Being able to track everything that a visitor does on your site means that you can analyse is depth which items are attracting attention and which things are slowing progress through your site.

The key to any website is that it's designed to encourage the visitor to take the actions that you want them to.

The Crazy Egg tracking system enables you to accurately measure the effectiveness of your site's layout, navigation and calls to action.

My most recent tests involved the analysis of visitor behaviour on a couple of niche based blogs. I wanted to determine how to best utilise the high value real estate in the top right hand corner hot spot. You may be surprised at the results.....{+}

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I guess we all know how we can set up a split test of two or more pages to determine which one achieves the highest sales conversion rate.

When running any split test it's important that the results are "statiscally significant" based on the number of actions taken: Number of sales, optins, downloads, etc.

Assuming that you have X actions from your control copy, and Y actions from your test copy (where X is the better performing one).

If the difference in the number of actions (X – Y) is greater than the square root of the total number of actions (X + Y), then the difference is statistically significant.

It's generally thought that significance is achieved after 40 actions. But the above formula should be applied to be absolutely sure.

Check out "small changes : Big Profits" - it's probably the most comprehensive book available on the topic of testing and tracking.

Let's look at using split testing for competitive purposes..

First of all, have you considered evaluating a range of similar products as an affiliate?

If you want to discover which is the most profitable product to promote as an affiliate, simply set up your split test script to rotate all the competitive products, check your traffic stats with your sales and you'll see which product generates the highest revenue. As I'm sure you'll discover, the product with the highest commission isn't always the winner!

Secondly, here's one of my "secret" split testing strategies that I've never revealed before.....{+}

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Here are a couple of the methods that I use to build my own lists..

The Article Marketing Power Method

Create a three part article. Part one should be distributed to as many article directories as possible and, where permitted, have "Part One" in the title.

Your "Part One" article should then link to "Part Two" which you publish on your own website or blog. At the bottom of "Part Two" you should position an optin form that must be completed before the reader can continue to "Part Three".

Be sure to keep the best information back for "Part Three" but give them enough information in parts one and two to encourage them to click through to the next part.

The Pay Per Click Power Method

This takes a little bit of time to set up, but it's well worth the investment in both time and money when it's implemented properly.

Choose highly targeted long tail keyword phrases for your PPC adverts and be sure to set your maximum cost per click and campaign budgets so that you limit your expenditure (You don't want to bankrupt yourself within the first couple of days). Your PPC ads should offer a free white paper, or special report, and should "sell" the click to your landing page.

Invest in an attractive and appealing landing page that draws the reader in with a strong headline and a clear call to action. Be sure to emphasise the benefits of subscribing and stress the real value of the white paper or special report that you are offering in exchange for their name and email address.

Remember, first impressions are important and your white paper, or special report, should be well presented and of high quality.. especially the content. There are lots of good PLR materials available on which you can base your white paper or free report and, if you use PLR, be sure to add your stamp to it so that it reflects your personality and demonstrates your professionalism and expertise.

Obviously, your PPC advert drives targeted traffic to your landing page and, when the visitor has confirmed their email, they will be redirected to a page with the link to download their free white paper or special report. However, This offers you with a great opportunity to.....{+}

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Some of the more common ones include the text: "Purchase Now", "Buy Now", "Add to Cart", "Download Now" and many more.

Not only is there such a wide range of alternative texts, you'll also see buttons in every colour of the rainbow! Speaking of colour, what does the colour red suggest to you? It is usually associated with danger or the need to stop, so why would you choose red for a payment button? I can tell you that red buttons are among the worst performers.

Having tested a diverse range of text and colour combinations, I can confirm that the optimum results were achieved with blue, green and grey buttons that were compatible with the design of the site. Good conversions were obtained from buttons with the text "Add to Cart", although there is another choice of text that outperformed all others.. ...{+}

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These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by toolbar user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. ProFlowers 31.1%
2. LL Bean 25.7%
3. Amazon 23.7%
4. VitaCost 23.0%
5. Coldwater Creek 22.4%
6. QVC 21.1%
7. Roamans 20.4%
8. Office Depot 20.2%
9. LandsEnd 19.3%
10. Victoria’s Secret 19.2%

When you look closely at all ten sites, there are a number of factors that jump out.. For example, the similarities in the layouts, the location of special offers and the positioning and style of the navigation links.

If we had access to the eye tracking charts, then I'm sure we'd see exactly why these top converting sites have such a high degree of commonality in those factors.