My Personal Methods Of Tracking And Testing Articles Part 2

If I submit one article personally to 25 article directories, and in two weeks find I have 1000 copies of my article online, but I pay a submission company to submit a different article for me to the same list of 25 article directories, and after two weeks there are only 100 copies of my article online - I can be reasonably sure that article submission company has not done all the work they have billed me for.

The same method can be used to test different article directories, groups of directories, or different article distribution services.

Another method I use for testing my article traffic is by using a combination of multiple landing pages and my autoresponder service.

This is a little more intricate, and takes a little more time to set up, but it gives me very accurate statistics for exactly where my traffic comes from, and I can target it to the exact article or article directory, if I so choose.

Sometimes I am asked why I dont just use a tracking service to track my traffic, and that is a fair question, and I will answer it before I explain how I do my own testing.

There are two primary ways to track incoming traffic effectively: by creating tracking links which are assigned to specific traffic sources, or by using cookies that track each visitor to a page.

The drawback to using tracking links is that if you write and submit hundreds of articles and they are picked up by perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands of web sites, and they all contain your tracking links, then you are pretty much unable to ever leave that tracking service without leaving your links behind. I am simply not willing to give a tracking company that much control over my traffic.

The primary drawback to using cookies is that they do tend to expire or be deleted. This is generally not a problem for the type of testing of article traffic that I am discussing here, but since I also use my system to track sales funnel origination for my sales, I want to be able to track those sales for a longer period of time than is reasonable with a cookie system.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.