How to Determine What Advertising Works Best

You spent hundreds of dollars to advertise your products or services on the web, but a few months later you were disappointed with the outcome. Sure, you had a few hits, but you didn't reap the rewards you were hoping to achieve for the money invested. "What went wrong?" you asked yourself, scratching your head. Moreover, how do you prevent this catastrophe from happening again? Simple, by tracking your results. "But how do I do that," you wonder. Keep reading and I'll reveal my secret to advertising success; this will take time, but if you follow my advice step-by-step, then you should be much happier with your next results.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Money for advertising
• Access to your website's traffic stats (must show referring URLs)

1. Start with a fresh list of websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters related to the products or services you're marketing. Why a fresh list? It should be obvious: the last list of advertisers didn't produce the results you had hoped to achieve.
2. Figure up how much you can afford on advertising each month. You can change this figure as your income changes.
3. Revisit each of the websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters on your new list. Once there, look for their advertising rates and write the rate you're interested in purchasing next to their name. For example, if you're interested in buying a banner ad on a website and the cost is $100 per month, then write $100 per month for a banner ad next to that website's name.
4. Search for the statistics on that website. This information is usually on the same page as their advertising rates, but if it isn't, and you can't find it anywhere on their website, send a quick email requesting the information. If they really want to make a sale, they'll be happy to give you the information.
5. Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 for each website, blog, ezine and newsletter on your list.
6. Narrow your list down by circling only the websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters with the best statistics and cheapest rates.
7. Narrow your list down by circling only the websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters with the best statistics and cheapest rates.
8. Check into traffic stats for the website URL you just bought advertising for. Your web host may offer this service.
9. Use Microsoft Word or Excel to create a chart that includes the name of each website, blog, ezine and newsletter that you just purchased advertising from. Also, write the URL of that website, blog, ezine and newsletter under the name. For your second column, write the date that you bought your advertising from that website, blog, ezine and newsletter. Finally, your last column should be left blank (continue reading to find out why).
10. Login to view your traffic stats on the website URL you bought advertising for. Do this once a week; the stats you will want to view will be the referring URLs. As you're viewing the referring URLs, place a check mark in the last column on the chart you created. The check mark will represent the number of times someone visited your website from the URL you paid to advertise on. If you discover 10 visits from that URL, then place 10 check marks in the column.
11. At the end of the month, pull your chart back out. Looking at your chart, determine which websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters are sending you the most traffic by the numbers you've been recording. If you have any that hasn't sent traffic your way or sent little traffic, cancel your advertising with them and chose another website, blog, ezine or newsletter from your list. Repeat these steps once a month and you'll learn which websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters are worth your advertising dollars.

Tips & Warnings

• When you sign up for traffic stats, make sure you'll be able to track the referring URLs. Tracking the referring URLs will allow you to see the URL where you're traffic came from.
• Don't purchase advertising from every single website, blog, ezine and newsletter you circled. Instead, only purchase until you've reached your advertising budget and save the rest for later.