Pat was already an active participant in a LEED exam-prep forum before he had any site or product; that forum was the single biggest source of early traffic to his free content.

“The number one traffic generator was the forum I was participating in”

Forum members already saw Pat as a knowledgeable peer who could answer their LEED exam questions, which built the trust and reputation his later ebook sales relied on.

“notification emails from the LEED exam forum threads, most of which comprised people thanking me or asking questions as though I was expert who knew the answers”

Other sites, including official USGBC chapter websites, linked to Pat's free LEED study content, which compounded into strong organic search visibility.

“some of the USGBC chapters used my site as a resource and linked it from their chapter websites”

Being cited by official industry chapter sites created authoritative backlinks that drove ongoing organic traffic without any paid promotion.

“which drove a lot of traffic and created some very powerful, highly authoritative backlinks for me”

Pat shifted focus from blogging three times a week to a weekly podcast after noticing at a conference that fans were far more excited about the show than the blog.

“I started the podcast that you're listening to right now in July of 2010”

The podcast became the dominant discovery channel for the brand, ahead of the blog and word of mouth, per an internal survey Pat references.

“over 50 percent of people who found out about SPI at this point in the podcasting pump days found me because of the show”

Pat launched his first paid course and membership site, Breakthrough Blogging, as part of a 3-day promotional event run by Only72.com.

“I launched my very first online course & membership website, Breakthrough Blogging”

The bundled 3-day promotional format drove a concentrated wave of sales that made July 2013 SPI's best month ever by a wide margin.

“The 3-day launch, which was a part of the latest Only72.com promotion, was a major success”