Have you ever stopped to think why marketing techniques that work for the world’s best internet gurus aren’t working for you? Why can they achieve substantial gains in traffic while you’re left in the dust?

What do they know that you don’t?
In reality, they know a lot of things that you probably don’t. Let me let you in on a little secret - you don’t need to know everything they know. There is one characteristic that every high-traffic site in the world has, and if you learn to master this one detail and integrate it into your site, it will be enough to create more traffic than 1,000 hours of marketing work.

Are you ready for this? If you have failed to create a high-traffic site until this point, I can all but guarantee that your site is failing in one crucial area - it isn’t sticky enough.

Stickyness is your website’s ability to retain visitors. When a person finds your site or blog, what are the odds that they will become a life-long reader? If your site fails to turn surfers into readers, you will never have a true, high-traffic site. You will waste hundreds of hours and will never reach the levels of traffic you dream of.

Disagree? Consider these simple examples:

Example 1 - Johnny gets 500 new visitors each day, and converts 1% of them into daily readers.

Example 2 - Jane gets 100 new visitors each day, and converts 10% of them into daily readers.

How long do think it will take Jane’s total traffic to pass up Johnny’s? Even though Johnny gets 500 new visitors each day and Jane only gets 100 new visitors each day, Jane will have more total traffic than Johnny after only 83 days. Guess how the comparison will look after a year… Jane will have 3,730 daily visitors and Johnny will have only 2,315. After 2 years, Jane will have 7,380 daily visitors, and this is if she only gets 100 new visitors a day and retains 10% of them.

Why You Can Do Even Better Than Jane
The example of Jane assumes that new traffic never increases. In reality, if you are retaining 10% of your visitors, they will naturally do your marketing for you. They are finding the information they need, and they will surely pass it on to others. They will link to your site and spread your site around via word of mouth. They will bring more new visitors than you ever could.

Even if Johnny works twice as hard as Jane on bringing new visitors to the site, he won’t be able to keep up. Jane will soon be getting more new traffic than Johnny, and a lot more total traffic. Why won’t Johnny be able to keep up? Because Jane has been recruiting marketers - readers that will do her marketing for her. Can Johnny realistically do as much marketing as Jane’s 3000-7000 readers?

In order to retain 10%, or even 5% of your site, you need to make your site sticky, sticky, sticky. You have to make it so that when people come to visit, they’re moving in. Your site has to become a place where they have to come, every single day.

6 Attributes Your Site Must Have To Be Sticky

1. A Sticky Domain Name
How are people going to turn into regular readers if they can’t remember your domain name? Envision telling a friend about your site. Your friend will say, “Oh cool, where do I have to go to find your site?” Do you really want to say, “internet-marketing-geniuses-12288abc1.info?”

Your readers that like your site will be having similar conversations with their friends. In order for your site to spread by word of mouth, it must have an easy to remember, catchy name. If your domain name can’t be easily spread around by word of mouth, it won’t be spread around online either.

Guidelines For Choosing A Sticky Domain Name:

• Don’t use dashes or underscores.
• Use no more than 3 words. This means 1, 2, or 3 words! Using more will make the name hard to remember - hard to remember is the opposite of sticky.
• Consider using a name that describes your business.

2. Easy To Find Authority Articles
Your site will never be sticky if people don’t think you know what you’re talking about. In order for people to believe that you know what you’re talking about, you need to have authority articles that convince. Those articles won’t do you any good if people can’t find them. Display them on every page of your site. Make sure they have catchy titles or people won’t read them.

Authority articles are very different than regular posts. They need to be comprehensive, and they need to be original. In order to create originality, you can take a really good article and make it better. Think of some good articles that you have read recently. Go back and find them, and read them critically. What are they missing - what could make them better? Everything written can be written better by someone who is willing to put in a little more time.

If your articles change the way people think about your topic, your readers will surely turn into regulars. If they really help people, the people that read them will turn into your free, marketing force.

If you have a blog, make sure your best articles are in your sidebar. If you have a regular site, make sure they show on every page of your site, one way or another.

3. Regular Content Updates
If you don’t want to add content to your site regularly, you will never become a high traffic site. If you’re a blogger, this means you have to post often. If you have a regular site, you still need to add quality content regularly.

Why would anyone check your site daily if you don’t add to it daily? If you add quality content daily, your readers will check it daily. If you only add content weekly, they will only check your site weekly. If you don’t add content weekly, you probably won’t have any regulars at all. Your users are smart, the frequency of their visits will directly correspond to your posting frequency.

I’m not saying that all of you have to post every, single day. For many of you posting daily just isn’t feasible. If you can post daily, post daily. If you can’t post at least a few times every week, I would consider a new line of work.

4. Quality Content Written For People - Remember That Search Engine Traffic Will Follow.
Many people get stuck in the trap of writing only for search engines. They make sure that x-amount of keywords get placed in x-amount of posts and so on and so forth. If you fall into this trap, you won’t get your high-traffic site or blog, because your site won’t be sticky! The wording of your articles will be annoying, and people will know that you’re keyword stuffing. You will definitely retain less people.

In order to truly write for people, you can’t really short-cut. You know you’re writing for search engines when you stop writing a post just because you think it’s long enough to get into Google. If you’re writing for people, you will keep writing until the topic is entirely covered, without short-cuts. In order for your site to be sticky, you have to make sure that you’re explaining the topics you post about in a way that people can understand.

5. True Focus On Helping Your Readers
I wouldn’t have this site at all if I didn’t want to help my readers to find success on the internet. I have read a bazillion articles and e-books about internet marketing, and have been able to make a lot of money. I honestly want to help the people that find this site to make it. I do the absolute best I can to help people to learn the secrets, tricks, and techniques they need to make their blogs and websites profitable.

When I’m writing my post each day, I’m not thinking about what will make me the most money. I’m thinking about what my readers need to learn to make money. I truly believe that if your site doesn’t truly help people, it will never reach its potential.

This means that you have to treat your visitors like you would want to be treated. No matter what your website or blog is about, you will eventually have thousands of visitors that know less than you. Don’t talk down to them, help them. Answer their questions, and give them the praise they deserve.

As your readers feel that you really want to help, they will feel welcome and important. They will feel comfortable asking you questions. When your visitors ask questions, you have a golden opportunity. A kind, helpful response will likely earn you a lifetime reader, as long as you continue adding valuable content to your site or blog.

6. Maintained Enthusiasm And Determination
If you aren’t passionate about your topic, this one is going to be really difficult. If this is the case, I would recommend starting over with a topic you’re passionate about. If you don’t love your topic, your site will never be sticky. You have to believe in your site long before your readers will.

Your enthusiasm for your topic will come through to your readers, and will be the biggest factor that contributes to your success. Do you believe that you can really help your readers? If you do, be positive on your writing. No matter what your topic is, your readers will react to a positive tone.

My Overall Thoughts On Building A High-Traffic Site
I think that quite a few of us want to have a high-traffic site, without taking the time to create a good site! The secret is believing that we can create something that helps people and being determined to see it through.

If your site is one of the most helpful and sticky of its kind, high levels of traffic are inevitable. Ask yourself if you’re willing to create a site or blog that really helps people. If you’re not willing to take the time, it will be really hard to get there. If you are, you will have a high-traffic site someday, that’s when you’ll really start to make money online.

If you’re ready to start building your high-traffic site, I would recommend starting by reading this article from the archives: 5,263 Words On Starting A Profitable Blog - the article will help you to get started, even if you don’t know where to begin!