We have a Guest Blogger today!  Mike, a.k.a DevDad, is a web designer and SEO specialist from Tampa Bay, Florida. Mike writes at DevDad as a way to document his life as a stay-at-home dad, as a new business owner, and as a guy who is trying to figure out how to juggle more than he is used to.

One of the things I have struggled with throughout my entire career, whether working for myself or someone else, is whether I should focus on the things that make “bringing home the bacon” exceptionally easy, or those that I legitimately enjoy. I have always done web design, but don’t consider myself particularly gifted when it comes to the actual creation process, and more importantly, I don’t really enjoy it. What I love, however, is the internet marketing field as a whole.

I love writing and turning the basic text people throw on their websites into optimized, sales-driven page copy. Yes, it’s geeky, but besides my daughter, I literally live for making websites successful. I do not, however, live for making websites. There is something magical about turning a side project into a self-sufficient driving force for a client’s business. While the actual design process is obviously an essential factor in terms of success, it just isn’t where I shine. When success is quantitative, you can quickly and easily measure whether or not you are doing your job, which, for me anyway, is extremely important.

There are literally thousands of web designers out there who consider themselves SEO specialists - I was one of them, only the opposite. I have become an internet marketing specialist that is also a designer. If we could all face the facts about what we are and are not, we’d all have businesses that produce higher quality products, and as a result, are much more profitable. It took years, but I have come to the realization that I am not a web designer. I have an eye for good design, but I lack the interest, workflow, and at times, the ability to take on large-scale design projects. Sure, I’ve completed dozens of websites, and have overwhelmingly happy clients. I just don’t love it.

So, to all you designers out there who pretend to be marketing people, and marketing people who pretend to be designers, why not focus on what gets you hot? If it’s design, focus on design! If it’s marketing, focus on marketing! If it’s both, more power to you! For those of you that realize that you really enjoy or excel at one aspect of the internet “game”, I’m sure there are plenty of people who would love to collaborate on projects to make sure everything is completed quickly, properly, and passionately. I can even think of one guy that would love to work something out with a designer who is tired of doing the marketing on client projects!

Char speaking now! I agree with Mike. There are so many aspects to working in Web design and it is difficult to be good at it all, especially if you are interested in taking on larger projects. One of the biggest benefits to blogging and social media is the ability to connect with others in your field who have complimentary skill sets to your own.

Here are a few more of my favorite posts on finding your passion and putting it into play in your business:

• Finding your passion amid the hate - one of many great posts from Tony at Success from the Nest
• How business strategy can be about love - part of a back and forth series between Dawud and Liz
• What’s my passion? by Phil Gerbyshak the Make it Great Guy

So I was thinking, is there a magic ratio for success based on where your visitors come from? I don’t know the answer to this question so bear with me as we talk through this together.

If you take a look at your site statistics, the visitors to your site come from three basic categories:

• Bookmarks/Direct (type address into the URL box)
• Search Engines (keyword and key phrase searches)
• Referrals (links from other sites)

My guess is, depending on what the goals of your site are, the optimal ratios would be different.

Business site - the goal of your company web site or blog is to build a trust and relationship between yourself and a potential (or return) client. The product or service you provide is targeted at a specific audience and while, search engine traffic is is good for brand awareness and just finding you, it will rarely seal the deal.

1. Referrals - 60%
2. Bookmarks/Direct - 30%
3. Search Engine - 10%

Monetized resource/consumer product site - Whether your site is monetized through direct advertising, affiliate links, Adsense, or you are trying to sell a consumer product, search engine traffic becomes much more important.

1. Search Engine - 50%
2. Referrals - 30%
3. Bookmarks/Direct - 20%

If you have a good idea as to what your end goal for your web site is, it does make it easier to allocate your time and resources into going after the type of traffic you wish to attract.

My question to you - am I just stating the obvious or do you think there is a formula for success? Or am I grasping at straws? I would love to get your insight, opinions, and if anyone can find links to other discussions on this topic, please share!

Given your choice of making it to the front page of Digg, a huge Stumble wave, or a mention/link on a prominent blogger’s site, which would you prefer?

Personally, I’ll take a link on a prominent blogger’s site any day! Why? Because quality always wins out over quantity in my book. Over the past few weeks I have been paying very close attention to where my traffic is coming from and the resulting effect it has had on my site.

During the week of my blogging birthday bash, my wonderful gift from Dawud of 164 Essential Tools for Online Success post was Stumbled, Dugg, and linked to from others. The Stumble was mistimed and never really got any major momentum so the resulting traffic came in the form of a few small spikes, but those small spikes are still lingering. The post did get a fair amount of Digg attention - 83 at last count - and did briefly hit the front page, but the resulting traffic was nothing to write home about and many of the Digg comments were snippy, at best. However, the number of blogs that linked to the post and endorsed it with nice comments, created the largest benefit - from traffic and inbound links.

Later in the week I did a post on the reality of Web site monetization and Problogger (thanks Darren) linked to it. Not only was the traffic increase equal to a Digg, many of those who found the post by way of Problogger took a moment to comment and let me know how they found it or they mentioned it in a post at their own site. This kind of interaction is just so much more important to me. I also noticed a nice jump in RSS subscribers during that time, too.

Of course, my experience is just that, my experience and my opinion. I’d love to know what your experience has been with Digg versus other traffic generating sources.