We all know metrics are important. You need to know which ad is pulling sales, which emails are getting clicks and so on. But sadly, many people I talk to still don’t track their efforts. When they finally need to come up with some data to make decisions, woo an affiliate or show results, they don’t have it.
I have a feeling it is because people feel intimidated. ‘Tracking’ sounds so complicated and so technical they are afraid it will take so much time technical know how so they don’t do it. I’m here to tell you, it can be as easy as sending an email. This is particularly true if you use a system like WordPress to manage your website.
We use Pretty Link Pro. It is a plugin that can automatically create ‘short’ links for all your posts. But you can also create short links for anything. Including links you want to include in your emails. Because these shortened links are redirects, you can also track them and the plugin has statistics for you to review. Using it is easy. Paste your destination URL and hit create link. You’ll get a new URL that you distribute. Any traffic going through that is tracked.
If you don’t use WordPress, you can also use third party services like Linktrackr.
But my point is this. Track everything and track it now. This is a hard lesson I learned. Tracking or any type of data collection is time based. Which means, the information it gives you gets better or more accurate with time. The earlier you start, the better it is for you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not. Every email you send out, every link to a product or affiliate recommendation or anything that is important to you – use a tracking link. You may not know what you want to use it for just create a tracking link and pass all your traffic through that link. What is important is, you are collecting data.
When we started tracking, we did just that. We weren’t sure how we were going to use that data or even use it at all. But you know what? When we needed it, it was right there waiting for us. Some links, we didn’t even look at until 2 years later and by then, the data was much more reliable and the fact that we have a history to compare with, was priceless.
Yes, eventually you will learn to track things in finer detail and have specific trackers for more definite things. However, in general – there’s no better time to start than now.
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Very detailed explanation, its really really helpful, thanks a lot for sharing it with us!
You’re welcome
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Hi there,
Lol, it looks like you’re subject to spam attacks. ‘It’s truly straightforward on the eyes’ lol.
Hmm. Fair points. I’m in the unfortunate position that I can’t track conversions on my site, since people must call us to make a transaction. It means the best I can do is strive to increase the time on site and lower the bounce rate, but it lends an unpleasant degree of uncertainty to things.
Thanks for posting!
Pete @ Pure FX
I occasionally let one go thru that gives me a chuckle when I am moderating the posts.Unfortunately we receive enough spam that I have considered closing the comments. Best one I have found so far is” you make my mind race at the speed of dark.”
While this issue can be very vexed for most people, my thought is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you’ve added pertinent and sound commentary here though. Thank you!
With all the doggone snow we have gotten recently I am stuck indoors, fortunately there is the internet, thanks for giving me something to do. 🙂
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