Lesson objectives
- Classify traffic sources
- Understand cost, speed and control trade-offs
Three kinds of traffic
- Owned: channels you control - your email list, website, community.
- Earned: attention you don't pay for directly - search rankings, social shares, press, referrals.
- Paid: ads on search, social, video or display networks.
Trade-offs
Paid traffic is fast and controllable but stops when spending stops. Earned traffic compounds over time but is slow to build and depends on platforms. Owned channels are the most stable - which is why most funnels try to convert paid and earned visitors into owned subscribers.
- Paid + earned traffic
- Opt-in
- Email list (owned)
Action steps
- List your current traffic sources under owned, earned or paid
Checklist
- I know which channels I control
- Traffic is being converted into owned audience