Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Getting To Know You: What Quantcast Can Tell You About Your Site's Traffic
For anyone who has a website, traffic is king. Whether you're an internet marketer, publisher or just simply a blogger, you probably consider traffic as a high value commodity in the internet. In fact, you're probably paying for it, just to make sure it flows in your direction. If learning about your site's traffic is on top of your priority list, you don’t have to pay for it anymore, especially now when Quantcast Internet Ratings is off and running.
What is Quantcast?
Quantcast is a company that offers open internet ratings services, the first of its kind. It is similar to Alexa, but has slightly different features, some of which you might find interesting and useful. Because it's an open service, it's free of cost so anyone can use it. With their Quantified Publisher Program, Quantcast can accurately give you the real figure that corresponds to the traffic activity of your site. It will also publish estimates, although they are still fine tuning this feature at the moment. This service is free, so you can kiss your third party traffic research company goodbye and save money.
Quantcast's goal is to help website owners or publishers to determine the size of their audience, monitor traffic activity and provide potential advertisers more accurate information about the number of traffic they receive. Advertisers are much more likely to get to know what kind of audience you have based on factual figures and not on estimates or online gossip. Quantcast is composed of experts in the web analytics field.
What Quantcast can tell you about your site's traffic
Unlike Alexa, Quantcast does not provide an indicator of your site's traffic through a simple toolbar. Quantcast actually lets you in on the who and what of your traffic. The service actually analyzes your traffic by using the actual data your site generates, based on certain check points. You can expect to learn about your traffic's demographics, as provided by advertisers, ad networks, ISPS and of course, publishers. It then comes up with an analysis of traffic rankings of millions of websites (20 million and counting).
Advertisers can then evaluate a site better using its demographics and traffic information. Quantcast can also provide information such as an estimate of unique visitors per month and a comparative traffic chart that provides an overview of the site's activities.
Another key feature that is unique to Quantcast is that it can also provide you a very useful breakdown of information about your site's visitors – their age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, etc. You can then check if you're attracting mainly males or females, youngish or older crowds, Caucasians or Asians, college educated or high school crowds. Quantcast can even inform you what websites, magazines, stores or television shows your audience is interested in.
Do you need Quantcast?
First of all, it's free, a refreshing change from all that costly traffic monitoring services we used to subscribe to in the past. Second, if you're the type of website owner who needs information about your traffic whether it's for business or just curiosity, Quantcast can help. You'll get a comprehensive report about your traffic. You don’t only know how many people there are who visit your site, you also get to know who they are based on certain demographics. If you need to know your audience to help you improve your site, tweak your features, provide relevant advertisements, create a stronger SEO plan or just simply want to satisfy your curiosity, Quantcast is a definite must-try.
Using Quantcast
Simply log on to Quantcast.com and click on 'My Sites'. Type your domain name and provide your site's javascript tag. If you have more than one site, simply include their tags as well. Once that's done, Quantcast will immediately begin monitoring and measuring your site's traffic. If you need some statistics, simply go back to the site and refer to the figures that will appear in your profile page.
So should Alexa's knees start knocking against each other? Quantcast is a relatively new service and as such, still needs a little improvement. In fact, some of its features are still limited. However, it provides some very useful services that are not available with Alexa and some other similar services. With Quantcast around, website owners have more reasons to shed the veil of anonymity surrounding their audience and hopefully, provide better content and services which in the end, will benefit us all.
At First Glance: Tips On How To Improve Your Landing Pages
Your landing page can do a lot for your promotional activity. If not, it will do nothing and will just be a complete drain in your wallet. Designing and improving a landing page should be an important part of your job as an internet marketer. Your landing page not only speaks for you, it also convinces your visitors that they should stick around, browse, click, subscribe or buy. Furthermore, the landing page is a good indicator of the success of your internet marketing campaign. Ready to make more money? Here are tips on how to improve your landing pages:
Determine your landing page's goal.
Of course, your main concern is conversion. However, before you can get there, there are certain elements that you need to take care of before anything else. Theoretically, there are hundreds of elements that may be included in your landing page. If you're not careful about choosing which, these elements might work against each other. To avoid confusion, make sure you list down what you want your landing page to do for you.
To do that, you must decide what actions you want your visitors to perform. Do you want your visitors to fill out forms or just give their e-mail addresses? Do you want them to buy something or just read what you have to say? Do you need them to subscribe or just want some of their personal details? If you know exactly what you want your visitors to do, you have an idea of what your landing page should look like.
Know your visitors.
No matter what type of product or service you're promoting, expect to have different types of visitors on your landing page. You'll get first time visitors, regular visitors who buy, regular visitors who browse but don’t buy, recipients of your e-mails and newsletters, paid search visitors, etc.
Use a strong landing page.
From the design to the content to the usability, your landing page should be of top quality. Why? Amateurish and badly designed landing pages are less likely to be trusted by visitors. Make sure your landing page is usable and easy for visitors to read. Graphics and pictures must load easily and when visitors click on a button, it should be able to deliver as promised. Spending too much on a landing page that will not give you a return on your investment within a reasonable period of time is a waste of money and effort.
Maximize the landing page above the virtual fold.
You and I both know it's a little bit frustrating to scroll down a page just to read content or find something. In fact, most of us don’t bother at all. That is why many websites try to place as many essential elements as possible on the area above the bottom of the screen.
Make sure your landing site tells the visitor that he is at the right page. If you want a visitor to sign up for your newsletter or download your e-book on organic gardening, for example, don’t display links of plasma tv deals just because you're an affiliate of another site. The visitor will think you're trying to trick them. Relevance of all the elements on the landing page is key to improving it and ultimately making it successful.
Remove unnecessary links, navigation bars and other distractions.
Your landing page has to contain nothing but the content and links essential to a conversion. Otherwise, you will be giving your visitors a reason to go somewhere else. Every button and link you provide that has nothing to do with the purpose of your landing page is just one more diversion that will cost you a good number of your potential customers.
Keep your landing page dedicated solely to selling or promoting a product, service or action. It's tempting to give in to your creative side and offer animations, links and other clickable areas but remember you want your visitors to focus on what your site offers. If you want them to fill out a form, encourage them to do so and don’t try to divide their attention by enticing them with something else.
Promote, promote, promote.
If you have other promotions or offers, they are often best displayed on your landing page. Any activity that promotes something on your site should be featured on the landing page, even if it can also be found on your home page. Promote them in such as way that they appear attractive and compelling, even if they just supplement your main product.
Test it!
Once you have decided how you want your landing page to behave and know what kind of standards you want it to meet, test your page. Ask for the assistance of a user group to see how well the landing page will perform. Take note of which element works and what doesn’t. Take note of how certain elements appeal to a certain group of people and how they behave toward a content or graphic.
Don’t be afraid about making adjustments. This is the best time to improve on your work. By first testing your landing page, you can try to iron out glitches and improve on bad design and style. You will also be able to prove whether or not your landing page has the potential to succeed.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Just one month of slow building on StumbleUpon
I have been slowing working on building my SU presence for about a month, and it has net me 14k+ in hits. This is where we need to be for now. Lets hope after my crawling and clawing my way through the index that this will continue to rise... And to think... Entrecard has been my traffic focus as of late, only to find that SU blows them away. Click on the image, and look at the top of the list!
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Hence the reason I have done very little today.
But I am officially 43 now.
For what that is worth.
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September Circle Surf
We are all looking for more than just the monkey traffic that lands and leaves aren't we?
Well here is a chance to spread around some surfing that is just not a hiya/goodbya...
Simply visit one or more of the websites here, then list yours for other folks to stop in at. Don't just blow in and blow out, take the time to click around internally at the website(s) you visit. Give the person you are visiting some good stats on their analytics, wander around a few posts, don't hit the back button, maybe even a comment there to let them know you were there. Remember, many times a comment is just another backlink!
You can blow in and out, then leave a link here just to be a greedy fool, but those leaving links, and visiting them will be sure to comment on your cheesy attempt, which will let others know to stay away.
Our job is to generate linkbacks, traffic, better search engine results, and an overall feeling of community that has been lost to the scammers of the internet. So take advantage of yet another resource here. 
1. Guy Vestal | 2. Tomas | 3. You're next! |
| Your name: | ||
| Your URL: |
And have you read about Mister Linky's new features?
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Monday, September 1, 2008
At First Glance: Tips On How To Improve Your Landing Pages
At First Glance: Tips On How To Improve Your Landing Pages
Your landing page can do a lot for your promotional activity. If not, it will do nothing and will just be a complete drain in your wallet. Designing and improving a landing page should be an important part of your job as an internet marketer. Your landing page not only speaks for you, it also convinces your visitors that they should stick around, browse, click, subscribe or buy. Furthermore, the landing page is a good indicator of the success of your internet marketing campaign. Ready to make more money? Here are tips on how to improve your landing pages:
Determine your landing page's goal.
Of course, your main concern is conversion. However, before you can get there, there are certain elements that you need to take care of before anything else. Theoretically, there are hundreds of elements that may be included in your landing page. If you're not careful about choosing which, these elements might work against each other. To avoid confusion, make sure you list down what you want your landing page to do for you.
To do that, you must decide what actions you want your visitors to perform. Do you want your visitors to fill out forms or just give their e-mail addresses? Do you want them to buy something or just read what you have to say? Do you need them to subscribe or just want some of their personal details? If you know exactly what you want your visitors to do, you have an idea of what your landing page should look like.
Know your visitors.
No matter what type of product or service you're promoting, expect to have different types of visitors on your landing page. You'll get first time visitors, regular visitors who buy, regular visitors who browse but don’t buy, recipients of your e-mails and newsletters, paid search visitors, etc.
Use a strong landing page.
From the design to the content to the usability, your landing page should be of top quality. Why? Amateurish and badly designed landing pages are less likely to be trusted by visitors. Make sure your landing page is usable and easy for visitors to read. Graphics and pictures must load easily and when visitors click on a button, it should be able to deliver as promised. Spending too much on a landing page that will not give you a return on your investment within a reasonable period of time is a waste of money and effort.
Maximize the landing page above the virtual fold.
You and I both know it's a little bit frustrating to scroll down a page just to read content or find something. In fact, most of us don’t bother at all. That is why many websites try to place as many essential elements as possible on the area above the bottom of the screen.
Make sure your landing site tells the visitor that he is at the right page. If you want a visitor to sign up for your newsletter or download your e-book on organic gardening, for example, don’t display links of plasma tv deals just because you're an affiliate of another site. The visitor will think you're trying to trick them. Relevance of all the elements on the landing page is key to improving it and ultimately making it successful.
Remove unnecessary links, navigation bars and other distractions.
Your landing page has to contain nothing but the content and links essential to a conversion. Otherwise, you will be giving your visitors a reason to go somewhere else. Every button and link you provide that has nothing to do with the purpose of your landing page is just one more diversion that will cost you a good number of your potential customers.
Keep your landing page dedicated solely to selling or promoting a product, service or action. It's tempting to give in to your creative side and offer animations, links and other clickable areas but remember you want your visitors to focus on what your site offers. If you want them to fill out a form, encourage them to do so and don’t try to divide their attention by enticing them with something else.
Promote, promote, promote.
If you have other promotions or offers, they are often best displayed on your landing page. Any activity that promotes something on your site should be featured on the landing page, even if it can also be found on your home page. Promote them in such as way that they appear attractive and compelling, even if they just supplement your main product.
Test it!
Once you have decided how you want your landing page to behave and know what kind of standards you want it to meet, test your page. Ask for the assistance of a user group to see how well the landing page will perform. Take note of which element works and what doesn’t. Take note of how certain elements appeal to a certain group of people and how they behave toward a content or graphic.
Don’t be afraid about making adjustments. This is the best time to improve on your work. By first testing your landing page, you can try to iron out glitches and improve on bad design and style. You will also be able to prove whether or not your landing page has the potential to succeed.
