Homeowner's insurance is an invaluable investment for every homeowner. If your house went up in flames and you lost everything, would you be able to recall everything you owned, including the items? values? If you came home from work to find someone burglarized your home, would you be able to account for everything that had been taken or destroyed? While some items are priceless and/or likely have sentimental value, memories unfortunately are not sufficient for filing a homeowner's insurance claim in the wake of a disaster.
In times of distress, you shouldn't have to worry about whether your possessions are covered or not. If you purchase homeowner's insurance, it is important to know what your policy covers. Not sure what's in your homeowner's policy? That topic will be covered in a future article.
Your homeowner's insurance, ideally, will replace the cost of what you lose in a disaster. More importantly, however, is the fact that you will only be compensated for what you can account for. In other words, fond memories are heartwarming, but they will not reimburse your losses in a catastrophe.
?But how will I account for everything I lose in such an event??
Well, the most accurate way to keep track of your items would be to take an inventory of everything you own. While this is a process that could take months to complete, it is your most worthwhile strategy should you experience misfortune.
?What do I need to put in this inventory??
Put simply. EVERYTHING. The more you can account for in your homeowner's insurance claim, the more likely you will be reimbursed. The list should be as detailed as possible and should include appliances, carpets, jewelry, furniture, linens, antiques, furniture, and the list goes on. To get your money's worth, go from room to room and be sure you are as descriptive and detailed as possible. Include:
-a description of the item (including the quantity)
-the manufacturer or brand
-any model or serial numbers
-a description of where or how the item was attained
-the date of purchase or age of the item
-receipt or other proof of purchase that shows the cost
-the current value
-the replacement cost
-photocopies of appraisals
?I'll never complete this process!?
Keep in mind that while this documentation process may be time-consuming, it is certainly easier than remembering everything you own. Don't let this task discourage you. Take photos. Even better, make a night out of it. Grab your video camera and go from room to room to create a visual and verbal description of your items. It might take you an hour to document your entire house. Regardless of how you complete your inventory, remember that your compensation rests on the quality of your documentation.
?I've made the inventory, now what??
It is likely you invested a good amount of time to document your items. Whatever you do, keep that homeowner's insurance inventory safe! If an unfortunate event comes your way, you certainly do not want your hard work to go to waste. Store it in a relative's home, in a lockbox, a safety deposit box or keep it tucked away in your office desk. While memories and keepsakes can rarely be replaced, it's comforting to know your homeowner's insurance will keep you financially secure should you properly document your items.
Keeping Track Of Expenses
When it comes to Internet statistics the most important statistic at the end of the day is how many orders or inquiries did you get. However, your ability to improve your orders and site performance will depend on your understanding of your website's other underlying traffic statistics. Here are some things to watch out for.
First of all, forget about “hits”. Whenever someone requests a file it is a hit. If you visit a web page, then you are requesting several files all at once: the file for the page and the files for all the graphics on the page. By visiting one page on a site you are registering several hits. “Hits” is a very vague term and doesn't give you a good picture of what is happening on your site.
A more precise indicator of your traffic, and thus a more useful statistic, is the amount of unique visitors you receive each day. Internet statistics are never precise, but your number of unique visitors will give you a rough idea of how many people visited your website on any given day. Compare this number to the amount of orders or inquiries you get and you can figure out your conversion rate.
Another important Internet statistic to keep you eye on are the referrers. A referrer is the website where a person was visiting prior to landing on your site. Search engines are important referrers, and sites that link to you are other referrers. Compare your referred traffic to total traffic and you will see how many people just typed in your url and how many came after seeing your link in another location.
Knowing where your visitors came from is very important, but it is even better if you can get more details about this kind of traffic. That is why you should also look for the search terms that people used when coming from a search engine. Most trackers or log analysis program will give you the search terms that were used on the referring search engines.
Take a look at these terms and see if you are really getting targeted traffic. If what you consider to be your most important keywords are not high up in the list of search terms that people are actually using to find you, then you have to adjust the content of your website accordingly.
The activity of people on your site is also important. Which pages do they use to enter your site, and from which pages do they leave the site? Which are the pages that are most frequently visited and which pages are least frequently visited? Finally, what is the pattern of the traffic on your site?
Good tracking or analysis programs will tell you the click-path that people take through your site. The click-path is the sequence of consecutive pages that people follow as they go through your site. For example, if your visitors are not ending up on your order page, but following a sequence that leads them out of the site without ordering, you can look at your site again and correct the weak spots.
You can get access to these statistics in a few ways
1. Your hosting provider may have a built in traffic analysis program, such as Awstats and Webalizer. Both programs are excellent and if they are installed on your server you should take advantage of them. Just log into your account and view your statistics online.
2. You can analyze your site's access logs using programs installed on your computer. I like the OpenWebScope program, available at www.openwebscope.com Get a trial version, analyze your site's access log and you will end up with a report of visitor activity on your website. A similar program is offered by http://www.sawmill.co.uk/
3. Paste java script tracking code to your pages. Several companies provide java script trackers. Once your tracker is installed, all you have to do is to log onto a site to see your stats. Some of the trackers are free, such as the one at http://extreme-dm.com/tracking. There are also various paid services that offer a similar method of gathering statistics.
4. Google recently bought the Urchin tracking system and now offers a statistics reporting service, free of charge, in their Google Analytics program. Unfortunately, you can only get on the waiting list as the system was heavily oversubscribed in its opening days.
Gather your website statistics using a method that is easy for you and use this data to improve the performance of your website. When you get an idea of who your visitors are, how they are finding your website and which pages they are visiting on your website, you can then make changes and upgrades that will boost your online success.
Both Krista Farmer & Donald Nelson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Krista Farmer has sinced written about articles on various topics from Auto Insurance, Insurance Quotes and Homeowners Insurance. HometownQuotes, a Franklin, Tennessee company, provides a quick and easy way for consumers to compare multiple insurance quotes. To learn more, visit http://www.hometownquotes.com.. Krista Farmer's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
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