Ok. Here it goes. I started putting my thoughts together on how I needed to move forward in my new FRESH business. One of the biggest things my mentor told me to do was to have a blog. Well, that’s a no brainer. I already have that, but I didn’t have something very important installed on it. It wasn’t the usual spam blocking stuff or seo pressor for making sure your articles are up to snuff for the search engines. It was something as simple as Google Analytics. I mean really? All you need to do is get this simple little plugin called Google Analytics for WordPress, follow a couple of steps and put the site ID in place and WALAH! You got it.
Sounds simple, but it wasn’t. I fought this thing for hours to no avail. I mean I spent at least a couple of days trying this and that and I finally gave in. I had to actually hire a guy from elance.com just last night to take a look at it for me. More on outsourcing at a later date. But at the end of the day, it was about 10:30 p.m. last night when I jumped on the site and placed my job and within minutes, I had several people bidding on the job to complete it. A long story short, I opted to go with a guy in the United Staes, nothing against other countries, but he actually bid the best price and was in the timeframe of getting it done pretty quickly.
I had some telling me that it was simple and they could get it done pretty quick. Haha! I know it’s simple, but it wasn’t. I know how to put code in your header or footer page, but it wasn’t that. It was more than that. So anyway, he jumped on the job when I accepted the terms of 1 day completion and $20 for the work and we’re off to the races.
Well, an hour passed and still not working. Two hours and still no tracking. By the time 1:oo a.m. rolled around, I said I better get to bed and that I did. I woke up this morning to an email saying he needed access to my FTP (web hosting server) so that he could do some stuff in there. So I shot over the details to him. Within an hour or so this morning, to my surprise, he had it working properly. My was I glad. I knew that this was one of the steps in the process that I had to get going so that I can tell where my traffic is coming from on my site. My mentor told me that you can’t know who to target your energy on (to build traffic) if you don’t know where they are coming from. So first hurdle…….let’s just say. Whooped!
For some it may be simple, but for me it just didn’t didn’t happen. I really wanted to tackle that one myself, but I’ve also been taught that some things you just don’t want to waste your time on, but to focus on the most important aspects of my business and that’s MARKETING and Driving Traffic. Some of these technical issues can be outsourced or done by others. I tend to agree.
Thanks for the read and please leave your comments or feedback. They are much appreciated.
Jerry Handy Sr.
January 21, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Our obstacles are what enable us to grow, from my experience. That’s awesome that you found an outsourcer. Google Analytics is such a handy tool honestly. I used to blindly view my site and wonder what was going on behind the scenes. With Google Analytics it seems as though everything happens for a reason, and it in turn teaches me on a daily basis what I need to improve on. Cheers Jerry! -Tim
January 21, 2013 at 10:09 pm
Yeah man, I understand it more now. I for one have had a couple of sites up for a while and never really knew anything about google analytics. I’ve always kinda depended on my aw stats from my hosting account. Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it.
January 25, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Hey Jerry,
Well done on getting your blog going and for getting Google Analytics sorted. I only recently got Analytics installed on my site and now I couldn’t do without it. It’s been absolutely invaluable to me to be able to see from precisely where my traffic’s coming. Armed with this knowledge I know what’s working and where I should be targeting my efforts. As a newbie it’s all a work in progress, but it’s certainly working! If it wasn’t for Alex Jeffreys I probably wouldn’t even be near to starting, let alone progressing as I am!
All the best with your growth buddy, you’ll accomplish great things, I’m sure
Glenn
January 25, 2013 at 10:59 pm
Glenn, you’re absolutely right. I don’t know how I’ve done without analytics for so long as well. It has definitely allowed me to focus my marketing in the right areas. Thanks for sharing.