| I'm a busy guy. I own several traditional brick and | | | | about Commission Junction as well. I always watch for |
| mortar businesses, and I spend a lot of time online. | | | | posts that climb up the line fast, and I always take note |
| Since last month I've been spending a lot of time | | | | of them to brainstorm another entry that my visitors |
| working on this blog and re-orienting myself on the | | | | might like.I get some search engine traffic but not |
| Net.So every morning I let my four dogs out, grab a | | | | much, so I glance at the keywords. Judging by some |
| cup of coffee and toast a bagel, then run upstairs and | | | | of the keywords that appear there, this section isn't |
| get on my computer. Some days I need to be out of | | | | very accurate.Still there? Okay...listen up. Here's where |
| the house at 9:00 AM to get somewhere, and some | | | | you can really multiply your traffic, find some |
| days I have nothing but time. Either way there are | | | | compatriots to work with and get some terrific insights |
| three things I do every morning after looking over my | | | | into the minds of your visitors. Move down to the |
| emails. First I go and post an article to five different | | | | section that shows the external web sites that people |
| article sites. This ensures that a steady stream of new | | | | are coming from. Understand...this is where your visitors |
| one-way links to this website is being produced.Then I | | | | saw something about you and clicked on it.Go through |
| go to my RSS reader and poke around for a while on | | | | this entire list. I look for blog sites, web sites, social |
| the forums and blogs to see what is going on. I keep a | | | | bookmarking sites (like del.icio.us) and forums that have |
| notebook next to my computer and write down | | | | not appeared before or have moved up fast. I click on |
| anything that I think I can use later. Then I get to the | | | | the link and see where it leads. Then I see the context |
| most interesting and important part of the morning - I | | | | in which my website appears.Just as I do for people |
| go to my awstats page.Awstats is a basic site log | | | | who trackback my blog (refer to it in their blog), I follow |
| analysis program that comes with most host accounts. | | | | each link, get an email address and send off a quick |
| I've always wondered how accurate the hit counts | | | | email to the person thanking them for taking the time |
| and other numbers really are, but that doesn't matter | | | | to mention my site. Nothing fancy - just a quick thanks |
| because I'm not looking for counts...I'm looking for | | | | is fine.The responses I get back are terrific. I would say |
| trends.Reviewing and understanding your site traffic | | | | that a large majority of them (80% probably) are |
| logs can help you make more money by tailoring your | | | | responded to with amazement that I would take the |
| site to meet the needs of your visitors.The first place I | | | | time to acknowledge their actions. But why wouldn't I? |
| stop is my average page counts by day of week. I've | | | | If someone takes the time to recommend you the |
| noticed on AffiliateBlog that the traffic starts off strong | | | | least you can do is acknowledge that recommendation |
| on Monday, builds through Wednesday, then starts to | | | | and be grateful for it.I love the site list because I find |
| trail off. There's a small spike Saturday morning, but it's | | | | out some really interesting things. For example, my |
| a classic bell curve otherwise. What does this mean? It | | | | trackback to Google's blog when they bought Writely |
| means that if I have something that I think is going to | | | | was actually listed on the Google blog page and |
| be well received I try to publish it on Sunday and get | | | | brought me some traffic. And I was on the front page |
| my pinging done for Monday. I've also noticed that my | | | | of del.icio.us for a little while...long enough to get some |
| RSS Feed subscribership follows the same pattern. | | | | hits that way too. It's really interesting, and it's really fun |
| This all makes sense, because people start off the | | | | to go through. Sigh...I am a dork.One last observation...I |
| week strong and end it tired - including me.I breeze by | | | | noticed that my bookmark percentage is over 200%, |
| the countries and note the flags because I think it's | | | | meaning that I'm getting more return visitors than new |
| cool. Next I stop at the section that shows the robots | | | | visitors. I'm sure I can cure that by PPC advertising, but |
| visiting the site. I make sure all of them have been | | | | I'm waiting until my site is redesigned.My RSS feed list |
| there recently (especially Google), and I make a note if | | | | at Feedburner hovers at about the same range |
| it looks like something is not right. I recently realized that | | | | throughout the month, meaning that more people |
| one of the minor robots had never visited, so I went to | | | | bookmark the site than sign up for RSS feeds. I've |
| the site and submitted a listing. If you're curious about all | | | | pondered this all month, and I've decided that a large |
| the robots out there, go to and take a look. Make sure | | | | majority of my visitors don't use RSS regularly. That's |
| the major robots on the list have visited your site in the | | | | why the new crimson box at the top of this page has |
| last month. If not, you need to get them there. I've | | | | appeared today. I put together an email version of my |
| noticed that MSN, Yahoo and Google (in that order) | | | | RSS feed in digest form that I'm going to make |
| visit my site the most. You need regular robot visits to | | | | available weekly.So there's a ton of information out |
| ensure your latest content is indexed and available to | | | | there in that log file - you just need to go over it |
| prospective visitors.Now we get to the fun part - the | | | | carefully and think.Matt DeAngelis runs - Affiliate |
| list of the most-viewed pages. This tells you which | | | | Marketing and Internet Marketing Insights. Matt is the |
| content people are most interested in, and which | | | | former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet |
| content isn't really making the grade. The most popular | | | | ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, |
| post on AffiliateBlog has been The Ten Top Paying | | | | Matt devised the technology behind many of the most |
| Programs at Commission Junction This Week. Oddly | | | | successful ad campaigns of the time.AffiliateBlog is his |
| enough, a similar post about Shareasale is much | | | | latest venture, and was started as a resource to help |
| farther down the list, meaning that people want to hear | | | | site owners and bloggers get more revenue from their |
| about top paying programs, but they want to hear | | | | sites. |