June Dershewitz on Web Analytics

Looking Forward to 2009

I haven't blogged much lately (shame!), I will miss a few Web Analytics Wednesdays this spring (unheard of!), and I'm skipping Omniture Summit 2009 (how could I!). But I have a really good excuse: I'm due to have my first child on February 22nd.

Yesterday someone asked me if I would Twitter from the maternity ward. Uh, no. But I am bound to post a few baby pictures on Facebook, so you can friend me there if you'd like.

I plan to maintain my Semphonic duties and my obligations to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors through early February, then I will take a break. You can expect to see me back online professionally starting in June of next year.

I look back over the past 12 months and am amazed at just how much has happened. I look forward to the next 12 months and know that there are even more surprises in store.

I wish you all a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year. Here's to 2009.

WAA Board of Directors Election: I Need Your Vote!

The Web Analytics Association Board of Directors election is imminent and my name is on the ballot.  There are 17 great candidates running for 6 positions, so it will be a tough race.  Dear blog reader, I need your vote!

Polls will be open March 24 - April 7, 2008.  You must be a WAA member to participate.  If you're reading this and you're not a WAA member, you really oughtta sign up.

As part of the election application process each candidate had to answer 3 questions; here's how I responded:

What major contribution will you bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership?

I have spent most of my long career in web analytics as a practitioner, in the trenches, actually doing the work.  With that experience under my belt, I bring first-hand knowledge of the challenges we face and the values we hold as web analysts.  I have grown up with this field and now I want to help shape it.

My subject-level interests include web analytics career development, mentoring, education, community, local presence and providing demonstrable benefit to all members.

Why should members vote for you?

I live up to high professional standards in all work I do, and I intend to bring these standards with me to the WAA Board:

• I am 100% committed to active participation and follow-through.  Since Board members are volunteers, I feel that this is especially important.  We’re here because we want to be here, and we are as involved as we want to be.  I want to be involved.
• Ethical responsibility is very important to me and I will strive to do what’s right for our industry as a whole, with no preferential treatment of any strata, company or individual. 
• I am diplomatic, I enjoy bringing people together, and I am committed to the idea that we must work together to achieve the best for our field.
• I will listen to what you have to say and take it seriously.  I take pleasure in corresponding with all members of the web analytics community, and I will make sure that your input is given the attention it deserves.

Where do you think the Web Analytics Association should be in the next two years?

Our field is growing – there are more web analytics professionals every day.  We must work to ensure that the WAA member base continues to grow along with our field, and, at the same time, we must provide existing members with benefit that will encourage continued involvement.

Our field is also evolving – the scope of what we do now is broader than it has been in the past.  We must acknowledge this shift, forge connections with related associations, and remain open to new ideas.  It’s important for the WAA to continue to represent the most current scope of our profession, and think forward to where it’s headed yet even further down the road.

Speaking as someone who has paid WAA membership dues out-of-pocket for 3 years running, I aim to ensure that, 2 years from now, membership carries the clout and offers the value that will justify the expense for every one of us.

Teaching Dad about Web Analytics

If you're a doctor, friends and family want you to diagnose their ailments.  If you're a mechanic, they'll describe their car problems.  If you're a web analyst, they want help with Google Analytics.  Am I right?

Over Thanksgiving I went up to Oregon and visited with my father, who has recently retired from a long career as a database administrator and systems architect at Intel.  He does web development work for kicks; right now he's building a web-based tool for viewing livestock pedigrees.  That's what happens when you're a farmer and a programmer. 

There I was at the farm, taking a break from work, and my dad says, "Hey, tell me about this Google Analytics thing.  I have it on my web site."  So I sat down and gave him a little lesson on web analytics. 

We talked about entry pages, bounce rate, referrers, keywords, popular content, etc, and how he might use this kind of stuff to improve his site.  He has a site search but he's not yet tracking it in Google Analytics (he'll do this); he wanted advice on how to redesign his home page (I showed him Site Optimizer).  I got on his case about the godawful color scheme he's chosen for his site; I can criticize like that, we're family. 

Eventually he made a run for it under the pretext of having to go "rake leaves."

I do most of my work in web analytics with big clients - large complex web sites with many different data consumers.  My clients often need more flexibility than they can get out of Google Analytics, so they use commercial web analytics applications like Omniture and WebTrends.   Sites like my dad's are a novelty - a single stakeholder, simple architecture, no politics. 

It's good to see [literally] mom-and-pop sites like this just for the sake of perspective.  And it reminds me why I like this work in the first place - I enjoy helping people understand the value of web measurement, with the hope that they will make their piece of the web just a little better.   That much is true regardless of the tool, regardless of the traffic volume, regardless of whether it's for-profit or just for kicks.

Take this Survey, Please

It's that time of year again.  Eric T. Peterson would like you to participate in his latest survey; he's interested in your organizational use and satisfaction with web analytics tools and processes.  Be honest, it's completely anonymous.  Eric promises to make the aggregated survey data freely available in January, 2008.  Your input matters - so take this survey, please!

San Francisco Web Analytics Wednesday Event and Resources

I ♥ SF.  I have lived and worked in the city of San Francisco since 1999; although I was not born here it feels right to call it my hometown.  Over the past 2 years I have helped organize Web Analytics Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Through my participation in WAW I have met a great group of like-minded professionals, and I know I'll be running into these people again and again over the course of my career.  Need I mention that you could benefit similarly by attending WAW events, either here in the Bay Area or wherever you happen to be?

Here's our next local gathering:

Wednesday, October 24th, 6:00-8:00 pm
Zebulon Cafe and Bar
83 Natoma St, San Francisco, CA
Look for us downstairs; we'll have a sign on the table.
Drinks and light snacks provided courtesy of this month's sponsor, Web Analytics Demystified, Inc (thanks, Eric!).
Please RSVP so we know to expect you.

If you'd like to stay in the loop regarding future events, please join the Bay Area WAW Yahoo! group and/or Facebook group (you need a Facebook profile to follow this link).  All of our events are cross-listed, so either group will do.

If you're not a Bay Area person, thanks for enduring this locals-only announcement.  If you organize - or would like to organize - WAW in another city, I'd be glad to offer my advice.  I can be reached at june-at-semphonic-dot-com.