Archive for September, 2009

Best Tech News Podcast – Customizable, Rating based, AI

Friday, September 11th, 2009

I am on the lookout for the best tech news podcast which makes my life complete and takes me for good walks either in Budapest or Mountain View or anywhere I go. Not only that, but I want to get minimum the same intelligence as I get from Last.fm / Pandora. If any of you know such a service, share it here and add your reviews too.

Mefeedia.com tech podcast network

Mefeedia.com tech podcast network

Tech news podcast: learn from me

Yep, here goes the data, dive into the data with great analytics tools and learn from me and learn from other people with similar preferences as me (no, not my friends, I need like-minded people as a base). This minimal AI is such a natural expectation these days - I wonder why I still haven’t stumbled upon such a service – am I flying blind?

Ars Technica, according to E-consultancy, will add an Ars Technica premier package to subscribers (really cheap fee – $50/year or $30/bi-annually).

But will it let me listen to articles? (currently I can print, share, leave a comment, and that’s it – why not listen to it?). What about the big tech news blogs, like TechCrunch, Reddit, RWW, Engadget, GigaOM, Search Engine Land, Diggnation etc.? Let’s be more demanding. Why not add a top notch customizable daily tech news podcast? I feel that I avoid more and more pdfs, and pixels –  my eyes are glued to some kind of monitor almost all day long. But it’s so good to get away from the laptop for a walk and listen to great podcasts (like Chris Anderson’s  FREE) and stay in the loop without feeling lagging behind. (Needless to say, there are some posts that do not easily lend themselves turned into mere audio content – like product demos, visual focused info, etc.). The starting point is have a vast number of tech podcasts available to choose from – from David Pogue’s video podcasts through Jeffrey Powers’ Geekazine to the Daily Search podcast.

I would definitely pay for the best tech news podcast, which for me means that it could

a, granularly learn from my ratings like pandora or last.fm – and from fellow listeners’ ratings (rating is behavioral based, i.e. counted by partial and complete listenings too, not just clicking on a star)

b, offer a summary of the article turned into podcast, and let me decide if I wish to listen to the whole article or just the intro (see: feed reader)

c, share instantly (email, digg, tweet, linkedin what have you, separately or in bulk)

d, bookmark instantly (make my saved podcasts available for later use, delayed sharing, both as a podcast and as an article)

e, socialize – I wish to know other guys who are overlapping with my listening history so much that it would be a shame not to get to know them

f, check out my listening history – I want to follow what I listened to and when, like a diary, dear diary. Just like I have the option and freedom to check my personal web search history (never mind that I hardly ever check my search history, it makes me FEEL good that I can check it anytime. Plus I wish to use my own data for cognitive search studies, so it will evidently make this feature more visited)

g, monetization – option for getting the podcast without ads at a higher price and making a more affordable package with ‘radio’ ads. Let me choose from various models.

h, if I want to loosen up the tech news with some of my favorite songs, let me do that. Or with other news. :) (yeah, I need a radio, I hear you)

i, google: message to googleplex – please make the audio contents more searchable and featured in the search results pages

etc.

If this is included in the new Ars Technica, the premier site optimization with an off-online feature, I will be paying for the premier content – it is not the ‘paid content’ that is driving people away, but not getting what you need.

Tech Podcasts: read more about the best tech podcasts

Posted in Data, Site optimization, Tech | No Comments »

Web Analytics Wednesday – San Francisco

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Web Analytics Wednesday (WAW) sounded a cool free web analytics networking event, so I decided to go, and I was not disappointed. It was free, there were more than 100 people interested in web analytics (about 180 rsvp-ed yes), and there was very nice wine thanks to the sponsors. Unfortunately, the event became so popular that the presentations (TeaLeaf, Coremetrics, Teradata, ForeSee) were suppressed by the social noise of networking, but knowledge was exchanged anyway.

If you are anywhere in the world and want to meet web analysts, check out the site, maybe there’s a Web Analytics Wednesday coming – worth joining. There have been a couple of European Web Analytics Wednesdays too (UK, France, Denmark, etc.), so it is really growing global.

I met Eric T. Peterson, the author of Web Analytics Demystified, June Dershewitz, who is behind the whole WAW idea, Bob Page, the Yahoo guy to whom the Index Tools team reports (IndexTools was founded in Budapest, Hungary), I made a short interview with John Dawes, the VP of Product Management at TeaLeaf (Customer Experience software compatible with major web analytics tools), I talked to Lenore Weiss, whose parents came from Hungary, so we immediately had something to talk about besides analytics, web trends and tools. You can read Lenore’s summary of Web Analytics Wed here. Mike from Yahoo web analytics (yep, I couldn’t help but ask him how he survived three series of job reductions), etc.

Here’s a pic of the big team of web analysts and X Change conference participants. Hope to host a Web Analytics Wednesday in Budapest Hungary soon.

Web Analytics Wednesday - San Francisco 2009

Web Analytics Wednesday - San Francisco 2009

Posted in Marketing, Program, Web Analytics | No Comments »

How to Import csv to Google Spreadsheets

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Importing csv files into google spreadsheets is a very very easy task. You do not need any tech background for that. Let me show you how you can import your valuable csv data to google spreadsheets in 2-3 easy steps.

1, Have the csv file ready?

Make sure your csv file has the extension .csv at the end. No problem if it is a text file currently. Just add the .csv at the end of the file name. e.g. snow-leopard will be snow-leopard.csv or snow-leopard.txt will be snow-leopard.csv.

2, Open Google Docs

Log in to your google account and open the main page of google docs. (usually I just click on Docs in the upper left corner of my gmail account). Do not go into any of your actual google docs or spreadsheets. Just stay on the main page.

See the button UPLOAD? here:

Upload CSV to import it into google spreadsheet

Upload CSV to import it into google spreadsheet

3, Upload CSV file

Click on the upload button (between New and Share) and upload your csv file, give the file a name.

How To: CSV upload into google spreadsheet

How To: CSV upload into google spreadsheet

And, there you go, the csv file is now in Google spreadsheets and you are ready to segment the data, or use the csv data in any way you wish (at least within the constraints of spreadsheets vs. exels).

Hope this helps.

Posted in Data, Google, How to | No Comments »

Market Motive – Web Analytics Master course

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Being an advanced web analyst, it is time to take the next step towards proficiency and official certifications: I am pretty excited to start the web analytics master course put together by the grandmasters of web analytics lore: John Marshall (founder of ClickTracks) and Avinash Kaushik (google analytics evangelist) – both founders of Market Motive, a true gem amongst the mushrooming online marketing schools and courses. Seriously. The course starts on Sep 14 2009, so hurry up!

The web analytics course is not about learning how to use analytics tools (omniture, index tools, adgooroo, etc.) and software, it is more about the analytical approach, web analytics techniques, interpreting click stream data, transforming bits and pieces into actionable insights and presenting them to the C-suite in such a way that it makes impact for the business.

So many of the examples will be illustrated by means of google analytics, which is free, 80% of web businesses use it, and it’s getting more and more complex (maybe adding SEO ranking by default in the future).

Why is it great to choose Market Motive web analytics master course?

Besides the prestigious dream team of tutors, the high quality of course materials (I guess, I have not dived into them yet), and the weekly access to these great minds (when would I have a few words with these busy consultants??), there are some further reasons to consider taking the web analytics master course and the final exam at market Motive:

  • similarly to google adwords professional or google analytics consultant web badges, you can have your own certificate badge for your business – a great badge, a lot greater than a more easily acquired Google consultant logo
  • you can have your own profile page on marketmotive.com – featuring your business expertise (good incoming link from a good neighborhood)
  • on linkedin, you can choose to highlight what the instructors think of you (who wouldn’t want to flash an appreciative remark from Avinash Kaushik or Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now, etc.
  • although there is no coupon code / promotional code for the master online courses (currently $3,500 is the total fee), there are some scholarships, e.g. if you are a small agency, or someone whose company does not pay for your fee, you can negotiate a not so bad discount price with Scott Milrad, director of online education.
  • the fee can be paid in installments (I’ll pay in three for the 2-3 month course)
  • you can get referral reward of 700USD or so for every person you send to Market Motive courses (if you want to mention me, as a referrer, here you go: Anna Sebestyen – managing director of Distinct Dialogs Ltd., and a lifelong learner, helper and supporter of good causes, like Cure Together.com – a health 2.0 and 3.0 support groups site )
  • you can show your face to the masterminds of web analytics and that’s in itself something – as you get in the ‘family‘ (as Scott, the director of online education put it) – which means that you may get more attention later on, especially if you have a project that is worth mentioning! Some of the ex-graduates were on stage at SES San Jose, which I also attended, especially to learn more about web analytics, the cutting edge magic word of the next era (OK, the most promising niche in online marketing besides mobile search optimization)
  • you can get full access to all the materials regardless of which type of course you apply for: SEO, PPC, web analytics, email marketing, social media etc. I feel like a dragon avatar looking at a pile of gold!!
Market Motive - online marketing graduates

Market Motive - online marketing graduates

Market Motive website problems

I can’t go past the site issues without a few remarks, hope this helps. (after all, a site is in constant evolution – my simple company site is no exception)

The Market Motive website itself does not really reflect the maximum proof of web analytics, usability etc. (you know like the hairdresser with a not-so-great hair-do), there are some smaller usability, design, funnel, etc. issues that could be streamlined to make the site itself more convincing for potential students, and improve the conversion rate of the site (clearly short and long term courses, monthly subscription, etc.). For instance, right now, the RSS feed reader symbol is hanging from the header, the autoplay video sucks, depending on how you navigate on the site you can have totally different info about the various courses and opportunities (i.e. the separate pages are not really great landing pages), etc. missing some of the great benefits you could have from the courses.

Market Motive online marketing training

Market Motive online marketing training

Just an idea: it would be nice to see open split tests for the site in a kind self-reflecting way too.

Posted in Google, Marketing, Online marketing, Training, Web Analytics | No Comments »