I was horrified.

I had just spent $400 on advertising -- advertising that
only yielded $100 in sales.

Desperate to make up my losses, and not knowing which of
my three ad campaigns actually produced the sales, I made
a guess. I figured that most of my profits must have come
from the ad campaign that reached the largest number of
people -- in my case, an ezine with over 50000 subscribers.
So I naively shelled out another $200 for an ad - a wasted
$200, I might add, since I didn't make a single sale.

Thankfully I've learned a lot since those frustrating
days as an online business 'newbie' ... but the above
scenario isn't uncommon for beginners to the Internet
business world. We're constantly bombarded with claims
of fast, easy money - and they're hard to resist.

For example, when I first started online, I was told that
all I had to do was purchase a top sponsor ad in an ezine,
place a 'tested' and 'proven' ad ... and presto! I'd
be several thousands of dollars richer.

It didn't work. I faithfully purchased a number of ads
and followed the instructions to the letter. Hundreds
of wasted dollars later, I was completely discouraged
and almost ready to give it all up.

I'm glad I didn't. I learned that not every marketing
campaign will be successful ... unfortunately, all too
often people try an online business and give up when
they're unable to make money at it. In some cases,
sticking with it a while longer could have turned a
'failure' into a 'success'.

That doesn't mean doggedly doing exactly the same thing
over and over again, hoping to see better results. If
you do the same thing you'll get the same results.

Testing your marketing efforts is critical to your success.
And one of the simplest ways to do this is to use an ad
tracker.

Ad trackers provide you with a way to 'code' each of your
marketing campaigns. You use this special coded URL in
your ads -- and whenever a visit clicks on the URL, the
tracker records the 'hit'.

In other words, these tracking codes tell you how many hits
and unique visitors you get from each of your advertising
campaigns. By analyzing this information, you're able to
instantly see which of your campaigns are successful -- and
which are not.

Ad trackers don't cost much at all ... yet this small
investment can yield huge returns! Two of the most popular
are:

= ROIbot, http://www.roibot.com/r_r.cgi?R46886_article -
this is the tracker I use most. It's easy to set up
and to manage, and it comes with a whole bunch of other
features including an autoresponder.

= AdTrackz, http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/rd/adtrackz.htm .
This powerful CGI script is installed on your server,
and you only pay a one-time fee for its use (unlike
most of the others, where you pay monthly). Once set
up, it's very easy to use.

Using an ad tracker really opens your eyes. I had always
thought, 'The more people I reach, the more sales I'll make'
-- you know, the usual traffic hype that we all hear.

Instead I found out real truths about what was working for
me and what wasn't. For example, my ad tracker taught me
that it's not the size of the ezine that counts ... it's
how many people actually *read* it. It also taught me
that just because a website gets a lot of traffic, it
doesn't mean that advertising on that site will give you
*results*.

By testing everything you do, you'll get solid proof of
what doesn't work, what works well, and what can be improved.
You know which ad campaigns to continue ... and which ones
to dump for something more profitable.

So track your marketing efforts -- every single one of
them. You'll gain valuable insight about where your sales
are coming from, and be able to learn and grow from these
insights. Your bottom line will thank you!

About the Author
Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, an
exclusive newsletter for eBusiness beginners. She offers
a 'no hype, no bull' approach to building a profitable
Internet business. Every issue is packed with helpful
tips and useful tools, specially selected to fit a
beginner's shoestring budget. Visit her online today
at http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/begin.html