Business Growth Strategies » Traffic

Metrics That Matter

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:06:29 +0000

Social media has the unfortunate side effect of making us focus on metrics that don’t matter.

Metrics like:

Follower count
Number of “Likes”
Number of retweets
Number of comments
Traffic volume in a specific time period

Of course, whatever you measure tends to improve (The Hawthorne Effect). So if you want more followers, then by all means… measure your follower count daily!

Here’s the problem…

All the metrics listed above are only loosely correlated with the metrics that really matter to a successful business. Metrics like:

Number of new opt-ins per day.
Cost to acquire a new client or customer.
Number of sales in a specific time period.
Total revenue in a specific time period.
Net profit in a specific time period.
Number of new products created and launched.
The conversion rate of your key landing pages.

And so forth.

Unfortunately, this second set of metrics gets far less attention because it requires that four-letter word called work.

Once you know your business’s “mission critical” numbers, you’ve got to give them the attention they deserve.

You’ve got to improve your sources of traffic… your advertising costs… your conversion mechanisms… your fulfillment processes… and a whole lot more.

It’s a never-ending process.

But it’s this second set of metrics that ALSO puts money in your bank account… and food on the table. You can’t afford to ignore these numbers.

Which metrics are you focusing on?

If you’re confusing social media metrics with business success — and you’ve neglected the metrics that really matter — don’t you think it’s time to get your priorities straight?

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. To track the profitability of your ads, I now recommend LinkTrackr.

LinkTrackr is a link cloaker and ad tracker that tells you which ads are producing results so you can eliminate advertising waste and invest only in ads that are working.Similar Posts:

Can I Promote Your Affiliate Program?

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:22:47 +0000

Question for you…

Can I promote your affiliate program?

If you own or manage an affiliate program, and:

You pay your affiliates on time
You never skim affiliate commissions
And you always honor your agreement with affiliates

…Then you qualify for inclusion in the Paid On Time Affiliate Program Directory.

I am actively driving traffic to the Paid On Time web site. I am actively promoting the affiliate program directory. And I will continue to actively promote the affiliate programs that are included in the directory.

And while traffic development is in its infant stages, I expect it will grow quickly. Here’s proof:

I currently have 4 web sites in 4 different markets that get more than 1,000 visits a month. Three of them get over 2,000 visits a month. Two of them get over 7,000 visits a month. And one gets more than 12,000 visits a month. (This last site is less than one year old.)

Once you are included in the Paid On Time affiliate program directory, you will benefit from the traffic I’m driving to the site.

Here’s My Slightly Crazy Offer…

For a limited time, you can sign up as a Paid On Time member for just $9.95 a month — 80% off the regular rate.

Want to save more? Get an annual membership for the almost-embarrassing price of $47 a year. That’s less than $4 a month — and 90% off the regular rate.

Why on earth would I do this?

Because to make PaidOnTime.net a big success, I need momentum. And to build that momentum, I need more affiliate programs featured in the directory.

I also need more members to display the Paid On Time trust seal on their affiliate sign-up pages.

Of course, to make all this happen, I’ve got to make you an irresistible offer.

That’s why, for just one payment of $47, I will promote your affiliate program in the directory for a full 12 months. I know this is a steal because one client pays me $75 a month for one text link on one of my sites.

For your annual payment of $47, you’ll get a complete directory listing with a link back to your site for a full 12 months. If you get just one new affiliate who refers sales to you, you’ve made your money back.

Now, if you’re on the fence about this, let me sweeten the deal even more…

Special Bonus for First 5 Annual Members

The first 5 people to sign up for an annual membership will get a special affiliate program write-up and will be featured on the Paid On Time Blog. This is in addition to your directory listing.

Very Important: This offer will be discontinued and the price will be raised as soon as I feel we’ve got enough momentum and there are a sufficient number of affiliate programs in the directory.

So if you’re interested, I strongly encourage you to sign up here now:

http://paidontime.net/sign-up

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If for some reason you don’t have an affiliate program, but would like to promote Paid On Time to your readers, you can sign up as an affiliate here.Similar Posts:

iTrackerPro to Offer Free Level of Service

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Last week, I shared with you a new statistics tracking service called iTrackerPro. I believe it’s an excellent alternative to Google Analytics, especially if you want to keep your traffic data private.

The reason I’m writing today is because I just learned that iTrackerPro will have a free level of service in addition to paid levels.

I haven’t seen how the different levels will look, but you’ll get basic tracking data for free and will have the option of paying a monthly fee for extra data that’s not available on the free plan.

Because of the changes, iTrackerPro will now be available to start using around March 1st, 2011. You can get on the iTrackerPro notification list here.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Are You Lifting Your Kilt for Google?

Ryan M. Healy — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:22:17 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Google for a long time. Here’s why:

1. They are better at search than any other search engine.

2. They have the best PPC advertising platform (Adwords).

3. And they offer all kinds of useful tools for free — Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Google Docs, Gmail, etc.

But even with all this, I’m not as enamored as I used to be. Two things have happened in the last year that have concerned me:

On a personal level: Google said I could no longer send PPC traffic to the page that promotes my copywriting services. I assume it was because of the testimonials or the form at the bottom, which they might have classified as “data collection.”

On a global level: Google has begun to penalize direct marketers and favor big brands.

They’re doing this because big brands will spend millions of dollars with Google for branding campaigns. In most cases, the advertisers won’t collect any prospect or customer data, so they will be forced to keep spending those millions with Google indefinitely.

Direct marketers, on the other hand, try to capture prospect information. They track their numbers. They know which sources of traffic convert and which ones don’t.

This is just good business, but Google doesn’t like it. Because this means the smart direct marketer will, at some point, no longer be dependent on Google.

But Google Wants You to Be Dependent!

One of the biggest advantages that Google has is instant access to all of your data. If you’re using Adwords and Analytics, and you’ve tied the two together, Google can see all the key metrics of your site.

They don’t need to lift your kilt to take a peek — because you’re lifting your kilt for them!

Obviously, the more data Google knows about your site, the more influence they have over you. They can slap you, throttle your organic traffic, whatever they want, whenever they want…

And There’s Almost Nothing You Can Do About It!

Check this out…

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that Google sends more organic traffic to my site on days I email my list than on days I don’t. This pattern is consistent.

I emailed my list on January 13 and January 17, 2011…

…and Google sent more organic traffic.

The Search Engine That Knew Too Much

Although I’m using a small sample, I can tell you this pattern holds true nearly 100% of the time.

When Google notices a general rise in traffic on my site, they assume there must be a reason for that. So Google increases organic traffic as well.

The next day, if I don’t email my list, organic search traffic is usually throttled back again.

To me, this is a clear case of Google knowing too much.

Is It Time to Leave Google in the Dark?

One thing I’ve been considering is switching my stats tracking to a different solution. By abandoning Google Analytics, I’ll remove some of Google’s power to see what’s happening on my web site, which may be a good thing.

That’s why I want to tell you about iTrackerPro, a new stats tracking service that does everything that Google Analytics does… and more.

Full Disclosure: I haven’t fully switched all my sites to iTrackerPro yet, but I’m running it on a new site to put it through the paces. I’m also an affiliate.

Here’s What I Like about iTrackerPro:

It keeps your private data private, out of the hands of Google.

It provides full stats tracking, including all the reports you’re accustomed to in Google, plus some (like hottest days of the week, hottest times of day, leads by geolocation, sales by geolocation, etc.).

Statistics are REAL-TIME. No long 2-4 hour delays. (You’ll be able to make changes faster based on what is — or isn’t — working.)

Conversion tracking and link tracking so you can measure effectiveness of various advertising sources, including PPC.

An easy A/B split-test module to improve conversion rates of key landing pages.

Heat maps of where visitors click on your page. (What page elements are getting the most attention? Which ones are hijacking sales?)

From what I can tell, iTrackerPro is about as complete a stats tracking service as any I’ve seen. (And it doesn’t crash my browser like ClickTale does.)

iTrackerPro is a new service. They plan to start accepting new subscriptions starting on Tuesday, March 1. In the mean time, if you’re interested, you can get on the priority notification list here:

>> Click here to learn more about iTrackerPro

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Always Test Your Action Sequences

Ryan M. Healy — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:13:47 +0000

Always test your opt-in forms, your contact forms, your order forms, your upsells. Anything that captures prospect or customer information should be tested before making it “go live.”

And if for some reason you suddenly stop receiving opt-ins or orders, the very first thing you should do is check to see if your action sequences are still working properly.

One week, a client of mine called me. The PPC campaign and landing page I had designed for him were no longer working. In fact, he said, there had not been a single lead for an entire month!

Immediately, I realized this wasn’t a problem with the PPC campaign or the landing page. It was a problem with the action sequence.

With my client still on the phone (and speculating why the campaign wasn’t working), I quietly went to the landing page and entered my information in the form that offered a free consultation and hit submit.

Can you guess what the problem was?

It wasn’t a broken form.
It wasn’t a bad script.
It wasn’t a missing piece of HTML.

It was simply that my client had canceled his Aweber account and had never updated the form code.

Even worse, my client had hired a company to manage his Adwords campaign… and they had NEVER tested the action sequence!

Talk about a careless mistake. Not to mention, super expensive, too! This particular client is in a market that often costs $5 a click or more. It’s not difficult for him to spend thousands on clicks each month.

I don’t know how much he lost before he called me, but I’m sure it was significant.

The bottom line: Never pay for advertising or traffic until you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that all of your action sequences are working smoothly and properly.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Multiple Redundancies in Business

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:44:28 +0000

I recently watched a show called MythBusters in which they tested the strength of duck tape through a variety of fascinating experiments.

One of these experiments involved taping a full-grown man (co-host Adam Savage) to a board and flipping the board upside down so he was suspended facing the floor.

Of course, to do the experiment, they used a lot of individual strips of tape, somewhere around 50-80 strips. As they suspended Adam, he said he wasn’t afraid at all (and that he was actually quite comfortable) because the “system” they had used to suspend him had so many redundancies built into it.

For Adam to fall to the floor would have required the failure of the majority of the strips of tape all at the exact same time, a situation that would have been nearly impossible.

This reminded me that multiple redundancies are not only important in situations requiring your safety, but also in business. The more redundancies you have built-in, the “safer” your business is from the unexpected.

For example, if you run an online business, the WORST you could do is have a one-page web site with a single source of traffic. Not only is your “model” easily copied, but it’s extremely vulnerable.

What happens if your single source of traffic dries up? What if your visitor doesn’t resonate with or respond to your one page of copy?

Here’s an example of a better system with multiple redundancies (click to expand in a new tab):

In this mind map, you’ll see there are multiple redundancies on both sides of the equation: many sources of traffic as well as many destinations for the traffic to go to.

By having multiple articles, there is more chance of a search engine indexing your content, and there is more chance of another site owner linking back to you. (The more articles, the better.)

And by having multiple sources of traffic, you’re not dependent on any one source to keep your online business going. Should you fall out of favor with one source (say, Google), then you still have many other sources still sending you traffic.

It doesn’t really matter if we’re talking about online business vs. off-line business, either. If you’re using direct mail, you could build multiple redundancies by having an online advertising strategy to compliment your direct mail efforts. Or you might even run classifieds or space ads.

Boeing, an aerospace and defense contractor, made a conscious decision decades ago to pursue a two-pronged business strategy. They developed a commercial side of their business for times of peace and a military side of their business for times of war. This was their broad overarching strategy in case of weakness in a particular market segment.

Ultimately, you can create multiple redundancies in many different ways. You just need to think strategically about your business and then take action to make those redundancies a reality.

What have you done in your business to create multiple redundancies? Leave a comment and share your ideas. Thanks!

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

Vote for Your Favorite Headline

Ryan M. Healy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:39:24 +0000

Right now, I’m toying around with a few different headlines for my Copywriting Code membership site.

In fact, my plan is to rewrite the headline and restructure the entire sales letter to be more persuasive.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to do something COMPLETELY different. Rather than do a split-test (since the site doesn’t get much traffic at this point), I thought I’d see what YOU think about the following headlines.

Please vote for your favorite headline or suggest one of your own.

Also, please keep in mind that Copywriting Code is a membership site that teaches both freelance copywriters and business owners how to write direct response copy.

Take Our Poll

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Do you have an idea that needs more explanation? I’d love to hear it. Just leave a comment below.Similar Posts:

Why I Allow Only 14 Days for Comments

Ryan M. Healy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:02:08 +0000

A few months ago, I quietly changed my blog comment settings to automatically close comments after 30 days. After this worked so well, I decided to reduce the “comment window” to only 14 days.

Here’s why I decided to do this.

Reason #1 – I’ve had quite a lot of work to do this year, and I don’t always have time to reply to comments. This is especially true for comments that are added to old posts. Once a post is more than a month old, the discussion has moved elsewhere and a new comment can be a hassle to deal with.

Reason #2 – In spite of sophisticated spam filters like Akismet, every blog is still susceptible to comment spam. What’s more, the older the post, the more spam it’s likely to attract. So by automatically closing comments in 14 days, I’ve literally eliminated my blog comment spam problem altogether.

Reason #3 – A 14-day comment window encourages people to comment now instead of later. Furthermore, those who decide to comment before the window closes are rewarded with a link back to their blog or web site. People who come along later do not get that privilege.

I know a number of bloggers who’ve decide to turn off comments altogether. While I’ve considered it, I actually like to get comments and respond to them.

So, for me, a 14-day comment policy is the perfect compromise. It allows me to keep comments open, but also: prevents old discussions from being reopened; eliminates blog comment spam; and encourages readers to comment before the 14 days is up.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. As of November 2010, I’m experimenting with a 90-day comment policy because my readers told me they wanted more than 14 days to comment.Similar Posts:

Simple Tips for Getting More Traffic

Ryan M. Healy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:50:37 +0000

Since I’ve been marketing on the Internet for more than six years now, both as an employee and a freelance copywriter, I’ve learned quite a few things about generating traffic.

In fact, TRAFFIC was one of the first subjects I ever dove head-first into — even before copywriting.

This is not to say I’m a traffic expert; far from it. But I have picked up a few simple tips for getting more traffic, starting today if you want.

Tip #1: Read blogs that are similar to yours. If you read a blog post, leave a relevant comment. Make sure you fill in the Comment form with your web site URL. Every time you do this, you are creating a small trickle of traffic back to your site. (Time Investment: ~2 minutes per comment.)

Tip #2: The faster you leave a comment after a blog post has been published, the better. In general, those who comment first get more traffic than those who comment last. If you are first to leave a comment on a new article on a popular blog… and the blog owner pings his list… you will then benefit from the spike in traffic to that particular blog post. (Time Investment: Zero additional minutes; just be alert.)

Tip #3: If you want to find “Do Follow” blogs so you get more “SEO credit” from your comments… or if you want to find blogs that use the “Comment Luv” plug-in for WordPress… go download Comment Kahuna and start using it. Comment Kahuna is a free software program. It finds blogs that meet your criteria and allows you to post comments very quickly. (Time Investment: ~10 minutes to download and install; ~15 minutes to learn how to use; ~10 minutes to use once a week.)

Tip #4: While you’re at it, if you really like the blog post that you just left a comment on, submit it to StumbleUpon. If the post proves to be popular with other Stumblers, you will get more traffic to your site than you would otherwise. (Time Investment: ~5 seconds per blog post Stumbled.)

Tip #5: Get an account at Gravatar and upload your mug. Since most people don’t use Gravatar and are “faceless” so to speak, you will automatically get more attention (and traffic!) anytime you leave a comment on a blog where Gravatars are displayed. (Time Investment: 5 minutes total, then you’re done.)

Tip #6: Every week, submit your best blog post to a Blog Carnival. If you’ve never done this before, create a free account, search for Carnivals related to the subject of the articles you write, and save them to your Favorites list. Once a week, go to your Favorites and submit your best blog post to one or more carnivals. (Time Investment: ~5 minutes per week.)

Tip #7: Get a free account at Twitter and start “tweeting” once or twice a day. Simply by having a profile, you will naturally attract followers. Example: I created my Twitter profile about two months ago and I now have 340 followers. Use www.TweetLater.com (free) to grab your blog’s RSS feed and automatically “tweet” every time you publish a new post. (Time Investment: ~10 minutes to create your profile; ~5 minutes a day to tweet once or twice.)

Tip #8: Last but not least, get a free account at My Blog Log. Literally thousands of blogs display the My Blog Log reader widget in their sidebar. (You can see mine in the right-hand column.) When you visit a blog that uses this widget, your picture will automatically be displayed at the top left of the list. Visitors to the blog can then click on your face to learn more about you and the blog(s) you write. (Time Investment: ~5 minutes to set up your profile; Extra Credit: ~5 minutes to install the widget on your own blog.)

All of these traffic tips are simple, fast, and easy to implement. Not to mention, they’re all FREE.

If you implement all of them, and you consistently do what I suggest every week, you will create a stream of predictable traffic that grows steadily with time… guaranteed.

-Ryan M. Healy

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