Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great collection of truths!
Comment: I have been reading about Aninash on several Web Analytics blogs for some time now and finally now I know why I was. He really knows how web analytics should be implemented and how it works. The book gives a lot of practical information, a must-read for anyone doing web analytics.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ISG's Media & Analytics Team gives this book two thumbs way up!
Comment: We here at the ISG media & analytics team have been anxiously awaiting the publication of Avinash Kaushik's book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, since we first "met" Avinash at a webinar back in February. Avinash's passion for web analytics was evident throughout the webinar, and we've been subscribers to his blog, Occam's Razor, ever since.
Web analytics is an important part of what we do at ISG. Years of experience in online marketing has reinforced the idea that there's no point in having a website, microsite, or campaign page if you have no idea how it's performing. That's why Avinash's book is a must read for anyone involved in Internet marketing. His book is a great read for anyone from the director of media & analytics to senior analyst to summer intern. Whether you are involved in complex decision-making and web strategies or are looking at conversion rates to provide actionable insights, this book is great for people of all levels of experience, while providing a fresh look at web analytics.
The book is "a step-by-step guide to implementing a successful web analytics strategy." It is meant to be enjoyed over a span of eight months, but you can read it as quickly or slowly as you like. We here at ISG are sharing a couple of copies between us and are relishing each page as we read, so what follows is a summary of the book based on what we've read and reviewed so far.
The book is divided into four parts:
Part I: Foundation
Part II: Trinity Approach
Part III: Implementing Your Web Analytics Plan
Part IV: Advanced Web Analytics "Data in your DNA"
Part I gives a brief history of web analytics, which makes this book perfect for someone just starting out in the field. Avinash takes the time to describe all the metrics that can be analyzed, how they are derived, and how they are useful for web analytics. He focuses not only on the "what" but on the "why" and proposes a new framework called the Integrated Trinity Platform. Part I (19 pages in total) is chock full of information that will give you the background you need for starting your web analytics study or, if you are experienced in the field, propose a new way to think about the role your job plays in your company.
There's also a bonus CD with 5+ hours of podcasts for your listening pleasure, a 45-minute video presentation, PowerPoint presentations, and other useful web analytics resources. And at the end of the book, Avinash directs the reader to two companion websites so that they may continue on their web analytics journey.
The best part about this book is that it is written by someone who is so passionate about web analytics that he is voluntarily receiving no profit from his book: 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Smile Train and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Uncover a gold mine of insights about your website visitors
Comment: Regardless of the fact that this book gives us an excellent and detailed description of Web Analytics, it is not about the `clicks' and software features - it's about the people and engaging them in making the Web better.
Avinash believes that 10% of the budgets should be spent on software while 90% of it on the people and their training. He also suggests a 20-80 rule: 20% of time should be allocated to presenting data vs. 80% dedicated to unstructured data analysis and thinking. Web Analytics - is a tool but it is people who should make the decision.
Albert Einstein once said "Everything should be made as simple as possible -- but no simpler!" This is exactly what Avinash has managed to do - demystifying the analytics without making it overly simplistic.
Analytics is an incredibly valuable tool available to every webmaster, marketer, analyst or just an amateur webpage maker, does not matter how big or small their site is. The reaction of many readers could be compared to an astonishment someone experiences when discovering that his house is built of gold. Website operators are sitting on the "gold mine" of available data frequently without realizing it. Not just pageviews - there is so much actionable information that could be uncovered using a few simple steps - it will change the Web landscape for years to come.
As a fellow book author, I understand and appreciate how much work Avinash had to put in to make the material accessible and engaging to us, the readers.
Read his blog (www.kaushik.net/avinash/) - an excellent source of information by itself and a continuation of the book. The fact that it has almost equal the amount of content generated by the author and the readers speaks for itself - Avinash stimulates your thinking, engages your curiosity. Be ready for many "Wow - I did not know I can do that!" and "I want to try it myself!" moments that will for sure interrupt the reading of every chapter.
After reading this book, you will agree that Avinash has indeed deserved his title of Analytics Evangelist - at least, he has substantiated my "conversion" and reaffirmed my "faith" - I can't imagine doing any meaningful analysis of a website now without using the Analytics.
Customer Rating:
Summary: leveraging the power of web analytics
Comment: I got this book a couple of days ago. It is my first book on web analytics and was definitely great start for me in this field.
If you have a website and are making money from it or plan on making money from it and dont know much about web analytics yet, the following tips I got from the book should help make your website more profitable and thus make the book pay for itself many times over:
- Using internal search analytics to gain important insights about your website's visitors and optimizing for internal searches to improve user experience to make your site more profitable (on average 10% of a website's visitors are using internal search to navigate it according to the author). This one was probably my favorite chapter in the book!
- a link to a (free) demographic prediciton tool that allows you to check how many % of searchers for a keyword/visitors of a (competing) website are male/female + their age distribution.
Obviously such a tool cannot pinpoint the exact percentage, as it analyzes the data from a data sample. I have already checked this by typing in terms such as dress (73% female), dresses (80% female), sewing (73% female), crocheting (82% female, with a low percentage of under 34 year olds and a very high percentage of 50+ year olds - just as expected). I also checked a few URLs such as [...](67% male) and [...] (78% female)...and think it can give a good tendency.
However, you should also apply common sense and take the insights as tendencies and not as exact values when using this tool to analyze demographic data (which you should do with ANY keyword research tool out there! If youve done keyword research before you should be more than aware of this).
- Why overall conversion rate is nothing but a "nice-to-know-metric" and what you should do if you want to get real insights from analyzing and measuring conversion rate that can actually help you increase your conversion rate. I never knew how silly it was to dwell on "(overall) conversion rate". Now, I know though...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Comment: "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day" is a real good book. I just received few days back and I am not able to leave it till I finish. I liked the contents and the way it is written. In short, I simply love the book.
--Bhupendra
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