If you are not tracking your ads you are loosing money and your valuable time. Why? Because if you do not know which ad is pulling and which have produced little or no response you could be repeating costly mistakes, and missing out on valuable resources. When you know which ads are pulling you can repeat the ad. Keep a log of where your successful ads are running, for example, which particular ezine, note it down for future or repeat advertising. If you have a similar offer that appeals to the same market you can use that particular ezine again. However on the other hand if an ad has had little or no response make a note of this ezine too so you do not advertise similar offers to this list again. Tracking ads can be automated and easy to set up. There are several programs out there to help you do this.

Tracking your website visitors can be very revealing. Most web hosting services will provide this for you. Tracking your visitors will tell you which webpage is attracting visitors. Keeping records will show you how many visitors it takes to make a sale. You can find which page is the most profitable and what your visitors enjoy the most. This will help you adjust your content and web design to improve and fine-tune your site.

You should also track your Pay-Per-Click Engine results. Most major PPC Engines/Services will do this for you. Always take into consideration how much each buying customer cost you, by accessing the ratio of click thru to buy and which keywords are pulling. Check your bidding price on keywords and adjust it, usually by 1-2 cents to position yourself better. Delete those that are not getting any clicks. Keep a log of all the keywords that are pulling and any sales that you have made thru them. Take a note of the % of clicks to sales ratio, how many clicks is it taking to make a sale. For example if there have been 100 clicks and one of them is a sale that will equal 1% ratio.  If you are bidding 5cents per click that sale will have cost you $5.00. This must be taken off your selling price. If you were charging $25.00 for your product and your customer costs you $5.00 then your profit is $20.00. In this way you will be able to record the exact cost of your customer. You can adjust your keyword bidding to make sure you are always in profit.

Do not forget to track the market trends. Always stay abreast of the different advertising methods, used in your particular field, be assured your competitors will be doing just that. Do not be afraid to try new methods, especially with an online business, where changes can happen rapidly. Being unique and different from your competitors will pay off; your visitors will enjoy the refreshing change and be in more of a buying mood. Tracking all parts of your business will ensure your success and give you the edge on your competition.

If you publish an ezine or newsletter, you can now track whether your newsletter is being opened. This is very valuable in gauging the quality and responsiveness of your list.