Tracking Stats

I've just spent almost the entire day placing trackers on my two newest sites. Ugh, don't ask me why I didn't do this as I was building the sites! I know better! Luckily, neither site is that big to begin with each of them I belive had under 50 pages each. (Which really isn't that bad when tackling a task like this...unless you're like me...stuck in dial-up land with no other option!)

While working on this daunting task I thought back to some past advertisers that have mentioned that they hadn't recieved 'anything' from advertising with me. I always quickly apologize and ask them if they actively track their stats. The typical response from those types are no. Hmmm...then how can you possibly be sure that you recieved 'nothing'??

Too many times people think that the only good outcome of advertising is a sale. That however, is so far behind the truth it's not funny. Seriously, think about it for a moment. How often do you purchase something after the very first ad you recieve? If it really is something that you're interested in, you probably go to the site and check things over first, right? Then maybe you're still not sure so you decide to sign up for a mailing list. After a few ezines/newsletters from this person, you get to know him/her a little better therefore forming a trust, right? Then maybe later you decide to go ahead with your purchase. Now, I'm not naive in thinking this is the only way things work but, more often than not it is. It's a proven fact that an ad needs to be seen 7 times before it's acted upon.

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna tell you a little test that I ran just yesterday (and I'm gonna tell on myself a bit too!) We have paid ad solo ads that we send out every week with our ezine. I wanted to test exactly how effective our solo ads were and get a good example of how many people are reading and the type of response it gets. So I sent out my own solo ad. (Please keep in mind that whatever my results are doesn't necessarily mean you would get the same results. Remember, how well your ad copy is written has a lot of play on the outcome too!)

My results so far...
I had a total of 103 click throughs and 57 leads. Leads being they either asked for more information or took the free offer (which could also turn into sales later). Now, also keep in mind that we have over 800 subscribers and about half of them probably even opened it yet. 103 click throughs. Not too bad. Must not be too much wrong with my sales copy.

57 leads. Thats the one I want to focus on. The 57 leads. Did I recieve any sales? Nope. Do I feel as though this was a successful campaign? Yes, definitely! Those 57 leads means they will be recieving something that has my affiliate link written all over it and could easily persuade them to purchase. Did I expect a sale already? Nope.

So, anyway...thats a little off the topic. My biggest point I wanted to get across is track those stats! Just because you didn't get a sale has nothing to do with whether or not an ad campaign was successful.

By tracking your stats you can tell...

--->Where your traffic is coming from?
--->What pages they looked at? (What are your visitors interested in?)
--->What page did they exit?
--->What page did they enter your site?
--->What keywords did they use that led them to your site?
--->Did they sign up for your newsletter?
--->How many daily unique visitors do you recieve?


Depending on the tracking system you use there could be way more features available. The tracking software I use is free and I have been very happy with the results. AddFreeStats.com Use trackers and visit them daily!

Happy Tracking!