Carma’s Commentary:

Ken Courtright’s article on website growth (or increasing traffic) discusses modeling in reference to websites, but the same concept applies to businesses. In fact, he uses two brick-and-mortar businesses in his example. If you are starting a new business, or reinvigorating one that as lost its luster, the advice in this article is very good. In fact, I’m currently working on a new system that will help you follow this and other proven processes to create a business that serves you well on all fronts: financially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It probably won’t be ready for a year or two, as I fine-tune the system with my own business, so if you can’t wait … this article is a very good start.

Public domain image from Pixabay, modifications by Carma Spence

Website Growth Techniques

By Ken Courtright
Clients often ask me for advice on a method, concept, or technique to guarantee growth for their revenue-generating site. The truth is, there is no guaranteed tactic to making money online. But after twenty years in the consulting business, and over 200 websites under my belt, I’ve figured out how to come close to guaranteeing growth on the Internet.

The one thing we do when we go into business with a website is to extract two vital pieces of information:

1. Who is your closest competitor?
2. Can you name some other websites or small businesses in your arena that are bigger than you?

If you can find a site that’s like your site, but twenty times bigger, it will give you a good model to start with. You can then analyze that site’s growth patterns, traffic, and overall construction in order to create your own template.

Carma’s Note: If you don’t like to think in terms of competitors, think in terms of entrepreneurs with similar business concepts. For example, if you want to grow a social media consulting business, someone like Mari XXX would be a good person to model yourself after. If you want to be a speaker and workshop presenter, someone like James Malinchak would be a good role model. Find someone who is doing what you want to do and study how they are achieving their successs.

Think about McDonalds and Burger King. McDonalds came first, and Burger King essentially copied their model to a T. They modeled their locations, menu, and branding after McDonalds. They even went so far as to hire McDonalds employees. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they physically replicated the wheel, so to speak. And they’ve been very successful—arguably less successful than McDonalds, but they’ve been around since 1953 and currently have over 13,000 outlets around the world.

This idea can be translated to the web revenue world. If you can find a website that sells the same thing you’re selling, or planning to sell, you can look at the details of how they do things, right down to the nitty gritty: What sort of navigation buttons do they use? How do they structure their pages? What is their messaging like?

If you already have a website, consider implementing just one idea that your competition has already proven works. Do some analysis, maybe even some split testing, to see how this change effects your traffic and sales.

Carma’s Note: This is excellent advice. You can overwhelm yourself trying to implement many things all at the same time. This leads to burnout and may cause you to throw in the towel before something has had a chance to work its magic. Also, you are a different person and a different business with different people in your tribe. Being an exact duplicate of your model will only attract the exact same tribe. That’s not what you want. You want to attract your people and so it is a good idea to test each change to see if it works for you and your tribe before going all in.

We call this technique “modeling,” and it’s one of the best ways to get guaranteed growth results for your site. There’s your advice!

About the Author

Ken Courtright, speaker and author of multiple best-selling Internet marketing titles, is the founder of Today’s Growth Consultant (TGC)–a two-time Inc. 5000 designee–that launched www.IncomeStore.com. TGC/Income Store partners with individuals, companies and private equity firms/fund managers to procure, develop and manage revenue-generating websites at two times earnings. The company’s portfolio currently boasts over 600 websites that are seen approximately 200 million times each year. Ken may be reached online at www.KenCourtright.com.