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LexiConn – May 2007 Newsletter
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In this Month’s Newsletter:
* Pay Per Click Advertising
* WordPress Upgrade and Information
* Featured Client: carodanfarm.com

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Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising technique that is used by websites and search engines, where the advertiser pays only when a user clicks on their link. Advertisers bid on certain keywords / phrases for which they believe their target market would search. There are several PPC engines available, with the top three being Google, Yahoo, and MSN. While pay per click is generally viewed as one of the most effective means of web advertising, it is also prone to abuse commonly referred to as click fraud.

Click fraud occurs when either a person or automated script clicks on an ad for the sole purpose of generating a charge for the advertiser. The PPC engines have checks in place to identify this sort of behavior, so that you do not get charged for fraudulent clicks. Aside from identifying click fraud, it is of obvious importance to verify the number of pay per clicks that you receive to ensure that you that you are not being overcharged. Most people generally rely on the data provided by the PPC provider, but it is also worthwhile to substantiate that data using an outside source of statistics, such as Urchin (as well as comparing PPC campaigns).

Urchin is an industry leading web analytics software solution that analyzes web traffic for your website and provides accurate and easy to understand reports on your visitors. This includes information regarding where your visitors come from, how they use your site, how many visitors browse your site, and more… You can review past data, generate reports for certain date ranges, and export the data to applications such as Microsoft Excel or Word.

Urchin is also more accurate than other applications in that it analyzes the raw log file directly on the server, as opposed to relying on JavaScript. The JavaScript method is less accurate, as it will fail to record hits made by users who are blocking JavaScript. Additionally, Urchin offers a section on Page Query Terms, which can be used to track pay per click campaigns as it allows you to verify the traffic for which you are paying. The data in this section will be completely accurate even if users block JavaScript, cookies, or referrer data, because the links from ads are configured with specific variables in them, even if the landing page is not dynamic. Thus, Urchin is able to categorize the hit based on the URL utilized.

To use a page query term, you would add tracking code to your URL. For example, you could add a term like cpid (for campaign id) to your website URL used in your PPC ads:

http://www.your_domain.com/books.html?cpid=google
http://www.your_domain.com/books.html?cpid=yahoo

In urchin, you can view the page query terms and see which PPC ads bring the most traffic to your site.

An example of the stats Urchin tracks can be found at:
http://69.94.67.101:9999/

username: urchindemo
password: urchindemo

If you are interested in adding this service to your account ($5 per month), the online request form is located at:
https://lexiconn.com/lexiconn/secure/add_urchin.html

If you are a ShopSite Pro customer, LexiConn has an Urchin Ecommerce Module that does everything the standard Urchin does plus detailed information on revenue data. This module is great for helping you analyze your sales and figure out how your customers are finding you. Full details regarding this offering can be found at:
http://www.lexiconn.com/ecommerce/shopsite/urchin.html

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WordPress Upgrade and Information

WordPress, the powerful and easy to install blog software, has been upgraded to the latest 2.0.10 version. This version is a bug and security fix. WordPress is available as a one click install via LexiConn’s Account Manager. Any new WordPress installs will install this version automatically.

If you have an existing WordPress blog, and want to upgrade it to the latest 2.0.10 version, contact us and we can help with the upgrade.

The new version 2.1.3 is also available from WordPress. We will be offering this directly from the Account Manager in the near future.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with blogs, they are essentially an online diary / chronology of thoughts. Blogs have become quite popular with many prominent business owners and top-level management, who often use them as a way of providing information about their companies.

Unfortunately, but expectedly, as the popularity of blogs increased, so did their value as a target for spammers. Comment spam is now a regular occurrence in blogs. Typically, spammers will insert their website links into your blog in an effort to create as many external links as possible, which in turn can increase their search engine positioning. If you are using the WordPress blog software that we offer, there are several things that you can do to combat comment spam on your site. It is important to keep active in this effort, as spammers will change their methods to try to get around blocking techniques. The following two links are kept up to date with the latest information about combating spam in WordPress:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Combating_Comment_Spam
http://codex.wordpress.org/Combating_Comment_Spam/FAQ

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Featured Client: carodanfarm.com

This month’s featured client is carodanfarm.com. Carodan Farm started its wool business back in 1980, and has since expanded to offer a full range of natural fiber yarns, blends of these yarns, and knitting supplies. Due to its location in rural Virginia, the farm shop did not receive much “drop in” traffic, so they decided to launch an online store. Carodan Farm’s website was designed to offer its customers an easy way to shop for the best in knitting supplies while maintaining a friendly farm-like look and feel, incorporating photos of animals, farm life and family.

http://www.carodanfarm.com/

For more detailed information on this month’s featured client as well as a listing of all past featured clients, please go to:

http://support.lexiconn.com/news/viewforum.php?f=4