Internet marketers talk a lot about generating traffic. I do my share of yakking about it.
In fact, I just posted a 600-word article about building online business traffic. I published it on a well-known site, as part of a Phase One strategy to increase traffic to the Cookbook.
Yes, it felt good to get another article out there. It’s what must be done in the early stages.
Articles in online directories are the internet version of stepping off the curb and waving your hand in the air, attempting to catch the eye of a few motorists as they zip past.
Maybe one or two of them will slow down long enough to see we’re talking to them. Maybe they’ll drive around the block and stop next time.
So after hitting submit article I was feeling pretty much done for the day. In fact I was already chopping celery and fresh peppers for tonight’s chili, loving the smell of onions sizzling in the pot when the Ninja said something from his perch on the couch. Something that stopped me momentarily, chopping utensil poised above the veggies.
“Traffic is people.”
Well, yeah. Traffic is people. You mean, like we call it traffic, but what we’re really talking about is people. Bunch of human beings. Get lots of individuals in the flow together and you’ve got traffic.
Yeah, I know, I said, and resumed chopping.
People talk about traffic all the time, and you get that they forget they’re just talking about people. He hadn’t made his point yet.
And links! Links are people, he added.
Each link means that a person connected with someone else. Ideas were sparked. Deals were made. You hear all this jive about getting links, getting traffic, but you have to keep in mind what we mean. Individuals. People.
Who are you talking to?
Good point, Ninj. Traffic is internet jargon. I don’t want to lose sight of that. Traffic may be what we call it — but traffic is people.
You and me.
And it helps to really, really get it that instead of traffic, what we’re doing here is building community. I love the leap my mind’s eye has to take just thinking about the differences there.
Here’s what I picture for traffic: horns honking, fingers saluting, cement walls and graffiti-covered overpasses. I am from L.A. I remember traffic.
And here’s community: people laughing in groups or quietly talking one-to-one. A shared dinner table. A buck for Earl Gray, the vet who sits on the main street soliciting money.
Okay, so my community is a little Norman Rockwell-esque. My point is, the two analogies really encourage two totally different vibes. The thing is, traffic is people.
You and me. And everybody.
