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Feeds I Read

Web Analytics Trade Group Formed

Web Analytics Trade Group Formed [ClickZ News]

Several well-known players in the Web analytics business have joined to create the Web Analytics Association (WAA), a non-profit organization designed to bring together end users, vendors, consultants, and educators to share information and promote the nascent industry.

"One of the main goals of the association is to go ahead and bring what is a small and fragmented industry to more awareness of the value of Web analytics and measurement," said Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder of consulting firm Future Now, who is the WAA's first chairman. (Eisenberg is a long-time columnist for ClickZ Experts.)

 

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Putting Web Analytics To The Test

Putting Web analytics to the test. What do enterprises ask of Web analytics packages? Here's a list of requirements vendors most often see in RFPs (requests for proposals). These specs formed, in part, the testing checklist for this roundup and can help you decide what's most important in your solution. [InfoWorld: Business]

 

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Chart Your Web Site's Success

Chart your Web site's success. In the late 1990s, Web analytics packages did a respectable job crunching server logs and uncovering broad Web site trends such as page views or user clickstream behavior. Today the focus has shifted to business reporting -- pinpointing the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, measuring ROI, and analyzing processes -- and to delivering those facts to content owners in a clear manner so that the appropriate corrective measures can be put into motion. [InfoWorld: Business]

 

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Trouble in RSS Paradise?

I mentioned earlier that we activated RSS feeds at work. I referred our stakeholder to a vendor for implementation before I went on vacation. I hope I don't regret the decision.

I let our stakeholder consider them because the vendor:

1. has an RSS analytics approach that speaks well of their vision
2. already "has a clue", instead of having to purchase one
3. was priced acceptably
4. has a non-trivial showcase customer
5. can use another well-known corporate client
6. is local
7. can be replaced by inhouse implementation if they screw up
8. "yadda, yadda" - Seinfeld

Sadly, beta test issues indicated they might have less of a clue than I'd hoped, or maybe just lacked attention to detail. Teething pains typical of any implementation? Maybe. However, an issue discovered after production release, with a disturbing response from vendor management, has me wondering. 

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No RSS? You're Fired!

"It's medieval to make your customers come to you"
- Martha Rogers
coauthor of "The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time" (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993)

"You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed."
- Robert Scoble, Microsoft

"No Shit, Sherlock!"
- Bruce Zimmer

"Do you have an RSS feed?"

"No, this site is for non geeks."

... That demonstrates an utter cluelessness about how hype gets generated. If you don't have RSS, how will anyone who is a connector build a relationship with your site?

"Why don't you get your non-geek friends to link to it then?"

I think he had heard that lots of press was reading blogs and wanted to get Walt Mossberg or Steven Levy to talk about this marketing site and figured he'd use me to drive traffic.

Sorry, if you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired.

I'll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed.

Saying that RSS is only for geeks today is like saying in 1998 that the Web was only for geeks...

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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