When I worked with a lot of clients as a virtual assistant many would ask me a question over the phone or by email that I almost always had a hard time answering.

They wanted to know the best way to do something, whether it be sending out their newsletter in text or html, should they blog or use a static site, should they have links on their salespage and all kinds of other questions.

Now I know a lot of internet marketing techniques, advice and theory and I’m happy to share this information. The problem is that every online business is different, has a different market, different products and different people who are attracted to it. It is NOT a one size fits all when it comes to marketing solutions.

Here’s what I would tell my clients when they asked me that question:
“It’s all just a guess until we test”

It’s simply theory.

I seem to say this over and over but I know there are so many people who are not actually testing and tracking their results. I’ve been guilty of this myself many a time.

Sure, it’s easier just to throw something up and hope for the best BUT…..If you’re not testing and tracking you might as well be flushing your money down the drain.

And if you don’t know what works for your business you shouldn’t be outsourcing until you do unless you have a lot of money to waste (and who wants to waste their money!?).

It really doesn’t have to be complicated either, in fact it’s really best that it’s NOT complicated so that you’ll be more likely to understand the results and keep testing over and over again to keep raising your profits.

As I mentioned already, it’s all just theory until you test it.

I can tell you that you need to send short, clear messages to your list with only a single focus but unless you check the results of this you’ll never know if it works for your business. I can tell you blogging daily will get you more subscribers but maybe it won’t…you won’t know unless you test it. I can tell you that sending out 10 email promotions and 1 quality email will make your list hate you but….you get the picture.

Here are just a few of the things you should be tracking now. If you are not, you’re losing money. Plain and simple:

* Newsletter – track subscribers, clickthroughs
* Salespage – conversion
* Blog – clicks, conversions, visitors
* Affiliate Program – converting affiliates
* Traffic – where are people coming from
* Article Submissions – click-throughs on the bio link
* Ads – are they working

Do you send out a newsletter every week? Do you know why or do you just do it because everyone else does? What is your goal with that newsletter and what results do you get? Track it!

Before you start a single new thing with your business, try this simple 3-step exercise:

1. Look at everything you do for your business on a regular basis, things such as sending out a newsletter, selling an information product or posting to your blog.
2. Next, write down a goal for that task. What is your desired outcome?
3. Next, figure out how you can track that to see how much effort it requires to get the results you want – this is a critical step!

If you’ve never done this before you might be amazed at the number of things you do ‘just because’. Paying close attention to what’s working and what’s not means you can constantly improve your business and ONLY work on and outsource what really works for you.

This doesn’t have to be complicated. Really it is a great idea to keep things simple but make sure you know how your business makes money. Once you know that you will have great power to continue to build what works and let go of the things that are purely sucking up your time.

Angela Wills, Internet Business Trainer