Ad Tracking & Web Promotion Simplified
by Ed Duvall

For most website owners who are online for the purpose of selling or promoting a product that will generate income for them it's a complex task to track and analyze their advertising efforts. But it really doesn't have to be if you're astute enough to put a few simple tracking devices in place.

If you've got the money you could invest in the latest high tech software program or service that can help you track your ads, compile information and provide you with results to make future ad placement decisions.

However if you're on a limited budget you may want to opt for a method that doesn't cost you anything. Here's a simple way for anyone, novice or experienced, to keep track of their web promotion activities.

The old acronym KISS - Keep It Somewhat Simple - applies to this little system.

Your first step is to code each advertisement you place so you will know what advertisement is drawing responses and how effective they are in doing what you want them to do. The simplest way to do this is by adding a 1-6 digit code to the end of the URL you're using in your individual ads. Now, in order for this to work you must have your own domain name.

The simple tracking code in no way effects your URL or keeps visitors from getting to your website.

What about those affiliate program you're promoting?

You can set up a simple database to track those or
any URL's you're promoting. Here's a sample of the fields to use:

URL
Placed With  (Ezine, Classified site, newsgroup, etc )
Date Ran
Duration  ( One time ad, weekly, daily )
Results   ( This could be visitors, sales, subscribers, etc )
Cost       ( Paid, free, swap )
Tracking Code ( 1-6 digits)

Of course their are many variations on how you can set up a data base and you should certainly look at what suits your needs the best.

If you're doing a lot of ezine ad swaps and need an automated way to track your ad you can always pick up one of the Free ad tracking software programs available on the internet. There are a couple of good ones available with various features that can help your ad tracking efforts.

Or you can subscribe to one of the ad tracking services on the net. You'll pay anywhere from about $4 to $50 bucks a month for their service. If you have a high volumne of ads and you're making money regularly with them this could be something to consider.

Experience and volume can be a key factors in how you track your efforts. If you're new to advertising on the internet, I would simply start out with one advertisement a day until you got a feel for how to code your ad, send it out and record your results in your database.

The actual web promotion is simple, right? Well it is if you listened to all of the hype on the net. Some promoters would have you believe that you're going to get all the advertising you need to do...completed in 10 minutes a day. Marketing and promotion, internet or otherwise, is going to take up most of your time. Advertising resources are scattered all over the internet. They come and go faster than Darryl Waltrip around a NASCAR racetrack.

There are good sources out there but you have to be diligent. We've been on the web since 1997 and have compiled resources that we know are proven and up-to-date. You can get a look at them by going to www.cashway.com/tornado.htm

So now you're going to organize your advertising efforts, develop a code system to track your ads and record your results in a database. Following this basic  approach should give you a realistic picture of how well your advertising is working for you. From there you need to analyze and adjust what you're doing to achieve better results.

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Ed Duvall is webmaster for http://www.cashway.com  providing more articles, tactics and strategies to help you with your internet marketing efforts. Reprint this article as long as resource box is not changed. Copyright 2008 cashway.com