Why Do People Go Online?
Posted On: 2007-07-11
Why do you go online? What motivates you to hit the Web and do things there? It's an interesting question and one that has different answers depending on who you're asking. It's also a question and answer that we need to understand if we want to make money online.
If you were to ask me why I go online the answer would be simple. I go online to do business and a good 95% of my time online is taken up in various ways that are all related to doing business. Perhaps 4% of my online time is taken up with researching lifestyle and health issues that have an impact on me and at the very most there is only 1% of my time online that would be spent online looking for things to buy or being entertained.
Obviously for the ordinary person out there who does not work online as I do those figures would be different but just how different would those figures be? That's what we really need to understand if we want to succeed with out online business.
We might think that people go online predominantly to be entertained in one way or another and perhaps to even buy some entertainment online. Certainly if you work in adult online you might think that those are the people you're trying to reach and so those are the people you are really going to focus on. But is entertainment the reason most people go online and can we get our message in front of people who are not necessarily seeking to be entertained?
Perhaps there might even be another way of attracting those who do want to be entertained but at the same time want to do something else.
A recent research paper suggests that 80% of Web queries are made to seek information and queries from people who were seeking information often included phrases like 'ways to', 'how to' and other similar couplings of words. These queries are often being made by people who want to save money. These people are the ones who want the best bang for their buck and spend time weighing up the cost of an item against the value they perceive in that item.
And perhaps while they are looking for information they might also be looking for entertainment too ... but at a price that they think is reasonable.
So how do you attract them? Is it a case of having one type of sales pitch for those who find your sites and galleries through link lists and TGPs and another for those who find your sites in other ways?
That's a question I'll leave you to work out for yourself because what might work for me could be a total failure for you. Even if what I do does work for you there's a good chance you could come up with an even better way of making it work than what I might have developed.
There's also the question of whether or not what would work for these people would even be acceptable on link lists and TGPs. Perhaps what will attract these people more than anything else are informational sites that offer them the type of information they might be looking for. Of course, to make money, those sites would need to carry some advertising ... some personal recommendations ... some well written sales text that really does encourage them to take a look at what you're trying to sell.
Another factor to consider is what your target audience is going to see when they do look at your advertising. How will they perceive it and what reflection it will have on your site?
These days most people have seen the usual very cheap limited trial and the sales pitch that says that they can get access to all the great hardcore content for just a few cents per day. Those two lines have been around for years but what else do you have that might appeal to people like this?
I'm going to leave you to work that one out for yourself too. It's far better that you experiment and evaluate what works for you rather than having me spoon-feed you. Even if you're a newbie it's far better for you to learn by doing rather than learn by listening. You'll have fresh ideas while those you are listening to may be rather stale and have their ideas set back in the past.
But if you want a hint on how you should approach this situation just have a look around at some of the marketing lines used in mainstream business. Look at the items that have been available for years and see if you can learn from the latest marketing techniques that are used to sell those items.
There are clues there if only you want to stop and look for them. And there are a lot of people out there looking for our products but not in the way we might think that they're looking. It's all got to do with why people go online.