What’s Up?

September 3rd, 2007

I’ve been a little quiet the last weeks, mainly because I got my first assignment for the IDM Certificate in Digital Marketing course I’m doing. I had to write a Digital Marketing Plan for a company named CORGIdirect. It was a lot of work but fun to do. I can’t wait to receive my mark :)

I wanted to write about WebTrends 8.1 as there is a lot to write about but unfortunately my test installation had to be reinstalled and suddenly WebTrends added a server-software check. Since my key includes the Marketing Warehouse and Marketing Warehouse can’t be installed on Windows XP, I’m not able to install WebTrends now. I’ve to wait for a new key.

Last Friday I received Web Analytics Demystified bij Eric Peterson. I know it’s been a while ago since it had been released but I haven’t had time yet to read it. Also soon to be received is the book Google Analytics 2.0 by Jerri L. Ledford and Mary E. Tyler. This second edition (first edition was about the old interface) is being released September 4th.

Posted in General | No Comments »

WebTrends attacks HBX Analytics

August 21st, 2007

WebTrends Marketing Lab 2 logoToday WebTrends announced their “Move to ML2″ program through which they are offering Visual Sciences’ HBX Analytics customers to migrate to WebTrends Marketing Lab 2. They will give current HBX Analytics customers an licence credit of up to 100%.

It’s interesting to read why WebTrends offers this program. As they state in their press release, it is targeted to those “who may be uncertain about future support for their existing investment”. Maybe WebTrends suggests Visual Sciences will drop support for HBX Analytics since their tool Visual Site is much more comprehensive. Or could it be that WebTrends responds on reports that Visual Sciences settled an patent litigation with NetRatings Inc?

Read the press release: WebTrends Invites HBX Analytics Customers to Move to WebTrends Marketing Lab 2

Posted in HBX Analytics, Visual Sciences, WebTrends | 2 Comments »

WebTrends 8.1 available for download

August 13th, 2007

WebTrends just published their latest offering, WebTrends 8.1 at their FTP server. I have yet to explore the new functionality but at first sight it looks okay. It will take a while to get used to the restyled interface but that is a matter of time. I do think it will need some further tweaks to really work out but the begin is there.

The good news is, I had no problems at all upgrading my 8.0d installation to 8.1! I will be on the road tomorrow to get a new WebTrends customer on the road but I’m sure I will have time later this week to give you screenshots and samples from rhe new WebTrends interface.

Posted in WebTrends | No Comments »

Analyzing web analytic needs

July 29th, 2007

Today I was with one of our customers for a second day of WebTrends training. This particular customer manages a governmental site with the goal to inform about social topics. The training would be about using WebTrends and understanding reports. The first day we used to help them understand the tool and the basics, the second day would focus on measuring effectiveness of campaigns.

We skipped back and forward to all kind of topics,  starting with explaining topic one and ending with something completely different. Tiring but it keeps my job interesting :)

Deciding whether your site is doing okay or not is easy for ecommerce sites as sales and conversion are easy to measure. With content based sites it’s less easy to know whether your Visitors are feeling happy with your offering. One of the discussions we had was about Visit Duration being a metric to use as one telling whether your content or campaign is successful.

If your visitors spend an average of 10 minutes on your site, does that mean your site is optimal?

If he was on your site for 10 minutes it could mean that he is searching for the information he needs, not knowing where to find it because of -for instance- suboptimal navigation or malfunctioning internal search. On the contrary it could mean that he sees so many topics he just can’t get enough of reading all information provided.

But what if the Visit Duration would be only 10 seconds, would that be bad? With current attention span anything above 3 seconds is just great… it could mean that the information provided wasn’t what he was looking for but it could as well mean that he found the information needed and left the site as a satisfied Visitor. And what if I advertise on Google AdWords and my visitor landed at my landing page and flew away without browsing other topics. Would that be bad? NO! It most likely tells you that your landing page is perfect, the visitor has been informed.

I advised the customer to define Key Information Pages, what are the pages your organization makes writes to inform the public. Get them tagged being a KIP and see what part of the visitors saw a KIP and who didn’t. This way you get a very straight forward report; those who were informed and those who were not.

Posted in Web Analytics, WebTrends | 1 Comment »

Chat with the web analytics experts

July 29th, 2007

Lars Johansson from Webanalytics.info has enhanced his weblog with an online chat module where you can chat with web analytics experts from all over the world. Be sure to check it out and chat with us!

Posted in Web Analytics | 1 Comment »

Get Ready For The New WebTrends Analytics

July 28th, 2007

WebTrends just mailed inviting its users to watch a webcast about the new WebTrends 8.1, which will be announced oficially July 31st. Take 5 minutes to let WebTrends show off their new offering.

In early August, WebTrends Marketing Lab 2 will be available, including the new WebTrends Analytics (v8.1)! What does that mean to you? For one thing, you’ll see a streamlined new interface, and experience some great new features.There’s something new for everyone, so take a look at what you can expect in the new WebTrends Analytics.

 >> Watch the 5 minute webcast 

For Business Analysts

  • Quickly answer questions and share information about your website
  • Gain adoption across the organization
  • View side-by-side reports to quickly compare results

For Business Users

  • Schedule push delivery or pull key performance metrics into corporate scorecards or other solutions within your enterprise
  • Enhance export delivery using FTP or pull data with WebTrends Visitor 360 Analytics Data Service

For Administrators

  • Administration console enhancements make it easier to search for, define and organize reports
  • Enhanced auditing ensures you can quickly identify changes made to things such as reports or profiles

>> Watch the 5 minute webcast

Posted in WebTrends | 2 Comments »

Microsoft Gatineau screenshots!

July 25th, 2007

You’ve been reading about it for some time, Microsoft Gatineau, the new free Web Analytics tool from Microsoft and now the first screenshots have been made public by David Naylor.

Microsoft Gatineau logo

It’s believed that everyone who has seen Gatineau (a city in western Quebec) is still under NDA but that did not force David to post an article complete with screenshots. Gatineau is based on technology from DeepMetrix, an analytics company that was acquired last year. DeepMetrix was based in Gatineau for a number of years. As usual Microsoft works with code names, so Gatineau won’t be the the name the product will have when it is released.

In this screenshot you see Gatineau’s pages report. Personally I think the 3D effect doesn’t add anything to the data. It’s ‘eye-candy’ which does not amke it easier to analyze the data.

Microsoft Gatineau Pages Report

Funnel Reporting development doesn’t seem to be finished yet, with 187% of incomming visits exit the page. Let’s assume that data used for this screenshot wasn’t manipulated yet ;)

 Microsoft Gatineau Funnel Reporting

One of the strenghts and big differences to Google Analytics will be Gatineau’s ability to show you demographic information. Microsoft has a lot of data from their online services like Hotmail, Live, MSN, Spaces and will be able to correlate this with your web traffic. As always, especially with Microsoft, the question is if you can really trust this information.

Microsoft Gatineau Demographic Analyrtics

Let’s just wait until Microsoft Gatineau goes live, I can’t wait to try it.

Posted in Microsoft Gatineau | 1 Comment »

WebTrends 8.1 feature and update details

July 24th, 2007

In my post of July 13th I already told you that WebTrends 8.1 is on it’s way and gave you a hint that the Java graphs would be replaced. I can give you more information now; here are the most important new features and changes:

  • Client side Java applets have been replaved with server-side generated images. No local Java is needed anymore.
  • Create scheduled exports on from the reporting console.
  • New design/template for viewing reports; less green and more blue :)
  • Retrieve data through Web Services!
  • Search and organize content in the Administration Console

For more information about WebTrends Analytics 8.1 and WebTrends Marketing Lab 2.0, download the feature detail sheet.

WebTrends Marketing Lab 2.0 and WebTrends Analytics 8.1

Posted in WebTrends | 1 Comment »

WebTrends 8.1 is on its way

July 13th, 2007

A new version of WebTrends will be available soon. It’s believed to be released to OnDemand customers within the next month and available to software customers a little later.

One of the big changes will be the Java applets, which most likely will not be there in the new release. The new release most likely will use Flash to display graphs. Other enhancements are better integration with the Marketing Warehouse and Dynamic Search. We’ll keep you posted!

Posted in WebTrends | No Comments »

Visual Sciences to be acquired?

July 13th, 2007

Yesterday Visual Sciences disclosed that the company has been approached  ”by a number of strategic buyers”. The company has hired Goldman Sachs to help evaluate potential deals. Shares of Omniture are up almost 7% ahead of Visual’s announcement. This will be interesting to keep an eye on the comming weeks…

Posted in Visual Sciences | No Comments »

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