4 Great Reasons to use Google Analytics

Strategies: Find, keep that niche
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Having used a large number of web site visitor trackers over the years, I first approached Google Analytics some time ago, with the somewhat jaded attitude of someone who's 'seen it all' or at least 'seen most of it'. What could possibly make this particular utility stand out in such a large crowd of competitors?

But first... What is Google Analytics?

Analytics is Google's very own visitor tracking utility, allowing webmasters to keep tabs on traffic to their site, including visitor numbers, traffic sources, visitor behaviour & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScript embedded in the source-code.

Unlike other free visitor trackers, which insist on displaying annoying and often amateurish badges or buttons when they are being used, Google Analytics simply runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence.

Which brings me quite neatly to Analytics' first major plus-point; the price. What webmasters are effectively getting, is a fully fledged visitor tracking utility without all the irritations and limitations normally associated with free products of this type.

Ok, so its free; but is it any good?

In a word; yes.

The sheer depth of information gathered, really leaves very little to be desired. From search engine analysis to page views, bounce-rates and more, the available data is presented so as to give users an easy overview of the most essential elements, with the ability to 'drill down' to less commonly accessed or more in-depth statistics and figures.

Additionally, on the 18th of July 2007, the Google Analytics old user interface was discontinued, making way for a newer, more ergonomic look which makes reports more accessible and the interface itself more intuitive for the user.

The new Dashboard provides 'at a glance' visitor statistics for the previous month, as well as a graphical breakdown of your visitor's geographical locations in the form of a world map. A pie chart clearly shows what proportion of visitors reached the site through search engines, by referral or through direct access, whereas the 'Content Overview' provides a list of the most commonly accessed pages.

What makes Google Analytics special though?

Although Analytics boasts all the features and statistical data to be expected from a top-class keyword analysis and statistics tracker, it also features a number of additional tools which put it ahead of the most of the pack where ease-of-use and depth-of-information is concerned.

1. The Map Overlay

Essentially, this feature brings up a map of the world, highlighting the countries a site's visitors stem from. Clicking on a country produces a close-up view, along with a geographical breakdown according to the region and/or city from which visitors accessed the site. This tool in itself is invaluable for all those webmasters with geo-specific sites, concentrating on a particular catchment area.

2. The Site Overlay

This is conceivably Google Analytics' single most important feature from a webmaster's or online business owner's perspective, as it provides a hands-on view of visitor behaviour. When clicked, 'Site Overlay' opens the tracked web site in a new window and, after a moment's loading time, overlays each link on the screen with a bar, containing information about clicks to the target page and goal values reached [more about goal values in a moment]. Since it allows the webmaster or site owner to navigate his or her site and see exactly how visitors flow through it, it is difficult to imagine a more effective tool than this as far as raising a site's conversion rates is concerned.

3. Goals and Funnels

Unless the site being tracked is an information site which does not rely on generating sales or enquiries, conversion rates are as important as sheer visitor numbers. The 'Goals & Funnels' feature allows users to set up specific goals for their site, such as tracking a visitor to the 'Thank you for your enquiry' page for instance. It also allows the user to set up specific monetary values for each goal, and thus track the site's financial performance and profitability during any given period of time.

The term 'Funnels' refers to the specific path a visitor takes to reach the goal's target page. Since most web sites sell a number of different product ranges or feature a number of ways to enquire, all of which lead to a single 'Thank You' page, the funnel allows for the tracking of each individual path with a minimum of fuss.

4. Graphical Representations

A great many visitor trackers out there will present the collected information in a certain way, be it a list, graph, pie chart, flow-chart or whatever. Whilst all these methods of presentation are of course valid, it is nevertheless a fact that most users are different, and a pie-chart is not necessarily ideal for those users preferring to work with graphs or vice versa. Google Analytics however, allows users to choose between views on many of its reports. Although this may seem like a relatively minor point, it nevertheless makes things easier, as it allows the user to work with the view he or she is most comfortable with.

In Conclusion:

Google Analytics provides webmasters and site owners with a highly effective means of tracking visitors and analysing statistical data, easily the equal of most subscription based services in the industry.

Although some concerns have been voiced amongst more paranoid internet users, that Google puts everyone's collective data to its own evil demographic uses, there really are precious few reasons not to recommend this fantastic tool as one of the best means to boost any web promotion and marketing campaign.

About the Author: As a technical writer with over a decade's experience, Sasch Mayer has been living and working in the Republic of Cyprus since 2005. Currently under contract to IceGiant Web Design and Promotion Services, he mainly covers topics such as SEM and Site Promotion.

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Are You Looking To Make Money Online

Home-business rules get tougher
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Working online can provide many freedoms. An online income can also be difficult to maintain. There are many different types of online incomes. The best way to figure out what is right for you is to find support online from others who are trying to make an online income.

Your reasons for trying to find an online income can be many different things. You may be wanting an extra source of income or just looking to leave the 9to5 world. There are benefits no matter your reason for trying online income. - You are your own boss. - You directly control how much you make. - You chose the type of job you want to do. - No commuting. - No special dress code. This list could go on and on. The benefits are what you make them.

The different types of income online range from easy programs to telecommuting positions that work much like a job outside the home. Residual income is where you sell a product through a website from another company. This involves very little work on your part and the income keeps coming without anything more on your part. As long as people are visiting your site and buying what you offer, you make money.

These types of programs also usually involve programs where you can sign up other people to sell and you make a cut of any income they make. The possibilities for income are huge if you chose a good company and advertise well. Another type of online income is a business opportunity. It is like residual income, but you have to continuously work to sell. You interact with your clients and can also sell offline.

These types of programs usually require an investment because you are essentially building your own business. These investments buy you your promotion materials and sample of products. Telecommuting jobs are online income where you work at home. These jobs are like a job you would have outside the home. You are given work by a company and expected to perform according to their guidelines. You have to put in time to make money. These are three examples of ways to make money online. New ideas are cropping up everyday, but beware of scams that may be lurking to take advantage of your time and money.

A scam is where you are tricked out of your time or money by someone posing an income opportunity. There are some ways to spot scams. You should be wary of anyone who asks for
payment for processing fees or other clerical fees. These are usually scams to steal your money.

The easiest way to tell a scam is if the company doesn't give out a lot of information or you have to pay for information. You should be able to ask questions and know everything you need to know before investing in an opportunity. Perhaps the number one way to avoid scams is to talk to others who are making online income. Search for websites about working at home and look for message boards where you can talk with others. This will help you to get advice on scams and how to avoid them.

You can also check companies out with the Better Business Bureau. The most important thing to remember is if it seems too good to be true than it probably is.Online income can give you a great way to build your finances. With the many choices of income opportunities you should easily be able to find something that works for you. Just be careful and check out any opportunity thoroughly.
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How Do You Franchise THAT?

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One of the most frequently asked questions that I hear, especially coming from my more entrepreneurial clients, is, “Why would anyone ever buy this franchise?”

This question is usually followed by a series of observations. “Anyone could do it.” “There’s nothing to this business.” “I don’t think this business can be franchised.” And of course, the final underlying question, “Why wouldn’t someone simply do this themselves?”

Their concern is a valid one. Some concepts are simply not well differentiated. Moreover, some of them have low barriers to entry.

So can a business that is not unique still franchise successfully? And if so, how?

The Mindset of the Entrepreneur
Whenever I hear these questions, my first response is to point to some of the undifferentiated concepts that have achieved high levels of success in the marketplace. “What about janitorial services—why have they been so successful?” Then I go through the list. Maid services. Lawn care. Carpet cleaning. Temporary and permanent placement firms. And of course, the list goes on and on.

The fact of the matter is, a significant number of franchise companies are in industries in which their products or services are not readily differentiated.

What these questioning entrepreneurs fail to understand is that, as entrepreneurs, they are the one group on earth that is perhaps the least suited to understand the mindset of the prospective franchisee.

The typical entrepreneur is, at least by my definition, someone who never saw a rule he or she did not want to break. And, in many respects, the entrepreneur is often the last person you would want to be a franchisee. The best franchisees are not the rule-breakers. And, in fact, the truly entrepreneurial are often the least inclined to buy a franchise.

The best franchisees are motivated adopters—people willing to accept some level of risk, but people who, nonetheless, are willing to follow the rules established by their franchisor.

But if the franchisee isn’t buying your “secret recipe,” what exactly are they buying?

Ultimately, what the franchise prospect is buying is a combination of two things: a strong value proposition plus a unique market position.

Developing the Value Proposition
If you are thinking about franchising a business that you feel isn’t particularly sexy or unique, chances are, you have already watched a number of your competitors come and go. Why did they fail, while you survived with a similar product or service? The answer is the system.

The system is the embodiment of all those things that make the ultimate difference between success or failure. Site selection. Lease negotiation. Advertising. Customer service. Branding. Positioning. Purchasing. Pricing. Merchandising. Hiring. Training. Managing. Quality control. Financial management. It can be found in everything from the products you buy to the way your people answer the phones.

When someone buys a McDonald’s franchise, they aren’t doing it because they want the recipe for the “special sauce” on the Big Mac. In fact, they probably aren’t doing it because they believe that McDonald’s serves the world’s finest hamburgers. But few would argue over the quality of their systems—which are among the best in the world.

The best companies not only have developed their systems, but they use those systems to ensure consistency at the consumer level.

And that is what your franchisees want to buy—a consistent consumer experience that has been proven in the marketplace.

And your job, as the franchisor of an undifferentiated concept, is to show the franchisee how to replicate your success. Through some combination of services and support, you need to teach your franchisee how to achieve what you have achieved. That will likely mean the development of training programs, operations manuals, site selection criteria, advertising guidelines and other elements of “the system” that will allow your franchisees to take advantage of the intellectual property you have developed over the years. Moreover, you will want to provide your franchisees with the benefits of your labor and your relationships—the brand, your purchasing power, etc.—that you have developed over the years. Combined, these elements constitute the value proposition that your franchisee will pay you for.

But the value proposition alone is not enough.

Positioning your Concept
Even the most mundane concept can work as a franchise if it can be replicated. But if your system does not have that special “sizzle,” you may have to work hard to sell it.

For those few concepts that are fortunate enough to be “first movers,” their first position in the market can be enough—assuming, of course, that they grow fast enough to maintain brand dominance. But for the rest of the franchisors out there, a value proposition alone will not be enough. The concept will need to be differentiated from others in the marketplace if it hopes to achieve any significant level of success.

Let’s take another look at McDonald’s. On its surface, especially in the early years, it was a simple concept—basically, hamburgers and fries with drinks. And for years after they started franchising, dozens of franchised competitors came and went. All, that is, except for a select few.

Burger King realized McDonald’s had staked out the “fast burger” segment in the market and knew if it were to compete with McDonald’s, it had to differentiate itself in the eyes of the consumer. So it adopted a position that McDonald’s could not attack: “Have it your way, at Burger King.”

The genius of this position was that Burger King had staked out a position to which McDonald’s could not competitively respond. Burger King’s operating system differentiated it from McDonald’s, and McDonald’s was not in a position to revamp its operating system to respond to this new threat. And Burger King prospered.

Over the years, more competitors came and went.

More than a decade later, Wendy’s was able to crack the “Big Two” using a different form of differentiation: marketing. At that time, both McDonald’s and Burger King were heavily promoting themselves to children. Wendy’s succeeded where others had failed by offering “old-fashioned” made-to-order hamburgers and promoting itself to an older audience, using an octogenarian spokesperson asking “Where’s the Beef?” and an offer that included “plenty of napkins”—which is not what the person feeding children may want to hear.

In order to succeed in franchising—especially if you are in a commodity-type market—you simply have to differentiate your concept from those of your established franchised competitors.

That differentiation can come at the operational level (as in the cases of Burger King), in the form of marketing (Wendy’s) or in a number of other forms. Some concepts differentiate themselves in the eyes of their franchisees by offering a lower investment franchise package (a double-drive thru hamburger operation is less expensive to build and operate than is a Burger King).

Others differentiate based on services: both high and low. Some franchisors tout their high levels of service. Some janitorial service franchisors, for example, will actually procure their franchisee’s customers—so all the franchisee has to do is to service the account.

Interestingly, others have taken just the opposite approach. Some carpet cleaning and postal service franchises got their start by promoting themselves as “the un-franchise,” touting minimal fees and minimal intrusion into the franchisee’s day-to-day operations.

Contractually, franchisors can differentiate themselves through a more liberal contract, through reduced fees or royalties (not a particularly good strategy, in most instances), through a bigger territory, or through different support services.

Be Best at Something
In fact, there are numerous ways for franchisors to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, even if they have a relatively undifferentiated consumer offering. But if you want to capture a long-term market position, you need to be perceived as being the best at something.

Retail consultant McMillan|Doolittle, in their groundbreaking work on the EST model for retail success, propose that a retailer needs to be the best at something in order to survive in today’s competitive marketplace.

The model, in grossly oversimplified terms, states that a retailer has to be best in one of five essential areas in order to “win” in the retail game:

• Biggest: a dominant assortment
• Cheapest: lowest prices
• Easiest: high-service orientation
• Quickest: fast-service orientation
• Hottest: fashion orientation

Moreover, the theory states that while retailers can choose to be two of these at once (biggest and cheapest, a la Wal-Mart), they will make a big mistake if they try to be more than two. They hold that the strategy of trying to be everything to everybody leads to a lack of position and a downward spiral in the market.

In franchising, especially when it comes to commodity-oriented concepts, many of these same principles apply. Over and above the need for a strong value proposition, the best franchisors will actively seek to command their desired position in the marketplace. You may find other things to differentiate your concept—or perhaps new ESTs where you can command the high ground.

One thing is for sure: If you don’t know how you want to be positioned in the marketplace, your prospects may end up being educated on your position by your competitors. And that is generally not a good strategy for sales success. For even more information on positioning, read "The Importance of Brand 'Sizzle.'"

[Mark Siebert Via Entrepreneur Magazine]

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Making Money Naming Domains

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http://www.pickydomains.com

PickyDomains.Com is a perfect example of how to turn one’s talent into a profitable business. With ever expanding Internet and tens of millions existing websites, finding an available domain name that’s not already taken by cybersquatters can be a real nightmare.

But one man’s problem is another man’s solution. Rather than to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for a domain name on the aftermarket, an increasing number of web entrepreneurs turn to professional “domain namers"?.

While most naming agencies charge a non-refundable fee that can be as high as $1500 for a corporate domain, one service that unites 17 professional domain namers from countries like United States, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, decided to offer a risk-free service that costs only 50 dollars per domain.

After 50 dollars are deposited, clients start getting a list of available domain names via e-mail for a period of 30 days. If they see a domain they like, they register it and notify the service about domain acquired. The individual, who came up with the name, gets $25, the other half going to the service. If no domain is registered, the money is refunded in full.

While the idea is brainlessly simple, it appears that PickyDomains.Com has no competition with its risk-free business model. But that is almost certain to change as more people find out that finding available domain names for other people can be a profitable business.

[Via - Dane Carson's Blog] 

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By KELLY SPORS
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Question: I have been searching for a business to buy for the past couple of years. I have clear criteria defining my desired business segment, and I have built a network through investment bankers, primary lending institutions, mezzanine lenders and brokers. But I'm disappointed with the results. What is the best way to promote myself to companies that want to sell?

-- D.K., Greensboro, N.C.

Answer: You're taking many of the right steps, but perhaps you're not mingling with the most clued-in sources: potential sellers themselves.

Many business-acquisition opportunities aren't widely known about, even by investment bankers, because sellers fear roiling employees and customers by taping a for-sale sign in the window. Instead, they wait patiently for the right buyer to knock. There are many businesses today "owned by 70-plus-year-olds that don't know what they're going to do with it," says Ray Lampner, head of mergers and acquisitions for an Akron, Ohio, accounting firm.

Ken Thompson, an Akron entrepreneur who has bought nearly 20 businesses, uses a strategy he dubs "call-mail-call." Start by calling a few business owners in the industry and ask if they know someone who may be interested in selling. Don't request an immediate answer, but say you'll follow up. Two weeks later, send a letter with your business card reminding them about your desire to find prospective sellers and that you'll call again soon. Finally, call back to inquire if they've come up with any possibilities.

This strategy works, Mr. Thompson says, because it shows you're a serious buyer and allays the owner's fear that "you're the secretary's boyfriend calling to figure out whether she's going to be laid off." Moreover, even if business owners you contact aren't looking to sell, they likely know another who is.

Other resources are trade-group newsletters with classified ads, and accountants, who often know interested sellers before they're officially hunting for buyers.

Another option is asking venture capitalists in the industry, who may be looking to divest businesses from their portfolios.

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