How to Effectively Track Your eHow Articles

Tired of wondering how well your eHow articles are doing? Wish you knew which ones were more popular? Find yourself wondering if that one article was worth the time you took to write it? Use this tool to help you know what works and what doesn't.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A Spreadsheet Program
• An eHow Account
• A Few Minutes A Day

1. An image of the spreadsheet you will see many time throughout this article... For the sake of use I am using Microsoft Excel for this example:
   Start by opening Excel and rename the first 2 tabs at the bottom of the screen. Do so by right-clicking the tab and selecting rename. Delete the third tab by right-clicking and selecting the delete option. See the example image for an idea of how to name the tabs.
2. Create 7 column headers that match what you are trying to track. In this example I chose to track on the article name, date created, money earned (for WCP members), number of views, earnings per view, article category and article age. The article name is a short version of the original title. Tracking total earnings AND earnings per view allows me to see how valid an article is. Use the spreadsheet formulas to divide total earnings by number of views in order to find the "earnings per view" value. In my example above Cell E2 =C2/D2.
3. Create an 8th column labeled "Todays Date". In one of the cells insert the formula =TODAY(). This will take the system date from your CPU clock. Note the cell this date appears in and write it down somewhere. In my example it is cell H2. Right-click on the "H" on the column header and select "Hide". As you create the spreadsheet initially you will have to manually add the formula for "age" for each article, but it will only have to be done once each time you write a new article. In your "age" column, like my example, use =H2-b2. H2 will always remain static while b2 will change as you move down the spreadsheet.
4. Create sum formulas for all of columns C, D, and E. These numbers should match up with the numbers reported by eHow in your profile summary.
5. Click on your second tab and create 6 column headers. the first is for each day of the months and the rest fit for totals views, daily view increase, total MONTHLY earnings, daily earnings increase, and cents per view. This will keep you informed of your daily progress. You can save this under a different name each month and copy it's format for the new month.
6. Add your information daily from eHow. You will need to do an autofill on columns C and F every time you update this tab. Just highlight yesterdays field and drag it to todays field from the lower right-hand corner to make the formula move properly. At the bottom of column E create a sum formula for every day of the column so that you can see a running total of your earnings. I also insert total pay-pal paid and do an "owed" field, just for the heck of it.
7. Use the formula and help tool to help you find the right fit for what you are looking for. Then you can use the spreadsheet to know what article types will earn you the most, fastest, or most consistent money. This should help you zone in on what articles will be your leaders, earners, and generators. While this may sound a bit confusing you should get a feel for what works best for you from this article.

Tips & Warnings

• This is only my tool that I use. Hopefully you will get a grasp of this process that works well for you.
• I have yet to find a usefulness for the rating system in this spreadsheet.