However, the deeper you get into online marketing, the more you begin to realize that no matter what you do, if you REALLY want to succeed, you're going to have to spend some money.

First, you'll need a domain name. Then, you'll need a web host. You may feel the need to purchase an HTML editor to create your web pages with, or even hire a web designer.

You'll want some interactivity on your web site, so throw in a CGI programmer to install a few (free) scripts.

And that's just getting your site on the web. You haven't even begun to advertise yet.

You may want to purchase some banner advertising, a few e-zine ads, and some opt-in mailings. And before you do that, you'll need some way to test your ads, because after all, you need to know which ads are working and which aren't. With all the time and money spent, you've got to have a way to test.

There are software programs you can purchase, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars, that'll tell you all about your web site visitors. Which pages they visited, how long they stayed, which browser they were using, and the most important statistic of all....where they came from.

This is what you need to be concerned with to know which ads are working. And, as a fellow online marketer, I know the value of ANY good, 'free' technique. So, I'm going to give you a sure-fire, FREE technique for tracking your hits.

The first thing you need to do is sign up for a free web tracking service. There are lots of them out there, but I'd recommend HitBox,
     http://www.hitbox.com.

I've used most of them, and I've found HitBox to be the most reliable, plus they give you more stats about your visitors than I've found anywhere else.

Once you've signed up with HitBox, you'll see that with just a couple of tweaks to their HTML code, you can track each and every page on your site. They offer complete instructions on how to do this.

Next, and this is the important part, for every ad you place, create a different page. This isn't nearly as hard as it might sound.

All it takes is some cutting and pasting. Say you're advertising your main page in an e-zine. Most of our main pages have a URL such as http://www.yourdomain.com .

Now, let's say you've placed an ad in an e-zine called "example." This is how you'd want to write your URL in that particular ad:
      http://www.yourdomain.com/example.html

Now, go to your main page and copy the entire HTML code to your clipboard. Create a new page, paste the HTML into it, and name it 'example.html.'

The only change you need to make is to the HitBox code. Change the page name to 'example' and you're done.

Now, any hit that you get to that page, you KNOW came from the ad you placed in the 'example' e-zine.

This method will not only save you some money NOW, but it'll save you money in the long run, too. If you don't know WHERE your hits are coming from, you may be wasting money on ads that just aren't working.