Traffic Sources for Business with Davis Nguyen of My Consulting Offer - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Traffic sources for business are all about knowing which one is the best ones to use. There are lots of new channels coming out and the shiny object syndrome comes up. Tune in to the most effective ones.


BackgroundDavis takes online businesses to 7 figures within a year.

So far - coaching and info-product businesses.Grandmother

Created a local store.Lesson: perseverance as a value (overcame Robbery and arson).

Current businessWorked at a startup before became an entrepreneur

Started a side hustle in the living room while working at another company Wanted to be able to work anywhere

Now lives/works in Asia or the USA (mostly San Francisco).6 figure profit first year

7 figure profit second yearDid have one physical product 

 - tried to build a comfortable hiking bootGot design made by an engineer  
But nobody bought itSell 10 pairs to test it’s a viable market

How do you figure where to get traffic from?There are lots of new channels coming out when you try to find traffic sources for business. 

Manychat was the business channel of choice in 2019. Shiny object syndrome comes up.

Instead, Davis works on first principles.Strategies

Give people the mindset of how to find traffic sources for business. There are 2 axes on which to assess a traffic source: 
Axis 1: Relevance to my audienceEg Reddit, gaming platforms etc. - Reddit passionate community - $800.$1200

And not many competitors.Davis’s target audience is those who want to be management consultants for example
Axis 2: what is ROI? (Profit÷investment)That’s related to low competition

Early adoptionPricing of product - 

what is the customer finds valuableExample -Selling podia

Toastmasters international - sponsor those guysHow do you find where the audience is?

Literally talk to your customers!Look at reviews
How did you find out about our product? Find out about traffic sources for business. 

Example - ran the public speaking business - Toastmasters

But Toastmasters was not good for one-on-one coachingUsually, salespeople or someone getting funding for business
Eg someone trying to raise moneySo probably at tech meetings
Hang out a bit moreA lot is on the Y Combinator hack forum

Where do you hang outAlso, think offline as well as online - for example: 

You can sponsor events or clubsYou could even give away a product for free to a club or organization.

How to identify the right traffic source Find out EVERYTHING about your target client:

Where do they hang out? Do they go to church? 

You can’t just call people on Amazon. But you can get mailing addresses, so you could write to them (physical postcards for example) Example of physical product business
We have a concept of who your audience is, but in reality, things emergeDavis’s Client was looking out for doing offline marketing. They did an hour of reading reviews.

Identified a group of unexpected buyers on one listing: Probably parents - buying for PTA clubs. They checked the competition - the same picture. So now the client is making a list of PTAs.  

Think about how they found you. Mailing people
If someone is willing to read a postcard from you, they are a fanIt’s not very scalable, but that’s not relevant to the exercise: we just need to really understand the target customer (NOT try to reach lots of them) 
What about scaling things?First of all, Toastmasters, for example, might be 300,000 people

Secondly, don’t worry about scalability. “Do things that don’t Scale” - Paul Graham (the founder of Y-Combinator - the most successful startup accelerator in the world, incubator of eg Reddit, Twitter etc.)
Are Facebook Ads still a good channel?Davis used to spend 7 figures on ads in a company

It does work - but it works if you know what you’re doing. 

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey