I've been watching the little bit of traffic that I have very closely over the last couple of months and I've started to see something weird.

I’m using three sponsors that use geo tracking and I’ve noticed that my UK and European traffic is at a steady 1/600 to 1/800, but my U.S traffic has gone from 1/600 to 1/1100 on the same amount of traffic.

I’m thinking to myself has this got anything to do with it being tax season in the U.S?

Do my Colonial cousins pull their belts a notch tighter at this time of year and has anyone else noticed this kind of thing?

MikeFold showed years ago that March was a peak before spring and summer set in. Whether that continued after that or is more local to the US I do not know.

http://www.gifs.com/empire/

Very interesting data thanks :)

I just felt that with my EU traffic maintaining(ish) it's ratio and my U.S traffic falling that it might have something to do with tax season.

I've found similar things with my traffic but like Colin says I'm putting it down to the spring/summer slow down that I've been hearing about, not looking forward to that :(

Hmmm, not sure. You mentioned spreading a "little bit of traffic" out over 3 sponsors. Could just be random fluctuation. Depends on how many signups you do. 10 signups per month from both the US and EU traffic separately is just about the amount of data you need to begin to have a chance at it but there's still a lot of error there. 25 would be much better.

In my experience most abrupt changes in ratios are just fluctuations.

I have found a good solution over the years. You just have to work harder from April to July to keep up. Then when August comes and signups begin to rise work harder to get ahead.

http://www.linkification.com/linked/red_queen.jpg

"In this place it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place" - The Red Queen (Through the Looking Glass)

What kind of numbers are you talking about? if its only say 1000 hits then I don't think you could gage it very well.

It's better to do it by signups than hits.

http://www.buildinganempire.com/poisson2.html

It's better to do it by signups than hits.

http://www.buildinganempire.com/poisson2.html [/b][/quote]
I agree, you can send those 1000 hits to 1 sponsor and only get 1 signup, but you could send the same 1000 hits to another sponsor and get 10, its the $$ that talks :)

Also here in the US we have a large College Basketball tournament during March and April which may have some impact on sales

See if things start to return to normal over this weekend

But again as you'll hear here from many it takes about 10K hits to get a real feel for performance in any type test

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'll just keep plugging at it and keep an eye on those figures :)

Lots of things influence the internet weather and thus the traffic available and signups in that traffic.

Warm weather sends people outside, bad for traffic.

Summer sends the college students home, bad for traffic and signups.

Cold weather puts the college kids back in the dorms and indoors, good for traffic and signups!

World events can influence both as well. 9/11 for instance drove traffic up but put signups in the toilet as no one was in the mood to rub one out. The pope's death and funeral may even have had a similar chilling effect....but then again, everyone knows catholics dont masturbate....

Excellent points thank you :) , I really think I'm watching my traffic a little to close (getting obsessed now).


:)

Years ago, a client said, we want stats, we want detailed stats, because we have no stats and we don't sleep.

I told them -- once you have stats, you won't sleep either. They disagreed.

Three months later after watching their stats, every time their ratio dropped slightly they had to analyze what had changed, did this affect things or did that affect things and they said: You were right, now that we have the stats, we never sleep.

I agree that you need to send quite a bit of traffic, 5000-10000 hits before making a true judgement, but, you can have gut feelings about traffic productivity. Once you find something that works, I usually suggest you don't play with more than 50% of your traffic on new things.

So many times I've seen people doing something that works, only to abandon that totally because they heard something else works better, and then had to struggle to get back that income that they threw away.

I'm totally obsessing now, everything from where they enter my sites, the way they flow all the way down to what banners pull. Thats just the stats I've got on my sites :(

I'm checking sponsor stats on what seems like a 30 minute regime :cryin:

I am happy that everyone is looking for a postive answer to this however I have seen a lot of sponsor start doing well and then shave the fuck out of you. Specially on USA traffic.

Your fluctuation goes in hand with the kind of fluctuation we see with RemoteThumbs

start making 1 in 600 and you get 2 or 3 days of that then it drops like crazy.

I know there are trust worthy sponsors outthere and yadda yadda yadda but I think in your case you are being a victim of Gillete Mach3 and shaving cream.

:wnw:

Im with you on this one

The non US traffic remains stable yet the US traffic is turning to crap.. sounds like a razor burn is on its way.

B)

The only stats that matter are the ones that show up in the mailbox and say "Pay to the order of" :yowsa:

The only stats that matter are the ones that show up in the mailbox and say "Pay to the order of" :yowsa: [/b][/quote]
Amen to that :)

Amen to that :) [/b][/quote]
So, stop staring at your stats...dammit.

I can see you there, every half hour going and checking the logs, then clicking through your sponsors, etc etc...

STOP IT !!!

Go build something. Add to your empire. Don't worry about the stats. Check them once a day or a few times a week, or get remotestats (or whatever it's called, don't use it myself) or one of the programs that monitors sales for you automatically and let that do the work for you.

A watched pot don't boil..... :okthumb:

:wnw:

Im with you on this one

The non US traffic remains stable yet the US traffic is turning to crap.. sounds like a razor burn is on its way.

B) [/b][/quote]
even after all the information given in this thread about how social factors effect internet usage, you still arrived at the conclusion that it must be shaving?!

>>>The non US traffic remains stable yet the US traffic is turning to crap.. sounds like a razor burn is on its way.

wouldn't this more point to there being country based factors that are not just sponsor specific? :unsure:

If you always use shaving as the reason for why your numbers move downwards, you'll never learn anything about traffic patterns and how/why you get a sale.

if you are being shaved by a program that's good at it, you'll never know anyway ...

stats are just a numerical representation of logic ... if the weather is nice, everyone goes outside, if its bad they go inside. if something is in the media people search for it more. whether you have 10 clicks or 10 million, you can't avoid environmental factors so get used to it ;-)

its been said several times already ... use the time you are spending checking stats to build more sites. you could have doubled those numbers by now and be seeing a better pattern.

""""if you are being shaved by a program that's good at it, you'll never know anyway ...""""

Unless the program owners phone you up to taunt you about it when they get drunk ;-))))

LMFAO

yeah, unless that

:lol:

Btw , No one ever mentions the reverse shave.

;-))))

some days, I want to reverse shave
I see some of the crap traffic coming through from some affiliates and feel sorry for them, so would love to add a sale or two...and of course those are often the affiliates thumping me on ICQ about whether or not we're shaving....

another thing affiliates often forget about is the scrub...the other "s" word...

*nodding*

reverse shave :agrin:

newbies: beware of a program that you just start sending traffic to that gives you signups more than your average should be ... if it drops, there's a chance you have been razored in reverse ;-)

some days, I want to reverse shave
I see some of the crap traffic coming through from some affiliates and feel sorry for them, so would love to add a sale or two...and of course those are often the affiliates thumping me on ICQ about whether or not we're shaving....

another thing affiliates often forget about is the scrub...the other "s" word... [/b][/quote]
If I signup and dont grief you on icq will you reverse shave me :)

So, stop staring at your stats...dammit.

I can see you there, every half hour going and checking the logs, then clicking through your sponsors, etc etc...

STOP IT !!!

Go build something. Add to your empire. Don't worry about the stats. Check them once a day or a few times a week, or get remotestats (or whatever it's called, don't use it myself) or one of the programs that monitors sales for you automatically and let that do the work for you.

A watched pot don't boil..... :okthumb: [/b][/quote]
:lol: lol

Starting today I'm checking them once a day and thats it :)


The temptation to hit refresh is killing me though :unsure:

:lol: lol

Starting today I'm checking them once a day and thats it :)


The temptation to hit refresh is killing me though :unsure: [/b][/quote]
Go on do it you know you want to :P

Well, how bout it kiddo? Is the cold turkey thing working ?

Did you get more done by not looking at the stats ? Or did you fret yourself out all day wondering about them ?

expiring minds want to know.. :blink:

expiring minds

:lol:

Becki, everytime you feel yourself wanting to check stats, go and have a cigarette instead :biglaugh:

some days, I want to reverse shave
I see some of the crap traffic coming through from some affiliates and feel sorry for them, so would love to add a sale or two...and of course those are often the affiliates thumping me on ICQ about whether or not we're shaving....

another thing affiliates often forget about is the scrub...the other "s" word... [/b][/quote]
I term the reverse shave is when they take a sale from an affilaite and give it to someone that posts thier stats with ref codes so they can inflate the numbers.

Well I didn't quite manage to just check once like I said :(

I checked them about 5 times yesterday which is better than every 30 to 40 minutes :)

Plus I got about 2 1/2 times more done than I normaly get done on a Monday :D




If I did that I would be on 60 a day :lol:

Then just think about having a smoke instead of your stats :P

Ok, every time you get the urge to look at your stats, instead, either build a site or do a round of submittals or something similar. Promise yourself that you can look at your stats if you want. once you're done with the build

Then, when you're done with that build. Do it to yourself again.

By the end of the day you will have a bunch more work done yet again and the stats will be exactly the same as if you had checked them all day long.

:okthumb: