I write a lot of articles, and, as a result, many of them are picked up and published by ezines that I never submit to. Although my counter tells me that this hit came from ABC ezine, I don’t know how it got there. By adding a tracking string to my URL, when that hit arrives on my site, it tells me exactly where it came from.

Another advantage in tracking your articles is that it can make you more efficient. Some time ago, I entered a tracking code into each article that I submitted to the smaller submission sites. After about three weeks, I noticed that I had not received any hits from a number of these sites. I was wasting my time in submitting to these sites. As a result, I deleted about 90 sites from my submission list. (I had been submitting each article to about 150 sites.) After that test, I paired my submission list down to about 60 sites. I saved about an hour a day with absolutely no decline in traffic! That is the power of a good tracking campaign.

In addition, you can track the performance of your ads and emails. With a good tracking campaign, you can determine which of your ads are working the best. If you find that one particular ad is performing better than others, use it more consistently and drop the poor performers. You are just wasting money when you place an ad that does not perform well. With each ad that I place, I enter the ad along with the tracking data into a file and save it on the computer. Then, it is an easy matter to see which ads are doing well and which ones are doing poorly. That way, I am continually improving the performance of my ad and email campaigns.

How do you track your articles and ads? It is actually quite simple. At the end of your URL, enter a slash, then a question mark, and the name of the test, ad, subject line, or Ezine that you are tracking (for example-blahblahblah.com/?ad1). Each time your website gets a hit from that source, your counter will log that visitor as coming from ad1. By comparing hits from competing ads, or articles, you can determine which are the most successful. Before you commit to any significant tracking campaign using this method, do a simple test to ensure that your website works properly with tracking data. Some servers do not recognize it and will return a “site not found" notice. If this is the case, you cannot use this simple tracking method.

We are all in this business for the same reason, to make money. To maximize the income you generate, track your results. By entering a small string after your URL you can determine where your website visitors are coming from. This can make a significant difference in your efficiency as well as your profits. A good tracking system can significantly improve the performance of your ads, articles, and subject lines.