Content is not king. Traffic is

Without content/conversions..what good is traffic? No matter how targeted it is?

Agreed. Another moron trying to position themselves as an "expert."

You are aware that a product, of any kind, is also content right? Sigh, they read one ebook and think they're the friggen IM messiah come to save everyone else from focusing on the wrong thing. Let's be real here: anyone who thinks that content and only content (or traffic and only traffic) matters is already dead in the water. Let's not perpetuate the idea that there is one simple trick/tactic that you need to focus on to run a business. It's rude to the newbies who don't know any better and is unbecoming to people like you who spout the stuff.

/rant

You need a good content setup for traffic to convert into anything. Everything begins with content, not traffic. Content is and always will be king. But next is traffic, no doubt about that.

Have you ever earned a full-time income by creating content? I am doing it now, and that is how I get my traffic. Not sure what you are getting at, but content is just one way to get traffic. No one is saying content is better than traffic or vice versa. It doesn't make sense to compare them because content is just a method of getting traffic.

And if you have the right niche, it's a lot easier to just create content and get free traffic. There really is no easy, replicatable way to get 100,000 quality Facebook fans. You're just hoping to get lucky there.

Without good content in my site what's the value of good traffic?

What would they be reaching out with if it isn't content?

I get your point but I do not wholly agree with you because I do not do SEO but the value that I give has attracted lot's of traffic to me over the years. What does everyone think?

"Content is king" is a truth that holds many meanings and is full of many dimensions. If you didn't have the funds to do paid advertising.... how would you drive traffic to your site.

If you have paid advertising to invest into traffic generation... how will you convert them into customers? How are you going to get backend sales? How are you going to make money from consulting/seminars/coaching/products/memberships/etc?

Content is, and will remain to be king. Even the sales copy on your website is content.

I have to totally agree , I'd rather have all the traffic with a lousy offer than a great offer and no traffic... but best to have both.

This has sparked some good conversation. I think it also depends on the product and price point. If you have tons of traffic and a low price point then content might not play a huge factor.

I hate to break it to you, but without content, I won't be staying on your website or Facebook page very long. Probably less than 10 seconds. And I certainly won't be buying anything, or even signing up for a list.

Content is, and will always be king. I don't visit websites to look at the pretty colors.

They are both accurate and intermingled. There is no money without either.

Neither one is 'King'.

They are both integral parts of successful IMers.

There is no king. There are many parts that work together to create a successful whole. To not understand this is to make royalty of peasants.

Traffic plays a huge role, yes....but conversion/content should always come first. Why do you see, serious marketers getting so obsessed with split-testing and their numbers. These people know that numbers/conversions will win the battle each and everyday. This relates to their website, their email marketing, everything.

Even if you have poor traffic and awesome conversions/content, you have a good to great chance at getting an optin, possibly a sale. Once the conversions are good and you have your numbers, then you scale up your traffic.

JVs/Affiliates will never promote sites that have rubbish content/poor conversions. Improve your content/conversions and then aim to get tons of targeted traffic.

I say the quality of the content is going to determine the quality of your traffic.

There is a big difference between freebie seeking traffic where you never make any sales and buyers traffic where people show up with money in hand.

The product owner

I disagree with you, what's the need of traffic where
there is no content. Without content how can you convince
a potential buyer to click the order button.

Be it a how-to video or article base content, "content is king".
Like I read in a post "content information is money".

Sidee,

I respect your opinion . . . but I disagree.

As others have said, traffic in and of itself is nothing more than window shoppers quickly passing by, giving a 3 second look at your offer and then moving on to something else.

If it was true that "traffic is the be all end all," why are some online business owners absolutely killing it with 200 subscribers and no active marketing campaigns?

I have a friend that runs a subscription web site and he only has 58 members (if I recall correctly). But he charges $799 per month.

Do the math . . . that's over $46K every month. How does he run a cool half million dollar a year business without new traffic? It's his content, of course.

His business is growing slowly, a few members a month, mostly by word of mouth. He has exactly what his members want.

On-going traffic is important for some business models, especially those that are built around "one and done" sales or also many affiliate models.

But to say that traffic is the "be all end all" is pretty ridiculous.

Steve

I agree: Targeted traffic is king.

And furthermore: Targeted traffic is necessary to make money online, whereas sizable content in optional.

For example: you can drive targeted traffic to a squeeze page, build your mailing list, and promote related affiliate or CPA offers via email. There you have it: you're making money with hardly any content at all in your funnel.

In the other hand, you could have a Wikipedia worth of information on your site, but you will make no money whatsoever until targeted traffic starts landing on your site.


You have your marketing concepts mixed up: Content has nothing to do with conversions. Conversion is about the "offer", not about the "content".

Uh?!?! how about a banner ad for example? or buying a solo mail ad? You don't need any type of sizable or meaningful content of any shape or form in order to generate traffic.

Content and traffic are both parts of the kingdom.

I think the OP has his concepts mixed up. Content is king when it comes to organic traffic, this is the first time I heard content being king of making money

Content is the king of getting free traffic, either way, free or paid traffic is king when it comes to making money.

In every niche you will see the most successful marketers are also the authorities i.e. the most educated in that specific niche.

Unless they are continuously putting out great information, then they will fade away into obscurity with the rest of the broke Joe Schmoe's within their niche. Content engages. Engagement keeps people coming back for more and builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive revenue.

This is always a fun, and spirited debate but it's kind of a wasted exercise. Why wasted? Because BOTH are absolutely useless without the other. Which I believe makes them BOTH equally important.

If you have the world's best content and traffic that trickles you've got squat.

If you have server melting, laser targeted traffic, and content that doesn't pass muster then you've got the same squat.

I say develop a reasonable level of proficiency at producing both and you'll find yourself in pretty good shape.

Now, if you want to focus specifically on one or the other and make THAT your business then for YOU the one you focus on is king, or queen, or what ever.

For those entering the field be aware BOTH are absolutely essential to the revenue generating process.

My two cents...

This is a never ending debate, you say potato, I say potato, blah blah blah....

Content is important, make no mistake about it, but you can make a video of yourself taking a crap behind a bush and that would be content. Traffic is the main factor when it comes to making money.

Content alone cannot make a sale without traffic, it takes convincing(ability to write good copy) the traffic to buy, to make the sale. Sure a sales page is considered content, but so is a video of a dog licking his own balls

Both traffic and content need each other. You need quality traffic to send to your ad, article, video etc. You need quality content, but here's the thing quality content is relative to the individual creating it. Some people consider quality content a good informative video or article, others might consider a very convincing sales ad or short that get the traffic to purchase or optin as quality content. We have to remember when we give advice in this forum thats its usually relative to what some of these guys have experienced. But it definitely doesn't mean its set in stone

I had a feeling it would come to that, some people will fight tooth and nail to try and get their point across.

What people should really ask themselves is what would they rather have, content or traffic?

You can make money without content, you can't make money without traffic. Here is an example.... If someone comes online to buy home phone service, they already know what they want. They are not looking for content, they are looking for affordable phone service, at a good price.

They are not looking for "why home phone service is important" they are looking for prices. You can buy traffic and direct or redirect them straight to the service company, without any content needed, but of course some will say the prices is content :p

What good is traffic if you can't convert it...??

Three ways to increase your profits are:
-Bring in more leads
-Convert more prospects to buyers
-Convert more first time buyers to repeat customers

With that said, ya I think content and traffic are both important. Content is simply a vehicle to attract traffic, however it is not necessary. But, I think having high quality content is always useful even if it's not necessary.

I don't see why it has to be one versus the other as far as what's "king". Look, if someone gets most of their traffic FROM content, well then....to them content IS king because traffic is their side effect.

I have one business model that requires ZERO content. I buy the traffic, I send it to offers and it converts. So in that specific scenario traffic IS king.

We're missing the context in the original OP and granted, I haven't read the entire thread, but one or other is king depending on your business model.

RoD

There's such huge disagreement in this thread because people are using "content" in different ways. Ever since I have been studying marketing, "content is king" refers to having a lot of content to get search engine traffic, NOT the quality of a sales letter.

Since I came back to this forum, I am pretty shocked that all people seem to talk about is selling products with relatively small websites having very little content. People are focusing on things like building a list, which is fine. But if you don't get the traffic to begin with, you aren't going to build a list, anyway. The way you get a lot of traffic for free is by creating mountains of relevant content. In this sense, content is king because it gives you the traffic you need. In this sense, it's not that one is better than the other. It's that traffic is the ultimate goal, and content is the royal way to reach that goal.

But if the OP meant that the best content in the world will do nothing if you don't get traffic, then of course he is right. But the same is true for having tons of traffic and no content (or effective content). All the traffic in the world won't make money unless you know how to use the content on that page to get people to opt in, purchase, or whatever other response you are trying to elicit.

In the end, it's kind of a pointless argument if you mean content in general instead of content to get search engine traffic. If you don't have both, you are doomed.

Targeted Traffic:

Someone said you need targeted traffic. This is true in product sales, but it is not always true when you are going for advertising revenue with programs like AdSense. I make my money off of generic news traffic that doesn't really have any corresponding ads or products. AdSense takes care of this through "interest-based advertising." The ad a person in New Jersey sees is not that the ad someone in Japan sees. The ad the old lady sees is not the same ad that a teenager sees.

I see one person after another coming in this forum, trying to sell products with a 30-page website or whatever. This is the HARD way to make money. No wonder so many are failing. That little of content is usually not going to give you the traffic you need to be successful beyond the lucky sale from time to time.

Who cares who's the King or the Queen?

Get great traffic.
Get great content.
Promote a great product.
Make great money.

Which is more important, water or food? I think questioning the difference in importance between traffic and content is sort of like this perhaps.

What do you think the point of content is?

To get traffic.

Nobody creates content without the intention of having an audience view that content.

Equally, traffic does not flow to a location without content to drive it.

Even in your own original post, you use the example of the Super Bowl. Apparently without realising that the Super Bowl is the content. No Super Bowl. No traffic. No ads.

You're presenting two things as conflicting when they're not at all. It's not a matter of which is "king", it's about appreciating how each relates to the other and how you can use that to your advantage.

This topic went straight to hell, as it usually does.

Well I decided to join in the fun

Content isn't king, traffic isn't king:

I am king! Content is my kingdom and traffic are my people, why would I want a kingdom without people, and what good do people do if I can't put them on my kingdom and tax them?

I actually had this exact same thought the other day. Traffic is king. Not content. You can have the best content in your niche, but if you don't have the traffic, what's the point?

It doesn't matter which one is king as long as it bring money

You cannot build traffic without good content! Enough said.

The traffic wants and is expecting something and that something is content. It doesn't have to be words, but must be something that feeds the need.

What comes first: the chicken or the egg?

I agree. Content is for traffic too, so target traffic is the ultimate goal to our offers.

Now I don't focus on content any more, and I am looking for target traffic and would like to pay for them.

Content vs Traffic is an argument for fools. You need both.


How exactly are you going to build 100,000 subs/likes without providing good content in the first place?

I knew personal insults were going to fly, so I deleted my (in depth) analysis and posted it elsewhere.

But I really can't resist putting in my two cents here.

At the same time, I don't want to agitate the people in here that will result to name calling because their marketing ideologies are erroneous.

(If you can't discuss this in a rationale matter, does that make you correct? Does the louder and most aggressive poster win? If you shout louder, is your logic superior?).

Anyway...

I leave you guys with an analogy.

Imagine you have two vehicles.

Vehicle A is superior to Vehicle B. (Content).

Vehicle A has 0 fuel. Vehicle B has fuel. (Traffic).

Which vehicle will go further?

That is all.

Both content and traffic are very important. You cannot do without each of them.

I didn't read all of the post, so I am sorry if this is already posted -- yes, the Superbowl has a lot of traffic, but those are the best ads of the year. The content is top notch, and if it's not, it's forgotten.

Content drives traffic. Content converts traffic. If traffic were king, we could all go to Fiverr, buy some fake traffic, and be rich.

Good unique contents get you traffic because SE love you. That's all. To me contents is King.

Regards,
Aurette

Who said that you don't need content to promote CPA offers?

How will you convince your potential customers to care about this offer?

I don't promote CPA offers, but whenever I click on a link that promotes a CPA offer, I find long articles explaining the advantages of using the product promoted by the offer.

Content, traffic, and conversions are part of the system. You need everything.