28: Highway to (Web Traffic) Heaven

On the way home from my emergency room visit in 1995, my dad pulled our Nissan pickup onto the four-lane highway that would lead us home.  One small problem with this, though: he mistakenly steered onto the near (left) set of double lanes—heading straight into oncoming city traffic.  You can imagine my panic as a passenger.

It must run in the family.  Eleven years later, after driving on the left side of the road for two weeks in New Zealand, I accidentally replicated this stunt on the way out of the airport in Baltimore.  My younger brother blurted, “Other side!  Other side!”  from the shot gun seat.

“Whew!  Thanks, Tim.”

I run into a lot of auction marketers and small business managers haphazardly using only half of the information super highway.  They pull their companies out onto the Internet but wonder why they don’t seem to be making headway.  They send their buyers from their ads and brochures and signs to their web site but harvest little, if any, traffic already on the road.

The world wide web allows you the irony of being able to reach a wider audience than any other media outlet while, at the same time, targeting niche groups smaller than the subscribers to a trade publication—usually for a fraction of the cost of traditional media.

So, how do you use all the lanes?  How do you attract traffic from more than your own referrals?

Leads-generating web sites.  Whether you’re just waiting for searchers to hit your google adwords toll booth or exploring targeted signs on the Internet’s back roads, the more web site lanes you occupy, the more drivers will see your message.

Have you made any of these sites standard practice?
Auctioneers.org, AuctionMLS.com, AuctionZip.com, GlobalAuctionGuide.com, MidwestAuctions.com, PropertyAuction.com, your state association(s) site(s)

Do you take the time to list important items on any of these?
CraigsList.com, ebay.com, classifieds.com, CityFeet.com

Are you posting on sites of local, regional, and national publications?
Not everyone searches the paper editions.  Usually, the web listing is free or inexpensive with paid print advertising.  For magazines, you might be able to get online, when monthly (or less frequent) printed issues carry inconvenient deadlines.

Have you tried any of these for your applicable residential real estate?
OldHouse.com, LakeHouse.com, HistoricHome.com, Uniquehomes.com, duPontRegistery.com, BedAndBreakfastForSale.com, InnMarketing.com, bnb4sale.com, BedAndBreakfast.com

Have you listed your land at any of these sites?
Landandfarm.com, LandFlip.com, LandWatch.com

Do your commercial properties ever make it here?
LoopNet.com, CoStar.com

Do you have engaging material on social outposts like these?
YouTube.com, Facebook.com, MySpace.com, LinkedIn.com

These sites are just options to consider—not necessarily recommended . . . just media my clients have tried (some with remarkable results).  These lists stand far from exhaustive, especially as more sites come online.  But until you use both sides of Al Gore’s electronic interstate, you won’t know the full potential for more robust and (even) easier web marketing.
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So many churches wait for the secular world to come to them.  “We’re here when you’re ready.”   They put their quips out on the sign, their ads in the phone book, maybe even a ministry overview on the web.  Pastors ask their parishioners to bring their secular friends into their shared religious environments.

True New Testament Christianity takes the church with you—in or out of a gathering building.  If we Jesus-followers fully mingle our spiritual lives with our secular, the transition for our unbelieving friends to visit a building is less intimidating.  If we bring them Christ’s compassion, his grace, his mercy, his kindness—and it’s real, where the tire rubs the road—why wouldn’t the beneficiaries of such want to follow you to where you refill?

You don’t have to head out into traffic head-on with street preaching or door-to-door Gospel sales calls to reach the unchurched.  You just have to blur the lines between your Sunday and your Monday—between your church and your world.

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