The Internet Home Business Magazine for Moms & Dads

Increase Your Blog Revenue with Analytics :: Part I

 

This is the first of two posts on an introduction to increasing your blog revenue by using web analytics

Thank you, Stumblers!When I used to manage the affiliate marketing program for Socrates.com , I was obsessed with using Omniture to track our web stats. I could literally sit there for hours pulling reports… analyzing page views, click paths, and behavioral patterns.

Lest you think I’m some crazy web geek (well… maybe I am…), let me share some reasons as to why you should care about web stats.

Analyzing your statistical data will allow you to:

  • Increase your page views
  • Increase your referrer traffic
  • Increase your SEO traffic
  • Command a higher advertising rate
  • Attract more advertisers
  • Listen to your readers who don’t comment

Although understanding data can be confusing and frustrating, it also offers a glimpse into the minds of your blog readers, which will allow you to serve up more of what they love.

At the same time, different programs track your traffic differently. Programs that analyze raw server logs, such as AWStats or WordPress’ BAStats (download) track everything, whereas Google Analytics gives a more accurate count of true reader activity.
I mentioned my biggest ‘Ah-ha’ on this a couple of weeks ago, when I saw that you all really loved it when I blogged about blogging. As I wrote more about blogging, traffic has soared.

The numbers spoke for themselves on this - according to my page views, my most popular category is ‘Blogging’ and my most popular individual posts are also about blogging. I write about a lot of things - personal development, working at home, coaching and empowerment. But when I weave these topics into a post about blogging, the numbers tell me this is what you love reading most.

But did you comment on this? Of course not. Your readers are the same way - they either speak to you in their comments and trackbacks, or they speak with their actions.

Looking at your web stats is the only way to “listen” to your readers actions.
Page views aren’t the only indicator of what your readers are interested in. MyBlogLog tracks outgoing clicks - something that my other programs don’t do. Your clicks tell me what you like most about the resources I bring to you. I can now focus my efforts on finding more of what you find valuable. Thus, I become a more trusted resource, and you come back for more (at least I hope you do… ;) ).

But what if you’re new and have no stats to play with?

You may not have a lot of web logs to go through, but all is not lost. Here’s some suggestions:

  • Find blogs on Technorati that use a lot of the same tags and categories that you do. See what blogs link to that blog, and you can start to paint a picture of your target market.
  • Pay attention to the ads these blogs run, the additional categories they have, frequently used keywords, and how they word their headlines. Use these as inspiration to write lots of posts.
  • Leave thoughtful comments and link to all of them - watch your referrer logs to see which blogs and which posts garner the most traffic
  • You now have stats to play with!

With regular reviews of page views and referrers, you can tailor your content to the interests of all of your readers - loyal fans and those just passing through.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how to maximize traffic and page views, leveraging this into dollars.

Share the Love... and the Traffic ;) These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • Netscape
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • Bumpzee
  • co.mments
add to sk*rt

If you liked this article, please...

Subscribe Via Email Subscribe Via RSS Add to Technorati

Or read these related articles...

  • Ian Lurie Posts Google Analytics Video Tutorials
  • The Best Blogging How To’s and Advice from Wendy Piersall
  • Increase Your Blog Revenue with Analytics :: Part II
  • Two More Google Analytics Tutorial Videos

  • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

    Discussion

    What do you think? Leave a comment. Alternatively, write a post on your own weblog; this blog accepts trackbacks [trackback url].
    This blog has removed the "nofollow" tags, so each comment counts as an inbound link to your site. Comment Policy

    Comments

    1.
    On February 15th, 2007 at 11:34 am, Affiliate Tips said:

    That is so true. Since I add Statcounter.com to some of my blogs I have been rather at how my readers end up on my blog. A lot of them actually find my sites through typing four letter queries.

    2.
    On February 15th, 2007 at 1:40 pm, Dan and Jennifer said:

    Hey Wendy,

    Here’s a wrap-up of the analytics tools we use - and what we use each one for. They all have their own distinct purpose…

    Yes, this may be overkill for most folks, but it’s a good way to see what the strenghts of each tool are:

    - Google Analytics (awesome tool for aggregate metrics, great for tracking reader activity, traffic sources, traffic conversions, etc),
    - StatCounter (best for real-time daily stats checking - ideally we don’t do too much of that),
    - MyBlogLog (shows you which of your own links were clicked and how often - very powerful),
    - and as of recently www.103bees.com (good representation of keywords, phrases, and questions leading people to your site)

    Have an awesome day!
    Dan

    3.
    On February 16th, 2007 at 1:04 am, Randy said:

    I have Google Anyalytics set up on my main site MyMomsHouse and it has provided great information for how people both find my site and interact with it. I have thought about adding my blog as well but haven’t for whatever reason. After reading this I will add it tonight and check out the other sites that can provide valuable information

    Mentions on other sites...

    1. eMoms at Home » Blog Archive » Increase Your Blog Revenue with Analytics :: Part II on February 16th, 2007 at 9:44 am

    Leave a Reply

    If you liked this article, take more To Go...

     

    Subscribe to Daily Posts Via Email
    Sign Up for the Weekly Email Newsletter
    I'll never sell or rent your info. Period.
     
    Subscribe Via an RSS Reader