Copyright (c) 2008-2009 Joe Cleland

 

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Many folks mistakenly believe that Microsoft Excel is strictly for accountants and bookkeepers, but it is really so much more. The fine programmers at Microsoft have tried to think ahead to how people would like to use spreadsheets, and they incorporated most of that additional functionality into Microsoft Excel.

Advertising Analysis

If you are a marketer who uses Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing for your Pay-Per-Click advertising, both offer their customers the ability to download reports from their systems in either CSV format or Excel format. The beauty about Microsoft Excel is that you do not have to have your data preformatted in Excel format to be able to use it.

Microsoft Excel will import data from many formats, including multiple spreadsheet programs, web pages, text files, and database applications, including the database of choice on the Internet, Mysql Databases.

One can actually download data from an advertising service, for import into Microsoft Excel. Once inside of Excel, one can actually slice, dice and analyze the information in the spreadsheet, to be able to better understand the data.

While both aforementioned advertising services do offer you a table on a web page to enable you to review your data, many people find that when they put the data into a spreadsheet application like MS Excel, they find that they can uncover jewels of information that simply are not that obvious within a web page demonstration of the data.

Income Analysis

Many webmasters tend to utilize more than one system to generate revenue with their websites. For example, many webmasters offer Google Adsense ads, Yahoo Search Marketing ads, Chitika ads, advertisements connected to affiliate programs, etc.

Frequently, the analysis of what has made you money in the past is a good indicator for figuring out what can make money for you in the future.

For example, by looking at the data in an Excel spreadsheet, you might be able to see opportunity that should be pursued on a grander scale. Especially when you are dealing with Google Adsense or Chitika, you might be able to see a particular topic on your website generating a higher revenue-per-click than the others. If one topic is generating 40 cents per click, against other topics that only generate 20 cents per click, why not target more content to the 40 cents per click topic?

Improving Your Sales Copy and Information Display

As a marketer, you likely understand how important and effective it is to put data into a graph for presentation to your websites’ visitors.

By using the built-in Microsoft Excel “functions”, you can run calculations to interpret your base data for display to others. Using the built-in Excel formatting tools, you can display that data in an attractive and visually appealing manner.

By using a simple copy-and-paste function, from MS Excel, any report you build in Microsoft Excel can be copied to any graphics editor, to save as an image, which can be placed on your website quickly and easily.

The “copy function” can be reached by clicking Edit-Copy from the menu bar, right click your mouse and click Copy, or simply hold down the Control-Key on your keyboard, then hit the “c” key.

The “paste function” can be reached by clicking Edit-Paste from the menu bar, right click your mouse and click Paste, or simply hold down the Control-Key on your keyboard, then hit the “p” key.

These Are Just The Basics

What we have covered in this article are just the basic concepts of how you can use Microsoft Excel in your online business.

The potential uses of Microsoft Excel in connection with your online business are so much more than what I could document in this article.

But, the point I want to convey more than any other is that my uses of Microsoft Excel will not be the same as your use of MS Excel. As I will find many useful and productive ways to use Excel, you also will find many useful and productive ways to use Excel that will be different from me.

Only with a real understanding of Excel and all of its built-in functions, will you and I be able to see the full range of uses it could accomplish for us. But, neither of us will have the requisite understanding of this powerful software application, until we have taken the time and effort to get proper Microsoft Excel training that is designed to show us how to fully utilize this important business software.

About The Author:

My name is Joe Cleland, and I work with K Alliance, LLC. You can visit our website to learn more about our Excel Tutorial at: http://www.cbtplanet.com/excel.htm We can also be reached by phone toll-free at: 866-718-7246

Read more articles written by: Joe Cleland