Calling all Non-Profits, the Semphonic Non-Profit Analytics Challenge begins again!

The following is a guest post contributed by Phil Kemelor, VP of Strategic Analytics at Semphonic, a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

Back in 2010, the analytics team here at Semphonic and the talented group of analysts who attended our annual X Change conference were looking for fun ways to contribute their skills to the non-profit community, as well as leverage the amazing expertise that convenes during X Change each fall. The result was the Non-Profit Analytics Challenge.

This program selects two non-profit organizations from the pool of applicants, and provides them with GA experts from Semphonic to audit and improve their use of Google Analytics. Then, during our conference, the analysts in attendance donate their time and expertise to dig for insights and provide actionable recommendations based on their analysis.

Last years’ winners were Oceana and United Way of the Bay Area. We recently held a webinar to discuss and share how they applied what they had learned through the challenge. They discussed how the analyses helped them achieve real goals, such as boosting donations, spending their marketing budgets more effectively, and getting more engagement in their programs.  It was a great conversational session, which you can view here: How Non-Profits Get Results with Web Analytics

This also led to our publishing  The Non-Profit Organization Guide to Using Google Analytics to Improve Branding, Donations and Member Activity,  a toolkit of ways to improve content strategy and digital strategy through focused use of Google Analytics and other tools.  

How You Can Participate
We’re currently looking for the next two non-profit organizations that will be featured in the Non-Profit Challenge. The application process is open now and goes until June 30. If you’re a non-profit that could benefit from some free, expert analysis on your web data, then we hope you’ll apply!


Posted by Jesse Nichols, Google Analytics Partner Program Manager

Final Exam Prep

Today is a prep day for the final exam.  You need to know how to do the following.

1. Make a basic webpage using a table for layout that is highly usable.
2. Use fireworks to manipulate an image.
3. Create animations using Flash.
4. Tell a story.
5. Search and evaluate internet sources.
6. Develop an audience.

It will be very hard to complete the exam during the allotted time so I am giving you some assignments now.  I urge you to work hard today.

Your exam will be a website that demonstrates the "web" in 1980, 1995, and 2010. I will give all the details next week.

• Create a folder in your WDrive.  Name it correctly (BSchneiderFinalExam).
• All work will be stored in this folder.
• Research the following questions.  Keep the notes in your folder.
• Who is credited with inventing the internet?  
• How did the internet develop?  Who used it first?
• How many internet enabled devices existed in 1980? 1995? 2010? (you will have to estimate, but you can find this information).
• How many people regularly accessed the internet in 1980? 1995? 2010?
• Think, research, review the following questions.
• How is your family/social life different than a high school student in 1980 or 1995?  Focus on how the internet has changed daily life (for better or worse).
• How is your school/academic life different than a high school student in 1980 or 1995?
• Prepare a very simple Flash animation to display on "the internet" page (see above).  For example, a computer zooming into focus, or a smartphone "buzzing".
• Prepare simple Fireworks images of "The Internet", 1980, 1995, 2010 to display as headings at the top of each page.

Learn How Google Analytics Helped BuildDirect Increase Sales By 50%

BuildDirect operates in over 100 countries and aims to simplify the sourcing of materials for its customers. As a virtual organization they credit much of their success to savvy use of online marketing and advertising. 

With a comprehensive marketing mix of search advertising, email newsletters and conversion optimization BuildDirect uses Google Analytics insights to get more value for every dollar they spend on marketing. Read a brief summary of the techniques BuildDirect used and results achieved below:

Linking AdWords to Analytics enabled BuildDirect to increase search marketing conversions by 37%

By importing AdWords data for analysis, BuildDirect found that long tail keywords helped drive users closer to the products they were actually looking for. This resulted in a better user experience as visitors needed to do less site navigation, and took less clicks to complete a sale. Now, long-tail keywords perform three times better than regular keywords 

Campaign Tagging led to a doubling of email conversion rates 

Tagging links in different email creatives helped BuildDirect discover which versions drove the most customer conversions -  doubling the conversion rates of their email campaigns. Additionally, BuildDirect uncovered that customers who bought a sample were most likely to return and purchase if if they were subsequently shown highly relevant messages. 

Improved Site Usability resulted in 100% increase in sample orders and 50% increase in sales

By reducing the steps from cart to payment confirmation from three steps to one, BuildDirect was able to increase sample orders by 100%. Using the In-Page Analytics feature BuildDirect could understand what content users were actively engaged in so they could make better decisions to prioritize, improved or eliminate pages and refine the checkout procedure. 

Be sure to read the full case study [PDF link] to learn all the techniques BuildDirect used to maximize their marketing spend. 

Posted by the Google Analytics team

The End is Near

Please turn in your "Who are You?" projects today.  If the project is online please write a blog post and provide me with the link.  Otherwise please submit into the UDrive folder.

We will use Wednesday for some exam prep and then we have the exam next week.  E period on Monday and H period on Tuesday.

Want to get started on Final Exam prep? Then click here.  It would be really helpful to start early....

How to choose best advertising sites to promote new product

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Launching a new product or service is introducing product service features to the mass. You need to know how to choose the best advertising sites to promote new product so that your campaign will be successful. Building good image to your potential customers will need effort and cost. You can manage your expense effectively if you can choose right advertising companies to boost your site popularity to the viewers. Plenty of advertising sites you can try. You can match the product with your targeted customers. Promoting product online is different from offline campaign. However, the principle of promotion is the same. That is your potential customer obtain good image of your brand. As online marketers, you must know the principle how to choose the best advertising sites to promote your product. These are some principles to promote product online.

First, you must recognize your product features. If your site is a mass product, you can use some advertising sites that can deliver it in front of massive viewers without knowing the customer orientation. Here are the lists that you can use to promote and bring your sites massively.

Adfly.com is a good advertising site. It brings your site in front of viewers massively. It is a kind of pop-up advertising system that spreads the ad when you open one of the publishers’ networks. Many publishers become adfly.com network. You just need $5 to 1000 views.it is cheap cost. The views are all over the world. You do need to specify your potential customers. 

Linkbuck.com is similar to adfly.com. it is a kind of pop-up advertising system. It has many publisher partners. You have to set your landing page that has the most eye-catching look. The pop-up is only 5 to 10 second. If the viewers do not get interested in your site thy will close your site soon.

I don't recommend this site, this site is hacking site and fake site. 
cpm.biz is a banner impression type of ads. You can promote with this method. Your banner will appear in front of the viewers via the publishers. You must create as good as banner you can. Your banner impression attracts your potential customer to click it. You do not need to specify the keyword because Ecpm.biz does not detail the keyword search to accept the publisher partners.

You can also use PTC or paid to click sites. It costs cheaply sometimes. Each ptc site has different charge of advertising. You will receive human viewers. Once the viewers think that your site is an interesting site to join they will sign up and become the member of your site. You must give easy sitemap so that your customers will easily find sign up page when they are interested in your product.

Second, you can use specific keywords to promote your site. This principle will spot your customer as specified in the keyword search. This type of advertising is costly because you have to bid your keyword. You should compete the bid with your competitors. One who places the highest bid the ad will appear on the top page of search engine. Some people who don’t know the trick and strategy to advertise will end in failure.  They will lose much money. This type of advertising is very powerful in fact. Some sites serve this type of campaign. They are ppc( pay per click) advertising sites.

Promotion strategy using ppc search engine services is very effective. Your landing page will always on top of the first page. Choosing the right keyword is very important to boost your traffic. You can use google keyword search external tool  to find the right keyword phrase. You can estimate how your site struggle with your competitors. You can also target your geo location where you want to advertise. The most popular ppc search engine is adword.

Another choice is ppc ad display or general ppc. The most popular is google adsense. Some other sites are great too. They are chitika, clicksor and many others. You still optimize your keyword phrase to promote via this model. Your ad will appear on publisher sites that have similar keyword with your ads. You can use banner display or text ads. It is not cheap sometimes but it is effective. You must set the most interesting ads display to attract costumer to click.

Using adbrite is also contextual to your keyword search. The method of the advertising is to place banner on a site that has high page rank and high traffic.  Your ad will be seen thousand times everyday. The visitors will click and redirect to your site. This is very simple but you still need to equalize your product with the site you are going to place your ads. Your ads will not be effective when your product is about health, whereas the site you are going to promote is about internet marketing. You should place your ads at similar sites.

Paid review is another option. You can sign up at a paid review site as the advertiser. You can browse sites you want to have your site reviewed. You will get link with anchor text of your keyword phrase. This link will make your site rank better in the search engine. Payperpost.com and reviewme.com are great sites. They have many publisher partners. You can bid a price to the bloggers who become publisher partners at a paid review site. When the blogger agree he/she will write a review about your site and your product with anchor text linking to the posting. This method can double benefit from your site. You will get a link from a high page rank blog plus anchor text as you want and your product are reviewed by professional blogger. Your link will not be removed by the blogger forever because once the blogger remove the link he/she has violated the term and condition of a paid review site partner he/ she has joined. You must choose a blog or publisher that is similar to your site so that your link will look better in the search engines.

How to choose the best advertising sites is simple. You just manage and calculate your budget. You can count to allocate all those types of advertising. You can estimate your earning once your sites has abundance of traffic. Your advertising cost is nothing when you compare with the revenue you will get. Your massive visitors can be expected when you can choose the best advertising sites effectively and appropriately.

alternative sites to make money writing online

The growth of internet businesses has opened wide opportunity to make money online. One of the most popular methods is to make money-writing articles online. This method is open for everyone who has passion in writing. You can make money online using this system without having a website. You also do not need to advertise your skill. All are free. There are two good methods to make money-writing articles online. The first, you can sell your articles and the last, you can sign up to some sites and submit your articles.

You may desire the first method. You sign up to these sites and start selling your articles. You also must obey the terms and conditions of each site in case your account will be deactivate.

You wish for selling your articles at high cost. Here is the site. Constant content.com is the option. It is a great site. It has high traffic. The editors of the site will review your submitted articles. You are required to write articles that meet their standard. If your article does not match the editors’ requirements, it is rejected. Your possibility to submit article is only three times. You will pass the screening if your first article is accepted. Soon, your name is listed in the site as the author.

This is another site to sell articles. You feel like to write any topics that you know well and you interested in. Thousand visitors drop by the site everyday so that you have broad prospect to make sales everyday. You just need to sign up paypal or alertpay account as the payment methods. This site is dailyarticle.com.

Articlesale.com is another alternative to make money-writing articles online. It is a great site to promote your articles. You set your own price of your articles. You also get promotion links of each article. You can use your promotion link to advertise at forums and blogs. The buyers are able to contact you so that they would like reorder writing job if they feel satisfied with your work. The payment is via paypal. It is sent directly once you make a sale.

You might prefer making lifetime earning and getting paid once you make a sale. The second system to make money-writing articles online may meet your satisfaction. The types of income of this system are from revenue sharing, up front payment, and page views reward. These sites are recommended to try.

Triond.com is a great site. You join and submit your articles. You will get income from page views calculation and revenue sharing. The threshold of pay out is $ 0,5 therefore you are possible to make monthly income. You can boost your earning by signing up google adsense. Triond makes 50:50 sharing of each click of ads. The awful thing about this site, you have to promote your articles to increase the page views. Your participation with other members is one of the ways to raise article views. Leaving comments and adding more friends will generate your traffic but it works slowly.

You can also select Helium.com. It is a great site too. You will earn $5 every 1000 views. You are free to write topics that you like but you have to submit title suggestion first. Once the admin agree your suggestion, you can submit your article. You ‘d better write available topics in the job offers. Your selection title will be competed with previous post that has similar content. When your article win more votes your will be easily reach 1000 page views.

About.com is the most prestigious site. You not only earn lifetime income but also get up front payment. The selection to author is strict. You also must write good quality articles. The traffic of the site is high. It has page rank 7. Once you are accepted to be the author, you will start to earn flowing income every month.

Knoji.com is nearly the same as about.com. It is an alternative to make money-writing articles online. You do not have to apply for an author position to join the site. You just need to submit your first article and wait for being reviewed. You will earn payment if your article has high traffic and get lifetime earning too. Your opportunity to submit articles is only three times. When the admin does not approve your third article, you must wait for few months to submit your different article for a second time. The standard of the unique article is also high. You are not allowed to use YOU/I as subjects to start sentences.

Infobarrel.com is another site to make money-writing articles online. This is a revenue sharing site. You must sign up google adsense.com or chitika.com to earn income. Your earning depends on clicks of the ads. You also must do much effort to promote your articles. The other income is from sharing of affiliate programs. You have to enter your affiliate codes of Amazon.com or Ebay.com. When you make sales from this site you will earn sharing commission with infobarrel.com.

Bukisa is another revenue sharing site. It only shares revenue from pay per click advertisement. It has link to google adsense and chitika.com. You can decide one of the pay per click those advertising sites. The more clicks on your articles the more commission you will receive. Unfortunately, the traffic is low. You have to promote your articles alone to boost the traffic.

Squido.com is an alternative. It is nearly the same as infobarrel.com. It pays you from sales of Amazon or ebay affiliate and page views. You must create squido lense. You will earn trophies. The more trophies you get the more popular your articles. It is web 2.0 type. Your activity to visit other members will increase your page views.

Hubpages.com is a revenue sharing site. The shares are from google adsense and affiliate sales of Amazon and Ebay. You can also insert your residual income from your affiliate products not from Amazon or Ebay. It has thousands hits per-day. The possibility to make money writing online is big. Your article must be unique and original. You must have a little research to decide the keyword of every posting. You can use google external tool to find the most search keyword.

Web Analytics TV #25 - The Silver Anniversary Show!

Welcome to the analysis ninja show, aka Web Analytics TV! Web Analytics TV, as you well know by now, is powered by your amazing questions. In this awesome episode we had questions from Dubai, India, Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the US.

If you’re new to this show, our process is simple.

Step 1: You ask, or vote on, your favorite web analytics questions. Vote on next week’s questions using this Web Analytics TV Google Moderator site.

Step 2: From a secret undisclosed location at the Googleplex Avinash Kaushik & Nick Mihailovski answer them. :-)

In this episode we award the “Ninja of the Episode” and award it to Eric from Ontario for a great question about calculating the economic value of conversions in Google Analytics. Eric, just email us and we’ll send you a signed copy of Web Analytics 2.0.

OK. Here is the list of last episodes questions.

In this action packed episode we discuss:

• (2:42) Reasons for self referrals on mobile websites
• (5:13) Where to find keywords for (not provided)
• (7:14) Reporting when the same user completes a sequence of tasks
• (8:38) How is social media determined in social reports
• (10:18) What happens when you send more data than the monthly cap
• (12:24) How paths show up when opening up new tabs or windows
• (13:23) How converting on multiple goals are reported in goal funnels
• (15:12) Why sampling occurs on profiles that filter out lots of traffic
• (16:50) Tracking purchases across domains
• (19:46) Can social referrals be tracked using campaign tracking parameters
• (20:53) How advanced segments work when applied to landing pages
• (23:00) The difference between the visitor and unique visitor metric
• (24:50) When will the mobile SDK be updated to have non-interaction events
• (25:50) The difference between product revenue and revenue
• (27:52) What are good tactics to find the economic value of goal conversions

Here are the links to the topics we discuss:

• Smarter Data Analysis of (not provided) post by Avinash
• How visitors and unique visitors are calculated in Google Analytics
• Identify website goal [economic] value post by Avinash

As always, if you need help setting up Google Analytics or leveraging the advanced configuration options, we recommend hiring a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

If you found this post or video helpful, we'd love to hear your comments. Please share them via the comment form below.

This series would not be possible without your awesome questions. Please submit them on our public Google Moderator site, and while you’re there don’t forget to vote for your favorite questions.  Avinash and I will answer them in a couple of weeks with yet another entertaining video.


Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics team