Hightide Web Resources Articles, News, and Reviews

by Jim Edwards

Every serious online business owner eats, sleeps and breaths targeted traffic to their website. They spend the most money and time trying to attract first-time visitors to their sites in hopes of generating new sales and subscribers. But, believe it or not, it’s easier to increase your income by simply selling more of the visitors you already get than trying to chase down more traffic.

The solution? Tracking & testing! Probably the most overlooked and underutilized, but certainly the most powerful strategy for increasing sales and opt-in subscriptions. If you spend any time or money on advertising, you must start testing and tracking. Simply put, “tracking” means you measure the effectiveness of each individual advertising source you use to promote your business.

For example, if you advertise in email newsletters, you should know how effective each newsletter ad rates compared to all the others in terms of sales and subscribers generated. This enables you to know whether an ad makes or loses money. Testing means you constantly look for ways to improve your ads in small, incremental amounts that add up over time.

The most common (and effective) tests you can run are A-B split tests, which pit two variables against each other to determine which converts more lookers into buyers. Split testing headlines, price points, and guarantee periods make, from my experience, the best places to start testing.

The reason testing and tracking can double your profits (or more) lies in the power of small, incremental improvements. Lets say, for example, you decide to do a series of split tests on a website that currently converts 1 in every 100 visitors (1% conversion). You test, headline, price, guarantee and a payment plan. If each of the 4 tests yields a .25% increase in conversion, you would not see an increase in sales to 2% (4x.25%), but actually an increase to almost 2.5% since each improvement builds on the last!

The most basic tool in testing and tracking revolves around the use of advertising link tracker software. These tools measure the number of clicks on individual advertisements (text links, banners, pay-per-click ads, etc) and then measure sales or subscriptions generated as a result.

You get two choices with link trackers: a hosted service or software you install on your own server. A hosted service offers the advantage of easy setup and use. Most of the time you just sign up for the service, enter the link you want to track, get your tracking code, and you’re off to the races.

The disadvantage of a hosted service is that, if it gets abused, using the URL of the service in your links can get your emails blocked or your pages banned by search engines. The advantage of hosting the software on your own server is that you maintain a higher degree of technical control and can avoid the banning issues. The main disadvantage of hosting it yourself involves the fact that you really don’t have anyone to call for help if something goes wrong.

One of the most popular hosted link trackers online is HyperTracker.com, though I’ve not used the service. My favorite link tracker is actually part of an integrated e-commerce system at http://www.MysiteSales.com. This service enables you to track your sales and subscriptions made through the shopping cart.

Two options for software you install on your own server are Dynatracker.com and ProAnalyzer.com. Both provide decent link tracking, though no system I’ve tested provides 100% accurate results. But, with that said, failure to test means you’re leaving money on the table by wasting visitors you could otherwise convert to buyers with basic effort at improving your sales messages.

Copyright 2006 Jim Edwards

Check out this One-Stop Ads, Visitors, Clicks, Actions & Sales Conversion Tracking / Split Testing Solution at: http://GoTo-Pro.com/silver/716

About the Author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click how to get your own money-making videos posted online… “Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU To Painlessly Create, Post and PROFIT From Your Own Money-Making Online Videos… Without Being a Computer Geek or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!” => http://www.WebsiteVideoSecrets.com

by Lin Parker

Does your website promote a shop, or business premises where you sell your services or products? If so, I am sure that your customers would find it useful to see a location map. They may be more likely to visit you if they can see at a glance where you are and also get directions whilst on the same web page! I can tell you now, this can be done very quickly and easily, and is totally free!

Many people when looking for directions will just get out an A-Z map, or go to a routefinder website. But did you know that Google have a great map system, and I find it very quick and easy to use. Google Maps can be used by potential customers to search for a business in a specific geographical location. You can add your own business to the listings, so that it would appear in search results, although you don’t need to do this to add a link to a Google Map showing your business location. Google say that their maps cover the following regions:

Andorra, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Istanbul, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Moscow, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and US.

Once you are in Google Maps, follow these instructions to link to a location map from your website:

1. Enter your post/zip code in the search box.

2. Click search and wait for your map to appear.

3. On the top right-hand corner of the page, right-click on “Link to this page”.

4. select “Copy shortcut” or you can just copy the URL from your browser’s address bar.

5. Then to add the link on your own website, type a suitable description, such as “Visit our Shop”. Add a hyperlink and paste the url by right-clicking and selecting “Paste”. If you have a photo of your premises on your website, you could also add the hyperlink to the picture.

If you wish to add a business listing to Google Maps, so that you may be found in the Google Maps search results, this is quite easy:

1. On the Google Maps page, at the bottom left of the page, click on “Business Owners - Add/Edit Your Business”.

2. This takes you to the Local Business Center, and you will be asked to log in to your Google Account - if you use Google Adwords or Adsense, you can use the same email address and password.

3. Once logged in, under the “Locations” tab, click on “Add new business”.

4. Then enter your business name, and address. Make sure you enter the full postal address, as Google will send an activation PIN to the address you enter.

5. You can create separate listings for each of your business locations.

6. Click “Continue”

7. You then add your phone number, and have the option to add your email and website address, and a description of your business, which will appear on the listing found by your customers. You have 200 characters for the description, so use keywords relevant to your business.

8. You can then indicate which forms of payment your company accepts, such as American Express etc.

9. Enter your opening hours if you wish (optional).

10. Enter a contact name (this is optional and won’t appear on Google Maps).

11. Click “Continue”.

12. Select a relevant category for your listing - you may select up to 5 different categories.

13. You then see a preview of your listing and may edit it if you wish. Once you are happy with the listing, click “Continue”.

14. You now wait for up to 2 weeks for Google to send you an activation PIN. You then follow the instructions in the letter to validate your listing before it will appear in Google Maps search results.

Here is the link to get you started with Google Maps: http://www.maps.google.com

by Roger Cater

If you are like many webmasters today, particularly those who run some form of business online, you have probably thought at some point about the addition of web graphics to your site. Depending on your needs it is often easier to pay a professional designer to do this for you. However this article will focus on the best options available for those wishing to create their own web graphics.

Web graphics is a complex field, and the creation of good web graphics especially for a site that carries the responsibility of need to make money for its owner are usually only attempted by those reasonably proficient in web design.

In fact it is impossible to make a blanket statement as to which web graphics program is the best because how good a program is depends on the desired use of its owner and its ability to suit their needs. Having said that here are a few ideas of what I mean.

If you ask any good web designer you will usually find that they use Macromedia’s Fireworks to create their web graphics. Fireworks is the design equivalent to the popular dreamweaver and allows a user to create graphics from a blank slate with the use of drawing, adding filters, changing visual effects, using hundreds of graphical fonts and much more. Fireworks is basically the top of the range for web graphics creators and as such it is expensive and can be time consuming to use. Because of its extremely in depth nature it is generally though to have a slower learning curve than other programs and it can take time for a user to become proficient in its use. Having said that, anyone who is serious about developing high quality web graphics on a continual basis should be strongly considering the investment in Fireworks.

Another popular choice is Adobe’s Photoshop which enables the user to do many design elements from a blank slate and with photographs that use layers to build up excellent pieces of work. The built in compact system enabling web graphics a breeze and with excellent results. The program is at the higher end of the price market, but is still worth the price tag.

Taking a step down the ladder in web graphics programs we find ourselves at options like Graphical Studio by Xara. Graphical Studio has 4 main modes that between them comprise most of the possible intended tasks of webmasters doing web graphics work. The four areas are drawing and photo work, nav bars and menus, 3D text and graphics. For approximately one 7th of the price Xara’s program will have the beginner designer up and running in a shorter space of time creating most forms of graphics that could be desired in a simpler manner. Navigationally many users still prefer Fireworks to Graphical Studio but for ease of use and money saving, the latter will definitely do the trick at least until the need for higher levels of editing skills arise.

You will find that most of the web graphics programs available fall into one of the above categories: Full of features, excellent software but pricey and harder to learn, or less complex, easier to learn but with fewer features and a cheaper price.

It should be noted as well that ultimately the creation of great web graphics comes down to the experience of the individual and no program can replace the talent that comes from continual practice in the skills of web and web graphic design. Hopefully this information will allow you to enter the world of web graphics software with just a little more confidence.

Roger Cater is the author of this article and allows the article to be reproduced on the condition that the article is published in full including this message and bio below.

Roger Cater has been developing websites and graphics online for many years with excellent results and encourages the use of web graphics on websites and product sales. If you would like excellent custom designed services from Roger visit his website at: http://www.cheapcoverz.com.

About the Author:
Roger Cater has been designing and writing ebooks, ebook covers and digital information since 2003. http://www.cheapcoverz.com
http://www.unique-business-solutions.com