AdWords Income

Friday, December 23, 2005

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Testing and Tracking

It has been said, that if you aren't testing and tracking that "you aren't even in the game". On one of my opt-in sites - traffic driven almost exclusively with PPC and promoting an affiliate product - I have increased my opt-in rate from a pathetic 12% last June to 35% at present.

On occassion the results have been surprising and maybe I'll share some of what I've discovered in the future. Today, here is an email I received from the people at Trafficology that does an excellent job of explaining the basics of testing and tracking.

Happy Holidays to you and your family, John . . .


Today you will learn:

- What is the single most important Traffic
Creation & Conversion Technique?



- How to double or triple your sales without
spending a penny more on advertising.



- Where to find even MORE info on all 13 Web
Traffic Creation & Conversion Topics




Every serious e-Business Owner or Online Marketer
knows that THE most important Traffic Creation &
Conversion technique is:



-----> Metrics.



(Notice the period after the word? That's right,
Period.)



If someone tells you anything different - just
tell them to go sit in the corner.



Seriously, Metrics is the key to every
successful business - both online & offline.
In fact, Jack Welsh, the retired CEO of GE, is
famous for using metrics and claims they are
essential to every single business decision.
Welch says that if you don't measure it, it's
not a real business.



Is this your hobby?... Or are you ready to get
serious and make this a real business?




So what exactly is this 'Metrics' thing then
if it is so rootin-tootin important?



Well, Metrics has 2 distinct parts:



Testing & Tracking.



Testing is the idea of systematically making
changes to improve your website. We just take
an existing page of your website and make a
small change in an attempt to improve the
profitability of that page.



Tracking is analyzing the results of those
changes to determine which changes were the
most profitable, and what should be done next.
That is, we measure the effects of the
changes to see if we did actually make an
improvement. We will learn what to do in
the future based on the results of the tests
we have performed in the past.



Sometimes you will hear Metrics, Testing &
Tracking referred to Measuring, Changing &
Monitoring. It does not matter what you
choose to call it - as long as you do it.
Also, the scientific principles you learn
today are the same - no matter what name
you choose.




If Metrics is so important, then why do we
wait until the last lesson to explain it?



I wanted to cover Metrics first - but it is
too important. Metrics is used in combination
with other things, such as PPC & Search
Engine Optimization. It is a modifier that
is used to super-charge the other creation &
conversion techniques. When you combine
testing & tracking with one or more of the
other powerful techniques - you will really
see the value of using science. Metrics is
the key element to drawing massive amounts
of traffic and converting visitors into
customers - without spending anymore than
you already are.




"But I hate Math!"



Yeah, metrics is math - but trust me, it's
not hard. If you can work a calculator, then
you can determine YOUR Metrics. In fact, even
if you can't work a calculator - you can still
find your metrics with some of the handy tools
that are available. All it takes is a
dedication to learn a few simple ideas and
follow our step-by-step instructions. If you
give it a chance, I am sure you will become
a metrics master.




Why is testing & tracking so important?



Testing & Tracking provides you with all the
essential information to make important decisions.



If you are fine with wasting your time &
money and you're not interested in making
the most amount of money possible in the
least amount of time - then don't worry about
testing & tracking.



On the other hand, if you want to be successful
(if you want to have both more time & more money)
then you must commit to constant improvement
and develop a clear testing & tracking procedure.



I like to say, "If you don't know where you
are, you can't possibly know where you're going".
Your website metrics tell you exactly where you
are, and lay a clear path for improvement &
success.



Can you make money without testing & tracking?



Yes.



Can you make more money in less time with
testing & tracking?



Yes.




Here is another way of looking at it. In the
offline world, advertising is usually an expense.
You spend a lot of money, and you have no way
to accurately track the results. You just
spend a lot and hope to get more than you
spend back --sometime in the future.



On the Internet things are verrry different.



If you run an ad, you can determine quickly and
easily exactly how much money you made from
that ad. This turns advertising from an
Expense into an Investment. If you spend
money on search engine optimization or a
PPC campaign, you can measure exactly how
many new sales were created as a direct
result of your changes. Now you can calculate
your exact ROI for every advertising dollar
spent - unheard of in offline marketing!



But that's not all - metrics allow you to
dig much deeper. Metrics will tell you
information such as the exact cost to
acquire a new customer, how much profit
you make from each customer, and the value
of each visitor to your website. This type
of information allows you to know how much
you should spend on advertising, and how much
profit you will receive for every dollar
invested.



Metrics is important because it will give you
the exact information you need to make
intelligent business decisions. If you are
trying to build a business without measuring
metrics, then you are just throwing your money
away.




Ok, so Metrics is important - but... What exactly
do I Test.....An HOW do I Track?



The simple answers are:



- You Test (or Change) just 1 thing at a time.



- You Track (or Monitor) by watching everything
that your visitors do.




The 3 basic Testing & Tracking steps are:



1) Measure how well your products are selling.



2) Do a test by changing 1-and-only-1 thing .
on the site (like your headline).



3) Track to see if the change increased or
decreased sales.




See, pretty simple. First we find out where we
are. Then we make a small change. Lastly we
see what effect that change had.



But, it does not stop there. Now we do it
again, and again and again. In fact, you
should always be testing & tracking something.
Once you have found out if the last change
hurts or helps, then make another change and
find out if that hurts or helps. Then make
another change and track it to see if that
hurt or helped. Keep going and going. You
will never reach 100% - but you will make
significant improvements in both traffic &
conversion.




Now that you understand the basic ideas
behind testing & tracking, I want to introduce
you to the concept of split testing - sometimes
called A/B testing (or A vs. B)



Imagine if you could show every visitor 2
different websites and have them tell you
which one they like best. That would be
great. Every customer would be twice as
likely to buy your product.



Well, you can't show every visitor 2 different
websites - but you can do something almost as
good.



You don't show every visitor 2 different
pages - you show every other visitor a
different page.



For example:



Visitor 1 sees page A,
Visitor 2 sees page B,
Visitor 3 sees page A,
Visitor 4 sees page B,
Visitor 5 sees page A.... and so on.



Every odd visitor will see page A and every
even visitor will see page B



See, the traffic is split between Page A &
Page B - hence the name A/B test or Split test.




So, how do we tell which page each visitor
liked better?



Easy, we let them vote with their pocket books.
That is, we track the sales. We find out which
page sells better - then we use that page on
our website for all the visitors.




How is an A/B Split Test just as good as showing
2 pages to everyone?



The science of Statistics tells us that after
enough visitors have seen either page A or
page B - then we can say with a 95-98%
certainty which page every visitor would have
liked. I know this is a crazy concept - but
it really does work.



This is the same idea used for the political
polls you see on the news. They are able to
tell you with a in couple percentage points
who is going to win every election by only
asking a handful of real voters. In fact,
this is so reliable that some people predict
that we will use this concept in the future
to actually elect the President. I would not
take it that far, but I do think it is very
good for finding out which webpage sells best.




Enough visitors?



How many visitors are Enough?



Remember I said this works after enough
visitors have seen both page A and Page B.
Again Statistics tells us that if we have a
sample size of at least 30-40 then we can be
95% certain of our results. This means that
after we have 40 visitors to Page A and another
40 visitors to Page B (80 Visitors total), then
the page that had the most sales is the winner.



Now, Statistics also tells us that the more
visitors you have - the more certain you can
be of your results. I personally like to have
at least 100 visitors to both page A & page B.
That will give me around a 99% level of
certainty in the test results.



Here is a problem though: If your conversion rate
is not high (less than 10%) - then you will want
to measure the number of sales instead of the
number of visitors. That means you will need
at least 30-40 sales to make a good determination
of which webpage is best.



I know it will take longer to get 40 sales, but
if you have a low conversion rate, then either:



1) you have a problem with your website design



or



2) Have a lot of low quality traffic.



This means people are looking at your site and
finding out that they are absolutely not
interested in what you are selling. These
visitors can't be counted toward your 30-40
visitors - because they are not qualified to
make a purchase.



If you have a low conversion rate, the only
way to ensure you are using information from
qualified visitors is to measure the actual
sales. Once you have 30-40 sales, then you
can be absolutely sure that enough qualified
visitors have seen your webpages. So therefore
you can make a meaningful determination of
which page is best. Then you can use this
information, and what we have taught you in
other lessons, to draw more qualified visitors
to your website.



So the bottom line is this: if you do an A/B
Split test with at least 100 qualified
visitors or 40 actual buyers, then you can
make a very accurate determination of which
page is best.



Here is another thing you should know - the
page that wins the A/B Split test is called
the "Control". I like to think of the "Control"
as the current champion.



Remember above when talking about testing, I
said that you always need to be testing. I also
said that to perform a test, you only change
1 thing at a time. Now that you have a
"Control", you can play a game called "Beat
the Control", where you are constantly
testing by changing 1 thing at a time.



Beat the Control is where you make 1 change
to the Control and run an A/B test against
the Control. The Control is the Champion,
and the page with 1 change is the Challenger.
They duke it out in a fair split test until
you have enough visits to make a "statistically
significant" determination of which page is
better. Then the winner of the split test
becomes the new Control. Next, you make 1
new change and play a new round of Beat the
Control. The best thing about this game is
that every time you beat your control you
make more money and improve your conversion
rate - with out spending anymore on advertising.




What? How do you make more money with out
spending more on advertising?



Let me give you an example. As we said before,
there are many different things you can test.
Two main ones are keywords and copywriting.



With keywords, if you beat your control that
means you are able to bring in more traffic
(or more qualified traffic) by having better
keywords and with out spending anymore money.
In fact, in many cases you will be able to save
money by determining which keywords not to
spend any money on. With copywriting, if you
beat your control that means you are able to
get more of your current visitors to complete
a sale. Therefore, you are making more money
with the exact same amount of traffic, and you
have spent nothing more to get that traffic.



There are many other ways to use testing &
tracking to save m'oney and make more intelligent
business decisions, but those should give you an
idea of the power of metrics.




I use the program provided by my webhost and I
look to see how many hits I get. Is that good
enough?



It is a good start to be looking at your
webserver stats program. If for no other
reason then it means you are interested in
using this information. It is good to know
how many people came to your site - but it
is even better to know how long they were
there, where they came from, what they did,
and how much they cost you. Some of this
information can be gleaned from your webserver
logs or webserver stats program. I also like
to have a good link-tracking program.



There are two basic types of tracking: Web
Server Log Tracking & Link Tracking.



A Web Server Log is a simple text file with a
long list of information about every visit to
your website. Every time someone visits your
website the server stores information such as:



- their IP address; the time



- what page they were on



- what page they came from



- what keywords they used (if coming from a
search engine); what type of computer they
were using; and what type of web browser
they were using.



There is a lot of information in these logs
and most web hosting companies provide this
information in an easy to understand graphical
format.




Link Tracking is when you add a small piece of
code to every link on your website. It enables
you to clear and easily track each and every
visitor's entire path to-and-through your website.
This allows you to know exactly where each of your
visitors came from, what they cost you, what they
did and how much money you received from them.
Now you will be able to calculate things like your
average cost per visitor, your average cost per
sale, and the value of each visitor to your site.



Link Tracking also allows you to track every ad
campaign separately - thus allowing you to quickly
see which ad campaigns are profitable and which
are not.



For example, you can measure traffic on your website,
traffic from an ad or a link on someone else's
website, traffic from search engine optimization
or PPC, and traffic from affiliates or emails that
you have sent out. These are all different types
of advertising campaigns. Link Tracking is essential
because it allows you to analyze each campaign
separately. Now you can shift your money from the
losing campaigns to the winning campaigns. Thereby
instantly doubling or tripling your profits, without
spending any more money that you already were.



For the first time you will know exactly how much
money you will make from each campaign and you
will know exactly how much each campaign will
cost you. When you compare the two for each
campaign, you will then know exactly how to spend
to earn the most amount of profit.



You will spend the same amount of money, but are
able to make a better decision of where to spend
your money and maximize your ROI.




There are strengths and weaknesses to both Log
Tracking & Link Tracking. I prefer to use link
tracking for A/B testing, and Log Tracking for
identifying trends. In the future issues of
Trafficology, we will show you much more about
both. Additionally, we will have several experts
share their knowledge and experience with each.
There is a lot to know about Tracking, and we will
spend a significant part of each issue helping you
understand how to super-charge your Web Traffic
using and applying Metrics.




What can you find out from testing & tracking?



You can find out:



- exactly how to draw the most amount of quality
traffic to your website



- how to find visitors who are ready, willing &
able to make a purchase



- exactly how to optimize your sales process to
convert the maximum about of visitors in to money
paying customers.



More specifically, you will find the best keywords
that will create the most sales, what keywords to
NOT waste your time or money on, and the most
profitable affiliates and link sites. You will
find what exactly to say in your PPC ads to draw
the greatest amount of paying customers to your
site, what PPC search engines are the best for
your business, and what free search engines to
focus your optimization efforts on. You will
find what types of sites to get links from, how
to make your site easier to use, quicker to buy
from, and what images & colors to use - or not use.



You will find the exact wording to use on your site
that grabs the visitors attention, creates interest in
& desire for your product or service, and motivates
the most amount of visitors to take action and buy
your product / service right now.



Metrics super-charges everything you do. You
hear all the time someone telling you to do this,
or do that. Trafficology (the Science of Web Traffic)
is an entirely different approach. We will tell you
the different things we have done and the different
things that you CAN do. But, we will always emphasize
how important it is to test & track to find out what
actually works for you.



Yes, it would be much easier if I could just tell
you exactly what to do to m'ake $1,000,'000 this month,
but life does not work that way. I don't know anything
about your business or about your customers, so I
cannot tell you exactly what you need to do. But,
what I can do is share with you the most successful
techniques and the principles behind the ideas that
have worked in the past. Then I can give you the
tools to test out for yourself exactly what will
work for you - but only you can make it happen.



So, I guess I did just tell you exactly how to make
a whole lot of money. It may take more than a month,
but if you use metrics in combination with the other
information from this course and the future issues
of Trafficology, then you will be very successful.



With all the information in Trafficology, combined
with the results from your own testing & tracking,
you will be on your way to success in no time at all.




This concludes the 7 Most Powerful Web Traffic
Creation & Conversion Techniques - PERIOD!



In this course we learned the core principles of
Trafficology:



- We discovered why Science is important to our
website.



- We found the "best keywords" that will draw the
most profitable customers.



- We turned $7 to $700 in a few days with PPC.



- We learned the #1 key to search engine optimization.



- We learned how everyone can get a top search
engine ranking with out spending thousands
of dollars.



- We discovered the importance of getting quality
links from other websites



- We showed how to find quality links and how to
get other webmasters to link to you.



- We learned exactly what conversion is and why it
is important to our long term success



- We learned what we say on our site is more
important than what the site looks like



- We saw that there is a system to writing good
web copy.



- We discovered the importance of making your
website easy to use



- We covered some very quick and inexpensive
ways to make your site easy to use



- We discovered the Most Powerful Web Traffic
Creation & Conversion Technique is Metrics period



- We learned how to stop wasting money and
start making wise business decisions.




Over the past few weeks we introduced you to the
most powerful web traffic creation & conversion
techniques, but don't think that is all there is
to know. This course was just an introduction, a
primmer. In Trafficology we will focus on the 13
areas of traffic creation & conversion, plus also
provide in-depth coverage of the most cutting edge
ideas and even create our own web traffic innovations.



Just like always, every issue of the Trafficology
Newsletter will still contain 5-10 of the most
unique & innovative traffic tips. We will also have
interviews and case studies that show you step-by-step
the exact process to draw high quality traffic to
your site and convert the most number of browsers
into buyers. You will hear interviews from the
top experts in traffic creation & conversion and
you will find out how other members are using what
they learned in Trafficology to achieve success.



There is so much more to learn about Web Traffic
Science that I have decided to create a special
bonus lesson. Be sure to check your inbox tomorrow,
because in lesson 8 you will learn 7 more important
traffic creation & conversion methods.




Thanks,



Amy & Dearl
Editors, Trafficology
www.Trafficology.com




If you found this information useful, we would
like to hear from you. Please email us:
feedback@trafficology.com




If you have any good ideas,
please send them to us at:



http://www.trafficology.com/ideas.html





Can't wait? Ready for Advanced Trafficology?



Join Trafficology today and get 2-Free Months:
http://www.trafficology.com/printnewsletter.html

Put Your "Secret Salesman" to Work

Real marketing success begins to happen when you look beyond the first sale. I think this is an excellent article from Russell Brunson that outlines exactly how he does that..

Hi,

My name is Russell Brunson. I thought that I'd send an article that I wrote for the members of my website. I put it into an ebook called "Secret Salesman" that you can download at www.freesoftwaremonthly.com/paid/members/secretsalesman.zip

Here it goes:

This one principle that is so powerful and yet so simple that it will literally increase your profits by 300-500% without you putting in any extra time or money! It still amazes me that almost no one is using it.


So, what is this secret? It will almost sound too simple when you first hear it, but read on and I promise that you will be changing the way you do business forever. The secret is in download pages.

When I first started looking for a way to make money online, I purchased the resell rights to a new software program, and placed an ad on eBay. I was so excited when I saw the first person bid. When the auction ended, I was shocked to see I had made almost twice what I had though I would make! After I received the payment, I emailed the software program to my customer, and never heard from them again.

Looking back I see many HUGE mistakes that I have since corrected. I will explain what I do now, and hopefully you will see exactly why it is so powerful.

After I make a sale of any digital product now, instead of sending someone the program in the email, or sending them the download link, I send them to a download page. The download page has become the most powerful marketing tool that I have ever laid my hands on. Let me explain.

When someone goes to a download page, they have a different mindset than someone who is surfing the net. When you are surfing, looking at auctions, or whatever, you probably spend about 10 seconds on a page, and if they haven't sold you by then, you usually leave. When you go to a download page, you are done surfing, you have made the purchase, and you want to get everything that you can out of your purchase. When you buy something from someone, you look at EVERYTHING that is written on the page. Often I read and re-read to make sure that I haven't missed anything.

On my download pages I always include a few things.

The product that they ordered. They bought it, and they want it.

A bonus product. The bonus product or products HAVE to have something in them that will make YOU money. Don't put someone else's ebook on that page, unless you can brand it with your information. You don't want to help someone else advertise unless you are getting something back for it.

ALWAYS have a sign-up form for your ezine or newsletter. If you don't have this, then you are losing the most prime customers that you will every find. Think about it, they have already purchased something from you, AND you already know that they are willing to spend money. They want you to send them more offers so that they can give you more money. THESE are the people that you need on your opt-in list!

You need to have an upsale. For example, if they just purchased a book about autoresponders, you should also give them an option to buy your new autoreponder software at a HUGE discount. You can also direct them to an affiliate program that sales a product that complements yours. This is a very easy way to quickly increase your profit.

The last step, and by far the most important is to have the upgrade option. This feature has brought me more money than all of the other features combined. If you are selling any type of digital product, PAY ATTENTION. This trick WILL make sure that ANY customer that you ever have, will send you $10.00 for the rest of your life! Picture this. You just finished buying a digital product. You are so excited because you received such a great deal on the product. Then you go to the download page. You start to download the product. While it's downloading, you notice this: Did you know that you could have receive this product as well as 400 more for FREE!?! Click Here for more information.

I then have a link to my website or affiliates can put their link here. My members use this, but you could put an upgrade option for any membership program that pays you monthly. Make sure that you give them an option that is impossible to refuse!

I hope that this give you a few ideas.

Russell Brunson

How to Think Like a REAL Marketer

I was a little shocked and dumbfounded the other day when a friend dropped a printout on my desk of a program - an ebook - written by another marketer.

The entire program was based on an outline I posted on a discussion board!

Now, I cannot say that this marketer "stole" my idea. It's not so unique that another person couldn't possibly have also conceived the idea.

And whether my idea was the inspiration or not, is not the real point.

If I did get fleeced, I probably deserved it and here are the REAL reasons why:

1. Never undervalue what you know. In fact, what you KNOW - even as a beginner - is valuable to someone. And let's be clear, KNOWING means you've done it - not read a post on a discussion board, or even an ebook on the subject.

2. Look for additional ways to monetize your ideas. Where I have to hand this marketer credit is that he took the same idea, packaged it as a product, and built in residual income streams. These are all things I could have done - but didn't.

3. Ideas are bountiful. Ideas are everywhere. Don't worry about money-making ideas; worry instead about just learning how to make money.

Each of us are in a constant shift and transition, working towards the next level. A lot of us might be trying to just make our first bucks. Others of us are striving for big financial rewards. One of my friends brought in $452,000 in one hour - I know you've heard a similar story about Stephen Pierce bringing in over $1,000,000 in 2 hours.

These stories are true.

I've come to realize for myself that it isn't the "how did they do that" that's the mystery. In essence, they had a good offer and they made an effective sales presentation to a large crowd of people ready to buy. That's it.

The real key though lies in their habits. They create products while others create Adsense websites. They establish relationships while others look for people to pick apart in the forums, largely motivated by their own sense of frustration.

With regard to my friend, he literally had NOTHING to offer just one week before this seminar. NOTHING. We discussed the idea he had and came to the conclusion that it couldn't happen logistically.

Within 24 hours he recalled a conversation he had on an elevator (at a worthless, overpriced Internet marketing pitchfest - being sarcastic if you can't tell), made a 30-minute phone call to a couple of guys with a unique product, put together a presentation and sold over $452,000 worth of the product in an hour.

Now that's masterful marketing - but it's also big money made in a way that most of us are not looking towards. It isn't dependent on a Google algorithm. It isn't dependent on exploiting loophooles that will inevitably be discovered and eliminated.

It's marketing.

I'm sure that I will generate plenty of . . . whatever . . . by what I'm about to say.

Adsense isn't marketing and anyone depending on Adsense as a primary source of income isn't a marketer. The only people guaranteed to make money in that game are the people selling the information on how to make money with Adsense. Not that they don't make money with Adsense; not that I don't make money with Adsense; and not that you may not be making money with Adsense.

But after spending the better part of a year playing that game, with a decent level of success too, I realize it's a long-term loser. I'd be far better off if I'd instead spent my time creating quality products.

And that's why it's OK if I was ripped off. I deserved it and I've learned a valuable lesson in the process. Sometimes a slap in the face, or a punch in gut is exactly what we need.