If you want to run a profitable website, understanding how to interpret and use web analytics is vital to your success. You can find out what you’re doing right, and duplicate it. You can also find out what you’re doing wrong and avoid it.

The problem is, getting started with web analytics, and more specifically, Google Analytics, is a cumbersome task. And trust me, I know. Right now I’m working to implement advanced analytics tracking into the DIYthemes.com website.

While doing research, I stumbled on three fantastic resources that will help you understand and use web analytics. So, I figured, why not share them?

Occam’s Razor

“Analytics is vitally important, and no one explains it more elegantly, more simply, or more powerfully than Avinash Kaushik.” – Seth Godin

If you haven’t read Avinash Kaushik’s blog, Occam’s Razor, you should. During my research, his blog has been, by far, one of the best resources for web analytics tips.

More specifically, here are two articles I found extremely helpful:

* 3 Advanced Web Analytics Visitor Segments
* Beginner’s Guide to Web Data Analysis

Also, if you’re interested in learning about web analytics, Avinash literally wrote the book on the subject. Find it here on Amazon (affiliate link).
Measuring Success

If you use Google Analytics like I do here, you’ll need more specific information on how to use Google Analytics to drive results. That’s where Brian Clifton’s blog, Measuring Success, comes in. Here are a couple awesome articles from his site:

* How to Track Social Media with Google Analytics
* How to Choose Between Advanced Segments and Filters in Google Analytics

If you’re interested, Brian Clifton wrote the book on Google Analytics. Find it here on Amazon (affiliate link).

VKI Studios

If you’re anything like me, you probably have limited knowledge of Google Analytics—meaning, you know how to check keywords, referring traffic, and top content. If you’re looking to become a Google Analytics power user, VKI studios created a great quick-start guide.

Thats it! Hope you found this enjoyable reading, see you soon & don’t forget…feel free to comment.

Keith

By reading this blog post I am assuming you are a fellow marketer like myself, trying to make a living selling goods or services in this massive superstore called ‘www.The Internet’.

Over the last few years I have learnt so much about the in’s and out’s of online marketing and made many many mistakes, both large and small but all important in attempting to be the best I can at what I do. To me the importance to being a success is not about getting in there first with the next big product launch and mailing the world, his wife & even his dog about it just to get a few bucks into your PayPal account. It’s the trust and respect I can achieve by giving customers what they want not what I want them to have.

Ok! this may slow down my aspirations of being a multi millionaire by the end of the month but hey, I’m in this for the long haul and I genuinely get a great feeling when I know my efforts are rewarded via ethical marketing and trust. I’ll never make a great salesman, I’m too honest for that, I’ve dealt with many sales reps here in the real world and although many are great at what they do there are as many who just want to get the money and run.

The main point of this post is to relay the importance of your customers in every aspect of your day to day running of your online empire..no matter how large or small. You will never achieve your goals without your best assets..Your customers, respect & honesty. Here are a few of things you should do in order to gain any decent level of success online.

If you selling goods or services online then you need customers to make money, It’s obvious. So it should be equally obvious that if you have a satisfied customer then that person will want to do business with you again and the odds are that the person will tell someone else how good you were to do business with.

However, if you treat a customer badly or without respect over one little conflict or request then that person will probably never do business with you again and you can bet that person will tell a few others how bad you are to do business with. Getting bad press is so much easier than achieving good press. So here’s  how to keep your customers…

Respect….
The place to start is to treat all of your customers like gold. Treat them well always! You should give them respect and your personal attention all of the time. There is no exception to this rule. These are the people who give you THEIR money, without them you would not make any money at all in marketing. Always remember this!

This part is crucial, there will be sometimes when you don’t feel like being nice. Some people are not nice or reasonable and border on being total jerks and there’s no doubt you’ll run into more than your fair share of people like this. This includes people who accuse you of cheating them, people who don’t seem to understand what you tell them and the worst kind (IMO) are the people who think you and the rest of the world owe them big time!
It’s your job to be the greatest business owner ever and do everything within reason to try to make every single person happy. However, if it gets to a point where you simply can’t continue helping someone because they are just impossible, then move on. It will happen BUT just make sure you are polite and respectful no matter what the customer does. Do not give them any ammunition to bring your reputation into dispute.

Over-Deliver….
It’s amazing how customer problems drop dramatically when you over-deliver to them. For example, you promise your customers a bonus gift if they buy a specific product. They buy the product and you give them three bonus gifts. That’s over-delivering.
Always do it. By doing this simple step you will be building unbelievable customer loyalty and you’ll also cut-down on most of your customer problems before they even happen.

Follow-Up….
Following-up with your customers is a great marketing move and a ‘must’ to retain customers, yet most people just don’t do it.
All it involves is a quick email and nothing more. A few days after someone buys something from you just send them a brief email thanking them for the sale, if everything is okay and if they have any questions for you.
Remind them that you are there for them and then say another thanks and end the email. Do not try to sell them anything else, not at this time. You can send another email a week later, but make sure you first send one email that’s just a “thank you”.

So those are the key tips to keeping your customer base. In short just remember these 3 things:

1…You need to always be nice to your customers
2… You should always over-deliver with all your products
3… Always follow-up on your sales.

If you do these three things, you’ll find that your customers will remain loyal and just as importantly, they will let others know just how good you really are. I aim to be around for many years and if I can gain a great reputation like many other marketers.. John Thornhill, Sharleen Raven, Adeel & Bobby to name just a few then I will be ecstatic.

Here ends the lesson

Here are ten things everyone should know about when creating web sites to help your conversion rates with your internet marketin. If you don’t do these simple things you are throwing away money. 

1. Formulate a plan
Before you build a Web site, consider the following:
• What is the purpose of the web site? Are you selling a product, advocating policy, educating readers or posting volunteer opportunities?
• Who is your audience?
• How do you plan to promote your site?
• What payment system do you plan to use?
• Who will design your site and for what cost?
• How often will you need your site updated?

2. Know your audience
Understanding your primary and secondary audience is important for any project you undertake. For example, an older audience may appreciate a Web site that has a larger font size. Studies show that children are more apt to click on a banner ad than an adult; find out who you are serving and tailor the page to meet their needs.

3. Design for multiple platforms, browsers and screen resolutions
Besides knowing the demographics of your users, knowing what type of computer they use is helpful as well. While the differences between the newer versions of Internet Explorer on the Mac and Windows platforms are few, older versions display Web pages very differently. For example, a resolution of 640×480 means that your monitor, whether 15″, 17″ or bigger, will display 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels long. The bigger the monitor (and often the better the video card), the larger resolution you can use. You should never force users scroll horizontally to view content, so designing your Web site for a screen resolution of 800×600 is a safe practice. Most new computers default to 1024×768 on a 17″ monitor; however, if you have an audience that is not especially high-tech, they may be viewing your page on a smaller monitor with a lower resolution.Older versions of browsers for testing purposes can be downloaded at: http://browsers.evolt.org/

4. Provide consistency in navigation
Users who cannot find items on your page will leave your site. Provide a consistent navigation structure with a link to your home page to allow predictability and ease of use. Also, do not be too clever in your site design. Unless you know your audience prefers abstract images and metaphors, keep it simple; use common names such as “about”, “contact”, and “help”. Also, when posting links for other sites make sure that they open in a new window, you don’t want to lose your visitor. The Web Developers Virtual Library has a good article on navigation, it is older but most of the information holds true: http://www.wdvl.com/Location/Navigation/101/
A site map is another important feature for a couple of reasons. One reason is the user will be able to find everything they need quickly and two the search engines spiders will find all your pages quicker which means it is one more way that you could get indexed quicker.

5. Write quality code
I know that coding is sometimes scary for a lot of beginners but, not all hypertext markup language (HTML) is created equally. What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Web design tools such as Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver produce different HTML code that may create unexpected results in some of the different browsers. Use an external HTML validator to verify your code so you know that your visitors will see your site the way you intended: http://validator.w3.org/

6. Create accessible web sites
Allow all users, including those with disabilities, access to your site by following consistent guidelines; ensuring that your documents have alt tags for images and scalable fonts is a good start towards making your pages more useable for everyone.

7. Effective use of fonts, images and colors
Graphics, colors and logos are all important to personalizing your page. However, misuse can drive away visitors. For example, a font you interpret as “fun” (e.g. Comic Sans) may be viewed as immature by a visitor. Basic human psychology is something you should consider when designing your site. Think of your targeted visitor, their wants and what will trigger the emotional response you want from them. Below are some quick tips to follow regarding these issues:
• Use a sans-serif font such as Verdana or Arial for displaying text, as these fonts are easier to read on a monitor. Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman and Georgia fonts look best on printed material
• Avoid use of italics; blocks of italicized text are difficult to read on a monitor
• Optimize any graphics; large images may take a long time to download for a visitor using a dial-up modem -use a thumbnail image instead
• Animated images are not cute. Pixilated, moving graphics were popular in 1996, but have lost much of their appeal on today’s Web sites for the common user
• Keep the font and style consistent by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
• Create a color palette and use it consistently; depending on the mood of your page. Refer to the Wheel of Color for basics and recommendations: 
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb263947.aspx

8. Writing and copy, just a couple of things to remember 
• Most important speak the language of your visitor
• Omit needless words; don’t ramble on too much (although a long sales letter does convert better than a short one)
• Define acronyms, if this is a first time visitor they may not know what you are talking about. Define the acronym the first time you use it, then you can use the acronym elsewhere on the site
• Check your spelling, one of the most common mistakes and yet the one that is easiest to fix

9. Promote your site
Ensure each page contains relevant keywords, a brief, accurate description in the head of your HTML document, is titled appropriately, and sponsoring or related organizations provide links to your site. The more links to your Web site from other pages results in a higher ranking on some search engines. I am not an SEO expert but do have some resources I will share with you at another time.

10. Verify and credit sources of information
Give credit where credit is due; plagiarizing copy, design or images without prior permission is unethical. Be sure to acknowledge and verify credibility of all sources. While it is not technically impossible to steal code, or articles off the Web, it does not lend credibility to your own organization.