In 2002, I launched what would eventually become one of the internet’s most popular websites: infomercial ratings.com. The site featured consumer reviews and ratings of popular as seen on TV products. It was a tremendous success with recurring appearances in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and several other print and television media publications. The wildly popular infomercial ratings.com was eventually sold and is now defunct. I am going to share some learning lessons on how you too can build a high traffic website.

So let’s do a deep dive and really try to understand why this website was so popular. I’m also going to show you why the same blueprint is still effective today.

Before we talk about the success of my most popular website, I have a gift for everyone. I created a free 90-day online launch guide. This is an easy read that addresses the following question: “If I were to start an online business in the next 90 days, what would I do?” It’s going to cover things like how to determine what to sell, how to market your product, specific software you can use to run your business, and more. It highlights most of the important stuff you need to know in order to launch within 90 days. This is 100% free—just a simple PDF download. I’m making things easy by giving you the strategies that work. It’s my gift to you. You can download it at leonardinnovation.com/launch

Okay, let’s get into the discussion.

At one point, infomercial ratings was listed as one of the most visited websites in the country, according to Alexa. I should note that Alexa was originally a website that reliably monitored web traffic and ranking. Back in the day, website counters were popular. The problem was you could easily fake the stats. You could just refresh the page yourself and the hits would go up. You could also start your counter at a specific number to create the appearance of a high traffic website. Alexa featured a bot that could crawl and verify your actual website traffic. It was eventually acquired by Amazon and they ultimately rebranded it as a creepy spy speaker that grants your wishes.

When I started infomercial ratings, I knew it would be popular. But I didn’t really expect it to reach the level of commercial success that it did. The website was literally written about in books. It was even featured on the Showtime television network—just staggering success.

So what specifically made it so popular?

The thing that made it so popular was the website featured infomercial products that were actively publicized in media. So we have products being featured or advertised on TV in real time.

Now let’s further break this down.

When you discuss or feature something that is actively on TV or is breaking, discoverability increases because people are searching for those topics, right now.

When you marry active topics with consumer reviews and ratings, you are increasing your chances of popularity with search engines. The reason is because they pick it up as a constant flow of fresh, relevant content. If someone leaves a review of a product that is on TV, right now, the search engines are going to favor that type of content. And the more reviews the better. And if you have product ratings, even better because they want to push you to websites that give you the best overall view of product efficacy; meaning does the product perform as advertised.

Secret #1

So, the first secret to achieving high website traffic is to feature or highlight something that is trending or happening now.

Secret #2

The second secret is to allow others to contribute to the conversation, which is going to keep that trending keyword active. This is what search engines love.

Secret #3

And ratings simply add another element that can bolster your standing in search results.

You do not have to set up your website or platform exactly as I described. You can apply the strategy in other ways. For example, you can discuss any trending event to draw in the audience, and then figure out a way to tie that back to your brand, which can ultimately be used to promote a product or service.

There is one more critical element I haven’t discussed: and that is the fact that media exposure can create an entirely different dynamic by further popularizing your website. This is basically the equivalent of compounding interest. What happens is… if they do a story featuring your website, you now gain new traffic that tends to be constant—because news stories stay online for a long time. Imagine being featured in a publication like the New York Times. Imagine that traffic, that exposure. So you have this phenomenon where the website is popular because popular websites are popular. And that upward cycle just repeats itself forever.

This is why infomercial ratings was so popular.

What I want you to understand and what I teach in the Leonard School of Business Innovation is how to analyze various business models—because you can generally dominate in business if you truly understand how the money is being made— if you truly understand the multitude of nuanced forces at play that make a business successful. Don’t just look at it high-level. Really try to unwrap all the layers that takes a business from mediocre to extraordinary.

Okay, just a quick reminder to check out my 90-day online launch guide. It’s free and it’s my gift to you. I think you will love it. I even included my email address in the guide just in case you have any questions.

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