If you are advertising online, which you should do on a regular basis, then it's absolutely vital for you to know the results you're getting. Otherwise your advertising efforts could just be a waste of time and money in the long run. Period.

Eventually, sooner or later, you WILL consider TRACKING your text ads, signatures, banners, articles, etc.

And of course you will have to find a professional, cost-effective and reliable ad-tracking software or a third party online service. By using it you'll know exactly which ads are driving the most traffic and which are only burning your money.

It's really easy to see this, plus there are many free services that'll cost you nothing. So let's take a look at some of the most popular ones.

1. hyperTracker -- http://www.hyperTracker.com

A third party online service that's really easy-to-use and you can start using it in a matter of minutes. You get the choice between two versions -- a free and a paid one.

The Pro version ($16.95 to $10.95, according to the period you pay for) allows you basic features such as tracking clicks, but also advanced ones such as actual sales and coding your links with your own domain name. The free version allows you only to track clicks. You receive a 90
days risk-free guarantee with the Pro version.

An affiliate program is also available that pays you 30% on direct sales and 10% on 2nd level sales.

2. ROIbot -- http://www.ROIbot.com

Another third party solution for your online business that offers advanced tracking for your ads, follow-up autoresponder, automate FFA submission, expert advice of the month and much, much more.

Although free version is not available you get your first month risk-free for just $1 and every next month will cost you $17. So it's really worth checking it out! Besides, most of the Internet marketing experts I know are using this service.

An affiliate program is also available paying you monthly on two tiers -- $4 / $1.

3. LinkCounter -- http://www.LinkCounter.com

Yet one more third party ad tracking service provider, but this time, a completely free one. Although free, it offers you very basic statistics so it just might be not what you need.

However spend a few minutes and give it a go, especially when coding your links is so simple. Note, that if you have more than one domain name you will have to create a different account.

4. StatCruncher -- http://www.StatCruncher.com

It offers you a 30 days trial version, which you can start using immediately as this is another third part solution that doesn't require you to install any kind of software. Just plug-in and watch the results.

However if you want to keep using it after this 30 days trial you will have to pay $69 annually, with no additional fees. You also get a 30 days risk-free guarantee.

You can also resell their service and receive 30% from the sales.

5. AdTrackz -- http://www.AdTrackz.com

This tool is actually a CGI script that you'd have to install on your server that would cost you $47, one time with a 30 days risk-free guarantee. If you can't install it yourself, they will do it for $25.

The only technical requirements is that your host is Unix/Linux based and allows you to run CGI scripts i.e. it has Perl installed on it.

As for the tool it self, well it offers pretty advanced stats such as referring URL, browser, time of the day, etc. Everything is displayed on one page, making it easy-to-access.

The affiliate program is one tier and pays you 50% through ClickBank.

6. Ultimate Link Tracker -- http://www.SiteSell.net

It's another advanced CGI software with a good number of stats available. For example you can see from which link did the visitor come, the unique/all visitors ratio, etc.

Best of all you can get this ad tracking software for free, when you become an affiliate of the famous 5 Pillar Club, which is also free.

If you can't install it you can go to http://www.ablake.net/forum/ and ask for some help or you can visit my site and email me and I'll get my programmer to install it for you.

The moment you take advantage of one of the above ad tracking solutions, you will start increasing your advertising revenues. By knowing which ads were effective and which not you'd be able to create cost-effective advertising campaigns in the future and thus save a lot of
money.

Although a little costly these tools would easily pay-off by saving you money that you could invest in more profitable projects.