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Webmaster Tips Weekly * ISSN: 1526-2235
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***** Wednesday, April 26, 2000 *****

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=====================================================
IN THIS ISSUE
=====================================================

1. Dump That Free Hit Counter And Start Tracking by IMC
2. Webmaster Tips Weekly Award - First Issue Each Month
3. April Special(s) - 35% off Basic HTML Workbook
4. Tip - Do you want a JavaScript PopUp Window?
5. Webmaster Selections - Adding Stats to your Site
6. Featured Ezines - you'll have to see these
7. Subscriber Link - Fosters Home Page
8. Discreet Classifieds
9. Who We Are - Contact Information


=====================================================
Editor's Notes:
=====================================================

Hello Wonderful Subscribers!

Welcome to another issue of Webmaster Tips Weekly.

This week we look at counters versus statistical
tracking. Not sure what I am talking about? See
the great article below by Internet Marketing
Challenge.

Don't worry - I will still be continuing the Search
Engine Optimization Case Study, but I will be putting
the information into an ebook. When I am finished
I will let you know where you can get your free ebook.

I am excited about the issue that I am preparing for
next week. We will be looking at another option for
setting up your own affiliate program. It is not
completely free, but it is the most affordable option
that I have found and you definitely get a lot of
bang for the buck. If you want a "sneak peak," visit
http://SimpleAffiliate.com/s.cgi?index-2614. We will
be using this program to set up our affiliate program.

Til l8ter,

Deborah mailto:editor@...

P.S. Don't forget that this is the last week to get
35% off of the Basic Web Design Workbook. (See Special
below.)


=====================================================
1. "Dump That Free Hit Counter And Start Tracking"
by Internet Marketing Chronicles
=====================================================

It seems that every other web site we visit has some sort
of hit counter on the main page, supposedly telling us
how many people have been there before us. This week we're
going to address this popular trend, explain why you don't
need one, and what you should be doing instead.

Most Internet marketers will normally implement a hit
counter on their site for one or both of two reasons --
to give them a rough estimate of the number of visitors,
and/or to give visitors the impression that their site is
popular and thus worthy of a good look.

Let's consider the first reason. There is nothing wrong
with wanting to know how many people have visited your
web site, in fact it's something that you really do need
to know. But putting a visible hit counter on your home
page is not the answer, especially not one of those free
services.

For one thing, the free services require you to in some
way promote their site. For another, they are normally
slow and increase the time it takes for your pages to load.
But most importantly, a hit counter doesn't provide you
with all of the information you need.

Just look at any of the top web sites on the Internet.
We promise that you will not find a visible hit counter
on any of them! That alone should tell you that the
common hit counter is worthless. If a visible counter
was worthwhile, don't you think Yahoo or Infoseek would
have one?

You just can't win with a visible hit counter. If your
site does not get many visitors, all it's going to do
is make sure that the visitors you do get know that
they are not visiting a popular site. If anything, all
this will do is discourage them from exploring your web
site in detail.

On the other hand, maybe your site gets 50,000 visitors
a day and you think that letting people know this via
a hit counter is a good idea. Not really. If your web
site gets lots of traffic it is because you are doing
something right, and having a hit counter isn't going to
affect this.

Unfortunately, what normally happens is that the
misguided Internet marketer will set up a visible hit
counter on their home page and then artificially inflate
their visitor count. This is done in the hopes that it
will impress people, but it's a terribly bad idea and
does not work.

In the early days of the web it was "cool" to have a
hit counter on your home page, but they are so
commonplace these days that no one pays them any atten-
tion anyway. No matter what your reason for using a
visible hit counter, we say dump it and start tracking!


Tracking Visitors' Footsteps
-----------------------------

While Yahoo and Infoseek don't have visible counters on
their pages, rest assured that they know your every move.
No other advertising medium allows you to do the things
the Internet does, and it amazes us that more marketers
do not take advantage of serious site tracking.

Part of the problem seems to be that many Internet
marketers are only concerned with promoting their web
site and getting more people to visit. More visitors
equals more sales right? Well yes that is true, but only
if your web site leads visitors through the sales process.

Before you even begin promoting a web site, you should
have in your mind the path that you want visitors to
take through your site. Sales is a process. One step
leads to the next, until finally the end result is
hopefully that what was once just a prospect is now a
customer.

Tracking your visitor's footsteps throughout your web
site is the best way to determine why they didn't take
the action that you wanted them to take. Who knows,
maybe 80% of your visitors aren't even making it past
your introductory page? You'll never know unless you
track them.

Consider this another Internet marketing rule that is
written in stone. If you're not tracking your entire
web site and tweaking it on a regular basis, you're
throwing money down the proverbial drain. From a profit
standpoint, it is critical that you know the answers to
questions like:

1. How do visitors find your site in the first place?
2. How many of them make it past the main page?
3. Which page of your site is the most popular?
4. How long does the average visitor stick around?
5. What is the average number of pages viewed?
6. What path do visitors take through your site?
7. What links do they use to leave your site?

If you don't know the answers to these simple questions,
here's an easy way to increase your profits starting
immediately. And the good news is that it may not cost
you anything other than some time. We're going to show
you how to use free CGI scripts to ultimately increase
sales!

While you don't really need to learn anything technical
to use the scripts we're going to suggest, you do need
to be able to run CGI scripts on your web server. If you
have no idea what CGI scripts are, ask your ISP. If they
say no, we strongly suggest that you find a new ISP.

If you haven't realized it by now, we are a big fan of
CGI scripts because they are what allows you to add
interactivity to your web site. But CGI scripts can also
help you do many other things, like track your visitors'
footsteps. Let's see what we can get for free at
CGI-Resources ...

1. Go to http://www.cgi-resources.com
2. Click on "Programs and Scripts"
3. Click on "Perl"
4. Click on "Logging Accesses and Statistics"

You'll be presented with no less than 30 CGI script
packages which will help you gather valuable information
about your visitors, and believe it or not, most of them
are free! We looked at all of them, so we'll save you the
time and suggest the two we like best to help you
get started.

One of the first scripts we tried, and still one of our
favorites, is AXS by Fluid Dynamics. It's one of the first
scripts listed and you can't miss it. You can download it
for free, and with a minimal amount of effort you could be
tracking your entire web site within the next few hours.

The direct URL to the AXS script is
http://www.xav.com/scripts/axs -- rather than going into
detail about it here, we'll let you discover it for
yourself. It's a great system and the only thing we don't
like about it is that it creates it's own log files, and
they get huge if your site is busy.

The alternative is to use something like Darryl
Burgdorf's WebLog. The direct URL to this great script
is http://awsd.com/scripts/weblog -- and it does
everything AXS does, but it runs off of your existing
server logs which makes it easier to set up for most.
It's also more efficient.

Both AXS and WebLog will give you all of the information
you could ever want about your visitors, and both display
this information in a way that is easy for you to
interpret using graphs, etc. We encourage you to download
and set up one of these scripts to track your web site.


My Site Is Being Tracked, What Next?
-------------------------------------

The point of tracking your site is to act on the
information you gather and use it to improve
your web site's effectiveness. If you discover that
80% of your visitors aren't making it past the first
page, or that the average person leaves within 2 minutes,
you now have your work cut out for you.

The real value of tracking your visitor's footsteps is
that it will help you determine why they did not take
the action that you wanted them to take. Once you see
how most people navigate your web site, you can then
make changes until the path they take is the one you
want.

Spend some time implementing a good tracking system on
your site, because if you can increase your visitor-to-
sales ratio even just a few percentage points it will be
more than worth your time. Remember, it doesn't matter
how many hits you get if your site doesn't do its job.

<============================================
Originally published in IMC's Internet Marketing
Chronicles. Subscribe for FREE and we'll send you
Internet marketing tips, tricks, and strategies
every Wednesday. Just send a blank email to
mailto:subscribe@... or visit
http://www.marketingchallenge.com/ezine.html
Over 100,000 opt-in subscribers and counting!
============================================


=====================================================
2. Webmaster Tips Weekly Award
=====================================================

Look forward to the announcement of the Webmaster Tips
Weekly award in the first issue of each month.

Have you submitted your site to Webmaster Tips Weekly
yet?

The criteria used to determine award winners is grouped
into two categories:
° Content (including relevance, usefulness, etc.)
° Design (including ease of navigation, user-friendly,
etc.)

§§*** §§*** Keep those submissions coming... §§*** §§***
http://Webmaster-Tips-Weekly.com/awards


=====================================================
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° Understand Web Pages
° All About Hyperlinks
° What You Need to Design a Web Site
° How to Get on the Internet
° How a Host is Different From an ISP
° How to Select a Web Host
° The Truth About the Free Web Hosts
° How Much Hosting Space Do I Need?
° What are POP Email Accounts?
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° All Major Formatting Web Design Techniques
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Your Web Site Initially
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=====================================================
4. Tip - Do you want a JavaScript PopUp Window?
=====================================================

If you are in the mood to have a JavaScript PopUp
Window on one of your web pages, but do not have the
time, nor the desire to learn how to set it up
yourself, take a trip over to JavaScriptSource to
generate one. The generator is located at
http://javascript.internet.com/generators/popup-window.html

You've seen these "windows" all over the internet.
They pop up when least expected, telling you of some
great deal or great ezine or offer.

There uses can vary like the colors of the rainbow.
The general rule is that it is something that you
want your visitor to pay attention to.

My advice? Keep these two items in mind:

1. Some visitors will think this window is
offensive and annoying.

2. The best application of this PopUp
Window is to use it sparingly. For
example, use it to remind your visitor
that a sale is ending in 2 days. Then,
after 2 days remove it. You will have
more effect (and better response) the
next time you use this method.

========================================
Deborah Anderson, of AndersonCreations.com,
teaches web design and internet marketing in
addition to publishing Webmaster Tips Weekly.
mailto:subscribe@...
Free Content for your site or ezine at
http://webmaster-tips-weekly.com/webtips or
mailto:webtipsdigest-subscribe@egroups.com
========================================
Copyright 2000 by Anderson Creations.
All Rights Reserved


=====================================================
5. Webmaster Selections - Statistic Tracking Programs
=====================================================

You know, I was really excited when I found the
quality article (above) about statistic tracking. It
gave me the opportunity to tell you about the free
statistical program that we use. Then, when reading
the article I noticed that the writers at Internet
Marketing Challenge already promote the script. Well,
I will endorse the product anyway... :)

AXS by Fluid Dynamics
http://www.xav.com/scripts/axs
Great program - easy to work with (once it is
installed). Easy to add to your SSI-enabled web pages.

If you are not cgi-savvy, you may try a Remotely
Hosted Script. We found the following option. We
have not used it, but it looks to be worth a try.

Gumball Tracker
http://www.gumball-tracker.com/?uk
Why is it free? Because it is supported by the
banner advertising at the Gumball Tracker site.
You do not have to add any banner to your site.


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9. Who We Are
=====================================================

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ISSN: 1526-2235 - Library Of Congress, Washington D.C., USA
© Copyright 1999 by Anderson Creations * All Rights Reserved
http://www.andersoncreations.com

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