| You already have a website; readers sign up for your | | | | effective and I'm glad that no one is finding my site |
| newsletter; and you link to Amazon so visitors can | | | | using searches such as "terrible writer" |
| rush off to buy your books. As a writer trying to | | | | ** What type of sites should I guest-blog on? |
| build a following, are you getting the most out of | | | | Imagine you have two invitations to guest blog, but |
| your author website? | | | | only time to do one. Which do you choose? Looking |
| You can't answer this question until you know how | | | | at data from your past guest-blogs can help you |
| many people are visiting your site, where they come | | | | decide. |
| from, and what pages they visit on your site. This | | | | Using Google Analytics, you can find out exactly how |
| article will tell you how to do this for free using | | | | many visitors arrived at your site from each of your |
| Google Analytics. | | | | guest blogs. You might find that you get most clicks |
| *** What is Google Analytics? *** | | | | when you blog on author sites in the same genre as |
| Google Analytics is a tool that lets you track visitor | | | | you, or you might find that you get most clicks when |
| activity on your website. It is free, simple to install, | | | | you blog in far-flung and unusual places. |
| and provides easy-to-read reports that will answer | | | | ** Was that bookstore signing worth it? |
| most of your questions about how people are | | | | Google Analytics also tracks the geographic origins of |
| reaching and using your site. | | | | your website visitors. If you do a bookstore signing, |
| *** Why Should I use Google Analytics? *** | | | | you can determine whether website visitors from |
| Information is power. | | | | that locale increased before/during/after the signing. |
| You can't evaluate the effectiveness of your author | | | | While this isn't the only measure of a signings |
| website until you have some data to give meaning to | | | | success, it provides another piece of evidence to |
| your hunches. I'll gives you three examples where | | | | help you decide how to spend your precious time. |
| data from Google Analytics can help you direct your | | | | These are only three examples of how Google |
| marketing efforts. | | | | Analytics can increase the effectiveness of your |
| ** Is my brand effective? | | | | author marketing efforts. There are dozens more |
| You've decided on a brand and come up with a killer | | | | reports you can review, such as which pages on |
| slogan. Is it working? | | | | your site get the most traffic, which pages do most |
| To answer this question you can use Google | | | | visitors leave from, etc, etc. |
| Analytics to review the key words that visitors are | | | | **** How Do I Get Started? **** |
| using to find your site. Not surprisingly, the top | | | | Your first step is to go to Google Analytics at and |
| keywords used to find my site are "Nina Davies". But | | | | sign up for a free account. |
| visitors have also found my site using the following | | | | To get the tracking started, you then need to paste |
| searches: | | | | some code into the pages of your website. Adding |
| -Romantic suspense author | | | | the code is quite simple. Whoever developed your |
| -Authors psychic romantic suspense | | | | website should be able to do it in ten minutes or less |
| The first example makes sense, since I brand myself | | | | (perhaps a bit longer if many pages need to be |
| as a romantic suspense author. The second was a | | | | edited). If you developed the site yourself, follow the |
| surprise since I'm not a paranormal writer, although | | | | instructions on Google. |
| one of my unpublished books features a psychic | | | | Have fun with Google Analytics. You'll be amazed at |
| heroine. So far I'm satisfied that my branding is | | | | the information at your fingertips. |