"Are We There Yet ?" (Or, How to measure your site's success.) By LARRY JOHNSON

If you are a parent, you are certain to recognize this plaintive cry from the back seat. Today, however, we are more interested in measuring our progress with our online business. If you are a webmaster or business owner online, How do we know how far we have come? Are we succeeding with our plan ? What are some simple ways we may want to implement to measure and determine the answer to that familiar question, "Are we there yet ?" Before you can answer that question you must have a goal, a plan, an objective toward which you are headed. Depending on the goal, here are 5 simple ways to measure your progress on the internet. 1) Hit Counters--probably the most used method of determining the "success" of a site. There are many free hit counters available. Here are a few sites that offer them: http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/ http://www.stats4you.com/ http://www.freestats.com/ All the way up from simple counting your visitors until tracking the keywords they use to find you. 2)Customer Surveys can give you a lot of great feedback about how your site is viewed by your visitors and potential customers. Here are some possible site choices to create your own surveys: http://www.insitesurveys.com/ http://www.gigapoll.com/ http://www.formsite.com/ 3) Testimonials...they can't be bought, but they are worth their weight in gold to the potential buyer who is wavering. The one who needs someone else to verify that your business is really credible and that you can be trusted to deliver as promised. I suggest that you use a form to make it simple and easy for visitors to your site to give you feedback about their visit. Hopefully it will be positive...something to share with others. Constructive criticism can be helpful too in order to improve your site. 4) Sales. Well, what more can be said about this. The bottom line is here for most. How much are we selling online? Are we growing each month, year ? 5) For MLM type groups there is always the simple measurement of the number in your downline. The more the better it seems. For those interested in the overall, changing picture of the internet. I refer you to: http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/traffic_patterns You need a yardstick. The type of yardstick depends on what it is your wanting to measure. Whatever it is, there are resources online to help with your measurements. One of them is certain to answer the question that is on everyone's mind, "Are we there yet?" Best of luck in your online efforts ! Larry Johnson, Author (C) 2002, All Rights Reserved. Article may be reprinted with permission by including the following resource box: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Larry is the editor of BIZ SITE BIZ E-ZINE, a Free weekly business promotion newsletter full of timely tips, original "How-To" articles, resources, quotes and humor. http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/ Come on down and join us as we discover better ways to market and promote on the internet ! Subscribe: http://www.bizsitebiz.com/Subscribeform.html ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^