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Tackling the Spreadsheet Challenge
October 11, 2006
I've decided I really need to start learning how to use spreadsheets in my online business. I know it's another learning curve, but I'm starting to see that this is one learning curve that will probably increase my income potential.
It's all good news, really. Recently, my husband and I applied for a loan for leasehold improvements for one of our offline businesses. And the bank wanted a current income statement. I've been pretty lax in giving my husband my online income numbers for the past little while, so I was scrambling to tally up all the income and all the expenses for him.
We did get the loan. And I also got a pleasant surprise (the kind of suprise that's pleasant as long as it's not happening around the time you have to file your income tax return). I've been making more than I had thought. All those dribs and drabs, when tallied up, do actually add up.
And that's also when I realized I really need to start working with spreadsheets. I have so many different sites, and I need to know which sites are making more money because it just makes more sense to focus on those sites and leverage the income potential that already exists.
While I generally do have an idea, overall, which of my sites are producing well, I discovered some surprising things. Like the fact that one of my sites that only gets a modest number of visitors actually is doing well in terms of monetization, relatively speaking. It's one of those situations where, if I could increase the traffic, the actual amount I make per visitor would surpass one of my higher-traffic sites.
Basically, I need to have an accurate, bird's eye view of what is making me money - I think that on some of my sites, Adsense is really a leak that needs to be plugged, rather than a money maker. And on other sites where I'm not using Adsense, it just might be a good idea to stick some Adsense ads in for a test run.
One final thing that's been driving me. As some of you know, I've been playing with the idea of Adwords for a while, but I've never really taken the step towards committing a lot of resources and time to it.
Well, I'm ready now. A real Adwords adventure is in the works for me, and from everything that I've been reading, it looks like spreadsheet skills will be essential.
As luck would have it, over the summer I actually took on an offline project that involved a simplified spreadsheet. I ended up downloading Open Office (utterly fantastic office suite, and free to boot) and getting familiar with the Calc program.
I don't know if I will become an Adwords whiz or not, but what I'd like to do is complete the individual specialist certification that Google offers. And in order to do that, I have to manage an Adwords account that sees a spend of $1,000 over a 90-day period.
I figure, I might as well try to put what I've been learning about Adwords into action during this time period, too.
Sounds good to me.
So, learning curve - here I come!
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Posted by BJ at 03:41 PM in Adwords, Internet Marketing | Permalink
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