Tracking & Troubleshooting for Increased Sales

Copyright 2005 Diane Hughes

So many times, online business owners are confused about where their sales come from. They think they are helpless after a visitor arrives at their site. Nothing could be further from the truth!

In fact, as the site owner, you are extremely powerful. With just a little tracking and troubleshooting, you can dramatically improve both your site visitors' experience and your overall profits.


TRACKING

Knowing where your visitors are coming from gives you a lot of ideas. While the site stats that come with most hosting packages are OK, there is a lot of room for improvements in most cases. Between hits, clicks, unique visitors, and page views who really knows just how many people end up at your site and from where?

Once you understand which ads, banners, or PPC search engine lists pull better, you are able to spend your advertising funds more effectively.


ACTION STEPS:

Track Your Ads

Spend a little time investigating tracking services. ProBizTrack at http://www.probiztrack.com/ (my own service) is affordable and effective. It will give you a start. Even if you choose to go with a service besides mine, use something to help you know for sure which ads are pulling and which are just wasting your money.

If you think tracking services are too expensive, you can still track results semi-effectively. Use coding at the end of your links. By placing "?code" (without the quotes) at the end of your domain name, you create a unique page. This page will be visible in your Web site stats. For example, if you are advertising in The Best Ezine, you can use the URL of http://www.mydomainname.com?best to track visits to your page.


Become Your Own Affiliate

Another idea for those who sell electronic products via ClickBank (or other services) is to sign up as your own affiliate under several "nicknames." Then you can use your various affiliate IDs in ads. NOTE: You will have to pay your affiliate program