How many visitors take desired action? During same time period that you tracked total number of visitors to your site, you should also track number of visitors that take action that you desire. For instance, if your primary goal on your site is to get visitors to fill out a contact form, how many forms did you collect in allotted period? This number, coupled with your traffic data, forms basis of your site conversion rate. For example, if you had 1000 visitors over a one-month period, and 10 of them sent in a form, your site conversion rate is 1% (10/1000). It is important to draw a distinction between your site conversion rate and your regular sales conversion rates (unless your site is selling online). Not all people who send in a form, for example, will become customers. However, your site conversion rate is a very useful piece of data to have, as you can use it to measure success (or failure) of changes that are made to site.

Three Quick Tips for Improvement: 1. If your traffic levels are too low to draw any meaningful data, consider launching some traffic-building initiatives, such as search engine optimization, affiliate programs, or pay-per-click advertising. 2. Be sure to make it easy for your visitor to take desired action from any page of your site. For example, if you want them to fill out a contact form, make certain that there is a prominent button inviting them to do this on each page. 3. Check your sales copy to be sure it also invites visitors to take desired action. Too often, companies use offline brochure copy on their site without taking into account unique opportunities that online arena affords.

Conclusion: While launching a website can be a big step for any business, it is equally important that performance of site can be measured objectively. Understanding goals of your site and establishing a benchmark from which future success can be gauged is critical to your site's long-term success.

3.Learning from your fellow members. No matter if you are an experienced business professional or new to industry, there is always something to learn from others.

Veteran members have been there and done that so they have voice of experience to offer. Those new to industry can sometimes be an excellent source of new & fresh ideas.

4.You have chance to get involved in new ventures. Many veteran members collaborate to initiate new ventures and projects to help enhance their industry. Usually, during start-up phase of these new ventures, it is common to work with those that you know and respect and have them involved in process. By being a member of an organization and staying involved, you become visible to your fellow members and thus may be requested to become involved in newest industry-boosting project.

5.And finally, one of perks of joining an organization is joy of making new friends.

Many small business owners operate their businesses from home and isolation can become an issue. Being a member of any organization results in making friends with fellow members, reducing isolation aspect. These friendships can also result in a mentor type relationship where two (or more) of you share ideas that will help to boost each other’s businesses and even your personal lives. (Such is case of myself and my best friend Kathy Ritchie of Ritchie Secretarial Service – www.thebestva.com - a fellow Virtual Assistant)

To sum it all up, being a member of an industry specific organization has many benefits and shouldn’t be viewed as associating with enemy. Try to think of your relationship with your fellow industry members as ‘coopetition’ rather than ‘competition’. By working together you can build industry as a whole, your own individual businesses, and even your personal lives.