[PTE Ep.0] What if your store could bring in traffic...by itself?
/ 5 min read / By Bank K. / Email Archive
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Hello,

Welcome to PTE — the POD Traffic Engine Series.

Glad you’re here.

This whole thing started as a little experiment I ran on my own store… And like always, I want to bring you along for the ride.

The Problem With Paid Ads

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing something new.

See, paid ads are getting more expensive. They still work, sure — but they take:

  • More testing
  • More creativity
  • A lot more money than they used to

And platforms like Amazon? They’ve gotten stricter about trademarks and other stuff. One wrong word… and poof — your listing’s gone.

So I tried something different.

I wanted to build a store that brings in its own traffic. No ads. No guessing. Just a steady stream of visitors from Google and social media.

And with all the AI tools we have now, it’s actually doable. Cheap, too.

My YouTube Shorts Experiment

Let me show you what I mean.

I recently uploaded 20 YouTube Shorts over 20 days. Here’s what happened:

YouTube Shorts analytics showing 21,000+ views over 20 days

The Results

  • 21,000+ views total
  • 67 hours of total watch time
  • 28 new subscribers

Each Short cost me less than $5 and took about 30 minutes to make.

That’s around 1,000 views per Short, putting my CPM at $5.

Why This Matters

And here’s the thing… that’s not even a great result.

Getting 1,000 views per Short is honestly pretty easy. Lots of people get 10,000+ views with a single video.

If I hit 10,000 views, that drops my CPM to just $0.50.

Compare that to Facebook Ads, where CPMs are usually $20 or more…

Yeah. I’ll take Shorts all day.

I’ve still got a lot to learn, and I’ll share everything with you in a later episode.

But now you see the point:

AI can help you drive traffic — cheaper, faster, and smarter than before.

What We’re Building

Before we dive into how, let’s talk about what we’re actually building.

We’re going to build a print-on-demand store — together — that:

  • Has tons of product pages (written by AI)
  • Targets keywords people are already searching for
    • Like “funny mug for coders”
    • Or “retirement gifts for teachers”
  • Organizes products into smart, searchable collections

The Power of Niche Collections

These collections are like mini landing pages for different niches. For example:

  • Coffee Mugs for Engineers
  • Gifts for Welders
  • Ornaments for Teachers

Each one targets a specific type of buyer looking for a specific type of gift.

The URLs will look like this:

[YOUR STORE]/collections/coffee-mugs-for-engineers
[YOUR STORE]/collections/gifts-for-welders
[YOUR STORE]/collections/ornaments-for-teachers

What is pSEO?

Some people call this pSEO (programmatic SEO).

Sounds fancy — but really, it just means letting automation and AI help you publish tons of keyword-rich pages…fast.

I’m not an SEO expert. But I found a way that works — and it’s simple enough that even I can follow it.

How the Traffic Engine Works

Here’s the system in a nutshell:

  1. PODtomatic keeps uploading new products every day
  2. Shopify Smart Collections organizes them automatically
  3. You end up with dozens (or hundreds) of niche keyword pages that Google can index

You’re not begging for attention. You’re building little search magnets.

So when someone types a niche keyword into Google, your store shows up.

The Numbers Game

You might end up with 3,000+ collection pages across different niches.

But even if just a few of them rank on Google, that’s all you need to start seeing steady traffic.

And once the setup is done? The system runs quietly in the background. That’s the magic of the POD Traffic Engine.

The Reality Check

But let’s be real… This isn’t a lazy “set it and forget it” thing.

You’ll have to do the work. Especially early on.

But if you stick with it — and your store ranks for a few solid keywords… that’s when the fun starts.

Traffic and sales… on autopilot.

The goal? A store that earns $500–$1,000/month passively. Then grow from there.

Your Action Step for Episode 1

Before we move forward, start thinking about your store name.

Store Naming Guidelines

  • Keep it simple and easy to remember
  • Use a general name (we’ll upload products across many niches)
  • Don’t overthink it

Store Name Examples

  • GiftGearHub
  • PrintPeakShop
  • NicheNestStore
  • ShopSparkCo

Just pick something that sounds good and isn’t too limiting.

Next episode: We’re diving into the blueprint.

Talk soon,

Bank K.