practitioner talk about how that will effect healthcare and ultimately them taking care of their back in your office.
I can definitely see your points that you make.
Jeremy
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I think Michael what Michael is doing is trying to get people who may have never thought of chiropractic or seeing a chiropractor onto his website through other topics. Annual Chiropractic visits in the US population are still small compared to general medicine so I think at least Michael is giving chiropractic exposure to a wider audience. There will be some people who click on other pages in his website and gives them the opportunity to read what chiropractic is about. Following word news trends can make you look just like a newspaper and not a niche website, but it is a risk you decide personally.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I think Michael what Michael is doing is trying to get people who may have never thought of chiropractic or seeing a chiropractor onto his website through other topics. Annual Chiropractic visits in the US population are still small compared to general medicine so I think at least Michael is giving chiropractic exposure to a wider audience. There will be some people who click on other pages in his website and gives them the opportunity to read what chiropractic is about. Following word news trends can make you look just like a newspaper and not a niche website, but it is a risk you decide personally.
May 5th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
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