Month: December 2009

Understand Your Audience With Google Analytics

Yesterday we learned how to install Google Analytics program. To recap, this tool is free and easy to set up, it will not mess up your site, and it will give you an idea about what is happening with your website.

If you pay attention to what the Analytics tool tells you about what your market is doing, and if you make the appropriate adjustments, you are on your way to higher profits.

So, how can you understand your audience better with the Analytics program?

Firs of all, you can see where your traffic is coming from: on the left side of the dashboard, there is a link for “Traffic Sources”, and once you click on that you’ll see this:

traffic sources

As you can see, there are several types of traffic to check for. Let’s take a look at the traffic I have for this site form referring sites:

Now, do you think that information is important to me? Of course it is: fist of all, I know that my top traffic referrer is Lynn’s SSWT forum. Do you think I’ll be inclined to participate more in the forum there? You bet!

M6y second source of traffic is Twitter, so there I have an incentive to continue to build relationship over there.

Now, if you click on the “Content Link”, located under the “Traffic sources” link, you can see your top visited pages, which are also called entry pages. How can you use this information? Two ways:

1. Create specific pages for keyword phrases you were found through, but you don’t have a specific post for.

2. Check your top entry pages to make sure your visitors gets the best experience when they land on that page. Do you have broken links? Is the page monetized porp0perly? Do you have a call to action?

Are you using Google Analytics? Do you have questions? Do you use it differently than mentioned above? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

How to Install Google Analytics

google analytics

You probably know by now that in order to grow your internet business you need visitors, and lots of them. But what if you have visitors to your site, but not making money yet?

Do you know how your visitors are finding you? Which pages they enter your site through? Which pages they are leaving from? All this information is important and can make or brake your business.

Google Analytics is free and will give you a lot of information about your site. Here is a quick review of how to install it on your sites.

Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/ to get started. If you already have a Google account, you are all set to go. If not, get a Gmail address.

Once you are logged into your Gmail account, you’ll see this:

After that, it’s really just following the prompts you see on the page.

Here is what you’ll see after clicking on the sign up button:

Fill out your website URL, name , etc. and aftyer you agree to the terms of service, you’ll get some code you need to upload to your site.

Here is how it looks right after you signed up:

Placing the code on your site

Once you arrive at the code, highlight & copy it, then go and place it before your </body> tag on all of your website pages. If you have a static site, you’ll need to use a multi-file find and replace tool, like Dreamweaver of FrontPage.

If you have a WordPress site, it’s as easy as editing your footer.php file and you are all done. You still need to see if your data is flowing. Go back into your analytics account, click on “edit”, and you’ll see a link that says “check status”. Click on that and you should be all set.

Then, after a day or so, you can start seeing data come in that will help you make the right decisions for your business. Don you have any questions? Let me know.

Is Outsourcing Part of Your Business?

outsourcing help

It’s a fact: outsourcing is the wave of the future.  If you want to be able to grow your business, you need to learn about outsourcing, and give it a try.

What Can You Outsource?

Just about every aspect of your business can be outsourced, but most people will start with those activities they don’t enjoy, or take to much to perform.

Here are some examples of outsourced jobs for internet marketers:

Website Design – when starting out (and even later), you may not know how to create an appealing website. Sure, you can spend hours upon hours and come up with something, but why not let an expert create a professional looking website that will help your business grow?

Sit down and come up with a plan for your site, and then hand it over to a good web designer, and while you are waiting for your site to be created, go on and start working on your content, make marketing plans, etc.

Website Content – if you have a hard time coming up with content for your sites, or, if you get frustrated just thinking about sitting down to write for your sites, don’t waste your energy. Find someone who is good at writing and hire them to create your content.

Great content writers are fairly easy to find these days, but I suggest you start out with a small test just to make sure your writer is a good fit for your business.

Customer service – this would include managing email, sending out quotes, product support, answering the phone, etc. Can you even imagine how much more you can do in your own business if these tasks were handled for you by a professional, and you didn’t have to worry?

Niche Research – Doing proper niche research before starting a new site is the best insurance for a successful business online. Too many newbies get excited and start their business before doing their research, only to find out later, after spending time and money, that they are in the wrong niche or that there is too much competition.

There are many more outsourcing opportunities, but this is a start. When you are ready for more, you can also outsource list building, traffic, product creation and more.

Nicole Dean’s product, Outsource Weekly can help you avoid costly outsourcing mistakes. Learn TODAY how you can build a better, stronger business.

get more time in your day

Free Niche Research: Triathlon Training

free niche research

Today’s niche was inspired by one of my favorite shows: “The Biggest Loser”. One of the past contestants went on to run a triathlon, even though all the odds were against him.

So many of us give up quickly, so when I see someone go for their dream, I get excited! It’s a great push for me to do the same.

Today’s niche is Triathlon Training.

Top 10 Highest Paying Keywords(from the Google keyword tool)

triathlon online training $1.26

triathlon training camps $1.07

triathlon training software $0.88

triathlon training groups $0.87

triathlon bike training $0.76

triathlon training books $0.75

triathlon training workouts $0.70

kids triathlon training $0.70

triathlete training $0.66

training for triathlons $0.65

Top 10 Most Searched Keywords(all phrases are exact matches in Google)

triathlon training 18,100

triathlon training schedule 3,600

training for a triathlon 1,600

how to train for a triathlon 1,000

sprint triathlon training 1,000

triathalon training 1,000 (misspelling)

sprint triathlon training program 880

ironman triathlon training 720

training for triathlon 720

triathlon training for beginners 720

triathlon training program 720

Resources

Here are some great  places to find triathlon information: http://www.usatriathlon.org, Wikipedia, http://www.triathlon.org/, and triathlete blogs.

You can also research at the library and industry magazines.

Possible Affiliate Programs

As always, Amazon.com has many excellent books, about any subject listed, as well as , triathlon clothing, triathlon bikes, triathlon shoes, triathlon wetsuit and more.

Other affiliate programs for this niche can be found at CJ.com:  athleta.gap.com & TriSports.com for example).

Monetization Suggestions

This niche is not a huge AdSense earner, but that is still an option.

But, the possibilities for affiliate marketing are huge: you can sell everything from informational books, DVDs, bikes, clothing, wet suits, shoes, and even dies information.

Here are some domains available now for this niche:

TriathlonTrainingSchedule.info gets 3600 exact searches a month.

TrainingForaTriathlon.org & .net gets 1600 exact searches a month.

TriathalonTraining .org is a misspelling that gets 1000 exact searches a month

SprintTriathlonTrainingProgram.com, net & .org  are all available: 880 exact searches/month.

IronmanTriathlonTraining .org  gets 720 exact searches/month.

TriathlonTrainingForBeginners.net & .org, getting 720 exact searches monthly.

TriathlonTrainingProgram.net gets 720 exact searches monthly.

There are some great opportunities here: I wish you success building your niche site.

WordPress Worm To Watch Out For

Do you use “admin” as your user name for your WordPress blog? If so, you may be in danger.  Yesterday, at one of my favorite forums, one of the members brought to our attention a new threat for WordPrewss blogs, coming form a worm (thank you Nathan).

This worm basically generates a list of passwords and tries them all until it gets in. It only works if you have “admin” as your administrator.

There are several ways to change your user name from “admin” to something better suited:

1. You can use this plugin to change the admin username

2. If you doesn’t want to add yet another plugin, change your user name in phpMyAdmin (I think this one is a little more complicated, but some may like it).

3. Probably the easiest method is to just crate a new admin with a new user name  and then remove the original “admin” account. When you delete a user in WP it asks who you want to attribute their posts to, so your posts will be safe.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to create a more complicated, harder to crack user name s and passwords. So many people use their kids names, anniversaries, and all kinds of other personal information, that is easily accessible. One way to create safe use names and passwords is to use a program like Roboform.

RoboForm: Learn more...

Here are just a few of the things Roboform can do for you:

. Manage your passwords and Log In automatically.

. Fill long registration and checkout forms with one click.

. Encrypt your passwords to achieve complete security.

. Generate random passwords to maximize password strength.

. Back up and Synchronize Passwords between computers.

. Fight Phishing and Defeat Keyloggers.

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