Tip one. Register now at budURL because you are going to be blown away by the information this is going to give you.
Tip two install the toolbar short cut. That way you can create a new budURL with a single click. After you have logged in just drag the link to your favourites bar if you are using FLOCK. If you are not best you visit Flock.com and get your copy. Its flocking marvelous.
Tip three. Every time you place a link create a new budurl for it. If you do a second article and link to something you have previously linked to do not use the same budURL because in order to track the effectiveness of your linking you need unique stats for every link. Let’s for the sake of argument say that I place the same article on two different sites. If I use the same budurl, My results are combined, but if I use both, I can tell how many people from each site are clicking through. With these figure I can tell where I am wasting my efforts and where they are giving me genuine good results.
My initial tests were not done as scientifically as this because I used the first 3 urls to see what budURL does for me but I still know where those links were placed.
If website a is giving me an average of 50 clicks and website b is giving me 3, I know that I need to spend more time working on website a and maybe find a replacement for b. Does that make sense?
So lets look at how to use the tracking system as a whole.
For starters every time I add a url, I use an unique identifier in the notes section. I first list where I am placing the link. website and article.
Tip four Check your results. There are two streams here there is the live stream that updates every 10 seconds but I think you need to be seriously anal or have way too much time to sit and watch that for any length of time. The summarised results under MyBudURLS is more than enough data. They have total clicks, 24 hour clicks and 7 day clicks. In my next newsletter I will know exactly how many people clicked through. Isn’t that awesome?
Mind you if Andy were to add a 30 day column that would be even cooler.
Tip five. If you have two different bits of copy in a sales letter you can create a seperate link for each so that you can actually see which one works better. This simple system will allow you to test and improve your conversion rates. I am loving it already and haven’t used it for more than 5 minutes.
As a matter of interest my first three urls have had more than 40 clicks this morning. All of a sudden I know that my marketing efforts are working.
Guy McLaren has been building websites since 1996, Do you need advice and help getting results from your website. Just contact me now.
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Tags: BudURL, Tracking links, website traffic

September 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Thanks for the great review and tips! This is exactly the kind of information we’re looking for from our customers! As for the 30-day view, we’ll be adding in custom date ranges in a future release. A 30-day column will surely be discussed.
Keep an eye out for our next few releases. I believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks Again!
Andy
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:02 pm