Mymotech

I love web analytics. It is one of my life’s highlights to have gotten involved with it when it was still fairly young, all the way back in 2004. For all of you that are longer in the tooth than I am, before scoffing just think about what was available online back then. Basically a couple of vendor sponsored white papers [PDF], ClickZ articles, A few blogs, and the Yahoo Group. Today, I have 45 web analytics blogs [OPML] in my Google Reader (and I am fairly selective). I recently wrote about some bloggers that need to post more. As evidence of my “pull” in the industry none of them have actually taken me up on it, but a couple have indicated a return soon. Yesterday I stumbled on another jewel of a web analytics blogger: Paul Strupp.

My endorsement is not exactly the Colbert Bump, but here’s why I like his blog:

1. Very intelligent and very experienced.
2. I can relate to his style. He doesn’t take a know it all attitude in his writing.
3. He is a real practitioner solving for real problems a web analyst faces.

Here are some links to good content to get you started. After that you should subscribe to his feed.

• White Lies
• Cold Fusion Moments
• Two Types of People

It has been a very eventful past few months. And Like Mike Keyes I am trying to get up the gumption to post more. Here’s a run-down on my recent whatevers.

• Got a new job, and have begun the transition to Chicago. And while the switch was not fomented by money it is nice to see that I am now being compensated in a fashion that is in line with my 4 years of experience.
• I am expecting child number 2 with my wife, which is awesome. Could I hope for a girl? Either one would be awesome.
• Saw the fizzling of a very promising side project, on account of items one and two, but that’s tuff.
• After a brief review of the data for this blog, I have established with relative certainty that the more you post the more traffic you will get. In web analytics circles we could call that the Marshall Sponder rule.
• I have recently decided to become an Excel expert, and began by downloading every sample Excel spreadsheet I could find by Juice Analytics and Clint Ivy. (You guys make me look smart)
• I watched an amazing video on the TED web site of Hans Rosling explaining some world health and wealth statistics. I dream that web analytics data can be that engaging.
• I still read many many blogs each week, including you if you blog about web analytics, and now since it is officially 2008 I give myself permission to start being engaged with the upcoming presidential election.

Well, that’s the news from this Panera in Elmhurst. May you hit your conversion targets in ‘08.

In all my years of so-called blogging, I have never revealed my name on this site. I guess I didn’t want to take the risk of having something to live down (potentially). But as I have thought about it, and I have become more interested and involved in the field of web analytics I have decided that my voice makes more sense on this blog if my name is attached to it. Also, because I am vain and would like to rank No. 1 in Google for my name.

So, without further ado, my name is Michael Helbling and I have added an about page on the sidebar for all the world to see. Boo yaaa.

BTW, this doesn’t mean I will post more.

It could probably be said that it is a new year of blogging for half the year, if previous years are any indication. But I will stick with it, and keep this blog going on the off chance that I will eventually have something to say.

One of the things I have notices other bloggers doing is putting a pretty picture up with each post, and so maybe I will try to do a little more of that this year.

Also, I think I will probably need to start a series or two because one of the things that has kept me from blogging is that putting together a post takes so long and I have so little time.

And finally, here is one web analytics new years resolution: get some exposure to usability testing and surveys this year. I think that these two tools to increase web site performance are uber powerful when combined with good analytics. Web analytics will deliver the what and user interaction will help to shape the why of web site behavior. Awesome!

Performancing has released a beta of their Performancing Metrics tool to allow bloggers to track their blogs. Features include:

1. Multiple blog aggregation. neato.
2. RSS feed of metrics data
3. Adsense tracking built in

What do they need to add?

1. Filter capability to remove certain traffic data
2. comparative date ranges
3. This needs verification but, drilldown capability. For example, which search phrases produced comments, RSS subscription, or other important goal.

All that being said, this is a pretty amazing thing for this group to have put together. I am very impressed. I haven’t seen any stats yet so I will post more when I have some numbers to look at.

Performancing, web analytics, performancing metrics, blog measurement

When I changed the focus of my blog, I wanted all the things that a starry-eyed blogger wanted:

1. A million bucks from AdSense
2. A thousand feed subscribers
3. and a daily mention on BoingBoing or Slashdot

Surprisingly, none of those things happened. Overall, I am happy with my lot in blogging. I have a small but growing audience and a trickle of AdSense income. But what about those successful bloggers that make all that cash? Are they happy? A new post over at Performancing by Chris Garrett gives some good for thought. More and more, bloggers have to face the challenge of who and what they are blogging for. Is my blog just a pass through for a bunch of ad-clickers? or is it a meaningful content web site where I make a contribution to the field that I am a professional in? and can it be both?

These are good questions. I think that the answers are as individual as the blogs that litter the internet.

One of the things that blogs help us do is collect vast amounts of new data in ways that were unavailable to us before. It used to be that for someones ideas to be distributed you had to write a book and get it published. Now, in the internet age, almost anyone can start a blog about whatever they want.
The result is generally a massive amount of blogs with some good quality content. Unless you are unemployed, you don’t have the luxury of sitting around all day reading blogs to find the content that matters the most to you. And so the answer has become RSS.

On the right side of this page is a link that says “Subscribe to Mymotech”. I would encourage you to do so. Not because I think that everything that I write is worthy of being read by you, but rather the opposite, you deserve a choice about what I write. So syndicate this site, and someday you will be glad you did.

RSS, syndication, blogging

Well, I am probably more in agreement with stuntdubl and EarlGrey on this whole contest, but I think I found a cause I can support.

The number of results in Google went over a million today, so it looks like we are in for the long haul. I am sure Google is using this as an opportunity to spot potential holes in the algo.

Anyway, I choose to support Gray Wolf. He is donating any winning to St. Judes Medical Center, and I believe the contest organizers have agreed to a direct contribution to the charity so there is no need to fear. Plus every body says the guy is pretty stand-up. SO, without further ado, I confer my link for v7ndotcom elursrebmem to the site that should win v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest. v7ndotcom elursrebmem. Hows that for v7ndotcom elursrebmem keyword stuffing?

v7ndotcom elursrebmem, SEO, Gray Wolf

It seems like everyone is using top 10 lists or top 13 lists or top 8 lists, and rumor has it that this is a good way to get linkbait. So, without further ado, here is my Top 9 sites/blogs I am reading these days.

1. Threadwatch - Threadwatch is a great place to find search news compiled in one place. That is useful to me.
2. Gray Wolf - Gray Wolf is an experienced hand at SEO and I like his take on many of the issues of the day. He could definitely hold his own in a Jim Rome style smack-off on SEO.
3. SEOmoz - Rand Fishkin is kind of like a 5 tool player in baseball. He may not hit 40 homeruns a year but he is an awesome addition to any team. He has a great site, and you can tell he thinks things through pretty well. One of the few people on the internet I have sent fanmail.
4. Guy Kawasaki - First of all, he has an awesome frickin’ name. But more than that it is rare to see someone sit down and start a blog so successfully. Great content. Good ideas.
5. Seth Godin - When Seth Godin says something lots and lots of people listen. We will see how his latest venture, Squidoo, goes. While we are waiting to find out, get over there and make as many lenses as you can get your paws on.
6. IncrediBILL - When reading his blog one word and one word only comes to mind, curmudgeon. I like what he writes.
7. Yahoo Web Analytics Group - This is probably the best place to read about web analytics on the internet. I have tried to convince Eric Peterson to move it to a real forum but he doesn’t want to, oh well.
8. Performancing - These guys are off to a great start with this new venture and they have some very insightful writers giving the rest of us tips on blogging success. Rock, Rock on!
9. Jim Boykin - The guys at We Build Pages have been doing SEO a long long time. For a long time I really didn’t read Jim Boykin’s blog, but I was reading late last week and maybe it was the alcohol, but I was really impressed with the content that he had on there. Don’t get me wrong, I like Stuntdubl too, but this list can only be so long.
10. *BONUS LINK* Click Herder - OK, shameless self promotion here, but I am excited about collaborating with these guys on ClickHerder.com. I guarantee that this blog will be fresh, because we are not educated enough to do it the way that other people have done it before.

Well, that went pretty well. I hope that you enjoy. Let me know who else I should be reading in the area of web analytics and SEO.

SEO, search engine optimization, web analytics, blogging, reading list

The awesomeness of Google’s AdSense is that they are contextual, or at least they try to be. Lately, though it seems like they are trying out a lot of interesting tricks. For instance the ads that appear in the left navigation of this site have been turning into full on banner ads. This evening this ad showed up.

Look again. No Dudes. Hmmm, do you think that might maybe make dudes want to sign up for this? This is annoying. Maybe I am gonna have to switch to Yahoo Publisher’s Network.