Learning how quickly other webmasters grow their company website traffic is an interesting conversation to have. Many people still don’t know the difference between “hits” and “unique visitors”. Other webmasters feel disappointed when they read about the traffic stats of sites that aren’t their own.

We’ll the truth is that growing your organic traffic base takes time and patience. We work hard on promoting our websites. All of our website’s traffic trend upwards.

I generally see about 30% or more growth in unique visitors per month. However, the first months of promotion can be gruelling. It’s so much work and so little reward. That being said, there is a “momentum effect” that takes place. This means that the hard work I do this month will have a great impact in a few months time. After all, it takes search engines a little time to catch up to your efforts.

I’m posting a graph that shows the traffic growth of a site I was working on from September of last year. This will give you an idea of how long it takes to get a website off the ground. All of the traffic in the below graph is “natural”. None of the traffic is from affiliates or paid advertising of any kind. All of the traffic growth came from good old fashioned search engine optimization.

Website Growth: From Scratch

I’m fascinated with innovators from all different industries. Being a filmmaker myself, I can’t help but be in awe of the work in filmmaker and artist Michael Gondry.

Before we go into this subject however it’s important that you watch 30 to 40 seconds of the following music video. Don’t watch anymore than that. Stop it after 40 seconds max, 30 seconds would be better. You won’t be disappointed if you follow the rules of this game.

It’s a song from the famous music group; The Chemical Brothers. What were your initial reactions of the video? My first reaction was that it was some YouTuber who simply laid the music of the Chemical Brothers over their handheld Europe trip video footage. They sat in a high speed train and captured whatever boringness was flying by at the time and used editing software to match it up with their favourite music group. I was wrong.

The truth is that this video was created by Michael Gondry. The filmmaker behind such masterpieces of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. He collaborated with the Chemical Brothers on the above production. Yes, that’s right; they hired him to create the above low budget video.

I only watched 30 seconds of the video when I first found the song (which is why I wanted you to do the same). I was highly disappointed. I thought it was a case of a well known filmmaker trying to prove they are still an artist by doing something with such low commercial value or artistic merit. I thought it was a video that was supposed to get us to ask questions like “what is art”. But I still felt disappointed with the video. That is, until I found the “making of” video.

In order to get inside the mind of this genius of a filmmaker please watch all 9 minutes of the following video. Once you’re done watch the first video again as well. You won’t be disappointed.

Last year I made a fairly big business mistake. I made an assumption about the size of a market and the ease of working with a particular demographic: Real estate professionals. To make a long story short my business idea didn’t live up to my or my partner’s expectations.

The problem wasn’t the business itself. It became positive cash flow within 6 months and it continues to grow on a monthly basis. The problem was that we put everything we had into the project for over a year. When we launched the market response was not what we expected and we struggled for 6 months to break even. The next 6 months following our company launch consisted of us scrambling to design a Plan B to help us push our real estate website CMS company.

Plan B is now designed and we are over the worst of it. However, after this terrifying lesson I’ve decided to approach business slightly differently. I’ve done it successfully once and I’m in the process of doing it successfully a second time. I’m building the infrastructure, the network and my client base before I have a business or product to sell.

Within the next 6 – 8 months I’m planning on launching a photography and film studio in downtown Vancouver. However, my new business philosophy works as follows: If I sense that a sufficient market doesn’t exist for my idea, or I can’t find a profitable angle in this somewhat competitive market, then I can pull the plug with minimal investment or time loss.

I’ve designed a website, hired a search engine optimization company, started 2 local meet up groups that target my demographic to help me build my network and I’ve set up meetings with photographers and filmmakers who I could develop creative partnerships with to help draw an immediate client base and revenue stream into the studio.

The results have been great so far. I’ve spent $150 to form 2 meet up groups. Within 2 weeks I already have close to 100 highly targeted people who are interested. I hired a search engine optimization company to optimize for 3 of my main key-phrases and within 1 month I’ve already landed a first page ranking in Google and Yahoo for my niche terms. In many cases I’m the first listing. I’m forming partnerships with local magazine publishers. I’m offering free space in exchange for free advertising.

This had triggered an assortment of emails to my “company” from people wanting access to my studio space. They want to know the daily rental rates, they want to see pictures, and they want to know if they can bring motorcycles in. The problem is that I don’t actually have anything to offer them yet. I’m all brand and no product.

The goal is in 6 months when I’m ready to launch the business that I’ll have an enormous network of people who I’ve already connected with and want to use my service. However, if this ambitious “enormous network” doesn’t show interest or lacks enthusiasm than I can pull the plug on the idea having invested less than $500 to test the market before diving in. Best case scenario, I launch my 1st month will 100% booking capacity based on my promotional efforts for these next 6 months!

As start up entrepreneurs we have a lot of things on our agenda all which seem important to us at the time. However, having too many things on your plate at once can cause confusion, lack of direction and not enough attention paid to any one particular area.

Many entrepreneurs split their days up in hourly chunks. For instance, let’s assume our imaginary friend Mark has a meeting to discuss product development at 8am, and then from 9-10 he’ll answer emails relating to his business. From 10-11 he’ll do the mailing he’s been meaning to do for a while. From 11-12 he will design their business cards. From 12-1 he’ll accidentally take follow up phone calls from the meeting earlier that day. That will disrupt the idea of printing the business cards today so that will be put off until tomorrow if he can find the time. From 1-2 he’ll feel anxious because he wants to sit down and think about a customer acquisition strategy (because he doesn’t have one yet), but instead he gets called into his web programmers office to clear up some confusing points in their SRS (software requirements specification). Before he knows it, the day is over and he is left feeling no sense of accomplishment. He started 8 things today, finished none and is left with the all too common feeling of biting off more than he could chew.

Enter time management. As an entrepreneur the above scenario is no stranger to me. In fact I’m the founder of biting off more than you can chew. However, I’ve found that controlling what you take on and controlling how you focus on those things can lead to some promising forward moving results.

For starters, I only have 1 meeting per month on the first of the month. If I need to discuss issues relating to business after that I can do so on a 1 to 1 basis after official business hours (that way I make sure it’s important enough to interrupt my personal life and not simply a time filler that creates the illusion of productivity). A comprehensive meeting once a month where people are given a chance to ask questions and get comfortable with their monthly work load will do just fine.

Secondly, I compartmentalize two three types of objectives

Short term
Medium term
Long term

Short term goals are things like my daily emails and phone calls. Medium term goals are projects that may take 1-2 days to complete. For example, designing and printing business cards. Long term goals are your other goals which may take weeks or months to complete.

I complete all of my short term goals first thing in the morning. This usually takes about 1 hour. Next, I set aside 4 hours to work on my long term growth goals. After this I work on my medium term objectives until I’m either 50% completed the objective (to be completed tomorrow) or 100% completed the objective. By completing things daily or every other day I’m left feeling productive and energized!