Of course, you’ll almost certainly argue that Ben Franklin missed the computer age by a couple hundred years, but old Ben was ahead of the curve in many of the fields of study that occupied his time. Remember that he preempted Edison by more than a century with his electrical experiments and his financial and political advice remains timeless.

Mr. Franklin is a personal hero of mine. I’ve read his autobiography and other books about his life and accomplishments too numerous to list. Knowing his love for the printed word, I believe that Ben would have been an Internet enthusiast and most likely an ardent blogger had he been born during our digital age.

Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.
~ Ben Franklin

Ben is credited with a unique method of solving non-mathematical problems. When faced with a perplexing decision, he would draw a line down the center of a paper and list the pros on one side and the cons on the other. It was a way to compare arguments for or against a particular decision.  For our discussion, let’s imagine that Ben is alive and doing well and like every business owner, is faced with the challenge of how best to get traffic to his website, www.PoorRichardsBusiness.com.

It is my opinion that if Ben were to choose how best to spend his money promoting his website, he would compare the benefits offered by the only two options available.  Would he buy traffic using paid advertising or would he attract it using search engine marketing?

Ben, being an Internet savvy blogger, knows that he can buy paid advertising in the form of Pay-Per-Click (PPC), banner ads, newsletter sponsorships and other impression-based campaigns.  He also knows that when his money runs out, traffic screeches to an abrupt halt.

He is also aware that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves onsite and offsite tweaks that once in place last virtually forever. Traffic actually increases over time as search engines recognize and reward relevancy when updating their algorithms.  Ben’s a sharp fellow!

Using his infamous Ben Franklin problem solving technique, he prepares a list showing the benefits and rationale of using both options. I think his list might look something like this:

Patience in market, is worth pounds in a year.
~ Ben Franklin

Ben knows that to generate immediate traffic, buying it is the obvious decision.  However, he also knows that paid traffic can be exorbitantly expensive and when his budget is depleted his stream of traffic ends permanently.

In his “Poor Richard’s Almanac“, he often talks about saving pennies and investing frugally.  In all financial decisions he prefers the long-term approach because it always pays the greatest dividends. After studying his list he determines that optimizing his website to attract traffic is the best decision.

Ben made this decision because he also knows that if his blog is configured properly to receive maximum SEO benefit, he can get the search engines to recognize his new posts almost immediately.  Ben knows this because he was smart enough to invest a few dollars in a book, the “SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide“.

Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.
~ Ben Franklin

Read more...