http://www.opentracker.net Opentracker is a web site tracking tool built for website analysis. Analyze website statistics and monitor visitors online and real time. en-us http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/buying-traffic-paid-newsletter-inclusion.jsp Part 1 of a 3-part article on lead generation and how to buy traffic. This first part talks about paid inclusion in newsletters, and ads / banners on tech and marketing sites. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/buying-traffic-ppc-pay-per-click-campaigns.jsp Part 2 of a 3-part article on lead generation and how to buy traffic. Perhaps not a surprise, but our research has led us to believe that PPC is the safest way to get targeted traffic, as you have a high level of control and accountability. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/buying-traffic-purchase-bulk-clicks.jsp Part 3 of a 3-part article on lead generation and how to buy traffic. At the bottom of the article, we present a short list of methods that we would recommend for proven ways to bring traffic to your site. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/search-term-keywords.jsp There are many ways to work with search terms and keywords. For example, selection of keywords when creating and managing ad campaigns. Sponsored listings are best managed by careful selection of search terms and keywords. Everything revolves around keywords, which competing sites often bid for, in terms of cents-per-click. To be effective, you need to choose the right words. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/build_online_community.jsp One secret of sites like Amazon, ebay, Hotmail / MSN, and Yahoo is 'customer loyalty', which means a community of returning visitors. These sites have generated trust. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/bounce-clickthrough-rate.jsp What is Bounce Rate? The bounce rate for the homepage, or any other page through which visitors enter your site, tells you how many people 'bounce' away (leave) from your site after viewing one page. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/hits-visitors-pageviews.jsp In this article you will find discussion and technical definitions of: Hits, visitors and page views, Unique visitors, New and returning visitors http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/clickstream-analysis.jsp What is clickstream analysis? Clickstreams, also known as clickpaths, are the route that visitors choose when clicking or navigating through a site. A clickstream is a list of all the pages viewed by a visitor, presented in the order the pages were viewed, also defined as the ‘succession of mouse clicks’ that each visitor makes. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/tracking-vs-logfile-analysis.jsp Human events versus server activity - Why do tracking services show a lower number of visitors than statistics recorded by log analyzers? The answer lies in the difference between unique visitor tracking and log analyzing. Log analyzers record all measurable activity, whereas tracking services distinguish between human activity and server activity. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/hit-web-page-counter.jsp Hit, Page, and Web Counters –– the difference All three are counters; devices which display the number of visits which have been made to a website or page within a website. Some important differences are: how many pages are measured (single or multiple) the cost of the tool (free vs. paid) how you access your website or page data how far back this data is available security feature which prevents recording of repeat clicks http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/write-privacy_policy.jsp By letting people know what info is collected and what is done with that information, you can create a transparent environment in which people / consumers are more confident. You can eliminate stress and concerns about abuse of personal info. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/pay-per-click-ppc.jsp Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and campaigns are the premier way of advertising on the internet. A PPC campaign lets you determine exactly who comes to your website. Additionally, an important advantage is that you only pay for actual click throughs to your site. In other words, you only pay if a person clicks on a link or banner and lands on your site (also called pay-for-performance advertising). If the person only sees your link, but does not click through, this is called an impression. You should not pay for impressions. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/website-management.jsp How to get the most out of Opentracker. We wrote this article in response to a question about how to get the most out of an Opentracker 4 week trial. The question raised an interesting point: the purpose of a website tracking system. The point of using a visitor tracking and website stats program is to aid in the process of website management and decision-making. A good web metrics program should help you to manage and make decisions on a daily basis. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/traffic-conversion-roi.jsp Just like a brick-and-mortar business, a website needs careful management to ensure commercial success. Content management decisions should be based on web metrics, not guesswork. Setting measurable business goals and monitoring progress will help you to build a website that generates revenue. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/making-stats-work.jsp executive summary : in a nutshell. Put the information to use. Formulate a goal. For example, encourage visitors to stay longer by increasing overall site stickiness. Benchmark your statistics, implement your change and compare traffic over a given period. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/all-about-cookies-third-party.jsp n this article you will find discussion and definitions of: what a cookie is, the difference between 1st-party and 3rd-party cookies, rejection of 3rd-party cookies, effects of blocking / deleting cookies http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/p3p-policies-w3org.jsp In this article you will find information about: how IE accepts / rejects cookies of sites you visit and p3p Standard Privacy Policies http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/online-privacy.jsp We receive many questions asking us about what tracking services can and can’t do, questions about ‘online profiling’, ‘digital blueprints’ and leaving a ‘data trail’. We have posted numerous articles on the site explaining what tracking services can do. In this article, we explain what tracking services, and Opentracker in particular, cannot do. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/search-engine-optimization.jsp Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website easy to find on the internet. This is done by optimizing your site for the search engines that people use to surf the internet. A well optimized site can draw thousands of (free) referrals per day from major search engines. Properly optimizing your site will mean a gradual shift away from Pay-Per-Click campaigns to cost-free referrals. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/web-metrics-site-statistics.jsp What are they, and why measure them? There are various terms used to describe the science of recording and interpreting website statistics. Web metrics, web analytics, web stats and site stats, to name a few. ‘E-metrics’ refers to analysis of electronic businesses. http://www.opentracker.net/en/articles/improve-google-ranking.jsp Google is your friend At the moment, Google is by far the most popular internet search engine in the world. As of July, 2003, Yahoo is the second largest, having taken over a majority of remaining smaller engines (Inktomi.com, Altavista.com, fastsearch.com, alltheweb.com, etc.) through its acquisition of Overture. MSN is the 3rd player, and reported to be developing their own search engine that will produce independent results.