Whether you are celebrating Christmas, taking a mid-winter break or just annual leave, any holiday is a great time to refresh the mind and body and refocus your efforts for the coming year.
I like to start jotting down ideas for content between Christmas and New Year, so that by the time I hit Jan 2-4 [my 3 day planning fest] I have an arsenal of ideas not only for content, but also for new development and ways to improve my existing websites.
Over the past year I have set up a number of websites in different niches, and although they are well optimized and converting well, they still lack traffic. I have done no marketing of these sites, other than a few articles. Hence, my main goal for next year is not to develop any more new sites, but to grow the ones I have.
I have spent a wonderfully satisfying year learning about Internet Marketing, about website building and performance. As a corporate performance consultant I am very aware how measuring performance is critical to really understanding your business.
There are two parts to this performance measurement:
1. Measuring the performance of your business input
2. Measuring the performance of the outcome of those inputs.
Measuring Inputs
It is very, very easy to focus on just one part of your business and get carried away at the expense of another. Do your find yourself obsessed with link building, and then realise you haven’t written a blog for weeks or submitted an article for over a month! Or all your efforts are going into one or two websites, when your main revenue conversion is with another site.
I also know that I perform much, much better when I have a balanced scorecard to indicate exactly where my efforts are being applied.
As my holiday gift to you I would like to share my worksheet with you, so you can alter it to build your own version. This scorecard ensures that I not only deliver a mix of inputs across one website, but that all websites receive a balanced input over a six week period. [You can set your workbook up to measure whatever work cycle you like - I find 6 weeks works for me, but your scope will likely be quite different]. Download Here
Measuring Outputs
Google really delivers when it comes to measuring online performance – and all tools are free:
I use a combination of:
- Google Adwords Campaign Manager
- Google Analytics
- Google Website Optimizer
Each of these tools can be integrated to work together, using the Google Analytics interface as a main reporting tool.
Early in the New Year I am launching a new ebook on how to get the best from each of these tools. This will be a really easy to read guide that steps you through each toolset, as if you had someone standing over you giving you key by key instructions.
So watch this blog for launch date.
In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday
Esmart
