What To Do - Target Or Filter?

Okay for the past week or so you have probably seen me use the terms 'target' or 'filter' when talking about the traffic going to your sites and, despite popular beleif, these both have completely different meanings and, to maximize the effects of each, should be used in conjunction with each other, let me explain some more.

1. Targeting your traffic / surfers.

Okay, the concept behind 'targeting' your traffic is a simple enough one, you match your site, to your traffics requirements or, vice versa as the case may be. If you have a 'twink' site, you dont advertise bears, jocks or stud sites on the pages, you have specifically targeted surfers looking for twinks, make sure your sites marketing material matches the twink niche.

A working example of this would be, if a stranger came up to you in the street and asked you for directions to a store that sold bakery goods, you give the guy directions to your favorite bar. If this guy is REALLY looking for a bakery, no matter how many times you send him to the bar, he isnt going to buy a beer. See what im getting at? You can lead a horse to water but, you cant make it drink, unless he is thirsty and he isnt, he is currently hungry.

2. Filtering your traffic / surfers.

Filtering your surfers is a little easier than targeting them, this is where you give the surfer a choice of sites to visit. if you have a generic 'gay' site, you can advertise pretty much anything gay on there, bears, twinks, jocks, studs, you name it, so long as its gay the surfer is in the right place to find what he wants. Offer them a choice of sites or, niches, they will click through to a site that they want to see, this is filtering, letting the surfer choose where they want to go on your site.

A good example of filtering would be, if you and your friends go out for a meal, you all meat up somewhere like TGI's, you dont all get the same thing to eat, one of you chooses a steak, one of you chooses the fajitas, one of you chooses the pasta bowl. That, in its basic form, is filtering, you are given a choice and, depending on what your tastes are on that specific night, you pick the meal to suit. Filtering is all about the spice of life - Variety.

As i mentioned above both filtering and targeting should be used in conjunction with each other, if you own a TGP, you give the surfer a choice of niches to browse, once the surfer chooses one, he can find countless amounts of galleries in that specific niche all with targeted advertising.

By first filtering and then, targeting you can and will increase your bottom line profits afterall, there is no point advertising a str8 site on a gay one, if a surfer is looking for twinks, whats the point in offering him bears? It just doesnt make sense from a traffic / ad management perspective.

Regards,

Lee