Series on Web Analytics

I'm feeling a bit guilty about the tone of my last post, so I thought I'd do a good deed today and put in a plug for Manoj Jasra's blog. Manoj has been putting together a really good blog on analytics (I linked to it a while back) – and he’s arranged a series of guest appearances this week. He’s over the hump, today, and so far the series has been excellent. On Monday, he had Avinash comment on why web analytics is hot. I’ve often (maybe nearly always) disagreed with Avinash but I think this post is spot on! About the only thing I’d add is the role of laziness. I’ve noticed that people and businesses are pretty much alike – none of us do anything really well unless we have to. To be really good on the web, you have to do analytics. But it’s hard, and if you don’t have to be good, you’ll probably never do it well. But for a lot of businesses, these days, being good on the web really is core. If you aren’t good at it, you won’t survive. That simple imperative has web analytics "hot," and it isn’t going to go away. On Tuesday, Jennifer Laycock wrote on viral marketing gone bad. It’s a pretty funny post, but I have more sympathy for Starbucks (full disclosure – I don’t even like their coffee) than she does. If I read this right, Starbucks might have been on the hook for giving unlimited numbers of free drinks away forever. That just isn’t sustainable. Maybe the moral really is "be careful how you coupon on the web" not "be careful how viral can grow." Today, Gord Hotchkiss talks about "SEM Has No Future" – a title much less serious than the post. We worry too much about trying to make the present work to get too caught up in the future (another reason we’ll never be rich) – but it’s a pretty good write-up. The whole series is worth checking out – as is Manoj when he’s doing the writing…