Archive for the ‘Web Analytics’ Category

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

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.