ProLinkz.com

by Eldon Sarte, Wordpreneur.com 

How many people actually read your ezine? This “readership” information is far more valuable and useful to you — and prospective advertisers — than a generic “total subscribers” count.

But measuring readership of an ezine sent out by email is tough… unless you use ProLinkz.

Particularly if you have an HTML format ezine. ProLinkz will not only tell you how many people actually open your emailed ezine (as opposed to just deleting it or shuffling it off to some never-to-be-seen-again 2READ folder limbo), you can even track time data (how many people read within minutes, hours, or days of an issue’s release).

Measuring a plain text ezine’s readership, however, is a bit more difficult. But not impossible. And made easier with ProLinkz’s help, as described below.

HTML Format

All it takes to measure readership with an HTML format ezine is to include at least one graphic image in your ezine that loads from your server. This can be any image, like a banner, logo, or button GIF, but I personally prefer to use a transparent single pixel GIF image for this purpose, since readers don’t really have to see the image you’re counting.

Don’t have a transparent single pixel GIF? Download and unzip 1pixel.zip which contains a file called 1pixel.gif that you can use.

Note that you don’t have to use a unique image. With ProLinkz, it doesn’t matter; you can use any image, as long as it’s available from your server (that’s why a recurring banner or logo will do the trick).

Next, to make things more manageable, you’ll probably want to generate and install a separate ProLinkz script just for this application. Remember, you can generate as many separate “custom” installations as needed with your ProLinkz account for use with your domain. Install this script into your cgi-bin directory, or wherever you place your CGI scripts, preferably in its very own sensibly-named subdirectory, such as:

http://you.com/cgi-bin/issues

Create a unique Tracking Code for every issue you want to track (I use issue numbers). For the URL, enter the URL of the previously mentioned image file that’s on your server. For example:

http://you.com/images/1pixel.gif

Once you’ve set up a ProLinkz Tracking Code for an issue, you can easily insert it into your issue’s HTML to display the image you’ve assigned to that Tracking Code instead of the actual image URL. For example, for your ezine’s first issue, you’ve set up Tracking Code 001 that points to the single pixel GIF on your server. To display the image in your ezine, simply insert the following line in your HTML where you want the image to “appear”:

<IMG src=”http://you.com/cgi-bin/issues/pl.cgi?001″>

Now, every time a subscriber “opens” the issue, it will load the image from your server, making ProLinkz count and track the occurrence. That’s really all there is to it!

Plain Text Format

Measuring readership of an emailed plain text ezine isn’t quite as open sesame easy as the method described above for HTML format ezines, but not impossible. Here’s one technique. Its success, however, relies heavily on your ability to offer your readers something they will act upon. A time-limited free download works best, in my experience. Preferably something small. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what will work best for your audience.

Instead of specifying a graphic image for each Tracking Code, use the download file’s URL. So, to count readership, simply have ProLinkz count downloads!

Additional Notes

• If you put copies of your ezines on your website, you’ll likely want to use different unique Tracking Codes for these Web copies so you can track how many people read your ezines on the Web vs. email.
  
• Count accuracy is impossible. But who cares? What you’re going for here is a workable ballpark figure, a rating (percent) of your total subscriber base that will help you make educated guesses for whatever purpose.
  
• The techniques above can be used to track and count readership of just about any email message, not just ezines.