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A short while ago, Daily Blog Tips posted an article on Digg vs. Copyblogger, basically analyzing which mention of their site had a bigger impact on traffic. When Daily Blog Tips was put on the front page of Digg, they received over 20,000 visitors in 2 days. When Copyblogger mentioned Daily Blog Tips in an article a short time after, they received 400 visitors. In the end, however, the Copyblogger publicity was better than the flow of traffic that was received from Digg. Why? Because it was more relevant.

Since Daily Blog Tips is a site about blogging, most Digg users who pushed the article did not come back for more. Yes, they liked the one article…but no, they weren’t willing to subscribe. Copyblogger, on the other hand, passed on much more relevant traffic.

When the dust settled, the 20,000 visitors from Digg turned into 108 subscribers while the 400 visitors from Copyblogger turned into 115 subscribers. Neither prove to be something to complain about, but a lesson can still be pulled from this.

Relevancy matters.

If you’re targeting a general audience, you’re conversion rates suffer compared to when you target a specific audience. Conversion rates can be any action taken by the potential customer. In this case, the conversion was having them subscribe to the RSS feed.

While you might not be trying to convert traffic into subscribes, you may be hoping to turn people into clients. From the above example you can learn to target specific individuals that would be more likely to buy. Don’t just wander through the phone book looking for customers. Instead, search for people who need what you have. If you’re a wedding photographer, put up ads in wedding magazines. If you’re a Real Estate agent, find people who are buying or selling. Without targeting, you could easily be wasting both time and money.

Imagine if Daily Blog Tips put up an advertisement instead of an article. To advertise on something equivalent to the exposure that Digg gave, it would likely cost much more money than what it would be to advertise on a medium equivalent to Copyblogger. But in the end, there were very similar results. Find your niche and target it. If you get clients from other places, great! But don’t rely on them for your company’s survival.

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