online host guide

When you are developing or designing a website you have to imagine to a certain extent how it will be used and what will attract the right kind of visitors to this site. Once the site is up and running the best way to test your theories or to find out where you can make improvements is to have hard data that you can analyze.

There are various ways of gathering information on people who visit your site. You can ask for personal information if the user wants to register but there is no guarantee that the information will be correct and not every visitor will register if they are not required to. The best way to get a definitive and accurate set of data is through visitor tracking. Each visitor to your site however has a web log that can provide very specific and relatively accurate information on everyone that lands on any page of a site.

Web tracking is non invasive since there is no personal information available through the web log. A java script is attached to each page that you want to track and when a visitor opens that page it is used to collect the information from their browser. Most users’ internet preferences will allow this and also allow a cookie to be stored so that they have a unique tracking history. Statistical analysis can then be done either on individual behavior or behaviors can be grouped into certain actions.

The kinds of information that are usually available from a web log are:

• Geographic location or domain
• How the site was reached; from which directory or site they linked through
• Date, time and duration of visit and how often unique visitors returned
• Which page they landed on first and how they navigated from there
• Keywords used in directory searches and site searches
• The users browser and operating system
• Which visitor made a purchase
• At what point did those who initiated a purchase give up before the sale was completed

Other information is available such as the presence of click robots or HTTP errors and the data gather can be interpreted using web log analysis software. This will generate either a tabled list or graphic information that can be used for the following:

• Understanding where your visitors are from and what markets you can accommodate more efficiently
• Establishing peak visiting hours and capacity levels
• Seeing which content and features receive the most attention and what is ignored

This kind of information can also be critical in making improvements that will make a site easier to use more relevant and will drive traffic to and through the most relevant pages. It will show you clearly:

• What keywords are most effective
• Where improvements can be made to the functionality and user friendly ness of the site in order to increase sales
• Which marketing campaigns and directories deliver the best results

Apart from discovering which links are the most valuable to your business the nature of the sights which feed into yours can also give you a lot of other information on your visitors such as their interests and you can even abstract a certain amount of personal information from the other sights that they visit.

Visitor and sales tracking has become and integral part of CRM (customer relations management and helps to determine ROI (return on investment). It can also be used to supplement other forms of interactive information gathering such as blog pages. Although there is no way to link the statistics to information gathered on user forums you can get an idea of how and when they are being used or whether they are being underutilized. Indirectly it can also be used to develop social media marketing.

Affiliate sales tracking software has a slightly different objective and creates more of a two way relationship between affiliates and traders. A different kind of software is required but there are some similarities to ordinary sales tracking. The main difference is that you are not tracking visitors but analyzing the performance of other sights. There are also more functional tools that can be used such as automatically generated e-mails, sales reports and commissions.

If you have a website from which you conduct or facilitate your business activities then the best way to ensure the success of your business is to ensure that your website does not hinder the function of your business in any way. As the web is a constantly evolving environment, it is almost ensured that no site will be created perfectly or in a way that will not need to be changed over time. Without viable information on how your current model is operating you have very little idea of where you can make improvements. In this regard it makes no sense to run any website for a profit if you do not intend to track sales and visitors.

Keywords play a great role in how popular (or unpopular) your website is in the internet. Here are three steps for using and picking keywords for internet marketing purposes.

Your website traffic is your business’ lifeblood. It is therefore of great importance that you employ all possible measures in order to increase your website traffic. One way to increase traffic is through search engine optimization or SEO.

The key to SEO is to select the right keywords that would drive targeted traffic to your website. The idea is to get visitors who are more likely to be persuaded to become your customers. Therefore, it is very important that you find the right keywords in order to get your target or your niche market.

Search engines are practically driven by millions of keywords, so there is a great need for you to find only the relevant keywords that you would need to make your site relevant to your intended audience. Here are some important points that you have to consider in determining the keywords that would get you noticed by your niche market.

Step 1: Study the competition

Is there a room for more? There is a need for you determine if your niche has a room for another competitor and another website. A particular niche may be saturated with too many websites and businesses endorsing their products that, inadvertently, you would always rank poorly in search engines queries.

Studying your competition and your niche size is very important in order to find the right keywords. Unless you are running a well-established website or blog, you should avoid keywords with high rate of search. Most likely, these keywords are used by a great number of your competitors. It will be very difficult for you to rank high in search results.

You should, therefore, carefully examine and study your keywords before anything else. This is very important because your keywords would determine your success in your marketing campaign.

If you find that your niche is indeed saturated, your option is to use more specific keywords. You must avoid general keywords, and instead, break the general keywords down. The goal is to choose keywords that have a minimal amount of competition.

Step 2: Research your keywords

Determine the characteristics of your keywords for your niche. The goal is to find the most pertinent keywords – pertinent to your business and your niche. This is extremely important in order to get your target market.

If your keywords are relevant to your market, chances are high that by optimizing your site for these keywords (through SEO), your niche will find your website and search engines will credit your website with higher ranking.

However, let me reiterate once more that it is also important that you find keywords that are innovative and unique, which would make your website stand out from all other similar websites.

Step 3: Take time in selecting your keywords

Your keywords are crucial to the success of your website. You should take time to consider and select the keywords that you should use in order to optimize for the search engines.

Check and test keywords using search engines. Google’s keyword tool is particularly helpful in checking out the competition for keywords. You will get an idea on what keywords are oversaturated, and what keywords will possibly help your website stand out and rank higher in search engine queries.

Driving traffic to your website and promoting it is not easy. There are millions of websites in the internet and chances are about a hundred or a hundred thousand of those could be your competitors. Therefore, it is important that you heed these 3 steps for an effective website promotion.

It is imperative that your website should be found in almost every search engine results, social networking websites, and broadcasting websites. You have to understand that the internet’s attraction springs from the fact that it has everything. A person would only have to key in words or phrases and he would have access to any information that he wants to have.

With the internet, one doesn’t have to wait for the news on the tube to get the latest weather report. One need not open a cookbook to get a recipe. Because of this inherent usefulness of the internet, the number of internet users has rapidly grown and expanded. With this growth in the number of internet users, however, came an equally rapid increase in the number of businesses jockeying for the internet market’s attention and patronage.

— The Importance of Web Traffic —

You need to bring your customers attention to your website if you want your business to thrive. There are no ifs and buts about it. Your e-business can survive only if your website is generating traffic. Traffic means potential customers. Your website’s traffic is the lifeblood of your business.

Your website should be accessible to your intended consumers. This is a way for you to obtain a high percentage of the market size. It is very important, therefore, to promote your site so that more potential customers will be drawn to it. There are many ways to promote your website and a mixture of methods would be more advisable. Here are the steps for an effective web promotion.

Step 1: You should have a promotion budget

When you are trying to launch a web promotion campaign, you should have a budget, no matter how stringent. With online advertising though, you can use a lot of methods without spending thousands of dollars in advertising expenses.

Utilize free forms of online advertisements. Do not spend money on anything that could be done for free. Instead, channel your funds to your website improvement, for web-based applications and other natural internet marketing expenses. Pay for advertisements on parts of your websites that are not accessible to non-members. Do not advertise for the part of your website that people can get free access to.

Step 2: Employ website promotion strategies

You should use all possible promotional strategies available to you. You should promote your website to an existing market. Be consistent in promoting your website. Let your market know that your website exists. Make sure that you are promoting your website to your target market.

What is the point of advertising for different shades of lip gloss if your website is getting more hits from men? Concentrate on generating targeted traffic. Every thing you do must be aimed at generating more traffic for your website, so it is best if you would utilize the services offered by popular web promotion brands.

Step 3: Use different methods of promotion

You should use different methods of promoting your website. Write articles that you could post in your website or you could submit in other websites. Informative articles that are useful to people would arouse people’s curiosity and interest. Make sure that you optimize your site for the search engines. Create blog posts using words or phrases that people would usually key in search engines when looking for something. Build your network through social networking sites.

There are a lot of methods that you can use. The idea is to use multiple methods and to use them well.

Being an <a href=”http://www.ebooksandlinks.com/”>online home business</a> owner, you need to
have 3 extremely important things, if you
really want to be successful.

Firstly, you need to have a Expert or
Mentor.

Don’t know much about Copy Writing,
Internet Marketing, Or Website Design?
Don’t worry, most people don’t. What you
need to do is play smart. You need to find
yourself someone who has, “been there,
done that”, an Expert. Finding yourself a
mentor can be a huge advantage to you;
both financially and mentally. This can be
seen in that the majority of people
who try to establish a <a href=”http://www.ebooksandlinks.com/”>online home business</a>, have absolutely no
idea what they’re doing. This can be a
massive hurdle, as money is spent and
lost, and the mental hardship continues to
erode any determination.

Secondly, having a back-up plan can be a
big help.

Trying to establish and run, or simply
start a home business, is likened to being
a boat captain, with no life rafts. If the
boat starts to sink, you really have no
option but to go down with it. The same
principle applies to having a home
business. Even though we may try as hard
as we can, some things just don’t work.
This is where your back-up plan comes in
handy. Make sure you give your home
business every chance it can to be
successful, but if it doesn’t all go
right, don’t be afraid to cut your losses
and move on to plan “B”.

Thirdly, and this is a big one. To be
successful, you need something which a lot
of people don’t have. Unstoppable determination
and desire.

Interestingly enough, this is the sole
reason why the majority of people don’t
succeed online. They don’t have that
“x-factor”. They don’t have that
relentless desire and determination.
Here is something which you should write
down, and read every time you wake up,
before you go to sleep, while you make
your cup of coffee or tea–while you do
anything, in fact.

“Whatever your success achieved, it will
be in direct proportion to the
determination and desire which you
expressed. More desire, more
determination, the greater the success!”

Here is an example to illustrate my
point:

I’m sure we’ve all heard of Kobe Bryant,
right? Most people believe that it’s his
excellent talent that makes him the
special NBA player he is. In saying that, his
amazing talent does play a big role in his
success. Want to know what really makes
him such an amazing player? It is his
desire and determination. Put simply, he
just wants more wins, more championships,
than anyone else on the court.

Thats how you, the new <a href=”http://www.ebooksandlinks.com/”>online home business</a> owner, must learn
to think and act. You have to want your
success with your entire being. Every part
of your body, mind and soul, must be
screaming, “I want to be successful!”, and
you have to make sure nothing can stop you
from being successful–nothing!

And just remember,

“Whatever your success achieved, it will
be in direct proportion to the
determination and desire which you
expressed. More desire, more
determination, the greater the success!”

Are you a victim of time-impoverishment just as one is cash-strapped? Then an online business opportunity is an easy solution to help you balance your personal life and make some fast money!! An online business opportunity not only offers great growth prospects but also has no time restraints. So how does one get started?

Few guiding steps follow:

- Make sure that you are geared with the right tools to run the business on your mind. First requirement is a good computer. Computers today come in numerous configurations: laptops, desktops, media centers, business machines; but what is to be kept in mind are speed of the computers, storage capacity, portability etc. consult a technician to get the machine that best suits your needs.

- Next you need a work-space, depending on what you are most comfortable in. Furniture, telephones, printers, general office supplies are few of the basic requirements.

- Next on list is high-speed Internet connection. Online business demands good deal of time spent online doing basic research. For that if you have to wait for eons, it can be quite putting off.

Once through with the settings, you need to go about doing some research to find a great online business opportunity. Countless websites offer scores of online business opportunities.

Some things that are to be kept in mind include, availability of ample marketing support in terms of site promotion. A complete back office system with a strong customer support where one can view his stats. Do not collaborate with a company that does not have a strong customer support. The choice of the right ‘sponsor’ is of utmost importance. He should be available to help you expand your online business. Ask him certain basic questions like:

“how long have you been with the said company?”, “what is it unique about you that others won’t offer?”, “how much do I need to spend for marketing?”, “what has been your success rate” etc.
Be careful & attentive while these questions are answered and go ahead only if you think the person is making genuine claims.
It is true that one does want to get off to a good start, but one should never be hasty. Weigh your options, be thorough and meticulous with your pursuits and your online business would be a success indeed!

1.  Categorize Information and Create a Master Outline

Look at your business and decide how you want to categorize your information. For example I have: Administration, Marketing, Finances, etc. as my Master Outline and than under those larger categories, I create subcategories: My sample

Administration

Policies & Procedures
Forms / Templates
Business Structure
Clients

Marketing

Brochures
Business Cards
E-zine Content
Networking Groups

Create tabs for the Master Outline and use on hanging folders, use manila folders with labels for your subcategories. Make sure that you give all files a name, do not use Miscellaneous as a file name, because the file will began to accumulate papers and you will not be able to find items easily and quickly. You can use this same format to keep electronic files as well.

2. Create a Tickler File System

Get twelve manila folders and label them January – December, then you will need 31 more vanilla folders labeled 1 – 31 for the days in the month and two additional folders labeled for the upcoming years. As I am writing this it is 2006, so you would create a 2007 folder and a 2008 folder.

Which ever month that you are currently in, include the days of the month folders (1-31). Whenever you have a planned task, appointment, project deadline just put the information in the folder that you need to get it done. For example, If I need to complete and submit an article to a publication that my target audience reads on December 15, 2006, than I would put the contact information and due date and a checklist in the folder for December 15, 2006. On Dec. 15, everything that needs to be done is in my tickler file.  Review you tickler file daily.

What if I am planning to attend a conference in May 17, 2008, than I would put all the necessary information in the 2008 file and file those items according once I get to that month and year. Tickler files should also be in sync to your daily planner.

3. Purge Your Filing System

Do not let files contain more 25 – 30 pieces of paper. It is best to block time on your schedule once every three months to go through your files to see if there is any information that can de discarded or scanned and saved electronically.  Check with your accountant and banker to see how long documentation should be retained. Also check out www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000518h.asp it contains a checklist of how long you should keep financial documents. You must keep your filing system neat and easy to obtain the information you want when you want it. It is best to keep the most used files near you in your desk drawer.

© 2006 Bridgette Boudreaux

Web analytics provide tools on understanding your market; from their behavioral patterns and purchasing capacity to the probabilities: what your niche market wants, how to make your site visitors keep coming back and ultimately how to convert them into devoted customers.

Today’s booming internet marketing has become more challenging and competitive not only with the mushrooming of online businesses, but also because more and more online businesses fold-up just as soon as they have started. This is primarily due to the poor analysis of market trending, demographics; and several qualitative and quantitative factors.

— Three Factors to Consider in Online Marketing:

There are several factors online businesses take into consideration to determine their success or failure. Hits, or the number of times the site was viewed, used to be one such factor. These primarily say a lot about how web surfers see your site. But then, online marketers wanted to find out more than how many times they were viewed. Web analytics devised a formula that would profile each unique visitor and store their information for future reference so it can likewise be determined when repeat visits occur. From these profiles, the marketer gets an idea of three important W’s: Who, What and When.

Who – visits you. Who was interested at first sight, but never looked at any other pages on your site? Whom did you keep engrossed so much so he/she acquired your products/services? Who took the time to fill-out your survey forms or who dropped-out of purchasing something in midstream? When answering these questions, you can now see who are those who can become potential buyers and those who just dropped in your site.

What – were they looking for that led them to you? Did the search engine they used correctly brought them to you? What kind of products/services do they need that you can perhaps provide in the future? This way, you’ll know which products or services you can improve to better suit your visitors. What pages did they spend most of their time on? What generated more income? Maybe the search wrongly led them to you but through the web analytic information, you may have found out their specifics and strategize a game plan that would enable you to provide them with what it is they’re looking for, in the near future.

When – they viewed your site. This information is a vital part of your formula for success. Determining the peak and off-peak hours you were viewed, you may formulate marketing schemes that could increase site visits, decrease bounce rates and drop-outs.

— How These Factors Help To Zero in On your Market:

These three W’s will help in determining what parts of your website need improving. You can also know how to alter your web design in a way that will cater more to your niche market and influence their purchasing powers or do a general make-over by using the demographics of your audience. You have surely gathered these from the intricate and detailed report of web analytics. These can likewise tell if you’re attracting the right traffic. If you have numbers of visits but bounce and drop-out rates are almost in parallel to them, chances are you are very likely attracting the wrong crowd. Since the onset of internet marketing and online businesses, this industry has never had more help than when web analytics came into the picture.

Webmasters and sellers who use viral marketing usually have their different reasons for using it. Some swear by its effectiveness and some like it because it gets them straight to their target market. If you’re still unsure about the benefits of viral marketing, keep reading.

— Getting Infected

Viral. The word alone has a negative connotation, bringing to mind images of disease and harmful microbes. Do not be fooled by the word for even though it carries a negative connotation in the physical world, it means exactly the opposite in cyberspace! Having this misconception could be disadvantageous to you because it could spell the difference between being a webpage lost in online obscurity to being the next new hot site that everyone’s Googling.

Viral marketing is called such because it’s ‘infectious.’ Viral marketing has several advantages for you, and for good reasons, too. It uses one of the most effective and inexpensive marketing tools in history – the word of mouth. I bet you would think twice about thinking badly of viral marketing if you realize that the success of things like GoogleMail or GMail and multilevel marketing – MLM or sometimes called ‘pyramiding’ – were brought about mostly by viral marketing. This example shows any webmaster that the success can be duplicated on the online market.

— Ditch That Vaccine: Three Reasons why it Works:

It’s free. It’s like magic to anyone’s ears. It’s great especially for startup businesses because it can quickly generate interest for your product while minimizing marketing capital at the same time. All it takes is a little hype here and a good word there to get the chit chat ball rolling.

It works. It does so even on a massive scale. If you know your history, some major religions and a lot of minor ones were proliferated through word of mouth. This technique was especially useful then because any written evidence of the new religion meant death to whoever was holding it. This technique is useful now because any written advertisement for a new product means more costs for whoever’s selling it.

The internet is perfect for it. With the advent of email, messenger clients and online community forums, contacting even your long-lost ex to request the return of your music CD is rarely more than several clicks away. This new age of fast and convenient communication is the best possible environment for a marketing technique as dependent on human interaction as viral marketing. Heck, people can talk to their friends even when they’re not online.

— Precautions on Going Viral:

Viral marketing is a great technique because it’s very effective and extremely inexpensive. However, anyone attempting to do it has to proceed with caution. From the very word itself, going viral can easily make your company succumb to illness. Going viral is a double edged sword, they say. In the same way that positive words from peers could positively affect your market’s perception of you and your product, a bad rep could bring everything toppling down. All it takes is one bad interaction or a single bad deal with a customer to spell an impending disaster for your company’s reputation. In order to fully optimize viral marketing, you have to be sure that your customers really like your product and that they’re happy with the way you or your company deals with them.

New Year’s resolutions are launched with good intentions by the tens of millions every December. And somewhere along the way – usually in January – most of them become an afterthought. The mere topic of New Year’s resolutions only gets pulled up again in December, when planning (yet again) for the next year.

But a business goal is a horse of a different color.

Because business goals directly tie-in to one’s finances – which in turn affects how we live – we pursue them more aggressively. That’s the good news.

However in that pursuit lies several pitfalls. Pitfalls that are well hidden from the naked eye. Pitfalls that only reveal themselves once we begin our business goal achievement quest.

What are those pitfalls exactly? Here are three that strike most entrepreneurs at the least favorable moments:

1) You fell for the infamous “You are LIMITLESS” mantra.
Bestselling spiritual/self-help author Wayne Dyer often reminds his followers, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

And even though the soul may be free as vast as the universe – we are still confined to an overcoat of skin and bones and gravity. And it is this temporary overcoat that causes very real limitations.

I mean let’s face it, there can only be one American Idol in 2008 (or Canadian Idol or whatever Idol for the part of the world you live in). There’s one President, one Queen, one gold medalist slalom skier, one winner of the Best Actor on Academy Awards night.

And even though you may deeply yearn, affirm and visualize holding one these positions, you might not ever end up there.

A good friend of mine had an uncle who owned a horse ranch. He was a masterful rider and dreamt of becoming a famous jockey. But at the age of 16 he was almost 6 feet tall. Which is apparently too tall to become a jockey.

We – as human beings – all have limits. Limits caused by financial circumstances, family obligations, time constraints, lack of knowledge, lack of skill, age restrictions, height restrictions, and so on.

The thing is, limitations should never be viewed as stop signs. On the contrary, they allow us to confidently move in directions that work with our natural talents, abilities and lifestyles. Limitations allow us to see how we can improve ourselves.

So acknowledge your limitations. (It’s okay!) And if you can’t beat ‘em, be confident and wise enough to work around ‘em.

2) You didn’t anticipate the potential problems along the way – or the residuals of success.
As I write this article the jackpot for the New York state lottery is at $115 million dollars. Manhattan office workers file into the deli’s during their lunch hour to stand on those lottery lines, and fantasize amongst each other about winning.

From the middle class viewpoint, a big lottery win looks absolutely delicious. But Dr. Steven J. Danish, professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, paints a very different picture.

According to “Windfall not always a blessing, psychologists say,”
“Danish has counseled lottery winners for more than 12 years, and almost all his patients have had serious problems after collecting their winnings. After the initial shock passes, a sense of guilt often arrives, along with the hoards of people asking for money. Giving or leaving money to family — including mysterious, long-lost relatives — is often the biggest source of stress, he said.”

But this phenomena isn’t limited to lottery winners. It happens to entrepreneurs as well.

Yes, your eyes always have to be peeled for the potholes in the road. But you must also consider the problems that come with extreme success.

For example, will you have enough inventory if a positive review of your product generates a flood of 10,000 orders? How will you manage your time fulfilling orders? Do you have a babysitter lined up for business emergencies?

Don’t focus on failure. Do create a mindset of preparedness.

3) You focus a lot of energy on past mistakes, instead of learning from them and moving on.
A very dear friend whom I’ve known for 15 years has been wanting to start his own business for as long as I’ve known him. Early in our friendship he and his sister-in-law decided to do some kind of venture together. The venture flopped. He lost $4K, while she lost almost nothing.

Over a decade later, he still talks about how much he wants to go into business for himself. But the memory of losing that $4K re-plays itself over and over in his mind. It’s the reason why he commutes to a government job every day, instead of taking the plunge and starting his own business.

Sadly enough, he rationalizes his inability to move forward by saying that he’d rather be 100% sure that he’s doing the right thing, instead of going in with a half-baked idea.

My outlook as a seasoned entrepreneur is a little different. Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. The best-laid plans can be thwarted in the blink of an eye. The best you can do is learn from the past (not LIVE in the past) and move on.

Whether you have a new small business or have been operating for years, networking with other businesses and business owners is a key to success.  Some business professionals call it strategic networking while others call it social networking, either way, networking with other business owners is a sure way to climb the professional ladder in any industry.

Networking with other businesses and business owners is a wise decision for several reasons.  First and foremost, it is usually a free way to market and advertise your business and services.  Secondly, networking with other business owners can allow you to maximize your resources.  Additionally, not only can strategic networking among other business owners help you market yourself and your business but to find potential business partners.

Everyone knows that word of mouth advertising is the best kind.  It is free, fast, and reliable.  Usually word of mouth advertising comes from happy customers wanting to share their good experience.  Well, when you network with other business owners about your business, they will have the chance to meet you and get to know all about your business services.  Whether or not that particular person is interested in your services, he or she may know someone who is.  Networking allows you to get the word out about your business for free.

When you network with other business owners you are also opening up the possibility of maximizing or increasing your resources.  This does not necessarily have to refer to monetary resources and clients but can include new vendors and contractors as well.  For example, as you network and discuss your business services, you may find yourself talking to the manager of a business that can complement your product line.  Networking can prove to be a truly rewarding endeavor resulting in many symbiotic professional relationships.

Strategic networking allows for business owners to meet their direct competitors face to face in many cases.  Additionally, networking allows for business owners to meet other business owners who are in the same field, but may not be direct competitors.  This allows direct competitors to get an edge on each other and keep business fresh.  Competition is key to strong businesses  it keeps the creative juices flowing for the best products and services possible.  Furthermore, networking allows for business owners who are in the same industry but not directly competing to meet and possibly engage in new partnerships.

Strategic networking among business owners is one of the most effective ways to build a successful business.  Many business owners continue to network even after their initial start-up years.  Continued networking throughout all stages of business allows for new professional relationships and opens the doors of possibility of new clients, new resources, and new partners.