Google Analytics is a versatile reporting and tracking system that turns out valuable data regarding the performance of your website. Launched in 2005, it is an easily operable system, even for beginners. It also has many advanced features that can help with the creation of complex reports, track visitors’ movement paths through the site, and monitor conversions of goals you set at specific intervals. The service is free, although a premium option is also available for advanced users and corporations.
The benefits of Google Analytics
The data received through Google Analytics provides in-depth knowledge regarding the various performance aspects of your website. Through these reports, you can track the performing and non-performing areas also. You can track marketing campaigns, integrate Google Adsense and Adwords to see reports regarding revenues earnings site-wide. You can also track e-commerce dealings, campaigns and keywords to identify the best revenue sources.
Google Analytics account
The first step of using Google Analytics is to create an account on the Google Analytics website. You need to sign up with your existing Google account and start creating a new account there. Be sure to enter your account name, website name and URL address in the requisite fields. Then you need to select the “Data Sharing Settings” at the bottom of the displayed page. By default, all four types of data are selected. Click on “Get Tracking Id” to proceed to the next phase.
In this context, you may also configure the “User Management” tab in the Admin area. Here, you may set up accessibility options for different users of your website with regards to Google Analytics reports. There are four permissions available – ‘Edit’, ‘Collaborate’, “Manage Users” and “Read and Analyze”. In this page, you will also be able to view all the webpages where you have enabled in Google Analytics reporting.
Tracking code
Agree to Google’s “Terms of Service” page for continuing to the next page. You will get the tracking id here. It will start with the prefix ‘UA’. You need to copy this code and come back to your website. In your website’s Google Analytics Settings Tab, copy this code to the “Tracking Id” text box and click on “Save Settings”. This will link your website to the Google Analytics site and enable exchange and processing of data between them.
Adding Google Analytics to WordPress
After creating your WordPress website, the next step of setting up Google Analytics is to add the tracking id to your WordPress site’s pages. There are three ways of achieving this integration: Manually enter the JavaScript tracking id before the closing <head> tag of your webpage. Repeat this for every page of your website or you may track selective pages in this manner. In most regular WordPress themes, you may create a child theme and add the tracking id in the header.php file, in the same position as the manual entry (discussed above). More advanced and premium themes have a separate place of entering the tracking id in the Settings menu. Use a plugin for Google Analytics and configure the “Web Property” tab by putting the tracking id there.
Google Analytics currently uses asynchronous loading to ensure the faster processing of webpages and not affecting page loading speeds. This mode ensures that the tracking code executes only after the entire page is loaded in the user’s system.
Now that Google Analytics has started functioning for your website, you need to wait for 12 to 24 hours, depending on your website’s traffic, for report generation.
Different reports in Google Analytics
The ‘reports’ area of Google Analytics provides access to the different aspects based on the data collected from your website. These reports are generated from the date of installation of Google Analytics only. There are several categories in the ‘reports’ section:
Dashboards
This section allows users to display any report from a large number of pre-made reports generated by Google Analytics. There are two sections – Blank Canvas and Starter Dashboard. You may create your own kind of reports in the Blank Canvas section. The starter dashboard is the area where you may preview the various reports available. Shortcuts
As the name suggests, this option allows creating links with the reports you use on a frequent basis. The menu displayed at the top of every Google Analytics report has this option where you may add a ‘shortcut’ of the same. From this menu, you may also email the report as an attachment or save it in different downloadable formats.
Intelligence events
This option allows you to track daily, weekly or monthly occurrences as per your choice. These trackable events include clicks, visits, page views, sales conversions, bounce rates and so on. This page allows the creation of alerts also, which may be applied in general to all traffic or upon specific criteria fulfillment. You may choose an alert parameter among a number of them provided, with the freedom to set up the value of the alert triggering. These alerts may also be received through email. Real time
This section generates reports involving the visitors currently accessing the website. The default ‘Overview’ page shows the number of live visitors with graphs available for per second and minute views for the last half an hour. Most visited pages and referrals, top social traffic and content are also displayed in this section.
Audience
You will find over twelve different reports in this section. Audience reports include analysis on visitor demographics, location and the platform used for viewing your website. This section is important for determining the type of customers who are interested in your website. Acquisition
This section provides information about the origins of the people visiting your website. The reports include data about referrals, channels, paid and organic search engine traffic, along with a comprehensive breakdown of social media traffic to your website.
Behavior
The behavior section lets you know the activities of the user upon their visit to your website. These include the user’s site searches, landing pages and exit pages. This provides valuable data about the user’s preferences in the website over a period of time.
Conversions
This section offers valuable e-commerce reports regarding product and sales performance of the website. It can also track transaction speed and purchase time of the user. The conversion page may also be used for advanced reports like Goal Creation and Monitoring.
Thus, you can now install Google Analytics on your WordPress website, monitor its performance and formulate strategies and tactics for your website’s improvement with proper data analysis.
Your next step
Now that you know how Google Analytics can help you track your online campaigns why not give it a go? You can start by learning how to set up GA to track email list sign-ups so that you know which of your marketing campaigns drives you the most subscribers. Your thoughts?
How has Google Analytics helped you improve your website? Did you use it to learn anything about your website that you didn’t expect? Share your thoughts in the comments.
How to make money on Facebook Pages in 2017 and 10 of the best ways to do it. In this video, I'll show you 10 ways to make money on Facebook Pages. Facebook has over a billion users now and if you know what kind of business opportunities to look for, you can really make a huge income from this social media giant. Facebook also happens to be the 3rd largest website in the entire world in terms of traffic. Once you have enough traffic to any page online, it almost doesn't matter how you're monetizing it because you're going to make good money either way. I'll show you the best ways to make money on Facebook, where to go to get started, and even how you might combine a few of them.
There's no doubt that blogging/running a website is one of the most popular activities you can do online. You get to voice your ideas, thoughts, and opinions and share them with the rest of the world, while also improving your writing skills, and connecting with other, similar-minded individuals. You get to write about what you love, and it doesn't get any better than that.
Well, actually, it does get better if you can earn some money in the process. However, while blogging is a lot fun, if you're going to turn into a source of additional income, you're going to have your work cut out for you.
The bad news is, only a small percentage of bloggers and website owners earn huge amounts of money, and most of them are devoted to it and consider it a full-time job. Also, there are those who generate enough revenue for themselves while working part-time in addition to their day jobs. In both cases, it's not something which can happen overnight. It takes time, hard work, lots of trial and error, and patience. The good news is that it is very much possible - this infographic from Website Setup outlines some of the most effective ways you can earn money from your website or blog.
Making money from your website isn’t a myth. It’s doable by everyone. In fact, turning a part-time, hobby blog into an income generating asset is fairly common with a bit of luck and some hard work. At the very least, you should be able to make enough to cover your basic expenses for a domain and hosting. You might even be able to replace your income (and then some). Keep in mind that the strategies listed below range from easy and passive, to ones that require a TON of on-going work (so make sure you pick something that suits your site and lifestyle preferences). There are 33 total tips in this guide, but let’s start with the ten most popular (and predictable) site monetization tips.
10 Most Common Ways to Make Money with Your Website
Making money from your website isn’t easy. But these ten tips are probably your best bet.
1. Affiliate Marketing (.. and affiliate links)
Example of a successful affiliate site: Booking.comAffiliate marketing is one of the most popular (not to mention quickest) ways to make money from your website or blog. Start by finding a product you like and would recommend. Then on your website, you endorse the product and promote it to your website visitors and email subscribers. If the product or service resonates with these people, they’ll click on your affiliate link, purchasing the product (while you get a split of the sale price). The commission might be anywhere from 30% of the product or service price, up to as high as 70%. So for example, if the split is 50% and you promote an e-book that costs $100, you’ll get $50 for simply referring the buyer. Pretty sweet deal, huh?! Where can I find products to promote?
ShareASale – mostly clothes, accessories, and other offline goods.
Clickbank – high percentage payouts, but there’s a lack of GOOD products to promote.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Adsense)
Example of a successful Google Adsense site: Mashable.comAdWords are the advertisements that show up on the top of Google search result pages. AdSense is the reverse, allowing publishers (which includes bloggers and other website owners like yourself) to tap into Google’s immense advertising network so that other advertisers can run ads on their website. The best part about this system is how simple everything is. Once you sign up, Google will place a simple code on your website that will identify the content of your site and start displaying relevant advertisements. For example, if your site is about pets (dogs & cats), Google AdSense will start showing your visitors ads for cat food, dog training and more. You get paid each time someone clicks on the ad. (Yes, it’s really that easy!) Your cut might be anywhere from $0.50 to $5 per click. However, when your site has enough traffic, you can make hundreds (if not thousands of dollars) each month. How to apply for for Google Adsense?
Apply for AdSense – Before applying, make sure you keep up with their latest Terms Of Service, though. Google has very strict rules, so it’s hard to get (and stay) approved.
3. Sell Ad Space
Incorporating Google’s AdSense on your website is just one way to make money from online advertisements. Another is to simply sell your own ad space directly to companies looking to sponsor different blogs. For example, you can come up with a price for each space, like: “Sidebar banner ads will cost $xxx per month”. You can get paid depending on how many visitors you get. Typically this is quoted as a dollar amount per one thousand impressions (or CPM). So for example, you might see it as: $5 CPM. If the website gets 100,000 visits a month, that ad price translates into $500 bucks. The good thing about this approach is that if your site gets a ton of traffic from different sources, your simple banner ad pricing can go up to as high as $5000 per month! However, the obvious downside is that if your site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, you can’t expect to earn as much either. The other common method when selling ad space directly from your website is a simple direct price. Here you simply name a price (based on what you think it’s worth, relative to what the competition might be charging), and get paid upfront at the beginning of each month. This pricing is also generally a simple flat fee, not tied to a Cost Per Click like AdSense. Where can I let others know that my website is selling ad space?
– The most popular one.
AdvertiseSpace – I haven’t tried it, but it should be a good alternative.
4. Sell Your Own Digital Product (Ebook for Example)
You have the potential to make the most money on a per sale basis when you can sell your own directly. That’s because there’s no middle-man or person in between you and the buyer that’s taking a ‘cut’ from the money earned. This approach seems fairly straightforward because you can simply sell these products directly through your website and get paid immediately. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in reality. Creating good products that are well made and polished require a ton of time and additional resources (like design, content, etc.). So there’s a lot of ‘hidden costs’ in both time spent or contractors to collaborate with. Selling your own products on your site also bring up problematic issues like payment gateways (how are you going to collect payment?), shipping (how are you going to mail or distribute the products?) and taxes (oh man, don’t get me started). And if that doesn’t sound like enough work already, you’ll also need a well designed, persuasive landing page to make sure your product has a strong conversion rate. Additional resources: How to sell products on your website. How to set up a PayPal “Buy Now” button on WordPress
5. Accept Donations from visitors
Don’t have a ton of monthly visits, but you do have a strong, engaged community? Simply ask your readers to donate! Accepting one-off donations isn’t a fast road to wealth, however, it can help you cover expenses in the short-term if people like what you have to say and want to support your journey. For example, PayPal offers little donation buttons that only take about ten minutes to add to your website, offering you a quick way to recoup what you might be spending on hosting, new product creation, research, and all of the other costs to maintain a healthy, active blog. For example, web.archive.org makes a lot of money from donations (most likely due to their millions of visitors per month). How to set up donation buttons?
6. Accept sponsored posts & articles (…but use nofollow tag)
One of the common ways to making more money from your website means getting those visitor numbers UP. Once you’ve done the hard work of building steady traffic to your site with an engaged community, there are a few different ways to monetize your hard work. For example, many companies go out of their way to look for blogs that will feature their sponsored content. ‘Native advertising‘ like this works well because it still lines up with your site’s primary content, so it comes across relevant and transparent. You can also review the products from a company in an ‘advertorial’ that’s part content, part advertisement. For example, if your website is all about the latest iOS games for iPhones and iPads, the creator of one of those ads would LOVE to have you review and feature their app to your fans. When done right, this can create a win/win scenario. However done poorly, with irrelevant or inauthentic site content, and it can erode all of the reader’s goodwill you’ve worked so hard to create in the first place. For further reading:
Businesses thrive off new leads coming in their door to inquire about their products or services. It’s no surprise then that they’re always on the lookout, searching for creative ways to find new sources of leads to help them grow. For example: Let’s say you have a website about teaching math skills. Your reader’s information (like their email address or phone number) would be of great value to different online schools who’re looking to sell their courses to eager, proactive students. Basically, you’re connecting the dots; playing the matchmaker by introducing two parties who can benefit one another. While it’s similar to how affiliate marketing works, in this case it doesn’t actually matter if your reader ends up purchasing their product or not. They’re just looking for an introduction at this point. Where can I find such offers?
Spend any amount of time reading blog growth tips, and you’re sure to come across people saying “the money’s in the list“. They’re referring to your email list, which comprises your most loyal readers. The objective is to convert as many strangers who visit your site for the first time into passionate followers who want to stay up-to-date on your latest work or content. Admittedly this is a long term strategy (and you definitely won’t get rich overnight). But it’s one of the best, long-term methods to profitably growing your blog into a full-fledged, money making enterprise. Never lose sight of the importance in creating relationships with your followers, however. Offering great information or free help is a perfect way to start. Spamming people with unsolicited offers is one of the fastest ways to abuse reader’s trust and sabotage your long-term goals. How exactly does it EXACTLY work?
Listbuilding 101 – Probably the best introduction on the internet.
9. Set up an e-commerce site (hard work is required)
Websites don’t have to be just content. They can be centered around tools or products in an online store. Be forewarned, though: There are literally hundreds of thousands of eCommerce websites or online stores. Make sure that yours is filling a unique niche, with a detailed strategy and the latest marketing techniques to stand out from the crowd. How do I create a successful online store/shop?
10. Flip Your Websites (Create -> Sell -> Reinvest)
Believe it or not, there’s almost always a market out there for your website. That means if you’ve built up a following (or possibly even sold a few products or included advertising on your site), you might be able to sell it to someone else and make a quick buck. To be honest, I typically don’t suggest people plan on flipping their website or blog. (I’m a bigger fan of creating something for the long term.) But you can’t deny how lucrative it can be. For example, if your website is making $500 per/month through selling ad space, you might be able to sell the site for $5,000 – $10,000 (which is about 12x – 22x monthly income). Another interesting option is to sell ready-made sites, These are MUCH cheaper, but there’s still some money to be made. Where can I sell my site?
We’ve counted down some of the most popular ways to earn money from your website. However, we’re only just scratching the surface. Below are another 23 ways to make money with your website. (Keep in mind that some of them are slightly connected with the ones above yet they are little ‘out of the box’.)
Another 23 ways to monetize your website
11.Sell text-link ads – There’s still a demand for text-links ads (believe it or not). But please keep in mind that these violate Google’s Terms of Service (which means you run the risk of getting penalized). To avoid it, simply keep the ‘nofollow‘. 12. Set up “infolinks” – Infolinks are a great alternative to AdSense advertisements, that are very easy to setup. However, the downside is that they aren’t high converting, and the payouts (on a per click basis) are also quite small. 13. Use monetization widgets – These are also very similar to Google Adsense, so they’re worth trying out as an alternative. 14.Set up RSS feed ads. – Exactly what they sound like. Ad space for sale in-line with content from an RSS feed. 15.Give away premium content for extra $$$ – If you are producing mind-blowing, awesome content that visitors can’t get enough of… you can always try asking them to pay for some of it! (Crazy concept, huh?!) I’m personally fine with paying for premium content. However, don’t ask people to pay right away. Instead, stay focused on growing an audience and visitors first. 16.Start a private forum or coaching class(es) – Most of us have unique skills that others can benefit from. Setting up a simple forum or classes is an easy way to (a) help others and (b) generate recurring income at the same time. 17. Create a job board– Setting up a job board on your website is another simple, easy way to collect additional money when people accepting different job offers from various companies or individuals. 18.Offer consulting – Offering consulting gigs and providing services can help you bring in decent sums of money while other forms of ‘passive’ revenue take a little time to build up. You can offer these services via email, forum and or even Skype. 19.Add “hire me” page on your website – Your new website or blog is also a perfect place to feature your freelancing services. Showcasing samples or evidence of past work will help greatly increase your chances of getting hired. 20.Sell or rent internal pages – These aren’t very common, however, you might be surprised at what people would be willing to rent or spend money on! 21.Display pop-ups advertisements – Pop-ups can be extremely annoying. However, they’re also another easy way to make some quick money. 22. Use content lockers – ‘Content locking’ is similar to hiding or protecting pieces of content until a visitor takes some action to redeem it. For example, maybe you want them to pay a small amount, or perhaps click on an advertisement. 23. Display audio ads – These are relatively new and are becoming increasingly more common. Personally, I haven’t tried it. But I have read some articles and it definitely looks promising. 24. Sell an e-book – This one is a no-brainer. Many people sell e-books through their site. Some examples: If you have a website about recipes and cooking, you can easily create and sell your own recipe book. The same applies in almost every single other niche. 25.Create a conference around your website – Lots of work, but a huge potential payoff as well. 26.Set up a teaching program – Kinda like a cross between selling your own content and offering consulting or services. 27.Host paid webinars – Similar to the last tip, which is largely a mix of consulting through content. 28.Create a membership site – Yet another tier on the ‘info-business’ model that has the added benefit of bringing in recurring revenue. 29.Offer coupons (with affiliate links) – People are eagerly looking for discount & promo codes for everything from clothes to travel vacations. If you can (find and) offer a valid one, you can also get a cut of the revenue too. 30. Host polls on your website– Hard to believe, but easy to do! 31.Offer writing gigs – You can easily make $20 – $30 per 500-word articles writing for other companies or individuals. There’s also a huge potential for fluent speakers of different languages, as many companies want their websites translated by those who speak the native language. 32.Create a paid directory/business page – You charge people for listing or submissions to the page. 33.Just copy what others are doing – My personal favourite!
