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Want Fanatical Traffic? Here’s How

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Get your own groupies!

If you’re reading this, then you want traffic.

But not just any old traffic; you want fanatical traffic.

What’s the difference?

Any old traffic is people who randomly find your site, look around, and leave. Stick rates are low, bounce rate is high, and conversions are unimpressive.

Fanatical traffic, on the other hand, is a different animal.

When fanatical traffic lands on your site, they stay for a while, and leave thoughtful comments about what they read. They tell their friends about you, tweet about you, and they buy a lot of whatever you’re selling.

Sounds good, right? Okay, here’s how to get some…

But First, Props to My Giant…

Before I tell you how to get fanatical traffic, I want to give credit where credit is due.

As Isaac Newton once said, “if I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

I share the sentiment – most of what I know about audience building comes from the 30 superstars including (TGC’s own Ana Hoffman) who contributed to my new book, Engagement from Scratch!

When it comes to building a community of fanatics, the giant who deserves credit is none other than Dino Dogan, the engagement genius behind the massively successful Triberr.

In his chapter of the book, he laid out a six step process to creating a community of fanatics:

  1. It Starts With Intention
  2. Know Your Audience
  3. Be a Human
  4. Customer Service
  5. Have Fun

Let’s look at all six of the principles that Dino teaches in the book (and in this excellent keynote presentation)…

It Starts With Intention

A community of fanatics won’t form around you just because that’s what you want to create.

Think about it; sure, you get your fanatical community, but what does the community get? What’s in it for them?

If you want to create a fanatical community, then you have to start by giving them all a really great reason to congregate around you. Find a problem that they all share, and that nobody else can solve for them.

Then solve it.

It’s that simple – pick a problem, and solve it. The problem should be as intense and specific as possible, and you can get as creative as you need when you solve it (Dino did with Triberr).

It all starts with identifying the problem, and solving it.

As Dino puts it in the book,

“the first lesson in building a community of fanatics is to create a new, effective, unique and original solution that solves a real pain-point for your target demographic.”

Which leads to the second principle…

Know Your Audience

You can’t solve any problem if you don’t know what the problem is, and if you don’t know who your audience is – in painful, exquisite detail – then you can’t know what is troubling them.

Don’t worry about how to start a blog.

Start by knowing your audience.

Who are they? Where do they live? What do they do? What do they want? What do they care about? What are they afraid of? What do they fear?

Paint as vivid a picture of your “customer avatar” as you can, because the more intimately familiar with them you are, the more clearly you will see what is really at the core of their problem.

And without knowing that, how can you solve it?

It helps when you are already familiar with your audience. As Dino puts it,

“The avatar I created for Triberr is named Dino Dogan. He is a blogger. He is a good blogger who has a hard time getting his content disseminated far and wide. I understand Dino’s fears. His frustrations. His pain-points. His passion. His desires. And we’ve made Triberr to solve Dino’s problems. Turns out, there are a lot of Dinos out there.”

That’s the best way to be sure you know your audience – if you’re just like them, and solving their problem solves yours, too. (Remember “I’m not just the owner, I’m a customer”?)

Now, in knowing and serving your audience, it’s important not to lose sight of who and what you are…

Be a Human

That’s right – at the core of it all, you’re a human being, and these days, that’s what people trust more than any corporate entity or snazzy logo.

As Dino says,

“Communities are people. And people want to interact with other people.”

So be a person. Use your own picture, and use your own name.

More importantly, be honest, up-front, and straight-forward. You’re a human being, and as such, you will make mistakes. Don’t try to hide behind a mask of corporate infallibility – just admit it when mistakes happen, apologize, and move on.

Don’t try to impress people, and don’t try to look like the coolest kid on the block. Just work hard to help people solve real problems.

Your audience will thank you for it.

Except for occasionally, when they need a bit of hand holding…

Customer Service

Customer service is where so many businesses fall down, and it’s a shame, because it’s really so easy to stand out (especially since airlines, telecoms and banks have lowered expectations to the floor).

In Dino’s own words:

“People don’t want to be lectured. They don’t want to be told what they could/should have done. They don’t want to be treated like a task on your list.”

Here’s what they do want:

“They want to be acknowledged immediately. You don’t have to solve their issue right away, but they do want to know you’ve received their email and are working on it. They want to be treated like a human being, and not like a number. And they want their issue fixed.”

Not particularly complicated, is it? Respond to their email, and say that you’ve received it. Tell them what you’re going to do to fix the problem, then do it.

There’s just one catch: it involves a lot of work. And that’s only sustainable if you…

Have Fun

Yep, that’s right. Have fun.

If you aren’t enjoying yourself, then you aren’t going to be able to force yourself to do what you need to do for long enough to matter.

So how do you make it fun?

For starters, make sure you’re solving a problem that you care about; if you’re passionate about your work and mission, then it’s a lot easier to take satisfaction in the wins, and to overcome the setbacks.

Second, you should engage with your community. They’re people and you’re people – and newsflash, people are social, which means that we’re all wired to enjoy hanging out with each other.

So hang out. Connect. Make friends.

If you have enough fun, while being human, in service of a mission to solve a problem that you care about – you might just find yourself with a community of fanatics all around you.

Danny Iny

Danny Iny (@DannyIny) is the co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the “Freddy Krueger of Blogging”, and the co-author (with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, and many others) of Engagement from Scratch! (available on Amazon, or as a free download). The latest and greatest thing you can get from him (for free, of course) is his Naked Marketing Manifesto, about marketing that really works!

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41 Intelligent comments · espresso yours below

  1. Hi Danny,

    I have read your book and I really like it, and I have learned a lot from it. I’ll be sharing my views with my readers fairly soon.

    What you’re saying here is something I absolutely agree with, but it might sound a little weird, but what you said about having fun might actually be the part I find to be the most important. It’s so easy to spot people who are comfortable and having fun and are passionate about what they’re doing, and that’s the people I want to follow and that makes me want to comment and makes me want to keep learning from.

    • Thanks, Jens! I agree – it’s the most important part, because without it, everything else is just a house of cards. 🙂

  4. I have to say Danny, you are definitely what you preach, all these points do create a fan and they apply to you too especially for being human and having good customer service. You are a real person and am not even surprised you managed to get all those superstars to contribute in your book; which by the way is amazing. Ana is also really good in creating connections and her cafe rocks 😉

  5. But that’s why it’s so valuable to have someone like you to give them that outside perspective, isn’t it? 🙂

    Yes, humility is so important, and yet so hard to hold on to as we start to taste some success, isn’t it? I think the key is to stay grounded, and keep a broad perspective – after all, we’re all just people, right?

  6. Hi Danny,
    Great post and I another thing that I think that is important for me is that the articles are not a big ad, so in the end is a lot of text about why you need to buy this product, ect.

    • Yup, absolutely, that’s very important as well – there has to be real value being offered, and information being provided. 🙂

  7. Great Post Danny, and wonderful insights from Dino. I first found out about him about 2 months ago in a podcast he was the guest on. Until then, I didn’t really know what Tribber was all about. It was really informative and great to see how it all came about, and how to be more engaging.

    Loving your book so far, although I haven’t gotten through it all yet. Really great job getting all of that together.

  8. I love your idea of doing something radical and then giving it away for free. Some of us don’t have the technical skills or financial backing to do something huge like you did with Tribber though.

    That thought stopped me for a long time. I wasn’t well known enough, big enough, rich enough, etc… finally I let those doubts and self inflicted stopping points go, and started working on things again. I don’t have anything as groundbreaking or huge going as Tribber, but hopefully I can do something that makes an impact on people’s lives.

    One question I have started really contemplating with everything that I do is “Did this help at least 1 person to improve their life in some way?” if the answer is yes, then it was time well spent. if not, then its back to the drawing board.

    • Ok James, I had to come back and set the record straight.

      I have close to 0 technical skills (at least in terms of the kind of tech skills needed for Triberr dev). And there is no financial backing for Triberr.

      Triberr is just Dan (the guy with tech skills) and I. Thats it. No backing, just idea, partnership and sweat equity. Thats it.

      I thought you should know 🙂

      As for the rest of your comment, I agree 100%.

  9. Excellent tips, thanks Danny. I’m new to this stuff. I’ll make sure I grab your book – especially after reading Allie’s glowing testimonial on your stuff. 🙂

  10. Awesomeness!

    I totally agree with all of the above points. I guess what it boils down to for me is specifically identifying the problem in my niche and figuring out the way to solve it…. Hill on the road to success. 🙂

  11. Hi Danny, Awesome presentation Sir, I truly agree with the idea that you must “Have Fun”. 😀 Even a person is expert on something, one can’t find satisfaction with his work if he is not enjoying and loving what he/she do. I am also a member at Triberr and im proud to say that it really helped a lot especially on spreading my contents on twitter 😀

    *hats off* to both you Sir Danny and Dino 😀

    • Hi Herbert,

      Thnx for your comment. I’m happy you’re enjoying Triberr and if there is anything I can do to help, you can always find me around the Bonfires 🙂

  12. This is an awesome article and “Know Your Audience” is great point to go with.If we fix any problem that is not possible for any one to do is awesome , readers will love it to visit such sites where they can find the solution for any problem

  13. It’s that easy to build a fanatical following?

    Or maybe it’s not easy but the way you break it down is super simple. it looks like you’re saying, “Just be yourself” and when we come online we mostly feel so overwhelmed by the size and complexity of the Net that we defend ourselves by being impersonal like a big brand.

    BTW did I miss something? You have a list of 5 bullets and talk about a six step process?

    • Hi Alex,

      You are ABSOLUTELY correct about regular people getting online and all of a sudden using corporate lingo they would NEVER use with their friends. Writing their blog bios in 3rd person, and carrying on with their bigger sounding “we” instead of more personal sounding “I”.

      Huge mistake in my mind.

      And yes, he did list only 5. The last one is on Positioning. Declaring where you stand in this world. Who are you for or against. That kind of thing.

      Triberr’s story of positioning is that of David and Goliath.

      99% of attention is given to 1% of superstar blog(ger)s. And yet, their content is boring, safe, white washed and not deserving of such disproportionate attention.

      Triberr is the attention equalizer. We want to take the attention away from superstar blog(ger)s and give it to small and medium sized bloggers who are writing disruptive, radical, amazing content and who deserve more attention.

      That was the 6th point not stated…I think Danny just wanted to entice you guys so you’d get the book…which you should. It is AWESOME 🙂

      • Thanks so much Dino – where you stand and for what is a biggie and sends a lot of people in to a spin. I totally agree that most blogs even those of famous blogers come over as bland.

        One reason why Ana stands out is that she, er, stands out!

        A recent post comes to mind which was illustrated by a cat sticking its tongue out. The picture was captioned “This is my opinion of your opinion”, that cracked me up then and indeed now.

        Some people find it easy to stand out and state their point of view and I think in a rapidly expanding web it is stand out or be swept away.

        • Now I feel shortchanged: we only got 5 out of 6 points? LOL

          So glad you mentioned the super blogs, Dino – they do get the most attention, yet their content doesn’t nearly equal that attention.

  14. Danny,

    Great article… In my opinion so much of gathers a fanatical fan base has to do with Personality in Writing. People respond to personality… I know I do. The blogs I follow such as This Blog are written with personality. Ana and all the people that she allows to Guest Post have an amazing original voice.

    That’s how you create a fan.

    Thanks!

    Ryan H.

  15. Great post Danny!

    You picked an excellent subject. I had the pleasure of seeing Dino present this very speech. He is brilliant and knows of what he speaks.

    Let me know when your book comes out, love to talk to you about #MyBookClub.
    Happy to have found your blog via Dino.
    Positively,

    Peggy

    • Hey Peggy, thank you for your comment!

      The book is actually already out – you can see it on Amazon, or at EngagementFromScratch.com.

      I’d be happy to help out with your book club – just send me an email to danny (at) firepolemarketing (dot) com, and we can figure out the details. 🙂

  16. Hey Danny.

    Great post and I especially find useful the idea of creating customer avatar. You’re totally right.

    If you’re trying to talk to everybody you end up talking to no one.

  17. Hey Danny (and Ana 🙂

    I am humbled and honored by this post. Thank you so much.

    I am 60% through Engagement From Scratch and I can honestly say that the book is a goldmine. Even a salty road dog like myself has has managed to pick up a new bag of bones 🙂

    • Dino, I can’t think of anyone more deserving than you – your chapter of the book is amazing, and the presentation that you based it on was fantastic!

      I’m really thrilled to hear that you’re enjoying the book, and finding it valuable. Hmmm… now I have to think of something even cooler to do next… 😉

  18. Danny,

    I have watched Dino in interviews and in videos and he definitely knows how to be down to earth, human and knowledgeable all at the same time.

    You know what else? He is awesome at customer service. He’s a busy man, right? I’m some lowly blogger. I tweeted him that I was having issues with my Triberr account. He reacted within a couple of hours and the problem was fixed.

    He is one of the greats online that I try to emulate.

    ~Allie

  19. Hey Danny! Love the depth of this post. I think you have collected some very unique and helpful insights in one small package! Recently, Ana explained to me the benefit of ‘connecting’ with the readers and being human, and now you have highlighted it too! Thanks for the insight.
    Take care.