What Are Web Analytics?
June 25, 2007
I am writing this for all the people who come to PureWebAnalytics and wonder just what I am talking about when it comes to discussing the idea of “Web Analytics”. A lot of people find Statistics very boring and let’s face it, they can be but for your online business efforts to succeed Web Analytics allows you to keep the health of your online business in check.
So where do Web Analytics come from?
Web Analytics are the way in which companies or people running websites are able to measure the success or failure of their websites, marketing and advertising efforts and to some extent the profitability of an online business. Because the commercial use of the internet is only about 11 years old, Web Analytics is a pretty cutting edge strategy that many companies are scrambling to stay on top of because it requires a good amount of supervision to execute successfully. Either this is something that your company does in house if you have the money or your pay an outside consultant to come in and mind that aspect of the business but however you do it; it is one area that needs to be focused on when it comes to developing strong and successful web-based businesses long term.
What are some popular Web Analytics Tools and Programs?
Google Analytics – I’ve written a number of articles already about this Analytics programs and I have to say that as far as Analytics programs go it is not a bad program to use to track analytics on your business site.
Mint Analytics – Mint Analytics costs money and you have to install the Mint Analytics into your server to work with it but it is far most vast then Google Analytics.
How Mint and Google Analytics are similar
Because both Mint Analytics and Google Analytics are Analytics programs they share the following things in common…
- Page Views
- Unique Visitors
- Referrers
- Location
- Downloads
- Click outs
- Exits
- Search Terms
- Feed Subscriptions
- Page Popularity
- Return and new Visitors
- Click Path
- Browsers Used
- Window Size
- System Colors
- Charts/Graphs of Statistical data
- Keyword Analysis
Which one does my website need?
Google Analytics and Mint Analytics are both solid Analytics programs but they are not equal because while everyone loves the term “free”, it comes at a price. Google Analytics is a FREE Analytics program but it requires a good learning curve. Mint Analytics is more visually appealing to people and it does a great job of simplifying a subject that most people hate (unless you are me), Statistics. Mint, also has a wide variety of plug-ins known as “Peppers” that allow for greater customization and Google Analytics does not currently have this functionality. The only drawback is the price of Mint Analytics. At a cost of $30 it is well worth the money and you won’t be disappointed in having spent it.
While there are other Analytics programs in the market including WebSideStory’s HBX and Omniture many small to mid size business owners will not be shelling out the cash because the functionality offered by Mint and Google’s Analytics programs meet a broad range of needs.
Whatever choice you choose for your website, there is a learning curve to it but it is well worth learning because this is how you will be able to learn about the effectiveness of your online business and have the most timely and up-to-date information.
Luc
3 Key Tips To Designing Email For Your Business
June 18, 2007
When it comes to designing email for a mass customer base it only makes sense that you need to think about the bulk of your customers when creating an email campaign for your business. This means tailoring your email to suite broad number of users. I point out three areas that are something that you may or may not have thought about…
1.) Don’t design your email wider than 600 pixels – Because many people you promote to have different screen resolutions you need to account for this by designing email for a general audience.
2.) Keep the message of your email above the fold – Now this is not a hard and fast rule but to be honest the idea behind it makes a lot of sense. When people open an email chances are they will not scroll to the bottom to see a special deal you are promoting. This means that you should have your main promotion or call to action above the fold. The “fold” refers to the space that people see before they have to scroll in an email. Like I said it isn’t a hard and fast rule but if you are doing email campaigns for your business it cannot hurt to test it out.
3.) Do A/B tests to see which subject line is more effective – Because the subject line is the first thing that people see it is important to test and see which message you are presenting to your customers is more effective.
As stated before on PureWebAnalytics the ROI potential is huge compared to any other marketing that you may be doing for your business so why are you still not doing it? Don’t have the time? Is email really a hard concept for you to grasp? (Don’t laugh because some people reading this are answering “yes” right now) Have fun testing these 3 tips in your next email marketing campaign.
Luc
Microsoft Outlook Email CSS Design Issues
June 17, 2007
Just a show of hands as to how many of you have Outlook 2007 running as your email on your computer right now? Probably not that many of you but here is the thing for those of you who send out email promotional material to your customers. Microsoft has helped to push back email design about 10 years after releasing Outlook 2007.
For those of you who design your email campaigns in CSS you’ll be very unhappy to know that many of your standard favorites are no longer supported by Outlook 2007. This includes no support for float and position which means that you now have to position your email layout in tables. Yuck!
If you are interested in more of the shortcomings of Outlook 2007 then you’ll want to read the article “Microsoft takes email design back 5 years” on Campaign Monitor’s Blog.
Luc
What Is The Focus Of Your Website?
June 16, 2007
When you think about designing or building a website you need to ask yourself “What is the Focus or intent of my website?” It sounds like such a straightforward question with an easy answer, doesn’t it? But I guarantee that only a few people maybe 20% of the people reading this would have an answer already prepared if you asked them. You cannot build a solid foundation for your online business until you can answer this question. Well you can, but chances are it will be gone soon after you put the website up. The reasons why it wouldn’t work include…
- You cannot define who your customer is?
- How do you cater to a customer you have not defined?
Sure this has a lot to do with marketing but also it has to do with the fact that online businesses do not differ all that much from real physical businesses. Most people when they think about building a website, online presence or anyone of a number of terms people use to describe their online endeavors usually go for a look. They want the website to work a certain way instead of looking at how to run the website as a business.
When I started PureWebAnalytics I realized that I wanted to focus on sharing knowledge related to running a website, new web technologies and mostly importantly the business of developing and maintaining websites for my clients. While it has taken time to grow this website and I will continue to grow it I am passionate about what I am doing and more importantly I am focused on the business at hand. When it comes to building your website just remember think about it with your customer in mind.
Luc
Dear BlogCatalog: PureWebAnalytics Loves You
June 14, 2007
I recently decided about a month ago to put up a profile on BlogCatalog and forgot about it for some time. A few weeks went by and I started to get emails with people signing up to be friends of PureWebAnalytics which is just awesome. Personally I enjoy learning and posting articles that people can use for their own means when it comes to web development, SEO tips, usability and other various interests that are all related to web technologies.
Personally I enjoy hearing from people that have read through PureWebAnalytics with compliments but I enjoy people that are willing to share ideas or problems that they are facing currently when it comes to web development. If you have a minute to check out BlogCatalog feel free to sign up and become a friend of PureWebAnalytics and browse the other great blogs from around the web.
Luc
