#measure flash mob!

I just conducted a pretty cool experiment I think nobody ever did before. A #measure flash mob! What is a #measure flash mob?In the spirit of real life flash mobs, a #measure flash mob is ?a group of Twitter #measure people who assemble suddenly in a virtual place, crowd source their knowledge for a brief time to tackle a problem, then disperse.? A simple problem statement or question A rallying call on the #measure Twitter channel One hour to tackle the question, after the delay the editing access are removed (but the raw document remains available for viewing) @immeria will review & format the results which will be freely available as a blog post What are the rules?Every change is tracked with your Google id... so people won?t mess around deleting stuff and changes are monitored live. Content should never be deleted, it is highlighted and the Insert/Comment feature is used We don't worry about formatting... Participants add their twitter name to the participants list What were the results?The first question was "Custom built or vendor? Is it better to use a vendor solution (either tags or logs) or develop your own custom-built solution?" It was really cool to see the document coming alive as other people simultaneously edited We used the chat sidebar to discuss at the same time We could see people coming and going but sadly, we see them as "Anonymous #", although every change is tracked with the actual Google username 34 #measure tweeps came to see the document 8 actively edited something Can we see the result?For sure! The raw document is available in Google Docs and an edited version will be available shortly. Also, a #measure flash mob folder has been created to hold all project files. I like the idea, when is the next one?That's the trick! It's a surprise! I'll try to come with interesting topics and do it again. Why not send in your question and vote on submitted ones! A big thank you to @gprzyklenk @aaronfossum @samuelhalle @keithmacd @vabeachkevin @rmanzanet @judah for their active participation in this first experiment!  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-09-01 20:04:00</div>

How do you debug your Google Analytics tags?

In the wake of the Google tool to debug your tracking code announcement I thought it would be worth sharing some of the experience I gained trough years of implementations of various web analytics solutions, developing the Web Analytics Solution Profiler and conducting web site quality control. The new Google tool is interesting and useful, but it might be a bit overtly simplistic and still requires a lot of manual intervention. Obviously, this topic is close to my field of expertise and I though I could share some tips.Quality assurance of tags: an old issueFor the little story, I made the first version of WASP available in October of 2006 and before that I had spent a lot of time doing implementations and was faced with the quality assurance process issue. I guess I have spent a significant amount of time on this! For those who might have missed it, here are some of my previous posts on the topic of tags quality assurance:Web Analytics implementation Quality Assurance, a post dating back August 2007 where I referenced several blog articles discussing about common pitfalls of tagging Quality assurance using WASP: tag all pages, February 2008, where I was highlighting the benefits of "in context" QA - running within the browser with all the idiosyncrasies it involves rather than crawling from an external context that can't perfectly reproduce the browser Quality assurance of web analytics tags implementation, from January 2009, where I described various methodologies/tools for conducting quality assurance of tags. Testing web analytics implementation with WASP, from February 2010, where I reacted to a the statement "There is no better test than randomly clicking your site to verify page names." to which I replied "When has quality assurance become a random act of faith?" and proposed the list of "things" that needs to be checked. How much can you test manually?There are huge challenges in the QA process cycle. Manual testing is long and error prone (either with Firebug, HTTPWatch, Fiddler, IEWatch, Charles) and external scans (like Observepoint or SiteScanGA) are not always the best solutions for sites under development/behind firewall/secured. Testing content areas driven off templates is fairly easy: identify a couple of pages using each of your templates and test only those, not the whole site. In WASP, you can start a crawl by specifying a local text file where you simply put the list of specific links you want to...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-27 10:00:00</div>

How do you debug Adobe/Omniture SiteCatalyst implementations?

There is a fascinating discussion on "How do you debug Omniture SiteCatalyst implementations?" on the LinkedIn Omniture Enthusiasts group. People proposed various tools and the conversation is evolving into the tagging QA process. Obviously a topic close to the work I have done on the Web Analytics Solution Profiler. Quality assurance of tags: an old issueFor the little story, I made the first version of WASP available in October of 2006 and before that I had spent a lot of time doing implementations and was faced with the quality assurance process. I guess I have spent a significant amount of time on this issue! For those who might have missed it, here are some of my previous posts on the topic of tags quality assurance: Web Analytics implementation Quality Assurance, a post dating back August 2007 where I referenced several blog articles discussing about common pitfalls of tagging Quality assurance using WASP: tag all pages, February 2008, where I was highlighting the benefits of "in context" QA - running within the browser with all the idiosyncrasies it involves rather than crawling from an external context that can't perfectly reproduce the browser Quality assurance of web analytics tags implementation, from January 2009, where I described various methodologies/tools for conducting quality assurance of tags. Testing web analytics implementation with WASP, from February 2010, where I reacted to a the statement "There is no better test than randomly clicking your site to verify page names." to which I replied "When has quality assurance become a random act of faith?" and proposed the list of "things" that needs to be checked. How much can you test manually?There are huge challenges in the QA process cycle. Manual testing is long and error prone (either with Firebug, HTTPWatch, Fiddler, IEWatch, Charles) and external scans (like Observepoint or SiteScanGA) are not always the best solutions for sites under development/behind firewall/secured. Testing content areas driven off templates is fairly easy: identify a couple of pages using each of your templates and test only those, not the whole site. In WASP, you can start a crawl by specifying a local text file where you simply put the list of specific links you want to test. Testing "processes" (checkout, registration, etc.) is particularly difficult but if I may preach for WASP again, one of the huge benefit is being "in context" - it can record the data as you go. You can use a...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-26 19:19:00</div>

Napkyn - how web analytics should be

Would be analysts, consultants, practitioners and vendors alike often reach out and ask for career advice, coaching, tips & tricks or my opinion of the market. I was lucky to get help, support and advices from Avinash, Bryan Eisenberg, Jim Sterne, Brian Clifton, Joseph Carrabis and John Hossack from VKI Studios early on when I started WASP so I'm happy to "pay it forward". I'm inclined to give a hand as long as it is reasonable - beyond that I'm happy to propose my consulting services, play an advisory role or even defer to other agencies and consultants. Sometimes I receive job offers, partnership opportunities or very interesting propositions. The answer is usually "thank you - but it took me over 20 years to get my freedom and I really enjoy it!". Plus, my position in the market is due in large part to this philosophy and independence - allowing me to work with many agencies and vendors. Napkyn: outsourced professional digital analysis servicesWhen Jim Cain, founder, and Nish Patel, first investor in Napkyn, approached me about their new venture, they basically described what could very well be the best approach to web analytics for most organizations: outsourced professional digital analysis services. There are many ways to get started in web analytics but demand for skilled resources is far greater than availability. Napkyn brings the best aspects of both the consultant and employee approaches. In short, the benefits of Napkyn are:Answer the need for experienced, skilled resources Reduce the time to recommendations & improve recommendations frequency You take care of your core business while Napkyn's take care of it's own: analytics The approach is cost effective - top skilled team at a very affordable price You can review Napkyn's Web Analysts program advantages. There are other huge advantages I see in their approach: a) practitioners/employees are often pulled in all directions and stuck in internal politics and b) agencies developing your websites can't be judge and jury by also doing your analytics - by outsourcing to Napkyn you get a rigorous, independent and unbiased alternative. My - independent - role with NapkynI found the approach so compelling that I accepted to be on Napkyn's Advisory Board. I'm happy to share my experience and work closely with the team to enhance their offering. In some cases, I had to pass on interesting consulting opportunities - I can now stay...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-12 18:11:00</div>

WAA member? Win a pass to The Art Of Marketing! Montreal, Sept 30th

I have a pass to giveaway for the greatest Montreal marketing event ever: The Art of Marketing, September 30th. There are only two conditions: You can make it to Montreal on September 30th - it would be a shame to waste this opportunity! You must be a Web Analytics Association member. Contact me on Twitter or email me to enter the draw (I will randomly make the draw on September 1st). Read more about this great event in my previous blog post. Web Analytics Association Montreal (WAAM) meetupYou can also register for our next get together at Boris Bistro, September 29th, from 5:30pm until 8:30pm.  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-07 00:35:00</div>

Don't miss this event: The Art of Marketing - Montreal, Sept. 30th

In web analytics and online marketing optimization, Avinash Kaushik, Mitch Joel and Seth Godin don't even need introduction. I'm trilled to see The Art of Marketing coming up to Montreal, September 30th: six authors sharing their cutting edge thinking and experience in a jam packed event! Six speakers - an amazing day!First, the speakers I've seen and authors I read: Seth Godin: ever heard of Tribes, Lynchpin or Purple Cow? Three marketing best sellers! Avinash Kaushik: web analytics anyone? His books, "Web analytics an hour a day" and "Web analytics 2.0" are on every web analyst bookshelf. Mitch Joel: Six Pixels of Separation - leading authority in social media and the authors I need to discover:Jeffrey Gitomer: The Little Red Book Of Selling is all about selling, loyalty, customer service and more Max Lenderman: Brand New World, honestly havent read his book yet, but "dive into the multi-billion-dollar racket of brand fakery" is sure to be interesting! Andy Nulman: author of POW! Right Between the Eyes! Win a free pass!Email info@theartofproductions.com with your top five list of marketing books and be entered to win two tickets to The Art of Marketing! I submitted mine. I?m focused on web analytics and business optimization so my pick list reflects those preferences and how they affected my view of marketing. Web Metrics, by Jim Sterne ? considered to be the Godfather of web analytics, Jim was talking about online marketing and optimization way back then. A classic still worth the read! Web Analytics an Hour a day, by Avinash Kaushik ? by democratizing access to web analytics, the coming of Google Analytics was a major shift for online marketing measurement. Through his unique communication style, Avinash basically made it even more accessible! Competing on analytics, by Tom Davenport ? for demonstrating how data-driven management can lead to a competitive advantage. Marketing Management, by Philip Kotler ? the classic intro to marketing and one I really enjoyed during my eBusiness MBA. The Attention Economy, by Tom Davenport ? understanding the new currency of business ? attention ? was an eye opener for me and influenced my marketing strategy recommendations and even the way I conduct business. Register early!I will be there and the event is sure to sell out so you should register early! And for you, my esteemed readers, I have a 50$ promo code! When registering, enter SK23 to get the discount. And there's more!On September...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-03 16:37:00</div>

It's not me, it's him! Reaction to WSJ "The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets"

The Wall Street Journal - according to their own detailed stats, is read by 3.5M people - "the number speaks for themselves" as they say... I wonder how they gathered all this great knowledge about their readers - but I digress... One would expect such a "leading business publication" to be rigorous, unbiased and seek to get the stories and point of views from all angles. This is certainly not the case in a recent article by Julia Angwin entitled "The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets". The article is getting a lot of attention on social media, generating tons of comments and being perceived as a good educational piece and eye opener... But it is raising strong critics from the web analytics industry thought leaders including John Lovett, Anil Batra, as well as Omar Tawakol on Adage, the CEO of BlueKai cited in the WSJ article. Jim Sterne, the "godfather of web analytics", incidentally wrote on this very topic in You Say, "Creepy." I Say, "That's What I Want", just a few days before the WSJ article was published. Update: other blog reactions from Andy Beal Confusion and sensationalismShould I say there is a lot of confusion? Do you ear me shouting "THIS IS A MESS!" Ad networks, behavioral targeting, business analytics, web analytics are all mixed up into one big melting pot of "spying and bad boy". Yes, the DNA of business is data - be it your local grocery store owner welcoming a "20-something female" or Expedia "looking at visitors coming from New York seeking for a trip to Los Angeles" or using cameras to optimize the flow of highway traffic during rush hour, it's all about marketing & optimization: understanding the client and making the right offer. There is nothing bad or evil about the desire to understand people, their behavior, and please them ethically, honestly and with respect. Yes, there are spoiled apples in the lot, but serious organizations take great care about the way they collect, manage and use data - one of their most, if not THE most valuable asset. The WSJ article is a sensational piece playing on strongly biased common cultural fear, uncertainty and doubt about "evil spying"... Some reactions have been "look at the WSJ, they use ad networks, web analytics, behavioral targeting and know a hell of a lot about me!" or "others are doing it". However, this is not the right reaction - imagine the thief telling the judge "yeah, but they stole much more than I did!"... What to do?As web...<br/><div align='right'>2010-08-03 14:08:00</div>

gaAddons v2.0 - now with async!

I'm currently alpha testing gaAddons v2.0 on my blog and my site - and you can help me simply by visiting any of my sites and click on outbound links, downloads and email links! Or go straight to the gaAddons v2 test cases. *** be forewarned if you use the actual code it's at your own risk *** What is gaAddons?It's a collection of useful enhancements to extend and improve upon the default Google Analytics implementation. It actually leverage the popular jQuery light-weight and powerful JavaScript library. I had created a first version a while ago - still available here - but you are really better off waiting for v2! What's in v2?Use the new async calls Track outbound, downloads and email links using events ("fake" pageview mode also supported) Track real bounce rate by triggering an event after 30 seconds on a page (default) Avoid affecting bounce rate when events are on 1st page view of a visit (default) Easily customize the default options Use a tagging syntax identical to Google Analytics style There are a number of ideas and features upcoming - use Support to share feedback & ideas! ExampleYou will notice the code bellow is a slightly modified version of the default GA tags: <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push( ['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X'], ['_trackPageview'] ); var gaAddons = gaAddons || []; gaAddons.push( ['_trackOutbound'], ['_trackDownloads'], ['_trackMailto'], ['_trackRealBounce'] ); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); var gaAddons = document.createElement('script'); gaAddons.type = 'text/javascript'; gaAddons.async = true; gaAddons.src = 'gaAddons-2.0.min.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(gaAddons, s); })(); </script> That's all you'll have to do to start getting additional metrics under Content/Event Tracking. Warning!Wait for my signal before using this code on your own site - I'm currently alpha-testing and there are chances you might screw up your Google Analytics data - and I will not support you! There will be a beta-test phase where you will be invited to test it on your own site. Alpha-testing: Head to the gaAddons v2.0 page and look for the Test Cases at the bottom of the page Click on  a couple of outbound...<br/><div align='right'>2010-07-16 12:29:00</div>

Google Blogger with real-time stats: why?

This morning I stumbled (literally - as well as mashable) on a post mentioning the availability of real-time analytics in Google Blogger, the platform I've been using since October 2002 to host my blog. The goodAvailability: Stats are showing up in Google Blogger in Draft under the Stats item and data is available since July 1st. Blog owners do not have to do implement any tags or change their configuration. Metrics: Near real-time stats are available for a number of metrics: post pageviews, referring URLs, Referring Sites, Search Keywords, Countries, Browser and OS. Dashboard: There is a single dashboard under Overview which uses the same UI as Google Analytics. The badThis is a very light weight and toned down reporting tool - I wouldn't even call it "analytics" as their is virtually no actionable data. Notice the absence of several simple metrics such as: Visits, Time on Site, New vs Repeat visitors, any of the Loyalty metrics. More importantly, there are no campaigns or AdWords integration (or AdSense), no content categorization  (the reason why we use tags on blogs!) and of course, no Goals. There is a single dashboard without any customization, no filtering, no custom report... The uglyIn this day and age of social media, how could they miss integrating Feedburner stats? Google acquired Feedburner ages ago and it's pretty much still in the same state it was then. How could they miss integrating any type of engagement information such as number of comments per post or number of mentions on social media? What about creating a special traffic source category for social media: Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube, etc.??? My take: why?My first impression is... well... how can I say: what the heck?! Don't even bother with this. If you are using Blogger out of the box  without any customization, maybe I can understand. But seriously, integrating Google Analytics to Blogger can be done in a snap. In doing so, maybe Google is setting the stage for other stuff, here's two ideas: Real-time data in Google Analytics? I doubt it because the collection method are really different and the sub-set of metrics offered are much easier to offer in real time Pay for Google Analytics: Based on market data collected with the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), Google Analytics enjoys a huge market penetration. Although there are large sites using GA, the number of smaller blogs using it is astronomic. The owner of...<br/><div align='right'>2010-07-02 12:34:00</div>

Excuse the dust...

July 1st: a strange tradition in Québec, and it's not Canada day (similar to 4th of July in the US) - our "distinct" culture isn't too keen on celebrating it. No, I'm talking about the big moving day! Fulfilling a dreamI'm not moving yet... but getting closer to a lifelong dream. Sitting on the St-Lawrence river, 15 minutes away from Québec-city, Île d'Orléans is described as a "microcosm of traditional Quebec and the birthplace of francophones in North America". Explorer Jacques Cartier called the verdant spot the Island of Bacchus when he sighted it in 1535. The Indians had long referred to it as the Enchanted Place. Both names do justice to Ile d'Orleans, which Cartier later renamed in honor of the Duke of Orleans, the son of the King of France.I'm in the process of purchasing a house in Ste-Pétronille, located at the tip of the island. Built around 1815, the charming spot sits on a 20,000 square foot lot surrounded by forest, gardens and other historical houses. The very well preserved house isn't big and was built in the pure traditional style: 35x24 two story timber frame with an annex. The surrounding is just amazing! PerspectiveSome people find it awkward I can be so involved in the modern, online world and be interested in history and countryside at the same time. Maybe it's something that can't be explained! The only perspective I can offer is that of balance between work and life, between light-speed of the net and growth of a hundred years old tree, taking care of a house dating back before my grand-grand-parents while improving a website which lifespan is counted in months.  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-07-01 12:03:00</div>

Web analytics industry transformation (con't)

Not to beat a dead horse - but after sharing my views on Adobe-Omniture, IBM-Coremetrics and speculation about Microsoft-Webtrends some people inquired about my views on the fate of other vendors. Let's recap: Adobe "branding & rich media marketing focus" will bring Omniture in this direction ? shying away from anything that is beyond online marketing (from ads to presentation layer). IBM history of "middleware integration" is in the opposite direction - probably bringing Coremetrics as an integral part of WebSphere (closer to the logic layer). WebTrends, who's been trough rough times over the past 10 years still puts off a good fight as one of the major player. The single guy in the room will definitely be looking for a new mate - and I speculate Microsoft could be such a fit. Google is Google, right? The mission remains so simplistic and so powerful "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". They are on the right path but being at the top of the hill also makes you an easier target - including claims that Google Analytics is being subsidized trough Google AdWords... a practice that could be considered to be "unfair competition". What else?The ?extremes? probably won?t remain between Google on the "low-end", and Omniture on the "high-end". I'm quoting those terms because they are mostly irrelevant by now. As Avinash put in his keynote at the last eMetrics Toronto "it's easy to do better than your competitors when you don't have to repeat their mistakes". Google Analytics will keep improving and in some respects it already offers more than some paid vendors. Furthermore, not everyone will want to venture in IBM long, expansive approach? and not everyone is a friend of Adobe either (not mentioning the dim future of Flash, one of the flagship product of the company). As the market consolidates, new players can emerge and the online analytics ecosystem is still far from maturity. There are plenty of opportunities for innovative startups to fill specific needs. Who else?While thinking about other players I tried to extract the "unique selling point" - what makes this player different from others. Of course, this is my own appreciation and I would love to hear your feedback and own perspective.Unica: Although I haven't had a chance to use Unica extensively, the feedback I hear about their data model and flexible interface is always positive. They are particularly well suited to integrate...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-30 17:03:00</div>

Sherlock Holmes and monkey mimicking

Most so called "web analysts" are monkeys mimicking others without understanding what they do! In my experience teaching at UBC and ULaval, the first message a student post in a forum; the first assignment delivered, tells me if this student has the potential to become a good analyst or not. Does he or she show a structured approach to problem solving? Does he/she go beyond the obvious? This is referred as what Jim Novo brilliantly exposed as "the Sherlock Holmes problem" - and incidentally what is being tested by the WAA Certification: go for the facts and come up with the most optimal and realistic conclusion/recommendation under the current business conditions. "A client is to me a mere unit - a factor in a problem." Sherlock HolmesEvidence I: broad and uselessAt the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in France, one of the presentations felt for this common error: reporting page views and visits rather than bringing insight on business outcomes based on each of the customer lifecycle stages. Without being too harsh, I would say it's a start... but it is far preferable to have more depth than breath. Focus on a narrower area you can control and make a difference rather than report widely on metrics that you don't control and won't result in any business change. Evidence II: pulling the wrong leverThe web analytics course I created for ULaval stems from my work on the Online Analytics Maturity Model and some of it is covered in my workshop. The twelve weeks master-level course includes a short assignment every week. At the earliest stage, when asked to do an analysis of the visits metric most will go in the tool, copy the graph and textually write "the number of visits was X and the average was Y"... Later, when faced with the challenge of recommendations, they will seek to improve the visits metric... fine, but how does this contribute to actual business objectives and outcomes? Case study: Students were asked to do an analysis of the Visits to SaveTheChildren.org in January 2010, just when the Haiti earthquake stroke. Most students did not mention the traffic was 14 to 15 times higher than usual. Some did not realize the statistical shock was a direct result of increased awareness of Save The Children resulting from the disaster.Evidence III: chasing the monkeyMost analysts are feeding from "Top 10 tricks to improve SEO", "Top 5 social media tactics", "Top 3 wonders of the online...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-24 16:41:00</div>

The knowledge worker in 3 acts: Microsoft.nl

I spent a day with the team at Microsoft Netherlands - thanks to These Days. In this post, my thoughts are not about web analytics or the future of the industry - visiting Microsoft got me thinking about how we are working today and how we will in the near future. Act I: the office deskEvery Microsoft employee is empowered with a fully loaded and powerful laptop running the latest Windows 7,  Office 2010 and a slew of other Microsoft (and non-MS) tools. If Microsoft aims to "make it great" it needs to understand the behavior and expectations of its users. Back in my days as a sysadmin and webmaster at Softimage (then a subsidiary of Microsoft), the "eat your own dog food" mentra wasn't an obligation, it was a pleasure! 93,000 employees in 100 countries (Wikipedia) makes for a pretty good test bed. I used to work on three, sometimes four computers. Now I only use my laptop which I will sometimes hook up to a bigger screen, keyboard and mouse. At any given time only a third of Microsoft.nl employees are in the office - the others are working from home or wherever else. There is no office desk anymore - it's your laptop, your iPhone, your iPad... Act II: the office spaceWhat is striking about Microsoft.nl office is... the space! It doesn't even look like an office, it looks like a cozy modern hotel lobby. There are areas for meetings, for inspiration, for open conversations or if you need to be calm and focused you can go into sound proof cubicles. Of course, there are also the relaxing areas, gaming and a Microsoft Surface table. Food is great and drinks are plenty - just like home. The office is just like home, home is your office, your office is anywhere. Act III: the social spaceA huge part of our work is filled with social interactions that are beyond mere job-related conversations. Being freelance and working from home (most of the time) is great. The negative side is socializing at work is pretty much non-existent. Facebook or Twitter are not alternatives... The Microsoft.nl office is clearly set up to facilitate formal and informal social connections. For that matter, my little experience confirmed two stereotypes of the Dutch: 1) bicycles are everywhere and 2) there is a vibrant at-work and after-work lifestyle. The only real conversion of any social media is getting to meet someone in real life. The finallyPeople come to Microsoft.nl offices from all around the world - sometimes just to see and understand...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-22 18:20:00</div>

IBM-Coremetrics: why it matters & my take

Disclaimer: I do not have any insider info and those comments are my personal opinion and point of view. In legal terms... those are not forward looking statements.Another shockwave in the small web analytics world: IBM Advances Analytics with Acquisition of Coremetrics. The historyThis shouldn't come as a huge surprise. When Adobe announced the acquisition of Omniture few people understood the strategy and complementarity between the two players. In "Adobe + Omniture + WPP = game changer" I commented that "There seems to be some concensus this acquisition is awkward. However, it is in the same vein as IBM's Websphere partnership to integrate Coremetrics within the development platform and production cycle." In some ways, IBM fix a mistake: according to some people, they should not have sold Surf'Aid in 2006. Remember this was at a time when Google had a much smaller market penetration and Micrsoft purchased a small web analytics player named DeepMetrix, based in Gatineau, Canada... the rest is history. But the re-purchase has not much to do with Surfaid. Today's pictureAccording to a study of the top 500 US retail sites study, Google Analytics enjoys a market share of 62%  (up 19% from a year ago). Compare that to Omniture 40% (up 8%) and Coremetrics mere 18% (up 2% from last year). Google 60% figure is consistent with other confidential studies I conducted for the European market. "Double dipping" (using more than one tag), is up to 33% and significantly in favor of Google. Coremetrics offering was traditionally considered to be very strong for retail sites - a position that is obviously eroding when looking at the market share results. What's the deal?Google dominates the market It is not even a matter of price, it's a matter of features. The usual claim that Google Analytics was used on small insignificant sites and amateur blogs doesn't hold anymore. Google Analytics has reached the "enterprise-class" level, and businesses are massively adopting Google. There are a couple of perverse effects however (more on that bellow) Adobe + Omniture The goal is to integrate analytics into the development life cycle. There were also some speculations on some type of ad network enhancements trough Flash and better measurement but I don't believe it... Flash long term survival is seriously threatened by HTML5. Adobe culture and historical offering is focused on marketing and rich media. IBM + Coremetrics The...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-16 07:39:00</div>

Undermining our future as web analysts

My spring tour gives me the opportunity to engage and talk to consultants, practitioners and vendors from all horizons. And I love it! One thing I'm witnessing: we are undermining our own role as web analysts! I read "The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains" where Nicholas Carr argues the way we surf & search actually re-wire our brain and develops the prefrontal cortex associated with problem-solving and decisionmaking. "Good!" you might think, "as a web analyst, I'm constantly on the web, searching and solving challenges. My prefontal cortex is bigger than yours!" But all this brain juice isn't good for your health... and your future... Easy answer now!Scientific studies have proven the hypertext world hinges on our ability to focus and develop our deep understanding of a topic. Actually, as analysts we are experts at context switching - or what is known as switching cost. We skim through documents, spot the piece of info we want and up we go! We switch between web, emails, RSS feeds, Facebook and Twitter - and that old thing called "phone". The Internet is an interruption system. It seizes our attention only to scramble it.I'm saddened to say we do the same with our analysis. Most analysts I've met struggle to go from tactics to strategy. Most of them also face a brick-wall if the answer to their immediate issue isn't found on the net, or if the conference or workshop they go to doesn't provide some kind of magic recipe or to do list. ...heavy multitaskers were much more easily distracted, had significantly less control over their working memory, and were generally much less able to concentrate on a task.Our strength might very well be our greatest weakness. In our search for immediate gratification we are quickly going into the tactical and forgoing the strategic aspect of analytics and longer term business optimization.  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-15 12:40:00</div>

Intro to the Online Analytics Maturity Model [video]

After my keynote at the Web Analytics Congress 2010 (Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 2nd 2010), Matthew Niederberger, Web Analyst at TUI Netherlands, kindly asked me to do a video interview. I'm grateful to Matthew, the Web Analytics Congress team and Adversitement, who sponsored my keynote, for this great opportunity! In the video, I discuss the Online Analytics Maturity Model (OAMM) and my motivation to develop the concept. I also share tips on performing a more valid self assessment and what the effect is of managerial support on progression within the model. Interview recorded at the Web Analytics Congress, Amsterdam, June 2nd, 2010 by Matthew Niederberger, available on Vimeo. Music: "Interlude #2" by Flatlink (licensed under creative commons)  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-06-03 20:57:00</div>

Book review: ReWork, by the folks at 37signals

After presenting my Roadmap to online analytics success workshop in Amsterdam in April (thanks to Siegert Dierickx at TheseDays!), Taco Potze, from GoalGorilla, came to me and kindly offered ReWork, from Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson - the 37signals folks. For startups and open mindsThe book is an easy read - short chapters covering everything from entrepreneurship to project management, productivity, competition, evolution, marketing, staffing, crisis management, and corporate culture. Overall, it's an inspiring book. Anyone familiar with the startups culture will easily relate. More traditional organizations might find it a stretch... but still thought provoking and inspiring. My takeTaco said some of the things I was talking about in my workshop were similar to what was presented in the book. In fact, there are some striking resemblance! This isn't only reassuring, it's also a reinforcement of the Online Analytics Maturity privileged approach to web analytics and online business in general. For example, the guys are not fans of long term planning - "plans let the past drive the future". I also have to agree with "what you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan". They also touch on the topic of creativity - something often debated in the analytics community - "constraints are advantages in disguise" and they "forces you to be creative". Right on! Some of the thoughts readily applies to the field of analytics: "don't make things worse by overanalyzing and delaying before you even get going" and without stating it, they borrow from the "lean" philosophy of "constantly look for things to remove, simplify and streamline". As one of my former boss used to say "make it easy to do business with"! The book is full of useful tips and nuggets of wisdom. I'll leave you with two I particularly like: A lot of companies post help-wanted ads seeking rock stars or ninjas. Lame. Unless your workspace is filled with groupies and throwing stars, these words have nothing to do with your business.Although "ninja" might be trendy, it is certainly not the best job title if you want to reach out to c-level. This was my #1 advice from a recent post. We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn't last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: it has an expiration date.As an analyst, you have to make the complex easier, and if you want to get...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-30 09:42:00</div>

Quick tips for better business analysis (from the IIBA)

I couldn't resist but repost the great tidbits of wisdom included in the latest International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) newsletter. Quick Tips for Better Business Analysis? are licensed by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Quick Tip 17: Improve Your Written CommunicationThese rules can improve your business writing. Like all rules, think before you break them. Simple over ImpressiveUse short words if you can. Long words may seem impressive?but are you trying to impress, or to help stakeholders understand? Examples: "If you can" (3 words, 3 syllables) vs. "Whenever possible" (2 words, 6 syllables) "Given the indeterminate nature of the participant's internal motivations, as well as the way he managed to not understand the conundrum, no decisions were undertaken." (25 words) vs. "He didn't understand the problem. We didn't know what he wanted. We did nothing." (14 words) Active over PassiveUse the active voice by default and the passive voice when necessary. Active phrases make better requirements. Passive phrases may be useful for touchy topics. To use the active voice, put the subject first, verb second and object third. "Someone does something" and "actor?action?acted-upon" are other ways to describe this. Passive phrases are longer, may hide the actor, and are often unclear. For example, "the event was triggered" should not be in a requirement, but may be part of an email about a mistake someone made. Necessary and SufficientCut meaningless phrases like "managed to" and "in fact". Some phrases, like "as well as" can be replaced with single words, like "and". For example, "In fact, Alex managed to write a response as well as phone Bess," vs. "Alex wrote and phoned Bess." Color vs. MonochromeAdjectives change the meaning of a phrase. In most business writing?and in all requirements?adjectives can make text ambiguous, and should be removed. Carefully consider the rest. The Mom RuleTo test how well your text flows, read it out loud. To test how easy it is to understand, read it out loud starting with, "Mom, ..." My takeThose tips also applies to any types of communication: speaking at conference, writing blog posts, or presenting web analytics insight! The traditional "essay" format is pretty much dead - do we really have time for fancy writing in this day and age of 140 characters Tweets? On the other end, excellent writing...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-28 11:53:00</div>

Random thoughts from eMetrics

eMetrics ondon is over, Paris is next! It was my 11th time speaking for eMetrics since 2007. Over time, some thoughts have emerged... make your pick and please, jump in and lets have a healthy conversation! Forget about web analytics and marketing - welcome analytics and business optimization Forget about multivariate testing, behavioral targeting, multiple data source integration - you are not a Fortune 1000 We will revolutionize business optimization trough analytics - what makes you think so? Social media is not about marketing - it's about people Forget about web analytics and marketingWelcome analytics and business optimization. I've never been a fan of the term "web analytics", nor am I of "marketing optimization". As if the only thing we had to measure and optimize was a web site and online marketing campaigns. The reality is much broader and complex than that: we need to look at the online ecosystem and beyond, we need to dive into business processes - we need to evolve toward business intelligence (the expertise, not the technology) and business analysis. The limits of marketing lies in its ability to dump a truckload of visitors into a broken business process. Marketing ends where you can't figure out how to deal with IT - those who have the expertise and the knowledge of business processes automations that are far less trendy than measuring sentiment on Twitter but immensely more important to the business bottom line! Forget about multivariate testing, behavioral targeting, multiple data source integrationYou are not a Fortune 100 (...if you are, I'm glad you are reading my humble blog!) At conferences we are inundated with showcase from the best of the best - those who are fully and thoroughly leveraging online analytics, we are speechless witnesses of double-digit improvements anecdotes, carefully rehearsed messages of wisdom carefully crafted to fit in 140 characters. We drool at multivariate testing and behavioral targeting, happily slicing and dicing data from a ton of different sources, amazing visualizations created off dynamic segments... Those "maturity model atheists", as someone once put it at eMetrics San Jose, simply do not need an Online Analytics Maturity Model for the simple reason they are beyond that - they are competing on analytics and have achieved online analytics nirvana (well... kind of). For the rest of us, we have to get down to earth and learn about the most optimal and realistic path to...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-19 21:22:00</div>

eMetrics Paris, 14-16 juin et gagnez un entrée

I usually write all my blog posts in english - this one is an exception to promote my workshop and keynote at eMetrics Paris! Please bear with me or head to eMetrics London or the Web Analytics Congress (Amsterdam)! Rabais 15%: ANALYSEWEB10 eMetrics Paris approche à grands pas et il est temps de faire un peu de bruit dans le marché! Lundi 14 juin: atelier "Roadmap pour un web analytics gagnant"Après le succès de cet atelier au Canada, aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas, en Belgique et présenté pour la première fois en français à Lille en mars dernier, je réitère l'expérience sur Paris! Cette formation propose une approche méthodologique efficace pour réussir la mise en place stratégique et opérationnelle du web analytics. Vous apprendrez notamment comment: faire une évaluation stratégique de votre situation, identifier les six dimensions de succès d?une entreprise orientée analytique, définir des objectifs réalistes en lien avec vos impératifs d?affaires, et comment en mesurer le succès, identifier les ressources et les investissements en analytique, communiquer efficacement, être un agent de changement et naviguer à travers les pièges politiques, éviter les difficultés auxquelles font faces de nombreuses entreprises. La journée sera agrémentée d'une multitude de retours d?expérience basés sur plus de 20 ans de métier en analyse, dont les 15 dernières en stratégie ebusiness et web analytics. Cette formation s?adresse à tous ceux qui touchent, de près ou de loin, au web analytics: responsables marketing, communication, e-commerce, e-marketing et responsables des systèmes d?information et bien sûr, professionnels du web analytics. Aucune connaissance technique d?utilisation d?un outil de Web Analytics n?est requise. >>> Information et inscription à l'atelier  Mardi 15 juin: keynote "Vers une culture des données en France"J'aurai le plaisir de partager la vedette avec Julien Coquet, de Hub'Sales, afin de parler de la culture des données en France. Mais que vient faire un Québécois pour vous parler de ce sujet? Là réside l'intérêt! J'y partagerai une vision unique du marché grâce aux résultats cumulés de l'autoévaluation "Online Analytics Maturity" ainsi qu'un portrait du web analytics en France grâce aux données recueillies avec WASP. >> Inscription au eMetrics Paris  Gagnez une entrée au eMetrics ou à mon workshop!Deux options: Julien propose le fameux concours de haïku, limite de participation le 20 mai. Contribuez à mes travaux...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-12 17:41:00</div>

eMetrics London, May 17-19 and more!

15% discount: SPEAKUK010 eMetrics San Jose is just behind us, so was Toronto a few weeks back as well as my initial little tour of Europe. But wait! My spring tour is not over: eMetrics London is coming up May 17th and 18th, plus a workshop on the 19th. Session: "Advanced tagging techniques, tips & traps"Most people know me as the creator of the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP). Over the years I plead Jim Sterne, the conference chairman, if I could do a session on tagging techniques and pitfalls. Probably perceived as "too technical" and not really catering to marketing folks, I never got to do it. However, insights are garnered from good analysis. Good analysis is predicated on good data. Good data can only be had through proper tagging. So here you go! I will share years of implementation experience with leading tools, horror stories and anecdotes, and hopefully demystify web analytics tags! Don't miss my session, in the Advanced eMetrics track, Monday May 17th, at 5:20pm. Workshop: Road Map to Online Analytics SuccessThis workshop stems from my work on the Online Analytics Maturity Model. I've done it several times already with an amazing satisfaction rate of 98%! The premise is simple: properly tagging and configuring the tool is a challenge in itself but even when done successfully, unexpected issues surface and the value of online analytics quickly fade. Once you've got your training or education, once you have gone trough the initial learning curve, you probably feel web analytics is pretty hard! This workshop is about taking a step back, looking at the bigger picture of analytics and business analysis and optimization, and understanding the six critical process areas that will make your web analytics life significantly  easier. It's still time to register for this unique workshop! And more!Please fill out the Online Analytics Maturity Assessment survey, see what is your online analytics footprint and help me in my ongoing research to make web analytics easier! Coming up keynoting at the Web Analytics Congress (Amsterdam,  June 1-2) and another workshop! speaking at eMetrics Paris, June 14-16 and workshop in French on the 14th   Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-10 22:54:00</div>

Tatvic enhances immeria's Excel web analytics dashboard

Some time ago I released ?Web Analytics Dashboard Fun in Excel 2007?, a free Microsoft Excel 2007 dashboard example I created as a demo, sample and starter kit for web analytics students and professionals. Some of the features are: Current vs. previous periods - month to month, year to year % Change in form of Indicators via conditional formatting Spark lines Control limits and Significance Different Sections like "General Statistics", "E-commerce" and "Conversions" Automation & Customization Data Analysis and recommendations. I released this dashboard primarily as an example for students enrolled in the UBC Award of Achievement program I?m tutoring as well as the Laval University course I?m teaching. I also use it as a demo in the Roadmap to Online Analytics Success workshops. Based on the numerous feedbacks I got since its release, I realized lots of analysts and agencies are using it as a starting point. Some of them had asked for Google Analytics automation and I referred them to Tatvic GA Excel plug-in. With this enhanced version, Tatvic actually just made this job very easy! Some of the important features are: Trends and % change indicators: the up/down red/yellow indicators are based on 5% variations of month-to-month or year-to-year values. Those should be updated to your own threshold sensibility and set to their according positive/negative significance. For example, increase in visits is usually a positive thing (green/up) but increase in bounce rate is typically a negative thing (red/up). Segmentation, Automation & Customization: once you understand how to add any metric to your dashbord it becomes very easy to tailor this sample dashboard to your own needs. Adding a new segment is more complex but can be done if you look how they are configured in the spreadhseet. Control limits and Significance: Based on any given metric, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate upper/lower control limits and show them beside the sparkline. Furthermore, the sparkline itself use +/- 1.5 Standard Deviation ? a statistically valid way to define the control limits range ? and make it easier to spot outliers. Whilst many used this template as a guide and customized it to incorporate clients? data to present Monthly Dashboard, Tatvic realized that: As an analyst the amount of time it takes to get large volumes of data counts for a lot and Extracting the data from Google Analytics interface and putting in the back end of template was a tedious...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-04 14:20:00</div>

GA + 4Q: Free clickstream and voice of customer integration from iPerceptions

At last, I can reveal what iPerceptions has been working on recently (note: since I sold WASP to iPerceptions, I'm on their product advisory council). Today at eMetrics, CEO Claude Guay announced enhanced features for the popular free 4Q Survey Voice of Customer. What is 4Q you might ask? When it came out two years ago Avinash qualified it as the "greatest survey in the world". With this integration, you will be able to combine web analytics clickstream data with 4Q voice of customer data points including: Purpose of Visit: why visitors came to a site, Task Completion: whether they were able to complete their tasks and Overall Satisfaction. Once data integration is activated, you can go straight into your Google Analytics profile and easily slice and dice the data, create custom filters and reports to measure the site?s performance against online business objectives: Track satisfaction rates for specific segments Measure conversion rates against task completion rates to gain a better view of the conversion cycle. Compare satisfaction rates by time on site, pages visited, sections visited and geographic region. Examine time on site by task completion to distinguish between visitors struggling to find information and those positively engaged on the site. iPerceptions is also enabling greater flexibility in 4Q by introducing full customization of purpose of visit choices. Users can now choose from existing choices or immediately add their own selections and translations.  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-04 15:36:00</div>

Tatvik enhances immeria's Excel web analytics dashboard

Some time ago I released ?Web Analytics Dashboard Fun in Excel 2007?, a free Microsoft Excel 2007 dashboard example I created as a demo, sample and starter kit for web analytics students and professionals. Some of the features are: Current vs. previous periods - month to month, year to year % Change in form of Indicators via conditional formatting Spark lines Control limits and Significance Different Sections like "General Statistics", "E-commerce" and "Conversions" Automation & Customization Data Analysis and recommendations. I released this dashboard primarily as an example for students enrolled in the UBC Award of Achievement program I?m tutoring as well as the Laval University course I?m teaching. I also use it as a demo in the Roadmap to Online Analytics Success workshops. Based on the numerous feedbacks I got since its release, I realized lots of analysts and agencies are using it as a starting point. Some of them had asked for Google Analytics automation and I referred them to Tatvic GA Excel plug-in. With this enhanced version, Tatvic actually just made this job very easy! Some of the important features are: Trends and % change indicators: the up/down red/yellow indicators are based on 5% variations of month-to-month or year-to-year values. Those should be updated to your own threshold sensibility and set to their according positive/negative significance. For example, increase in visits is usually a positive thing (green/up) but increase in bounce rate is typically a negative thing (red/up). Segmentation, Automation & Customization: once you understand how to add any metric to your dashbord it becomes very easy to tailor this sample dashboard to your own needs. Adding a new segment is more complex but can be done if you look how they are configured in the spreadhseet. Control limits and Significance: Based on any given metric, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate upper/lower control limits and show them beside the sparkline. Furthermore, the sparkline itself use +/- 1.5 Standard Deviation ? a statistically valid way to define the control limits range ? and make it easier to spot outliers. Whilst many used this template as a guide and customized it to incorporate clients? data to present Monthly Dashboard, Tatvic realized that: As an analyst the amount of time it takes to get large volumes of data counts for a lot and Extracting the data from Google Analytics interface and putting in the back end of template was a tedious...<br/><div align='right'>2010-05-04 14:20:00</div>

WAA Certification - three advices and why I'm doin it

If you are in the web analytics industry, you certainly heard of the Web Analytics Association Certified Web Analyst Exam launched a few days ago. Applications are now being accepted and I'm enrolled to take the test at the upcoming eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in San Jose. I did "test the test" in San Jose last year and again in Toronto this month. I registered as soon as the application process became available. The confirmation email I received stated: Congratulations, you were the first individual to submit an application so you have an opportunity to receive the first certification that is awarded! Here's why I'm doin it! Advice #1: don't put fancy suffixes to your job titleYou can't pretend to be an expert, you can only be recognized as such. And to be recognized as an expert, Malcolm Gladwell states in his best seller Outliers, you need at least 10,000 of real experience - over 5 years full time! Guru is so... v1.0, while "ninja" is v2.0 but so over rated... The only title that should accompany your role is "WAA Certified Web Analyst" - the only professional certification specifically addressing our field. Advice #2: develop critical thinkingLet's take an example: I have utmost respect for Avinash. In his unique, exuberant and bold theatrical style, Avinash is amazing and probably the only one who can get away with ?puke?, ?sucks? and God in the same speech. However, being on such a pedestal is also dangerous - some "newbies" will simply ?drink the words of wisdom? and run away saying ?bounce rate - I came, I puked, I left?... ?It depends? isn?t such a bad thing after all! Regardless of the tool, regardless of the "web analytics is hard" or "web analytics is easy" approaches, regardless of your background and years of experience, there is one universal truth to analytics: how an entity (i.e., business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data. This requires "critical thinking" - determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed ... whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as valid. The WAA Certification is exactly that: critical thinking in the field of online analytics. Take a look at the sample questions - they are not about the tools and they are not easy - they basically reflect a real business environment. It is your job, if you claim to be a real analyst, to understand complex issues, understand them and make sound...<br/><div align='right'>2010-04-18 23:14:00</div>

Web Analytics, IT and Business Intelligence: friend or foe?

This article was published in the IT World Canada magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2010. I'm speaking about web analytics and business intelligence at the Salon Business Intelligence of Montréal, April 14th.  As more organizations are using web analytics to measure online marketing performance and optimize their websites, those experienced in business intelligence are increasingly looking at  web analytics with a mix of awe and suspicion. The Web Analytics Association official definition of web analytics is "the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage" while Wikipedia defines business intelligence as "the skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices used to support decision making". Two definitions that can be competing, interchangeable or complementary - the confusion and misunderstandings are easy. What's the role of IT in web analytics?IT responsibilities traditionally include listening to business requirements and objectives and coming up with sound recommendations and solutions to optimize business processes. IT is often the guardian of data integrity and security. Single handedly giving the reign of web analytics to marketing is uncomfortable, especially when data is freely flowing out of the business walls and safeguard to be stored and accessed using SAS (Software As a Service) solutions. Fears of abuse and misuse of corporate data, confidentiality and lack of integration with other corporate data sources are often cited by IT as reasons to hold back and look carefully at web analytics projects. This often leads organizations to address web analytics as a business intelligence project. On the marketing side, we hear over and over about IT's lack of understanding, entrenched mentality and strict rules which impair their ability to act. What should IT do?Even if marketing campaigns could be optimized to the extreme, eventually, prospects and customers will have to go through business processes for registration, purchase or support requests. Coincidentally, while marketing can optimize the brand, bring people to the site and improve the customer relationship, those processes necessarily rely on back end systems which reinforce data quality, integrity and security. As with other processes, IT's role in this context shouldn't be different: support the business by providing the most appropriate solutions - including support for web analytics...<br/><div align='right'>2010-04-12 18:35:00</div>

Online Analytics Maturity self-assessment tool (beta)

I'm happy to share a new tool to help you make your web analytics life easier: the free Online Analytics Maturity self-assessment survey. Basically, trough a couple of very simple questions - I like when things are easy - you will get an idea of why web analytics might be hard for you. But first, let's start with a couple of definitions... Analytics: "the science of analysis - or how an entity (i.e., business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data". Source: Wikipedia Analysis: "The process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it". Source: Wikipedia Assessment: "the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs". Source: WikipediaWhy this survey?We keep hearing "web analytics is hard". From the definitions above, we can see "analysis" primary objective is to make things easier. Nobody's job is supposed to be easy - if you really claim to be an analyst, stop complaining: your job IS to break apart complex topics and processes, understand them, and make them easier! The Online Analytics Maturity assessment survey I have received tremendous level of constructive feedback from practitioners, agencies, vendors, academics, business analysts and others since I drafted and proposed the first version of the Web Analytics Maturity Model. This survey will help you, and me, pursue the work on making web analytics easier by documenting best practices and helping you, your stakeholders and colleagues understand a bit more about online analytics. Caveats Any self-assessment is necessarily biased - but this is a start - as with any tool, exercise your judgement. Note this survey represents a subset of a full maturity assessment exercice. Should you want an independent, professional evaluation and specific recommendations for improvement, please contact me. Your benefits This survey will assist you in evaluating your current online analytics maturity and point out what are the key process areas at risk. It is based on the first version of the Web Analytics Maturity Model (WAMM). The collected data will be analyzed and will contribute to the Online Analytics Maturity Model (OAMM) future releases. Once sufficient data is collected, it will be the first such study of online analytics practices within organizations of various industries, sizes, geographies and organizational structures. Get started! Fill out the OAMM survey...<br/><div align='right'>2010-04-09 11:53:00</div>

What's holding back web analytics?

About everyone in the web analytics industry knows Eric Peterson. He's been an early evangelist. He wrote the "Big Book of Key Performance Indicators", which, to this date, remains an excellent reference for anyone starting in the field. He also leveraged a fantastic idea from June Dershewitz called Web Analytics Wednesday. Eric asked on Twitter: "What do you think is holding the #measure industry back? Pls share!"Replies were plenty. Incidentally, two days earlier, someone for whom I have the utmost respect spent an amazing amount of time shedding light on the web analytics industry. Joseph Carrabis is an amazingly bright person who is somewhat of an outsider to the web analytics industry, and thus, can shed a different light on it. He looked at us, collectively, asked questions, and shared some very interesting thoughts in Part 1 and Part 2 of "The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics". Joseph is an observer, a listener, a thinker, and a very honest and respectful person. Joseph opened up a conversation. Back to the Twitter thread@immeria: @erictpeterson wht's holding #measure back? My take is the Web Analtyics Maturity Model http://bit.ly/fAavu Nevr got feedback from U abt it @erictpeterson: @immeria I'm not a believer in the value of models. I worry that they are the new "Web analytics is easy." @immeria: @erictpeterson What's holding back #measure? Additional comments in my nod to @JosephCarrabis at http://bit.ly/4CAvEc #measure @immeria: @erictpeterson never claimed WAMM would make #measure easy, but certainly easier. It's a start, don't you think? @erictpeterson: @immeria let's agree to disagree, shall we? Either way, glad you got an A+ on the thesis paper. Congrats! @immeria: @erictpeterson Solving problems when #measure is "hard": 1) acknowledge the problem 2) understand it 3) act to solve it. WAMM helps do that I waited and thought about this thread because I simply don?t get it. I was to reply privately but decided to post a public response instead. The comment ?let?s agree to disagree? is what Wikipedia defines as a "thought-terminating cliché". Hopefully, this will be a way to continue the conversation because without conversation, there is no learning, and no evolution. So, what's holding back web analytics? My opinion, based on 18 months of study on top of over 20 years of experience that led me to this industry - looking at other fields of expertise and interviewing practitioners around the globe - it turned out there were some...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-12 10:59:00</div>

Web analytics cultural exchange

First and foremost, I want to think everyone who helped out with the planning and logistics of height events in ten days. An aggressive schedule that got me to Utrecht (The Netherlands), Lille (France), Antwerp (Belgium), London, and back to Amsterdam - a bit crazy but proportionally exciting! Adversitement (@adversitement): Matthijs Keij (@matthijskeij), Mirte Romanillos and meeting back Nicolas Aucher Hub'Sales (@hubsales): Nicolas Malo (@nicolasmalo) and Julien Coquet (@juliencoquet) TheseDays: Siegert Dierickx (@siegertd) Petri Mertanen (@mertanen) and Frans Appels (@frappels) I met so many people it's hard to remember everyone! Among others, I had great chats with Brice Bottégal (@bricebottegal) and Michael Notté (@michaelnotte) Creativity and analyticsI presented this topic as a brain teaser, a softer, more entertaining session which address creativity vs data-driven management and how constraints (which are often revealed through analytics) are the essence of innovation. The presentation starts by asking "what is business success?" and gradually leads toward the six critical process areas presented in the Online Analytics Maturity Model. Workshops: "Online analytics: a managerial perspective"The half-day or full-day workshop was presented in Lille, Antwerp, and Amsterdam. The workshop is built around the six critical process areas of the Online Analytics Maturity Model and presents several aspects that are too often neglected when doing online analytics. For once, we didn't even talked about the tools or specific tricks. Instead, we focused on learning the concepts that are essential in analytics and business optimization. My KPIs: number of attendees and satisfaction level. The result: nearly 50 participants and expectations met at 98% (only one person was not satisfied... he was expecting some kind of Google Analytics training... let's call him an "outlier"!) Rendez-vous des web analytics and social networking eventsI also got busy at a couple of social events where I touched on similar topics but also took the opportunity to talk about the Web Analytics Association, our goal of developing a stronger international presence with the help of active members. I also shared one of the ongoing project called Web Analytics Without Borders, where WAA volunter members are actively helping Save The Children - a great opportunity to learn, collaborate and share in on a real web analytics project. Private meetingsSince I'm a freelance and my...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-31 22:54:00</div>

eMetrics Toronto is coming up! April 6-9

15% discount: HAMEL15 Those who know me knows how passionate and how engaged I am in the web analytics community. The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit is back in Toronto for a third year in a row and this time again, I'm on the Advisory Board and will be involved in many different ways. Why go to eMetrics Toronto?You are into online marketing, website development, SEO/SEM, PPC, mobile, video, social media? You manage ebusiness or simply want to join this high-demand, exciting and quickly evolving field? If you are serious about online optimization and measurement, there is no excuse! Toronto or San Jose?For Canadians, heading to eMetrics San Jose sounds way nicer (especially with our strong $CAD!). Nice weather and bigger show sounds appealing. Be aware the US market is very different from the Canadian one. If it's your first eMetrics, I strongly recommend coming to Toronto. What about the speakers?There's a great roaster of speakers but I don't want to duplicate it here. Just check it out, you will likely find familiar names and brands. Look at the topics and speaker bios, this will be a great mix of knowledge sharing, tips & tricks and great opportunities to talk to the pros. Want to catch up?I will do several things at eMetrics Toronto: Workshop: Roadmap to online analytics success, April 6th, 3:15pm-6:15pm. Want some stats? Workshop satisfaction: 96%! Panel Discussion: Customer Insights and the Qualitative Quantitative Mix, April 7th, 5:50pm-6:30pm Moderating the Conversion Optimization track, April 8th, from 3:50-6:00pm Contact me if you would like to book a private meeting! 15% discount: HAMEL15   Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-21 15:30:00</div>

Book review: Advanced web analytics by Brian Clifton

Some time ago Brian Clifton asked me for my insight on his re-edition of "Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics". Brian published the 1st edition nearly two years ago while working for Google UK - since then, Brian moved on to become an independent consultant and Google Analytics greatly improved its offering. Most books either address the broad concepts of web analytics or provide a long list of tips & tricks for a specific product. This is not the case with Brian's book. It's the first one I see that brings the concepts and apply them to a specific tool, namely Google Analytics. Simply put, anyone starting in the field should have three books on their shelf: "Web Analytics an hour a day" from Avinash Kaushik "Advanced web metrics with Google Analytics" by Brian Clifton "Always be testing" by Bryan Eisenberg. Don't just take my word for it, read others reviews and why a Brian wanted to publish a second edition.  Register for Roadmap to online analytics success: a managerial perspective workshop in a city near you. Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-15 12:56:00</div>

Web Analytics Association: my take as a Director

A little more than a year ago I took the plunge and announced my desire to run for the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors and it's now time to enroll if you want to serve in a leadership capacity and help drive the strategic direction of the Web Analytics Association. I'm now halfway trough my call of duty. When I announced I was running for it, I quoted Tom Davenport and shared my views on the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry: "three things are at the basis for competition: efficient and effective execution, smart decision making, and the ability to wring every last drop of value from business processes - all of which can be gained through sophisticated use of analytics"In a subsequent post, I added: Beyond stats, web sites and businesses, there are people. After all, some things don't change that much even after thousands of years. We still want to get around the campfire and listen to the sage, help the apprentice, be part of the group and make our mark. Maybe that's why, in essence, I'm running for the Web Analytics Association Board of Director.AccomplishmentsWhat a year! During the past 12 months I became a Director and the Treasurer of the WAA. I participated on numerous Board meetings, comity discussions, email exchanges. I got actively involved in the Championship, UBC tutoring, along with other volunteers we launched Web Analytics Without Borders, I got involved in the site redesign, and I'm now going on the Certification advisory comity and we just confirmed the hiring of Mike Levin as a full time Executive Director. I did a number of social networking events, spoke at eMetrics, I reviewed the social media standard proposal and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple of things. It requires commitment and I'm not even getting paid to do it. Am I complaining? Absolutely not! The rewards are numerous: a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of doing something that can make a difference, a passion for the field. On top of that, you get to meet with the top influencer and most brilliant people in the industry. After all, when do you get to share lunch with managers from WebTrends, Yahoo! and Omniture? When can you share tips with practitioners from Dell, Microsoft and Sony or meet consultants from all around the world? My takeWhen I hear people complaining web analytics is hard, or the WAA is too US centric and not present enough internationally, or UBC courses should...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-08 20:58:00</div>

Web Analytics Maturity Model: feedback and workshops

I have received lots of great feedback following the release of the Web Analytics Maturity Model. If you haven't read it yet, go get it now - yes, it's free! If you've read it, I would love to hear from you! Since it's initial publication, the document has been downloaded over 600 times and practitioners, consultants and students continues to engage in great conversations about the challenges of online analytics and how to succeed. WAMM in the wildTo be useful, a model most be applicable "in the wild", it must be useful, used and abused! I'm continuing to work and enhance the concept with the help of a small group of people willing to share their insight & expertise. I have created a workshop that use the approach to cover the most critical process areas of developing and managing an online analytics culture. See the full list of upcoming workshops and speaking engagements. Your takeReaders of this blog have noticed I often post "My take" point of views. Now it's your turn! Socrates said "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance". But he also said "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." So help me please, I would love to get your feedback! More specifically, think about the following statements: "A model is a schematic and simplified representation of a more complex reality. What is included or abstracted stems from hypothesis about what?s essential or not." "A maturity model contains the essential elements of effective processes for one or more disciplines. It also describes an evolutionary improvement path from ad hoc, immature processes to disciplined, mature processes with improved quality and effectiveness." "The proposed model is based on critical success factors contributing to the use of analytics to make better decisions and extract maximum value from business processes." Now, a couple of questions: What do you think about the above statements? Do you relate to the six critical success areas and five stages suggested in the paper? What did you find most useful (or not) in the proposed model? What do you think would be the next step to improve the model? Workshops are available (if you feel alone because I'm not coming in your town, let me know and I'll see what I can do!) A self-assessment and benchmarking tool is on its way A book is coming up! For all of the above, I'm seeking quotes, or better still, short case...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-02 15:18:00</div>

Book review: Analytics at work by Tom Davenport

I have mentioned the work of Tom Davenport numerous times on this blog. For those who don't know him, he is a Babson College professor, Accenture fellow, author, speaker and renowned consultant. I particularly liked two of his previous books: "The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business" and "Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning". His latest one, entitled "Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results", goes deeper in how leading businesses are gaining a competitive advantage through analytics. First impressionsIf you haven't read "Competing on analytics" go there first, it's a must for any serious online analyst. Also be forewarned this is about "analytics" not "web analytics" nor "online analytics" - a subtle but very important distinction. Whenever I read a book I take margin notes and fold the page corners. This simple method is some kind "engagement" metric: 19 folded pages out of 188 (or 10%) - not bad! But be forewarned this is my own appreciation, biased by my experience and interests. There are some gems worth nothing, like the simple "Key questions addressed by analytics" table (ref. Figure 1-1) showing Past, Present, Future on the top, and Information, Insight on the left. For example, the intersection of "Information/Past" is "What happened? (Reporting)" but "Insight/Past" is "How and why did it happen? (Modeling, experimental design)". Neat and simple. I also liked "the best decision makers will be those who combine the science of quantitative analysis with the art of sound reasoning". Seems obvious, no? But this is always a topic of passionate discussions among the tenants of "creativity" and those of "analytics". DELTA - Data, Enterprise, Leadership, Targets, AnalystsThe book is structured around the DELTA acronym. Certainly a good play on the Greek Delta letter which signifies "change". Each chapter introduces the requirement and characteristics of the acronym letters as well as a self-assessment of maturity stages. The remainder of the book talks about developing the culture of analytics. In chapter six, "Analysts", Davenport defines analyst as "workers who use statistics, rigorous quantitative or qualitative analysis, and information modeling techniques to shape and make business decisions". He also provides definitions for various roles, including that of "Analytical Semiprofessionals" who "apply the models and algorithms developed by professionals" - which is...<br/><div align='right'>2010-03-01 10:48:00</div>

Where in the world is S.Hamel?

Spring is the conference season and this year is going to be exceptional! Last December I had thought of two personal SMART objectives: By December 2010 I will be speaking at least once in Europe. By December 2010 I will be a keynote speaker at least once. Within days those two objectives were scheduled. Kicking off 2010I kicked off the year with a half-day workshop based on the Web Analytics Maturity Model, in partnership with PublicInsite, in Ottawa. Then I was asked to do it again for the Réseau Action-TI in Québec-city, an organization fostering the education, networking and innovation in field of IT. February 10th was a 3rd opportunity to present the Roadmap to Online Analytics Success in the morning, followed by a great Web Analytics Association event with Jim Sterne. And lastly, two weeks ago I spoke at the Internet Marketing Conference in Montreal. Sadly I have to skip the Omniture Summit for this year. I had been invited for the MindMeld invite-only event but I've been swamped by work and had to make difficult choices before leaving for Europe. What's next?Keynote for Adversitement, Utrecht, The Netherlands, March 16th Roadmap to Online Analytics Success full day workshop and evening event with Hub'Sales, Lille, France, March 18 and 19th Roadmap to Online Analytics Success half-day workshop and evening event with These Days, Antwerp, Belgium, March 23rd Roadmap to Online Analytics Success half-day workshop and evening event with These Days, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 25th eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, Toronto, April 6-9 Salon Business Intelligence, Montréal, April 14th eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, San Jose, CA, May 3-7 eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, London, May 17-18 Keynote for the WebAnalytics Congress, Amsterdam, June 2nd eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, Paris, June 15-16 eMetrics Marketing Optimization Sumimt, Washington, fall 2010 As I always say, there's no better social media than meeting face to face! If you are anywhere around those cities please register and let me know. If you feel neglected because I'm not visiting you, please email me so I can see where there's enough interest and which partner could help me get there! I already have New York on the radar, if you are interested or can help, let me know.  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-02-26 18:21:00</div>

Mixing analytics tools: My take

Another interesting post on the web analytics forum today: should you use multiple analytics tools? Someone is referring to the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, where a panel of expert addressed the danger of using multiple tools. One of the panellists is even reported as stating quite strongly not to use multiple tools (assuming he meant to say not to use multiple web analytics tools). The first question to ask is if we're talking about multiple web analytics or online analytics. I want to make this subtle but important distinction: web analytics relates to behavioural clickstream data (your typical Google Analytics), while online analytics relates to the use of online data in a broader sense, including voice-of-customer, social media analytics, performance monitoring, competitive analysis and such. A while ago I had proposed a definition of web analytics but would like to refine it further as "online analytics": Online analytics is the extensive use of qualitative and quantitative data, statistical analysis, exploratory and predictive models, business process analysis and fact-based management to drive a continuous improvement of online activities resulting in improved ROI.Based on the recently published WASP study, 33% of the top 500 US retail sites are using more than one web analytics tool. Why use multiple tools anyway?In my experience, and while working on the Web Analytics Maturity Model, I have seen many reasons why organizations end up with multiple web analytics tools:large-scale, global organizations often tries to standardize on a single tool (make sense!) but smaller groups naturally find ways to empower themselves when the central authority is too rigid and inflexible organizations working with agencies often end up with tags that are included anyway; leading to a mix match of unrelated data sources obscuring the full user experience view across multiple sites I have seen more occurrence of people who think the only way to measure Google PPC effectively is to use Google Analytics In some cases, there is a strong belief the "old" web analytics solution is broken/incorrect and people have lost trust and think the magic answer is to switch tool. Every time this happens we eventually find out the issue is not the tool... My takeQuestion: Should we use multiple web analytics tools? Answer: if you have trouble mastering one tool, don't venture into using multiple tools. Quite...<br/><div align='right'>2010-02-25 11:40:00</div>

Testing web analytics implementation with WASP

I stumbled on this thread on the Web Analytics discussion forum: "testing of webanalytics" Q) Can you please suggest best practices around testing webanalytics implementation (Omniture or Webtrends). Any test plan or strategy document along with the test tools that can be used will be of great help. A) There is no better test than randomly clicking your site to verify page names. He? Excuse me! When has quality assurance become a random act of faith? What should I test to increase quality of my web analytics data?First, you should already have quality assurance test scenarios for your whole site. You can use the same ones to test your analytics implementation. Here's how to proceed: The home page is pretty unique (as are landing pages built for specific campaigns), so those should be tested individually. Most sites uses templates. Identify each template and at least 3 pages using each of those templates. For example, category pages, product pages, article pages, etc. Identify each process-driven conversion scenarios: shopping cart, subscribe to newsletter, contact us, internal search, etc. - each of those scenarios should be tested with at least 3 set of values. You will want to test extreme conditions, like entering wrong data or higher/lower range values. For example, when testing internal search, do you correctly track zero-search results and their search terms? Identify how campaigns are going to be tracked and what are the parameters being used to track them Especially with Omniture and WebTrends (and now Google Analytics), you can have several custom variables. You will want to identify them and test pages that are specifically assigned those values. How do I test?Don't do this by hand! The poor man's way would be do to a "View source", search for the tags, use some debugger and try to decipher the query string parameters. Chances you miss something are big and you will loose an incredible amount of time doing it. WASP, the Web Analytics Solution Profiler was built specifically to ease quality assurance of web analytics implementations. When used manually, it will show and easy to read detailed breakdown of your tags in the  browser sidebar as you browse from page to page. There's a free version of WASP you can try, and if you plan on doing more serious quality audits on a frequent basis, the more advanced Market Research version will allow you to crawl your site or list a bunch of URLs in a text file (i.e. those using...<br/><div align='right'>2010-02-24 10:02:00</div>

Internet Marketing Conference - Montreal, Feb 18th

The Internet Marketing Conference is back in Montreal this Thursday, February 18th, at the Holiday Inn Select in Downtown Montreal. Lennart Svanberg, the mind behind IMC, asked me to Chair the Montreal conference where a host of speakers will address the theme of "creativity". The Internet continues to be an immense playground for those who are creative. Whole businesses have emerged out of what often looked like crazy ideas. As in any evolution process, most failed, but some survived and became immensely successful. What?s the role of creativity in today?s marketing and business strategies? Is creativity just play and business just about profits? Find the answer at IMC! Internet Marketing Conference - Montreal Thursday, February 18th Holiday Inn Select Downtown Montreal Register Now!  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2010-02-15 15:06:00</div>

Web Analytics Maturity Model Q&A

This post is a translation/adaptation of  Questions à Stéphane Hamel, concepteur du "Web Analytics Maturity Model" (WAMM), where I was interviewed by Nicolas Malo. --- Stéphane Hamel is a leading voice for Web Analytics in North America and has recently published the Web Analytics Maturity Model (WAMM). The WAMM is the result of an 18 months study conducted as an MBA project at Université Laval in Québec-city. Stéphane is also a member of the board of the Web Analytics Association. As part of his European tour of the "Roadmap to online analytics success" he will be in Lille, France on March 18th and 19th (registration details for Lille are available on Hub'Sales site, other locations for the workshop are listed on the WAMM page). Nicolas Malo: Bonjour Stéphane. Can you explain what is the WAMM for the uninitiated? Stéphane Hamel : I love acronyms! Because I have extensive experience in e-business and measuring online performance, as an online tutor to UBC's Award of Achievement in Web Analytics and frequent conference speaker, Laval University suggested my final project for Master in Electronic Business Management (MBA ) be the creation of a full-semester, graduate level course on the topic of web analytics. I quickly realised such a course could not be a traditional approach of covering basic concepts or how to implement and use popular web analytics solutions. My practitioner and consulting experience with several clients as well as looking at the state of the industry also thought me there was obviously something wrong with the traditional approach since a majority of companies could not achieve the expected results. At the same time, throught years of MBA studies, it was clear companies were faced with many other difficult challenges. This led to a position that web analytics is primarily based on disciplines that have existed for a long time and that it can be easier. Hence the essential questions: What are the success factors of web analytics? What are the critical process areas supporting such a success? How to determine if a company is on the right track to succeed, or rather at high risk of failing? The WAMM proposes a maturity model based on Critical Success Factors leading to the effective use of analytics to make informed decisions and optimize online business processes. Nicolas Malo: How did you come to the conclusion that it was necessary to formalize a model of maturity in Web Analytics? Stéphane Hamel: Some of my colleagues in...<br/><div align='right'>2010-01-25 12:11:00</div>

Of data and intuition; web analytics models and frameworks

We strive to convince managers of developing a data-driven culture instead of relying on what seems to be emotional, arbitrary and political decisions. We despise the HiPPO and try to tame the beast in various ways. Data, experience and some intuition have a role to play in making good business decisions. As Jim Sterne puts it in Data, Data Everywhere and Not a Thought to Think, "Data is good. Data is valuable. Just don?t be black and white about it. You can use data to help you and you can use data to trap yourself." Training & education: again! Developing critical thinking is one of the primary role of education - once you understand the fundamentals behind something, you can more easily extend your knowledge to more complex, difficult and unexpected situations. There is an ongoing debate between those who think quick hands on experience with specific tools is a better career strategy than getting educated about concepts of marketing, statistics, management and online strategies. As with data, nothing is black or white. Taking a radical stance and implying the only value businesses are looking for are tools masters is a huge mistake. As web analytics evolves from marketing centricity to become online analytics and business analysis, would-be web analysts are faced with a dilemna: get hands on experience with specific tools to quickly get a job or gain more education to master the core concepts of doing business online. Of course you need to get started in analytics and experience is key, but everyone knows knowledge is power. In my opinion, keeping less experienced professionals entrenched in a role of so called "tool X expert" is a short term strategy to get a job - not necessarily a bad one - but certainly not a long term career objective. Data vs intuitionJim Sterne's most recent post cautions us about the blind faith in data and the role of intuition in the business management decision process. The New York Times touched on this topic some time ago:  ?debate between intuition and empiricism is as old as Plato, who thought that knowledge came from intuitive reasoning, and Aristotle, who preferred observation. The argument has seemed especially intense lately, as one field after another has struggled to define the role of human judgment in a data-saturated society? These disagreements can sometimes be exaggerated, because everyone agrees that intuition and empiricism both have a role to play. But the fight over how to balance the two is a...<br/><div align='right'>2010-01-22 12:06:00</div>

Workshop: Roadmap to online analytics success

Increasing conversions, reducing acquisition costs and optimizing online marketing activities are often cited as key reasons for venturing into web analytics. Properly installing the tool is a challenge in itself but even when done successfully, unexpected issues surface and the value of online analytics quickly fade. Analysis and data has been part of my job ever since I started over 20 years ago. I spent most of the last 15 years as a practitioner or consultant developing web sites and strategies for dozens of companies. More recently, I spent 18 months studying why some companies succeed while so many fail at web analytics. The result was the release of a first proposal for a Web Analytics Maturity Model. Far from pretending to be smarter or more "expert" than others, I guess it's a matter of interest, lots of grey hair and a certain level of freedom that allows me to spend the time documenting and sharing my experience and expertise. Several people asked for more. The answer is a half-day or full-day workshop I will present in several cities, starting with: Ottawa, Jan. 20th (with PublicInsite) Montreal, Feb. 10th (+special event with Jim Sterne in the afternoon, with the help of CEIM and TechnoMontreal) Lille, France, March 17th or 18th* (Hub'Sales) Antwerp, Belgium, March 23rd* (TheseDays) Amsterdam, March 25th* (TheseDays) Toronto, April 6th (eMetrics) I'm always open to work with local partners to bring this workshop to a city near you. Contact me if you are interested to attend or organize. * Registration coming soon Workshop descriptionThis course proposes an efficient methodology that addresses online analytics from a managerial perspective. The goal isn?t to learn how to use a tool or optimize your latest marketing campaign from a tactical perspective. The methodology stems from years of experience in online strategies and analytics as a practitioner and consultant to several clients as well as an 18 month study of critical success factors of analytics. You will learn about the six key process areas of a successful online initiative and how analytics can be leveraged at every step of the site life-cycle. You will get a clear road map to achieve success. ObjectivesThis workshop will go through an assessment of your online analytics goals and objectives from a business, marketing and web executive's point of view. You will learn about the critical success factors and the process that will enable you to plan for future advancement. At the...<br/><div align='right'>2010-01-06 10:40:00</div>

Nutty's creativity: 2nd grader analytics

Here's the answer to a little question I asked on Twitter. It's straight from a math textbook for 2nd graders. It's a nice little demonstration of critical thinking and how sometimes, the obvious answer might not be the best one. Nutty's creativityM.Mansa, professor in a 2nd grade elementary class, asked: "Which number doesn't fit in the following series? 2, 4, 5, 6, 8" Every student found the right answer, except one, Nutty. It's 5, everybody knows that! Except Nutty, who says "I thought about it, but I prefer 4 because..." Unhappy, Prof. Mansa assign Nutty to write a text on "Why I should have chosen 5". Here's what he wrote. "At first, I thought about 5 because it's the only odd number. But why not 8? It's the only one drawn from one closed loop line. For me, the best answer to a problem is often the 2nd one. It shows I can go beyond the obvious and be creative. After, I thought about 2, by replacing it with 7, we would end up with a nice suite of 4,5,6,7,8... I looked at 6, but didn't see anything special about it. Then I thought... Euréka! It's the only one in the series than can be reversed to create another number. At last, I considered 4. 4 is the only one drawn from straight lines, without any curves. It's also my preferred number because April 4th (4th of the 4th month) is my birthday. I think I should have chosen 5... as everyone else. After all, it's the only one that can't be added to another number of the series to sum up to 10: 2+8=10, 4+6=10... Ok, I'll take 5!" Reference: "Défi mathématique, 1er cycle, #2", Cheneliere/McGraw-Hill, Michel & Robert Lyons. Relation to analyticsWikipedia defines analytics has "the science of analysis, or how an entity (i.e., business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data." The series above is a nice little data set. Drilling down on the meaning of analysis, we see it's "the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it." The breakdown of the above question is a nice example. We've seen how data can be used to tell carefully crafted stories that are absolutely valid given the right context. It relates to one of the seven online analytics axioms defined by my friend Christopher Berry: "It is possible for there to be two optimal, equally true, answers to a problem." Some people have harder times developing critical thinking. Despite the fact employers often look for experienced, hands-on professionals, the path to...<br/><div align='right'>2010-01-04 13:56:00</div>

Merry Christmas from up north

Joyeux Noël!       Merry Christmas! Pictures I took while skiing at Massif du Sud this morning. I'm sure this is where Santa takes all his Chistmas trees!   Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-24 14:51:00</div>

My take: Web Analytics Without Borders - learn, collaborate, help

"I'm not sure how I landed here". This was a way of saying that growing in the online analytics industry is often like a long path with several crossroads that could have lead somewhere else, plenty of high mountains and challenges to tackle, a sense of accomplishment, but also a down to earth knowledge there is so much more going forward. On this path I met several new friends and mentors who were kind enough to help me and point the right direction. I also had my share of bad experience, stupid managers and self-proclaimed prophets. The path is different for everyone, but the story is probably similar. I was a volunteer medical first-responder for nearly three years. During the day I was the techie, the geek, the web architect. At nights and weekends I was volunteering to help others in what is by far the most important: life. Sometimes I was the helpless witness to tragedy, pain, suffering, cries and death. I comfort myself in thinking I made the smallest of a positive difference. We all have careers, we all are very busy, and we all have our own objectives. There is nothing wrong in trying to grow our career and work hard to make a good living. It's even better if we can become a better person along the way. This, in essence, are the reasons of my involvement in the Web Analytics Association - Save The Children "Web Analytics Without Borders" project: to genuinely and sincerely help. How it got startedIn July I got an email from Adam Laughlin, newly appointed web analyst at Save The Children, asking about  using WASP to check the quality of the Google Analytics and WebTrends implementation on savethechildren.org. I though providing a free license was a small way to help out. One thing leading to another, and I guess because of my role as a tutor of the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, Adam asked me about tips to define good online objectives and a strategy to increase outcomes for the children. I suggested he take a look at the concept of Web Analytics Maturity Model as part of a problem solving approach to help SaveTheChildren. We quickly got into a very interesting discussion about learning, sharing and helping. I recommended he came to eMetrics to have an opportunity to learn from thought leaders, particularly Alex Langshur, president of the WAA and PublicInsite, who has done a lot of work for non-profit organizations, as well as meet with fellow practitioners. He had no budget - we shared a room. At about the same time, two...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-19 14:12:00</div>

What's holding back web analytics? A public response to Eric Peterson

About everyone in the web analytics industry knows Eric Peterson. He's been an early evangelist. He wrote the "Big Book of Key Performance Indicators", which, to this date, remains an excellent reference for anyone starting in the field. He also leveraged a fantastic idea from June Dershewitz called Web Analytics Wednesday. Eric asked on Twitter: "What do you think is holding the #measure industry back? Pls share!" Replies were plenty. Incidentally, two days earlier, someone for whom I have the utmost respect spent an amazing amount of time shedding light on the web analytics industry. Joseph Carrabis is an amazingly bright person who is somewhat of an outsider to the web analytics industry, and thus, can shed a different light on it. He looked at us, collectively, asked questions, and shared some very interesting thoughts in Part 1 and Part 2 of "The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics". Joseph is an observer, a listener, a thinker, and a very honest and respectful person. Joseph opened up a conversation. Back to the Twitter thread@immeria: @erictpeterson wht's holding #measure back? My take is the Web Analtyics Maturity Model http://bit.ly/fAavu Nevr got feedback from U abt it @erictpeterson: @immeria I'm not a believer in the value of models. I worry that they are the new "Web analytics is easy." @immeria: @erictpeterson What's holding back #measure? Additional comments in my nod to @JosephCarrabis at http://bit.ly/4CAvEc #measure @immeria: @erictpeterson never claimed WAMM would make #measure easy, but certainly easier. It's a start, don't you think? @erictpeterson: @immeria let's agree to disagree, shall we? Either way, glad you got an A+ on the thesis paper. Congrats! @immeria: @erictpeterson Solving problems when #measure is "hard": 1) acknowledge the problem 2) understand it 3) act to solve it. WAMM helps do that I waited and thought about this thread because I simply don?t get it. I was to reply privately but decided to go public. A long time ago, in the ages when there was only forums and IRC, I was dubbed ?flame dude?... since then I?ve learned to hold back, reread, and think about my statements... If someone asks a question publicly, this person should expect people to have a diverse range of opinions. If you already know the ultimate truth, why ask? If you want people to engage in a conversation, don?t close the door on them. Rudely and publicly stating ?let?s agree to disagree? is like a virtual slap in the face in front of...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-12 10:59:00</div>

A nod to Joseph Carrabis: The unfulfilled promise of online analytics

<Side Note> I'm not sure how I landed here.I had poor grades in high-school. The career adviser said I shouldn't apply in computer science - I had no chance. I did anyway. I loved computer science. I was a hacker - yes, it was me who shut down the mainframe to get exclusive access to finish my homework... In 1986 I had to pick an internship. I picked an obscure Unix/C research project with University of Montreal while my classmates headed for IBM/Cobol and Fortran in banks and insurance - I was crazy! "Unix will die" they said, "C will never pick up". But I was on the Internet in 1986 - before the Web ever existed. Work - Unix sys-admin and Oracle DBA. Then HTTP & Mosaic - it was natural. Logs, like any other computer system. Unix scripts to automate; soon enough the data was in Oracle. Web development, web strategies, ebusiness, measurement & optimization. Needed more business & management credibility - I did my MBA. It's been over 20 years. I'm still a child in a candy store. < End of side note > The chasm The Internet was built on collaboration, the early days of the Web were, as  is  was web analytics. The web analytics industry is at a crossroad. Vendors are fighting for a share of the pie, competing for the latest cool feature while trying to capture as much profits as possible from their clients and locking them down along the way. Newbies are flocking to the field, just as it was some time ago for the Web - anyone and everyone is an expert. Self proclaimed gurus ego are inflating exponentially with the number of "friends" they have. We are craftsman. We improvise custom solutions to old problems - optimizing processes, measuring success, managing change and politics. We pride among ourselves for finding new clever ways of measuring social media and inventing new metrics nobody else understands when we can't even get five minutes with senior managers to improve their business. We go at conferences, gang in discussion forums and Twitter to convince ourselves we are so right - we know what's wrong and how to solve it. The "outsiders" can't understand, they don't get it - so we think. The unfulfilled promise of online analyticsJoseph Carrabis "The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics - Part 1" was thought provoking and several people contributed to the conversation - it's a shame some people retracted or didn't even participate. Joseph, with his unique style and outsider perspective, published the second part....<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-10 15:56:00</div>

Job: Web Analytics and Optimisation consultant - Bell Web Solutions - Montreal

Bell Web Solutions is looking for a Web Analytics and Optimisation consultant for its Montreal office. The selected candidate will be in charge of providing solutions to clients concerning performance tracking for web sites (e-commerce; media portal; financial services; etc.) and other online activities (interactive campaigns). Services offered span from key performance indicators definition, web analytics tool implementation (Omniture; Webtrends; Visual Sciences (HBX); Google Analytics; etc.) to reporting and analysis of collected data. About Bell Web SolutionsBell Web Solutions, an excellence centre focused on the Web, is part of a Bell Canada division called Bell Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Solutions. Bell Web Solutions has more than 200 professionals in communications, strategic planning, marketing and Web technologies. The excellence centre integrates the expertise of CESART (now Bell Web Solutions), specialized in interactive marketing for the past 10 years. As a strategic partner, the Bell Web Solutions team accompanies its clients from beginning to end and is actively involved in the evolution of their interactive projects. Bell Web Solutions offers a wide range of innovative solutions customized to the needs of its clients. These include: Online Consulting Services, Web Development, Usability and Accessibility, Web Analysis and Optimization, Interactive Marketing and Promotion, and Electronic Delivery Services. Additional details and application available through Workopolis.  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-09 21:06:00</div>

iPerceptions releases WASP v1.30

I'm really happy to announce the release of WASP v1.30, the 1st since I sold the technology to the great folks at iPerceptions. What's newChanged ownership from immeria to iPerceptions Usual round of bug fixes and minor improvement Added enhanced help for Yahoo! Analytics Detection and handling of Google Website Optimizer Crawl stealth mode for WebTrends, Coremetrics, AT Internet New tools: Netminers, eSearchVision, OpenX, comScore, Rubicon Project, sophus3, beencounter, econda, GoingUp! What's coming upPlease take 2 minutes to submit a review at addons.mozilla.org and visit the UserVoice page to suggest improvements and cast your vote for the v2.0 features! WASP v1.30 is available immediately at WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com and is awaiting approval at addons.mozilla.org. Or you can simply wait for the automated update notification.  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-09 17:34:00</div>

Training: Roadmap to your online analytics success, Ottawa, January 20th

After spending months studying the managerial aspect of web analytics and delivering the Web Analytics Maturity Model, I'm ready to share insight, expertise, best practices and tips to achieve success with your online analytics program. Course descriptionThis workshop isn't about using web analytics tools or optimizing your marketing campaign. This course is looking at online analytics from a managerial perspective. So much has been written about why web analytics is valuable and how to make it work technically. The major stumbling block for most organizations is change management and developing the online analytics culture. Once convinced that they need to look at business from a different perspective, companies need a roadmap. The end game is so far off and the next steps are unclear. Target audienceThe course is specifically designed for analysts who are change agent in their organization or web and marketing managers who wants to leverage online analytics. ObjectivesThis workshop will go through an assessment of your online analytics goals and objectives from a business, marketing and web executives point of view. You will learn about the critical success factors and the process that will enable you to plan for future advancement: A method for strategically benchmarking your current situation Identify the pillars of successful data-driven organizations How to determine the resources and investment required to advance to the next level Tips to define realistic online objectives tied to business goals, and how to measure success How to communicate effectively, bring changes and overcome political roadblocks Several real life examples of commonly faced organizational challenges and how to overcome them Course materialPresentation hands out with annotations and exercises. About the instructorStéphane Hamel is a leading voice for online analytics, helping businesses understand the value of performance measurement and process optimization. With over twenty years of experience, most spent developing web sites and online strategies, he is now teaching a full-semester, graduate level class about online analytics at Laval University (Québec City), as taught over 500 people through lecturing the « Award of Achievement in Web Analytics » and « Introduction to Business Analysis » classes at the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the « International Institute of Business Analysis » and on the board of directors and treasurer of the « Web Analytics...<br/><div align='right'>2009-12-09 17:14:00</div>

iPerceptions deep dive in behavioral and attitudinal data

As you might know, I'm now on the iPerceptions' Advisory Council. In this role, I had the opportunity to get an insider sneak peak at the new A&B Interactive Dashboard. Real life example: airline flight booking While Google Analytics provides valuable information such as source of traffic, campaign performance, visits, page views, goals and ecommerce data, it is up to the analyst imagination to figure out user intent and satisfaction. On the other end, voice of customer, iPerceptions webValidator enterprise-level solution in this case, offers a different angle on the same situation. Basically, behavioral data alone cannot accurately judge satisfaction, while attitudinal doesn't provide the event-driven data. If someone books a flight, does it mean this customer was satisfied? If he or she didn't book it, does it mean he or she was dissatisfied? The Eye for Travel site, which offers specialized news & analysis of the travel industry, recently talked about this very topic: "Web analytics data alone cannot accurately judge satisfaction". Fellow Web Analytics Association Board member Vicky Brock puts it very simply: "context is everything and part of that context comes from the visitor themselves". Let's deep dive in a real example. 1) KPI TrackerThe KPI Tracker view can easily be customized. In this example, the top-right area shows the Task Completions compared with Overall Experience (top left), Average Revenue per visit (bottom left) and Medium (type of traffic to site ? CPC, Organic, Referral, etc). The dashboard shows two attitudinal and two behavioural metrics together. Whenever you apply a filter using the left-side controls, all KPIs are updated in real time. Really cool! 2) Data Miner: Task Completion by Purpose of VisitSwitching to the Data Miner view, we can quickly see Task Completion by Purpose of Visit 3) Data Miner: Focus on Purpose of VisitAt this step, we are more interested in the task "Purchase a ticket/Book a flight", so we simply click on it to drill-down. Note that we are still just looking at attitudinal data, that is, the Voice of the Customer survey answers. 4) Data Miner: Closing the loop: merging attitudinal and behavioralNow, we want to look at task completion from a business perspective. In this scenario, Google Analytics was configured with specific Goals to track the important steps of the flight booking process. We are particularly interested  in "Step 2: List of Available Flights". Notice how Task Completion...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-18 17:59:00</div>

Job: SEM Specialist - Skooiz.com - Montreal

Passionate about search engines and their technologies? You like to plan & provide recommendations? Skooiz.com is an interactive e-marketing agency based in Montreal that specializes in search marketing, email marketing and media consulting on the web. They are looking for a "Specialist in Google AdWords Campaigns Management", you know, the usual stuff: analyze client needs, set business objectives, manage and optimize the campaigns, analyze results and present recommendations... Except at Skooiz you could do it for a whole bunch of cool clients and work with other geeks just like you! :)  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-18 16:02:00</div>

gaAddons open source project: enhancing Google Analytics

A while back I developed a script for Google Analytics and posted "Google Analytics: script to track outbound links and downloads". Those two features are not available out of the box with Google Analytics and lots of people using GA do not have the expertise nor the time to develop such automation. gaAddons ideaThe general idea of gaAddons is to develop a collection of useful enhancements and automation to extend and improve upon the default Google Analytics implementation. With the latest round of Google Analytics enhancements, especially events and custom metrics, the tool is becoming much more powerful. I already have a bunch of ideas to enhance GA, but I'll first see how the idea of gaAddons picks up. Justin Cutroni, author of Google Analytics Short Cut and consultant at EpikOne, Brian Clifton, author of Advanced Web Analytics with Google Analytics, and John Hossack, from Vancouver-based VKI Studios have expressed interest to participate in the project. Also, thanks to Andy Edmonds and Damond Gudaitis who have already contributed to enhance the initial code. gaAddons Open source projectgaAddons is an open source project, it's now up to GAACs, consultants and power users to contribute and collectively enhance the gaAddons features! Source code managed through Google Code at code.google.com/p/gaddons/ Discussion forum at Google Groups: groups.google.com/group/gaaddons I'm trowing it out there, in the wild, and we'll see if there's enough interest and collaboration to get somewhere :)  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-18 15:36:00</div>

Q&A with Andrea Wood, Visionary Strategic Analyst

Andrea Wood moved from New York to Montréal a couple of years ago where she joined Canoe.ca as Senior Advisor, Research & Sales Optimization. I rarely do Q&A and profile highlights on this blog, but I'm making an exception for Andrea: her career path  demonstrates the role of analytics in one's job and how she grown from technical writer to a top job in analytics. Andrea is a seasoned market analyst with extensive experience in strategy development and sales optimization. An energetic visionary and articulate communicator with a talent for looking beyond the numbers to develop and sell ideas, concepts and projects to senior leaders. A dynamic leader and mentor, fostering a team of highly analytical and innovative marketers in a changing marketplace. SH) You have an impressive CV please tell us a bit about yourself. AW) I?m a Montreal-based Analyst with a passion for high-tech and innovation. My willingness to jump headlong into new opportunities has allowed me to get involved with some pretty intense challenges. SH) What was your career path to become a Senior Research Advisor at Canoe.ca? AW) I started my career as a Technical Writer while at the University of Waterloo. I discovered the world of Analytics while working as a Technical Editor shortly after graduation. Since then I?ve worked in many different research roles that have all relied on my love of painting a clear, concise picture based on quantifiable data points. I?ve been with Canoe for the past 2.5 years, and was completely new to web analytics when I came on board. My experience in research provided a foundation on which to develop a strong aptitude for web analytics ? but the learning curve was steep. Learning the new industry terms and methodologies took real focus. SH) What role does analytics play in this type of job? AW) At Canoe I?m responsible for developing and managing data-driven marketing and sales strategies. Quebecor owns many web properties, which we track each month using a detailed set of KPIs and dashboards. My role is to advise the executive, product managers and sales on market position, target demographics, and opportunities for product/campaign improvements. All of these tasks rely both on my knowledge of web analytics and on my background in competitive intelligence. SH) What are the skills you think are important in your role? AW) Organization: the ability to prioritize ideas and concepts into logical groups allows me to identify issues and present...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-14 10:56:00</div>

Web Analytics Association Survey: Industry Outlook 2010

The Research Committee of the Web Analytics Association is conducting its annual survey on the outlook for the Web Analytics Industry. The survey is open to all industry participants and covers expected spending, priorities, and industry challenges. By participating in the survey, you'll automatically receive an invitation to the webcast in January 2010, as well as a complimentary survey report. If you are a member of the WAA, you can get 2009 Outlook Survey: The Future of Web Analytics is Here webcast, slideshow and paper. Not a member? What are you waiting for!   Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-11 09:33:00</div>

Job: Product Manager at iPerceptions (Montreal)

As you might know, I recently sold the WASP technology to iPerceptions, and I'm now a member of their Advisory Council. I'm happy to relay the information about a job opening that will certainly be very interesting: Product Manager. iPerceptions is in the business of "Voice of the Customer" with the famous free 4Q survey and their corporate-strength webValidator continuous listening solution, and now WASP. iPerceptions works with top brands such as Dell, Toshiba, Reebok, Intuit, BMW, Sony, Nissan, etc. and as offices in Montreal, New York and London. Enough blabbing, here's the job! Product Manager The Product Manager is responsible for both product planning and product marketing. This includes managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, to deliver winning products. It also includes working with sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager's job also includes ensuring that the product and marketing efforts support the company's overall strategy and goals. The Product Manager is expected to: Define the product strategy and roadmap Deliver Market Requirement Document and Product Requirement Document with prioritized features and corresponding justification Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities Be an expert with respect to the competition Develop the core positioning and messaging for the product Perform product demos to customers Set pricing to meet revenue and profitability goals Deliver a monthly revenue forecast Develop sales tools and collateral Propose an overall budget to ensure success Manage the Internet Sales channel (Web site, order process, payment process, sales inquiries, customer support, social networking) Brief and train the sales force at quarterly sales meetings, if required Brief press and analysts and go on press tours, if needed Act as a leader within the company Required experience and knowledge Minimum of 2 years experience as a Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager Knowledge of Web Analytics Knowledge of Social Media (Facebook, Twitter and others) Knowledge on how to manage a Web site (content management) Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products Excellent written and verbal communication skills Bachelor's degree Technical background, with experience in...<br/><div align='right'>2009-11-06 12:53:00</div>

Review: AT Internet NX

Last week at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington D.C. there was a big buzz around the new Google Analytics features. But really, Google might win a prize for biggest industry shakedown (close to Adobe purchase of Omniture), but AT Internet would be a good contender for innovation in the field of web analytics. The France headquartered company has been pushing the web analytics envelope for a long time. Very strong in Europe, AT Internet was an early adopter of the freemium model with the Xiti solution launched in 1996! Here comes NX!The latest release, dubbed AT Internet Digital WorkspaceNX, has nothing to envy to the leading players in the industry. Here's a summary of the new features: Dashboard: Multiple dashboards Flexible dashboard layouts Cool dashboard widget: monthly objectives Advanced visualization: Multi-metric and multi-time period diagrams Multi-metric lines & bars graphs Heatmaps (not merely click maps) Radars graphs Filtering: Slice & dice from any element using a contextual menu available for each item in a table Build custom filters using multiple metrics and operators Merge several elements into one group Easily compare metrics in pop up Segmentation: Create segments using a drag & drop interface, and a variety of operators Create new segments derived from existing ones Specific features:  Live alerts ClickZone & Scrollview (not new but still unrivaled) Custom data collection VisionAT Internet is, in my opinion, one of the most underestimated, yet most sophisticated web analytics platform out there. Their product offers a 360 degree view of online analytics: Clickstream data, both tags (and log-based coming in the near future) Server monitoring: if your site is poorly performing or simply down... guess what: your conversion will suffer! Yet, few vendors offer integrated server monitoring Social media monitoring: now unavoidable Both way API to integrate with custom data Technological partnerships to extend the platform Beyond all those nice features, AT Internet approach is very different from other vendors. Their services can go as far as handling your analytics by providing dedicated analysts. This is one way of going beyond the tool and empowering their clients despite limited budgets and resources availability. Launch eventAT Internet is doing a Montréal launch event for the NX version, along with the book launch of Nicolas Malo and Jacques Warren. When: Wednesday, November 4th,...<br/><div align='right'>2009-10-30 11:39:00</div>

Book review: Web Analytics by Malo & Warren

My friends Nicolas Malo, from France, and Jacques Warren from Montréal, have just published the first web analytics book originally authored in French. Entitled "Web Analytics : mesurer le succès et maximiser les profits de votre site Web", the book is clearly aimed at non-initiated marketing managers. Organized around three main sections covering the basics of measuring online business success, outcome analysis and site optimization, the book offers a solution agnostic, easy to read and rich in examples overview of the underlying concepts of online analytics. They are not going into too much details, just the right balance, which is perfect for busy managers who just need enough understanding to "get it" :) My only negative comment is the price... 50$ CDN seems a bit high for an introductory book by first time authors (compared to $30 for the latest Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity by Avinash Kaushik). There will be a special book launch in Montreal, November 4th, at the InterContinental hotel. This launch will be done jointly with AT Internet brand new NX offering (more to come on this). If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Alexandre Metier (Alexandre(dot)Metier(at)atinternet.com)  Originally posted by Stéphane Hamel at immeria.net. ...<br/><div align='right'>2009-10-28 18:22:00</div>

Smarter 404 with embeded Google Search Widget

When I posted on the Yahoo! Web Analytics forum to announce the availability of the free Web Analytics Maturity Model paper, the post included this text: "the paper at http://immeria.net/wamm." (notice the dot). The link was broken because of the way Yahoo! parses text to automatically build links. Step 1: Use custom 404 pageThe first step to improve broken links handling (404 errors) is to modify your web server configuration to point to a custom page handler instead of the default, very technical and dull error. For example, doing this on an Apache-based web server is as simple as adding the line "ErrorDocument 404 /http404.htm" to a file named .htaccess in the root folder of the site. The specifics of your server configuration isn't the goal of this post. Contact your IT department or search for "custom 404 page" and similar keywords for additional help. Step 2: Make a smarter 404 pageThe custom 404 page handler is just another HTML page, so it can include your site navigation, brand and useful content. Often, the 404 page will have a de-dramatizing tone and some people have gone to great extent to make funny 404 pages. Beyond trying to be fun, you want your visitors to get to your content. Two things are invaluable in this context: the referrer and the landing page URL. The next step is to make your visitors life easier by providing a path to the right page, or at least try... To do so, you can add a smart Google Search Widget: <script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> google.load('search', '1', {"nooldnames": true}); function OnLoad(){ var searchControl = new google.search.SearchControl(); var siteSearch = new google.search.WebSearch(); siteSearch.setUserDefinedClassSuffix("siteSearch"); siteSearch.setSiteRestriction("yoursite.com"); searchControl.addSearcher(siteSearch); searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("searchcontrol")); searchControl.execute(location.pathname.replace(/\//g, ' ')); } google.setOnLoadCallback(OnLoad, true); </script> <div id="searchcontrol"/> The important elements are: setSiteRestriction("yoursite.com"): forces the search to be contained within your site (change it to your own site domain) location.pathname.replace(/\//g,' '): replace the landing URL slashes with spaces so you can have a more meaningful search keyphrase You might want to add a stylesheet element to your page so the Google Search Widget is larger...<br/><div align='right'>2009-10-22 12:27:00</div>

Google Analytics new features: my take

It is now entrenched in tradition: Google Analytics makes announcements at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. So here's the latest, straight from the eMetrics floor where analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik is addressing a jam packed room of enthusiastic web analysts! Introducing Analytics IntelligenceThe feature that excites me the most is something I discussed privately with Avinash a while back: once we spot a dip or spike in a metric, I shouldn't have to manually dig for the other metrics that are correlated with this significant change. The tool should be smart enough to point me to the other few metrics that have the highest correlation with this change. Here's an example: conversion rate is significantly down. Ok... What does it really mean? Is there a spike in traffic? Or is there an issue in the process leading to conversion? In the former case, it means I'm bringing more unqualified traffic to the site. I can then review my Traffic Sources to easily pinpoint the issue. In the latter case, it means my conversion process as deteriorated or is failing at persuading people to convert. Other featuresThere is also a host of new features (on top of the previously announced beta features): Alerts! Once you have a good baseline, you want to be alerted of outliers: values significantly going beyond the historical trend. You can easily set up daily, weekly and monthly alerts. Multiple custom metrics: adding "custom attributes" to visitors/visits is an essential feature of enterprise-level web analytics solutions (but I wish there was also custom metrics at the page level Can have custom metrics at page, visit, visitor level - without limitations!) Multiple-rule filtering: now you can more easily filter reports by building multi-criteria on-the-fly filtering rules. Goals, more goals! (20) of them instead of four. Segment unique visitors: something that should have been there from the beginning Mobile analytics More info at the Google Analytics official blog. My takeGoogle keeps adding new features that challenges the traditional web analytics vendors. I have witnessed exactly the same phenomena in the high-end 3D animation/special effects software industry. When you are an industry leader enjoying high margin on product and services, you accordingly spend a lot of money on R&D. However, when you reach a certain feature set level, adding new innovations becomes exponentially expensive. At the same time, lower (and free!) tools can easily...<br/><div align='right'>2009-10-20 15:30:00</div>

Web Analytics Maturity Model: free paper available

Today, while at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington D.C., I was able to put the final touch on an important personal milestone: I?m really happy to make the Web Analytics Maturity Model paper available for general review and comments. On Wednesday, eMetrics chairman Jim Sterne will moderate the ?Marketing Metrics Maturity? keynote panel (1:00pm) where Bill Gassman (Gartner Research), John Lovett (Forrester Research), Laura Patterson (VisionEdge Marketing) and myself (Stéphane Hamel) will debate the value and benefits of such maturity models and how they can be applied to your business. To download the paper, all I'm asking for is to fill your email in the top-right box at http://immeria.net/wamm. ?So much has been written about why web analytics is valuable and how to make it work technically. The major stumbling block for most organizations is change management. Once convinced that they need to look at business from a different perspective, companies need a roadmap. The end game is so far off and the next steps are unclear? says Jim Sterne. The paper provides an overview and a proposition for the Web Analytics Maturity Model (WAMM). Specifically, it defines the concepts necessary to understand the model and the motivation and purpose behind it. It describes the structural components, consisting of six key process areas (or pillars) within the six maturity levels of the model, and the principles that underline each of the maturity levels. The primary benefit of such maturity model is to offer a framework to pause, think, plan and act based on an organization?s measurement and analysis skills. It offers a mean to assess the current and desired state, facilitate communication and change management. Bill Gassman highlights ?the first benefit of a maturity model is the conversation it sparks. It puts the team in a mindframe to imagine what could be and to measure where they are?. Continuing on the objective of making web analytics easier, the overarching goal is to help organizations use analytics to make better decisions and extract maximum value from business processes. The paper is a summary of an eighteen months eBusiness MBA project (Laval University, Québec, Canada). Adapted and derived from height models in fields such as business intelligence, process optimization, as well as those proposed by industry analysts and leaders, it is based on years of experience, countless hours of studying, reading and exchanging with fellow web...<br/><div align='right'>2009-10-18 18:46:00</div>

As of 9/7 5:48pm. Last new 9/2 3:50am.