Tracking & Troubleshooting for Increased Sales
by Diane Hughes
Published on this site: July 20th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
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 hostingpackages
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's
fee on any sales made through the affiliate links, but you'll
get some good information in exchange.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Once you have narrowed down where your visitors are coming
from and which ads are pulling best, you'll want to be sure
visitors have a good buying experience when they reach your
site.
You know your site. You are familiar with which pages link
to what and how the shopping cart works. First-time visitors
will have no clue! Don't assume your site is a breeze to navigate.
Pay attention to elements like:
- ease of navigation,
- shopping cart application, and
- location of "help" buttons & links.
Make every effort to give your shoppers a simple and quick
way to buy from you.
Conduct A Survey
Conduct a survey of your visitors. Find out if they were
able to locate what they were looking for. Ask how their experience
with your payment gateway went. Question how their contact
with customer service was. One simple way to do this is to
create a survey using Survey Monkey at http://www.surveymonkey.com.
They offer some simple and free survey tools. Just load up
your questions and post the link on your site. (To get the
best results, you'll want to offer a gift or the chance to
register in a drawing to thank visitors for taking the time
to participate.)
Ask
Ask a few people who have never been to your site to take
it for a test drive. Make sure these folks know they should
give their honest opinions. Sugarcoating problems might boost
your ego, but it certainly won't boost your sales.
By taking a little time to give due attention to how your
visitors make their way to your site and what happens once
they arrive, you'll stand a much better shot at increasing
your profits. While it may take a while to gather the information
you need, this short-term sacrifice will reap some hefty long-term
benefits.
Diane C. Hughes ProBizTips.com FREE Report: Amazingly
Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And
Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! http://madmarketer.com/diane
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