Anil Batra’s Blog Quarterly Recap: Q1 2007

Starting this quarter, I will be doing monthly and quarterly recaps so that you will have an easier time locating previous posts.

This is the first full quarter when I actively blogged. I had this blog registered for quite sometime but did not find time or could not come up with a topic consistently till January this year. As you can see from my blog post, I am not a writer type so it was hard to consistently come up with topics or to write about the topics I had in my mind. I think, over last 3 months I have become good at coming up topics and writing on them. Most of topics are inspired by press releases, other bloggers and my customers.

I also wanted to take this time to reflect on how far this blog has come. About 3 months ago or so my Technorati ranking was about 1.8 Million, today it is a little below 60K. I am very happy and flattered to find that so many people are finding the value in what I write. My aim is to bring the view point of, not just me but of other (known and lesser know) analysts from this young community.

For this recap the posts are grouped into three categories, Career in Web Analytics, Behavioral Targeting and Web Analytics.

Career in Web Analytics – Web Analytics is a young field and there are a lot of open positions waiting to be filled. Irony is that there are people who have the right mindset to succeed in this field but are not really sure if they have what it takes to be a web analyst. Also, there are several people who don’t know how to get started in this field.

My Predictions for 2007 – In Januray I made my predictions for Web Analytics in 2007. I predicted that there will be a lot more jobs available in 2007.

Starting a career in Web Analytics post is an attempt to help all those looking to start their career in Web Analytics.

Continuing my commitment to help people who are looking to get started in this career I interviewed those analysts who have just started their career in webanalytics so that they can provide some insights to others who are seeking to move in.
Here is my series of Interviews

Interview with Web Analysts

Web Analyst Interview: Julien Coquet

Web Analyst Interview: Adam Berlinger

Interview with Web Analyst: Michael Notte

Web Analyst Interview: Thomas Carrillo

Web Analyst Interview: Joel Collymore

This series is still going on and I have some more interviews to come. If you would like to be interviewed please email me at batraonline at gmail (dot) com.

To keep an eye and highlight how many jobs are open and also to keep track of my predictions, I did two following follow-up postings on my predictions. Each month I will post an update on the job openings.

Follow-up on my Web Analytics Predictions for 2007...

Part II Web Analytics Predictions for 2007- Follow...

Behavioral Targeting – This topic is one of my favorite as I used to work for a BT company. The following are the posts on this topic.

My Predictions for 2007 – I believe that Behavioral Targeting will become high on marketers priority list.

Behavioral Targeting 101 - This article describes what Behavioral Targeting is. A very basic article for the beginners.

Size of Your Segment and Network Reach Matters in ... – This article was a result of a discussion with one of my clients who was disappointed with the results they were getting from a Behavioral Targeting network. With an example, I show why they were not seeing the value they expected. I also provide some of the questions that you should be asking before you signup with a BT network.

Calculating Behaviors on your site – I was kind of confused why a company like Revenue Science would come up with a press release stating how many behaviors they reach every day. In this article I show how 1 user with 30 pageviews can show 30 million behaviors and why this is not a good metrics to show to the world how good you are as BT network.

Targeting Cart Abandonment by Email – This article was in response to John Rizzi, CEO of e-dialog’s article titled Four Ways to Improve Marketing ROI Through E-mail. I discuss two main issues that you should be aware of before acting on his advice of using Behavioral Targeting to convert abandoned carts.

FOX INTERACTIVE MEDIA ACQUIRES STRATEGIC DATA CORP... – FIM acquisition of SDC proved that I was right when I predicted that that Optimization and Behavioral Targeting will be become very common.

Interactive Ad Bureau (IAB) Opens D.C. Office and ... – A press release on IAB opening an office in DC to increase its sway over government.

Omniture makes the right move With Omniture Genesi... I believe Web Analytics is not complete if you can’t fully understand various factors that drive traffic, understand what visitors do when they arrive on the site, segment these users based on their behaviors, demographics etc and then take action i.e. provide content, products and experience that is relevant for your segments. Omniture Genesis will allow Omniture customers to integrate web analytics data with other data sources and hence help marketers to get to 1:1 marketing.

Omniture Acquires Touch Clarity and WebTrends Anno... – I predicted in January that Optimization and Behavioral Targeting will become a common term used by marketers (My Predictions for 2007). Omniture’s acquisition of Touch clarity proved that I was spot on with my prediction.

Behavioral Targeting Hack – This article shows how easily you can get Behavioral Targeting going on your site without using any third party tool.

Presidential Candidates and Behavioral Targeting – Some fun stuff and how Presidential candidates can use Behavioral Targeting to reach the voters.

Google and Behavioral Targeting – My thoughts on how Google is in a position to build the largest Behavioral Targeting network. This article got more attention from the readers than I had thought. I will be doing another follow-up post to answer some of the questions that I got from my readers.

Follow the Search – This is an example of targeting which some are calling dynamic targeting. This article shows how you can show dynamic content on a generic landing page to the users based on what they searched to arrive on your site and reduce your bounce rate.

Web Analytics - Everything above touches web analytics in one way or the other, here are some specific articles on Web Analytics:

Referring Domains Demystified – This article shows how the webanalytics tool report on Referring domains and pages.

Referring Domains Demystified - Part II – Those who are trying to answer “Why do I see my own domain as the referring domain” this article is for them.

Omniture Web Analytics Competition & BYU - An article on Web Analytics competition by Omniture, the first of its kind.

Search for a Mertics to Compare Web Sites – My views on discussion about what is the right metrics to compare one site against another.

Targeting Cart Abandonment by Email – This article was in response to John Rizzi, CEO of e-dialog’s article titled Four Ways to Improve Marketing ROI Through E-mail. I discuss two main issues that you should be aware of before acting on his advice of using Behavioral Targeting to convert abandoned carts.

My Predictions for 2007 – My predictions about Web Analytics field.

Follow-up on my Web Analytics Predictions for 2007...

Part II Web Analytics Predictions for 2007- Follow...

Understanding the "Time Spent on the Site" Metrics... – A lot of people (including analysts) do not understand what “Time Spent on the Site” is reporting but still use them as a KPI. I explain what this metrics measures and how it should be used.

Identifying & Solving Client Pains – I participated in a series by Manoj Jasra did on Identifying and Solving Client pains. I talk about the two pain points that my customer encounter: 1. Accuracy of the Data 2. Acting on the findings.

Measuring Real Conversion Rate – This is a post that I wrote in response to Excellent Analytics Tip #8: Measure the Real Conversion Rate & “Opportunity Pie” by Avinash.

Homepage – How critical is it? – In this article I talk about why homepage is not necessarily the most important page of your site. By putting all your important announcements, promotions etc on the homepage might not be the best thing.

Web Analytics – Tool For Measuring Off Line Effort... – This post shows you how can measure your offline campaigns by your web analytics tools.

Who moved my traffic? – Wait before you get all anxious about the downturn in your traffic. Downturn in your traffic might not be something to freak out.