Here is a special price for my readers: 20% discount off LivePerson Pro and Contact Center products.

Titles of Products You Can Download:

• LivePerson Pro Chat
• LivePerson Contact Center (Chat + LiveCall + Knowledgebase + Email Management)

Product Description:

Founded in 1995, LivePerson has the most features you can find in chat support software on the market. It has all the features you need to provide your web visitors as well as customers a superb customer support and sales assistance.

More than 7,000 customers use LivePerson’s award-winning live chat software to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction and lower service costs. Some well known clients include The Home Depot and Bell Canada.

Notable Award

“FORTUNE Small Business 100 2008″

FORTUNE Small Business Magazine recognized LivePerson as one of America’s fastest-growing small public companies based on percentage growth in earnings, revenue and stock performance over the past three years.

How to Get this Special Offer

After you click the link below, enter a Live Chat with LivePerson and mention that you are referred by Abel Cheng and are to receive a 20% discount.

Click here to get this special offer >>

When I asked around, there was a unanimous answer that Google Analytics is the best web tracking software. And what else do you ask for when the service is free.

But I beg to differ.

Though I have installed it on almost all of my sites, I still find Google Analytics lacks something I really want. (Maybe it’s there but I find it hard locating it) I also find out that GA’s interface was not friendly enough and it has too many levels of drill downs – if I want to get more details on something.

That prompted me to embark on the journey to search for another web tracking software that can provide what I need… be it free or paid.

What is web tracking software?

Generally, web tracking software can achieve many things. It keeps track of traffic (how much and from where it come from) and visitors (their demographics). Some require you to install on your server, while others host the software for you.

The most critical feature for marketers

As a marketer the most useful feature a tracking software can provide is the conversion tracking and its corresponding source of traffic features. In other words, I want to find out what traffic converts best and where it comes from. With such stats, I can find out which source of traffic is most profitable.

(Of course, other information is useful as well such as keyword phrases visitors used to find your site, referral URLs, and so on.)

I have been searching for tracking software that gives me this feature but after investigating some of the more popular ones, I was disappointed to find out that most of them do not offer what I want.

The good thing about most tracking software is you can check out their live demo version before subscribing to it. Better still, you can try it out as many offer a trial period of two weeks to a month.

Here’s what I found

One day, while reading my emails in Gmail, one ad stood out. It was about a web tracking service called Web-Stat. To be frank, I hardly click on ads in Gmail but this ad got my attention and I decided to find out more.

After playing around with the live demo, the software looked like what I was looking for. I gave it a try by installing it on my site as I wanted to further confirm the features it could offer. Sure enough, Web-Stat has the feature I was looking for: conversion rate and its corresponding traffic source. This is what I am looking for besides other features like live stats.

Web-Stat has since got me as a new client. When the trial period expired, I gladly signed up for the service. I took up Web-Stat Premium which costs me $9.50 a month.

Another handsome feature that is included in the package is its watchdog feature. It will monitor your site if it is up and will send an email alert to you when your site is down. This enables you to know how reliable your webhost is.

A limitation that you must be aware of before using Web-Stat is – though you can do so – it’s not advisable to use it on more than a site as it can mix up your stats of different sites. But this is not a big problem as the fees are affordable enough for you to install one for each site.

To start tracking, it’s very easy. All you need to do is to install a piece of code (tailored to your account) on all the web pages you want to track. And the software will do the rest for you. To check stats, you just need to log in to its member page and all the information and stats are at your finger tips.

I like its no-frill interface. Web-Stat’s report layout is simple and easy to navigate. You can get the info with one or two mouse clicks. Personally, I find this more user-friendly than Google Analytics.

My final words…

I have been using Web-Stat for a few months now and do I recommend it? My answer is yes. In fact, I am very satisfied with the software and I have no regrets using it. The customer service is excellent too.

I don’t encourage you to sign up for the paid version without trying as you might not know if this is the one you need. To get a better understating of what Web-Stat can offer, there is no better way to do this than visiting the live demo. Or if you wish, you can take advantage of the 30-day trial.

For live demo, trial, or more info about Web Stat, goto:

http://www.abelcheng.com/webstat (my affiliate link)

OR

http://www.web-stat.com (the “naked” link)

From forums and blogs that I follow, I have come across a few cases reported by merchants who fall victims to affiliate scam.

Let’s call it PayDotCom Affiliate Scam or PAS for short.

If you are merchant using PayDotCom (PDC) to sell your products online, please beware of this tactic.

This is the modus operandi the affiliates use in brief:

• The affiliate had two PDC usernames.

• The affiliate sent a number of orders to the merchant.

• Merchant paid him for those sales. Merchant started getting more orders from him.

• All of sudden, merchant started getting chargebacks (sometimes one a day and can be up to 5 a day). Upon investigation, by looking at where the sales came from, they all came from the same (one) affiliate.

• All the customer were having the same email addresses – Gmail or Yahoo account.

How did the affiliate make money?

First he made orders through his own affiliate link. Then the merchant paid him commissions to his affiliate account based on the “sales” he made himself. Then, he asked for refund for purchases orders he made. The net effect? He earned commissions from the merchant for ZERO sales (because of his chargebacks).

Who suffered the most? The merchant of course! Because he paid the affiliate the commission for sales that have been refunded.

Pretty sneaky, huh?

If you are currently using PDC for payment processing, be more alert about this trick. If this happens, the only thing you can do is to report to PDC and file a complaint to Paypal asking for a refund (for affiliate commissions that you had paid).

As of now, I have not found a good alternative yet. But I was told Google Checkout and E-junkie are two solutions that are worth looking at to reduce scam, fraud, and chargebacks. They are reliable and the feedback I receive is great.

NOTE: If you plan to sign up with E-junkie, enter EJVIDEOS as the promotion code. You’ll receive 67 days free trial instead of the normal 7 days. The code is tested to be working at the time of writing.

Update – April 26th, 2010: Ever since I use e-junkie till now, I am extremely satisified with this fantastic shopping cart software. It is easy to add products, track inventory, create discount codes, and more. Best of all, e-junkie only charges a flat fee per month (depending on the package), it doesn’t charge by number of transactions.  Try it and feel the difference.

If you are looking for a decent HTML editor but you don’t want to pay for one, here is one great resource for you.

It’s as good as the paid ones. It has some excellent features that you can use to create professional looking websites.

It is called Evrsoft First Page 2006.

I just tried it out the other day and if you are into coding (or plan to), one of the cool features is the editor will suggest to you what words to use based on the letters you have just keyed in.

Besides that First Page 2006 also has some useful ready-made templates. Such as blank page, feedback form, privacy policy page, 2 or 3 column layouts, FAQ page, and many more. Great for minisite creation.

If you are not well verse in HTML programming like me, some features can really freak you out. But as far as I am concerned, if the editor can provide the basics of creating a website, that is what I want. I just ignore other features and concentrate on what I use.

Check First Page 2006 out to see if this is what you need. And if it is, make it part of your arsenal as HTML editor is one of the must have tools for online marketers.

NOTE: You will be asked to register and purchase a professional version of First Page after your trial period is over. If you don’t want to spend money on this, don’t purchase as the unregistered version still can be used.

This was the very first tool I used to create my first website. And until today, the awesome tool still there standing – stronger than ever – after all these years.

Geez, how fast time flies?

If it’s not a great product, it would have been disappeared long time ago. Just like many other products we see…

The tool that I talking about is Site Build It!

www.sitesell.com

I can’t recommend enough this product and other products by Ken Evoy. He’s one of the few marketers who doesn’t squeeze out of you the last dollar you have. Also, you don’t need to worry that Ken will bombard you with other back-end products.

I like his professionalism and dedication toward his work and products. And his customer service is top-notch – a rare breed in Internet marketing circle.

Okay…enough about Ken, let’s move on.

The tool has stood the test of time and now it is even a better time own it – with this $100 special.

The usual price is $299 for a year subscription. But if you add $100, you’ll get a second package. You can buy for a friend as a gift or share with him.

Your investment? Only $200 per package. You save $100 as compared if you order on normal days.

To take advantage of the offer, hop over to:

www.sitesell.com

If you have been struggling to create a website, this is the tool for you. Why not create it right from the beginning?

When you order, do it before October 31st to take advantage of the promotion.

Have fun,

Abel Cheng

PS: While you’re there, remember to check out a story about Nori – how a 15-year old girl literally generates thousands of dollars by doing exactly that with the tool.

Ways to make money from Nori’s site:

* Google ads — thousands of dollars per month
* Real Estate agent — also very high (she is
a friend, so I keep it a bit confidential)
* Anguilla Villa Rentals
* Hotels, too
* Anguilla Car rentals
* Referrals to offshore corporations
* Affiliate income
* Sale of my own DVD and anguilla keychain,
as well as local crafts

Her website has grown from strength to strength over the years. How much time does she spend on her website?

She said, “I only spend an hour per week on my site, tops.”

Her story is only the tip of an iceberg.

www.sitesell.com

There’s a new search engine powered by humans just launched today:

While the Internet’s major search engines keep adding more computers to scan the Web and run increasingly sophisticated algorithms to pull up meaningful results, dot-com luminary Jason Calacanis thinks there’s still a place for people power.

Backed by a group of investors with impressive track records, Calacanis is putting his theory to the test with Mahalo.com _ a stripped-down search engine geared to handle the most popular requests in widely appealing categories like travel, music, television, movies, cars, food, health, news and sports.

Mahalo, which Calacanis unveiled Wednesday at a technology conference in Southern California, relies on about 40 employees to track down the best responses to some of the Web’s most repeated requests. The findings are boiled down to a series of lists pointing to the most helpful Web sites.

Full report here