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ThePhoneHut.com - Article Archives, reprints by permission only - back to index
For the past year I've been an internet marketer, a netrepreneur in the vernacular of the industry, and by all accounts a pretty successful one. Now I realize that the term "successful" is subject to interpretation, so let me define it as it relates to me: my income is matching or beating my marketing expenses, and I fully expect to be making a living from my online endeavors before the end of the year. No hype, no BS, that's just a fact.
So for twelve months of living, breathing, and sweating internet marketing, I have several hundred dollars a month income to show for it, a steadily growing downline, and a commission check which is finally starting to grow on it's own with an attainable financial goal on the not-too-distant horizon. Not bad. I must be an expert.
Ever the helpful sort, I ventured out a few months ago with this new realization -- the fact that I'm an expert -- and offered marketing assistance to my downline. "Here's exactly what I did to get where I am," I proffered. "If you do these things they'll work for you too."
Downlines being what downlines are, most of the fine men and women in my organization chose to ignore my words of wisdom and do it their own way -- which is fine, because that's what I did. But one day I got a peculiar call from a member of my team: "Which of your marketing programs is working best?" he asked. "I can only spend a fraction what you're spending on marketing, and I want to put my dollars where they work the best."
"Well hell, I don't know," I replied. "But something's working! Look at my numbers!"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line, before my team member said, "You're not tracking your ads? Boy, I don't have enough money to do that."
Tracking my ads? Could it be that this fellow had a valid point? What if some of my ads and promotional efforts weren't generating any traffic at all? What if all my traffic was a result of just one or two ads, and the rest of the money I was spending was simply flying out the window without any positive impact whatsoever on my business? Hmmm. How dare he... Afterall, I was the expert here. Right?
In the days and weeks which followed I researched available methods to track ads. As it turned out, there are several options available. Generally speaking, an ad tracking service will allow you to input the "destination" website -- that is where your customers are supposed to end up -- and the service will generate a custom URL like this (which actually points to an ad tracking service for you to use): http://www.roibot.com/r.cgi?R39783_adtracking
You would then include this custom URL in your ad or marketing materials. These services allow you to generate a new link for each ad you run. Thereafter, you can produce reports at any time and determine which campaigns are working for you and which one's are not.
After researching my marketing efforts for the past several months, I did indeed find that I could drop about 50% of my marketing expenditures. Half of what I was spending simply wasn't driving one single customer to my site!
So several weeks ago I called that downline member; the "expert" was finally able to tell that fellow where to spend his money and make it count. Sometimes the best teacher is the one who's willing to be taught. And the downline member, by the way, he's doing just fine now I'm happy to report -- spending what he can afford to spend on marketing, and getting every penny's worth in return.
Aug. 6, 2001
Contact: Chris Conlee