What do you think of Web Rings Do they serve the purpose intended
In my humble opinion, most dont. I subscribe to a few of those mysterious rings. The purpose is to find the sites I am most interested in, and of course to get people to find my sites. I surf the rings in hopes of finding an interesting subject. I then study, read, learn, or enjoy a few laughs.
But alas! Lately, all I get is page after page of My Web Rings
I grow tired of trying to find the right link to go to their home pages. What is their site about I dont have a clue, and some wont tell you. Apparently, their site only contains web rings to get you to the next site, that only contains more web rings. In the words of one of my grandsons, Whaz up with that
Some sites I have visited through a ring have only one page, without a link available to go anywhere except to some sales pitch. Nothing is on the page except ads. What it has to do with this web ring, I cant figure out. Their web ring has also disappeared, so I cant even escape that way. Its like going down a dark alley and finding a brick wall at the end, with no way out. I find it very frustrating.
Still, I like webrings. I have to admit I seem to be addicted to the Internet. I also am suspicious of my reasons for searching for new web rings. Am I also becoming addicted to these
My latest new webring admits my addiction to the Internet. I will probably find one that admits my addiction to the rings, as well. I also have the need to surf these rings, giving the sites on my rings plenty of hits! Do they visit me I leave a note when I visit, telling them I was there, but few leave me a reciprocal note. In other words, I dont know if the rings help. Oh, I may get a few visits, a few passers by, but do they like it Do they return I will never know. My pages wont appeal to everyone, of course, we are all different. What can I do about it Join more rings.
I believe the reason some of us join so many rings, is the need to get their work out there, hoping to get their work seen. Some people actually have millions of rings. Pages and pages of those little boxes, trying to interest a visitor in some way, or in some genre, to please come and see what they are doing! Web pages are the closest some of us will ever be to being published, so readers are very important.
What do you search for on the Internet Pages like yours, of course. Things that interest you. New ideas. When you find a site you like, you check its list of web rings, hoping to find one you had missed, that will suit your page, then you join. Is that obsession Friend, that is obsession.
HIT COUNTERS
Hit Counters. Do you use them Do you trust their numbers Do they ever quit working for a few days, and then mysteriously start again Oh, yeah. I have some that take a weekend off about once a month, usually its a long weekend.
I become quite agitated, and check again and again to see if they are working. I replaced one of them last night, and another is on probation. Of course, the rest began to work again this morning. I guess the strike is over for a while. I wont negotiate, if they wont work, they are gone, just like real life. My numbers never add up though. According to my account page, I see I received 90 hits yesterday. My counters dont show that many. It gets depressing.
DO YOU ALWAYS SIGN THE GUEST BOOK
Another thing, when I was just a surfer, I didnt realize the importance of leaving a message on the guest book. Now that I know, I try to always sign their book. Very few leave a message on mine, except for those See the Teen Babes sites. How in the world of the web did they find my family friendly, child safe site Of course I delete those, hoping no one saw them.
It could be that my visitors are like I used to be. They just dont realize that it is important to the site owner. But Web Ringers should know. Web Ringers are a community. If one site does well, dont they all benefit In the words of Martha Stewart, Its a good thing. If the people who sign my guest book leave their website URL, I always visit, and thank them. It is called being considerate. I always enjoy their pages. Especially if they say they enjoyed mine.
SPELL CHECK - EDIT
One of the worst things I see in print, are misspelled words, and words used incorrectly. It really upsets me. I dont know why; oh, of course I do. I think if people really wanted to be read, they would learn to write.
If a page is put up on the World Wide Web, you would assume someone was proud of the content, wouldnt you Wouldnt you think they would be sure all the is were dotted and the ts crossed Nothing puts me off as quickly as seeing misused or misspelled words. I leave the site. If they didnt care enough to edit it, then I dont care enough to read it. Now, I am not speaking of professional sites only, personal home pages can look as professional, with a little care.
Use, but dont depend on spell check! For one thing, you may have the word spelled correctly, for example, there or their your or youre Both are spelled correctly, but they are used differently. The definition is not the same! There are plenty of books on the subject, everyone should have some.
Typos happen, check and edit! Everyone makes mistakes, so dont be offended when someone points yours out to you. I can search my work all day, and still miss an obvious blunder. You may need to leave it for a day, and then come back. Work on something else for a while. Thats why you need an editor. New readers see things you miss, if you are lucky enough to have several readers, they will probably find most of the problems. Never think you wont have format, grammar, punctuation, spelling, or just plain content errors. Everyone will, and does.
My main problems are punctuation and format. I may write an article on one program, then copy and paste it into another program. When I do, I lose the original format, so my spaces are all off. Just take a look at this piece, first single spaces, then double spaces. I try to catch them all, but after a while, I too, become spacey, so I quit. I am confident that someone will catch them and tell me.
A few months ago, I wouldnt have thought about telling anyone about an error. Now I do, if I feel they are proud of their work. I read a poem on a page Id found. The page was very well done, and I could tell she was serious. But, there was a misspelled word. It stood up and screamed at everyone who happened onto her page. I felt empathy, as I too, have misspelled a word or two in my day, so I e-mailed her. She was thankful I had let her know, and she corrected it, which proved to me that I had done the right thing. She was serious about her work. Sometimes, you are so close, you just cant see.
This may seem as if Ive left the subject of web rings, but I havent. If you want return viewers, the page must be enjoyable to read. Editing is important.
Harriet is an author on a site for Creative Writing ( ) Her portfolio can be found at
As Internet business owners, we are bombarded with advice on how to manage, market and grow our businesses. Because of the sheer volume of information, we are forced to weed through the need to know versus the nice to know. We realize that identifying the need to know is essential to achieving our goals.
Think about this
Last month, you spent $2,000 on advertising to send 5,600 visitors to your website and it generated 26 sales.
Did last months activity move you closer to your goals
You dont know, right
Well you need to know.
Why Because you have to decide whether to invest more or less money on the same advertising strategy or to try out a new one next month.
And you have to decide if your current website strategy motivates your visitors to act or if you need to adjust your websites sales copy, headlines, pricing and layout.
In other words, you have decisions to make BUT no information to guide you.
Discovering Your Way to Goal Achievement Your Performance Metrics
Performance metrics are measures that evaluate the performance of your advertising and website strategies.
Also called key performance indicators - performance metrics form a dashboard to gauge the effectiveness of your current advertising and website strategies. They identify the gap between where you are today and where your business goals require you to be tomorrow. As Business Executive, Thomas S. Monson stated,
Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.
You Need to Know These Three Performance Metrics
The following three performance metrics are essential for all web businesses.
A. Conversion rate
B. Cost per Action
C. Value of a Buyer
If you concentrate on just these three, you will achieve your goals with confidence. Why Because
You Cannot Manage What You Do Not Measure.
Conversion Rate Your Performance Lever
Website conversion is a process of turning website visitors into prospects and customers.
The most common website conversions or generically called actions include:
Generating email opt-ins
Producing product sales
Signing up subscriptions
These actions produce measurable outcomes. Ideally, the actions you want to measure are those most closely tied to the growth of your business; therefore product or service sales are the most common actions tracked.
The quality of your advertising strategies (e.g. Overture, Google Adwords, and Yahoo via natural search) and the efficiency of your website (e.g. sales copy, layout, and headlines) are measured by your conversion rate.
Your conversion rate evaluates: (1) the quality of the visitors attracted by your advertising strategies and (2) how satisfied your visitors are interacting with your website.
Your conversion rate is calculated as follows:
Formula: Completed Actions / Total Number of Visitors = Conversion Rate
It is important to use the same time range when gathering your completed actions and the total number of website visitors.
For example, if last month 1,000 visitors visited your website and 10 purchased your product, your sales conversion rate is 1.0%. For every 100 visitors to your website, 1% is satisfied.
By knowing your conversion rate, you make informative and actionable decisions. You manage a continual process of testing new advertising and website strategies, quickly determining their influence on your conversion rate and you either adjust them if your conversion rate drops or maximize them if it increases.
As author Jim Clemens states in his article, Dont Wait to See the Blood!
Improvingperformance without constant feedback is like trying to pin the tail on the donkey when were blindfolded; only through knowing where we are, can we change where we are going.
As a lever, increases to your conversion rate exponentially increase your revenue, profit, and ROI. Like precision instruments used by a high-performance car mechanic, your conversion rate enables you to rev-up your advertising and website sales engine to accelerate goal achievement.
Cost per Action Effectiveness of Your Advertising Dollars
Your cost per action is the advertising cost you pay for one completed action. As with your conversion rate, an action may be generating an email opt-in, producing a product sale or downloading a white paper.
For example, if last month you spent $1,000 on advertising to generate 2,000 visitors and 20 of them subscribed to your newsletter, your cost per action for a newsletter subscription is
$1,000 ad cost / 20 subscriptions = $50.00 Cost per Action
Formula: Advertising Cost / Total Completed Actions = Cost per Action
It is important to use the same time range when gathering your advertising cost and your total completed actions.
Your cost per action shows how well your advertising and website strategies perform relative to your advertising investment. Ideally you want a low cost per action. This is achieved by either increasing your conversion rate (adjusting your website strategy) or reducing your advertising cost (adjusting your advertising strategy).
The importance of your cost per action magnifies when compared to your Value of a Buyer.
Value of a Buyer Knowing What You Earn
Your value of a buyer is the average gross profit you earn from a completed action. It evaluates the efficiency of your advertising and website strategies at turning visitors into profitable customers.
To calculate your Value of a Buyer, youll need some additional data including:
Average Action Value: how much an action is worth to you (e.g. your sales price.) Gross Profit: how much you make on a product or service sale excluding ad costs.
For example, last month you spent $1,000 on advertising to generate 2,000 visitors and 20 bought at an average of $100 per sale with a gross profit margin of 90%; your value of a buyer was...
$100 average sales value multiplied by 90% gross profit = $90.00 Value of a Buyer
You generate $90 in gross profit for every customer through your website.
Formula: Average Action Value x Gross Profit as % of Sales = Value of a Buyer
By comparing your Cost per Action to your Value of a Buyer you quickly gain an understanding of what strategies to maximize, adjust or drop to increase performance.
If your cost per action is less than your value of a buyer, you are making money and are able to increase your advertising budget or maximize your current website strategy. However, if your cost per action is greater than your value of a buyer, you are losing money and need to reduce your advertising budget, find alternative advertising strategies or adjust your website strategy to increase your conversion rate.
Your Value of a Buyer is a benchmark for gauging whether to increase your advertising budget or pause it for necessary adjustments before you sacrifice profitability on a poorly performing advertising or website strategy.
Performance Metrics Reduce Fears and Sets Strategic Direction
Knowing these three performance metrics reduces fear associated with operating a web business. They help quickly identify the advertising and website strategies among the thousands available for your business. And by educating yourself, you become armed with need to know information that guides your strategic thinking, establishes an objective baseline for determining more or less and ensures you are heading in the right direction to goal achievement.
Kevin Gold is CEO of Enhanced Concepts, specializing in turning website visitors into leads or sales, co-editor of WebSalesability.com and published writer. Get a free report, 12 Sure-fire Ways to Increase Your Website Sales and an exclusive 5-day website conversion email course by visiting .