Collect Pieces Of Internet Real Estate And Start Driving Traffic
Owning real estate in the real world gives you options. You can rent your building out. You can live in it. You can set up a business and start selling your vintage Pogs collection (anyone remember that game?). Or you can sell the whole property in one go and retire to the Bahamas (my preferred choice).
Internet real estate - aka digital assets – gives you similar options. Your blog can be the home for your thoughts. You can “rent” out ad space on your web pages. You can set up an e-commerce store and sell your Pogs collection online. Or you can sell the whole asset and start another internet business.
But it all starts with owning internet real estate and driving traffic. Only then can you add an offer to generate sales.
Here’s the equation:
digital asset x traffic + offer = sales
The offer comes last because it’s the least important. You can’t sell a damn thing without a property and traffic. So let’s start there.
Step One: Create A Property.
Internet real estate refers to things like domain names, websites, social media accounts, email lists, and online platforms. And just like physical real estate has location value, internet real estate has value based on visibility, traffic, and the potential to generate sales.
So, the first step is choosing what kind of property you’re going to build. Choose just one to start (two at the most). It’s hard AF to successfully build your Twitter, your blog, your LinkedIn, your YouTube, your newsletter, your podcast, and your e-commerce store all at the same time. You’ll get overwhelmed. So start with one.
I started with my blog and grew Twitter at the same time. I liked that combo because they were both writing-based. And that’s what I’m good at. Only recently have I added LinkedIn to my list (hit me up!).
But remember: any social media internet asset is rented, not owned. Because they can shut you down at a moment’s notice. They can erase your account. Erase your followers. And ban you from the app anytime they like.
So, to solve this, you need a piece of owned real estate: a newsletter list. All my social media assets drive to my newsletter page where I collect emails.
And my newsletter list is part of a larger property that I also own: my blog. No one can turn my blog off based on the content I create. Just like no one can take away my list of emails other than those who unsubscribe (good riddance! JK I love all readers present and past).
So, always make sure you own a piece of internet real estate. And then use your rented social real estate to drive traffic to it.
But how do you drive traffic?
Step 2: Create Content To Drive Traffic.
The easiest and cheapest way to drive traffic is to start creating content online. I show you exactly how to do this in my e-book: Become a Content Curator: Turn Your Passion Into A Valuable Audience - coming soon!
But for now, there are generally two ways to drive traffic for free:
Google search traffic, and
Social media content with links to your owned properties.
Search engine traffic is better because it’s passive. I spend about 4 hours writing an article for Wealest. And because Google loves quality long-form content, and I know a little bit about SEO (search engine optimization), these articles drive traffic for years.
Social media content is different. You have to be a lot more active because the impact of each post only lasts 24-48 hours. You have to constantly post. You have to keep up with the changes in the algorithm. And you have to link to your owned property regularly.
But, when you’re just starting, social media is a good place to find readers and fans. It’s a lot more social (get it?) than Google traffic. And it lets you test smaller ideas to see if they deserve a larger feature on your owned property.
You may wonder why you should start with getting traffic at all. Why not just build your product and sell it to start making money immediately?
I recently chatted with a friend in Silicon Valley. He told me this story about the mistake most first-time founders make when they build their product.
The problem, he said, is that they have this idea for an app or a product. And then they go away and build it in this vacuum - just executing their idea. And then they release it… and no one comes.
And so they become second-time founders (because the first time didn’t work). And this time they focus on distribution first. What’s the product, who is it for, and where can I find those people? How do I get this thing I want to make out to the right people?
When you create content and start driving traffic to your owned properties, that’s what you’re doing. You’re building distribution for your eventual offer.
Step 3: Add An Offer For Something Your Readers Want.
Once you’ve built traffic, the easiest part is creating an offer. You already have eyeballs. You already know your audience. You just have to solve a problem they have and then create an offer around your solution. And if you don’t know what problems they have, you can always ask.
What you’re not doing is creating a product or service in a vacuum. You’re not assuming people have a certain problem and then building a solution. You’re finding a problem they actually have. Then solving for it.
The e-book I’m launching is an example of this. It came about because I had the sense that my readers would be interested in learning to build valuable digital real estate for themselves in the form of a blog or website.
How did I verify this? I asked them… in the form of a simple product landing page with some copy about the product and an email sign-up. I had 30 sign-ups in the first few days. That’s a signal that this is a problem people actually have. And that they’d be willing to pay for the solution.
And it all starts with the people who already read what I write. It starts with content and traffic and ends with an offer for something people want. It’s not easy. It doesn’t happen quickly. But after years of writing about the ideas of wealth creators… I’m convinced that freedom starts with building on the internet.
Start now.