ad:tech New York, IMC Stockholm and SES Chicago

Low priority post! It’s Christmas and I have been at world's end another 3 times – attending ad:tech New York, IMC Stockholm and SES Chicago - and in two days, I will be back in Budapest for Holidays (more or less + - 10 working days)... No rest for the wicked heh? ;-) But first, the Bulls play the Celtics tonight. (and that is not Red Bulls)

I moderated the Social Media Panel in Stockholm, but I also had the wonderful opportunity to sit in on the Web Analytics Panel.

Fulton Yancy, Visual Sciences
Dennis R. Mortensen, IndexTools
Sean Burton, Foviance

Vicky Brock, Highland Business Research

Steve Jackson, Satama

 

Happy holidays

Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Dennis

2007 Web Analytics Shootout (IndexTools, Visual Sciences, Unica, GA and more...)

I of course met up with Eric Enge in San Jose at the latest Search Engine Strategies – where he presented the final research report of his 2007 Web Analytics Shootout. The report is, according to Eric, an evaluation of the performance, accuracy, and capabilities of 7 different analytics packages as implemented across 4 different sites. (If you find this stuff interesting, you should definitely read the 2. part about analysis of JavaScript placement and how it matters, as well as a qualitative reviews of the analytics tools.


2007 Web Analytics Shootout Goals

1. Evaluate ease of implementation
2. Evaluate ease of use
3. Understand the basic capabilities of each package
4. Solve specific problems on each web site
5. Discover the unique strengths of each package
6. Discover the unique weaknesses of each package
7. Learn about the structural technology elements of each package that affect its capabilities
8. Learn how to better match a customer's needs to the right analytics package
   

2007 Web Analytics Shootout Vendors

• Clicktracks
• Google Analytics
• IndexTools
• Unica Affinium NetInsight
• Visual Sciences' HBX Analytics
• Omniture SiteCatalyst
• WebTrends
  

2007 Web Analytics Shootout Additional Contributors

• John Biundo of Stone Temple Consulting
• Jonah Stein of Alchemist Media
• Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz
• John Marshall of Market Motive
• Dennis R. Mortensen of IndexTools
• Jim Sterne of Target Marketing

I am of course somewhat biased (being one of the vendors and at the same time one of the additional contributors) – so this is what my good friend Jim Sterne had to say:

“In this updated 2007 Analytics Shoot Out, Stone Temple Consulting takes the same approach of head-to-head comparisons of major web analytics packages on real websites. Yes, they evaluate things like ease of implementation, use, and reporting. Yes, they look at the strengths and weaknesses of each package. But then they dig deeper into the conundrum of accuracy in web analytics data and discuss where accuracy matters. They look harder at first-party versus third-party cookies. They measure how does JavaScript placement on the web page affect the resulting data? They also get practical, identifying which analytics tools are best for which types of websites. Are you trying to compare and contrast the different tools out there? This is a great resource.”


Other blog comments:

• Stone Temple Consulting Publishes Web Analytics Shootout Results (SEW)
• Web Analytics Shootout by Stone Temple Consulting (web analytics world)
• 2007 Web Analytics Shootout - Final Report (shaving Occam)
• 2007 Web Analytics Shootout - Will the Real Web Analytics Provider Please Stand Up? (Enquiro)
• Eric Enge Finalizes 2007 Web Analytics Shootout (SEO Scoop)
  
  

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2007 (Web Analytics viewpoint)

Thinking about Web Analytics or Increasing Publisher revenue, SES San Jose is by far the best Search Engine Strategies show out there – period! The commercial part is working and there is a clear monetary return from the event, but the real life networking (in contrast to online social networking) is simply phenomenal. You end up working 18 hour days though!

The following Web Analytics vendors participated as exhibitors:

• Omniture (OMTR)
• IndexTools
• Visual Sciences (VSCN)
• Google Analytics
• ClickTracks
• Unica

Where was Webtrends and CoreMetrics? ... hmmm. However; the size of the Google Analytics booth tripled in width and height; so from a m3 point of view - everything equalled out :-)

And YES; those 18 hour days includes the following three fantastic (must attend) networking events:

• Google Dance
• Search Bash
• Vintage tub & bath event

It is always super to see friends and contacts here.. a quick hello (from the top of my head) to:

• Avinash Kaushik (Google Analytics) - thank you for a wonderful breakfast at Google Monday morning - and I surrender - the food IS great! (...and thank you for the drive out to Allan's event)
• Brian J. Clifton (Google Analytics) - thank you for another GA sponsored dinner on Thursday :-) ...and insight into your web analytics book to come.
• Bret Crosby (Google Analytics) - YES I know :-)
• Timo Aden (Google Analytics) - blog link exchange. Coming right up my friend.
• Peter Biro (ClickTracks and co.) - cheers and thanks for the Boston invite.
• John Squire (CoreMetrics) - you win on that lunch debate! ;-)
• John Marshall (MarketMotive) - very nice meeting you and your wife; made the whole thing a tad less geeky (even though you then returned with a 1 click only presentation) :-)
• Akin Arikan (Unica) - good to see you; ..and thumbs up on your presentation on Brand measurement.
• Stephanie Yang (Offermatica) - thank you very much - giving me thorough insight into your newest offering.
• Jamie Smith and co. (Engine Ready) - somehow funny that you as one of our biggest partners ended up at the same hotel and same floor as me. Fooled by Randomness.. heh.
• Allan R. Dick, Jr. (Vintage Tub & Bath) - thank you for a wonderful evening out with “top of the pop” in Search!
• Shari Thurow (Omni Marketing Interactive) - thank you the update and best wishes in getting back into shape with that foot.
• Andy Atkins-Kruger (Web Certain)
• Anne Kennedy (beyond ink) - Remember to PING me, so we can set up that extra day in Chicago. I would love for your team to get detailed insight into IndexTools
• Patrick C. Price (Idealizer)- great to see you again and again and again - you were everywhere :-)
• Sebastien Doyen (LinkyAgency) - great to see you again and good luck with your NEW venture. You of course know where to go when the need for Enterprise Analytics comes, right? :-)
• Johan Stein (Alchemist Media) - great to meet up at last! – let me know if you need any help (input) on your conversion research v2
• Michael Stebbins (MarketMotive) - great meeting you and Congratulations on your new company!!
• Matt Bailey (SiteLogic) - Great chat on the bus (and YES, I hate you for having access to the Iphone.. he he)
• Anton Konikoff (Acronym Media) - As always; very nice meeting up Anton, even though you are ever so busy!
• Tim Ash (SiteTuners) - Great to heat about the book. Remember to ping me when you get there.
• Mikkel deMib - Det er jo et eller andet sted lidt imponerende hvor mange events vi ender med at vaere til med hianden rundt omkring.. Hygge.
• Jon Myers (Latitude) - Great catching up with you mate... and thank you for the Heineken’s :-)
• Dixon Jones (Receptional) - Loved the T-shirt. Brave though! :-)
• Bryan Eisenberg (Future Now) - great seeing you there. Sorry that I missed your session about converting visitors into byers.
• Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz) - The Wizard of Moz :-) – sorry about missing your session, but the Web Analytics one was up. But great to see you again.
• Jonathan Mendez - Great having dinner with you – and had you waited around, you could have joined the “Avinash bus”..

... I am MOST sure I forgot twice as many as I listed above and that I remember the instant I upload this.. Sorry about that, no offense intended! :-)

There was “only” some three session on Web Analytics – I know this is no Emetrics, BUT I think that is a bit thin as every single SEM and SEO company that I know heavily depend on Analytics. Find the session and blog posts about them below:



SES San Jose 2007 Web Analytics Sessions:

Web Analytics & Measuring Success

• Session: Web Analytics & Measuring Success (Online Marketing Blog)
• Web Analytics and Measuring Success (SEO Roundtable)
• SES:SJ - Web Analytics & Measuring Success Overview (E-marketing performance)

Analyzing the Analytics Players

• SES San Jose - Analyzing the Web Site Analytics Players (Bizresearch)
• Web Analytics Vendor Tools Comparison (And One Challenge) (Occam’s Razor)

Meet the Web Analytics Players

• no one blogged about this?
  

See you all next year! For sure.. :-)

Comments from Search Engine Strategies New York 2007

Just finishing up and closing down after four great days at Search Engine Strategies – New York ... Waiting to go to the Airport in Newark (how did I end up there?).

I think my one (actually two) takeaways from this show would be that:

• Use of Analytics to perform in a very competitive Affiliate Marketing market is crucial!
• Use of affiliated advertising on a web property should not begin before after hitting the 1000 unique visitors a day

I could not agree more and I am happy to see this confirmed by a super affiliate like Jeremy Schoemaker a.k.a “ShoeMoney” – especially his strong emphasis on the use of Analytics – which also verify the need of a blog like this; with a subject: “Dennis R. Mortensen's blog about how to increase publisher revenue through analytics!” :-)

Bryan Eisenberg’s did his always exciting Webmaster Radio Blog Buzz show, live at SES. I participated with this group of sharp analytics focused people that Bryan introduced as the "guru's of the space":

• Avinash Kaushik
• Gary Angel
• Marshall Sponder
• Dennis R. Mortensen
  

DOWNLOAD/PLAY: Blog Buzz SES NY (MP3)

Duration: 10.28 min. File size: 10MB

...And I am thrilled that I got to tell Gary Angel that there indeed is people (ME to begin with) that read his bright posts in detail – however long and advanced they are. They are a perfect fit for my one hour commute. :-)

Equally nice to meet up with Marshall Sponder in person, after reading I do not know how many hundreds of his posts.

Back to Budapest and off to Emetrics in Düsseldorf.

Comments from Search Engine Strategies - Munich 2007

I just returned from SES in Munich; and from an Exhibitor point of view – it was not that bad! :-)

I was sitting in on Rand Fishkin’s presentation yesterday and beyond the usual fantastic show, he gave one memorable quote about how you could “easily” manage your online reputation - agreeing that SERP results is a major part in that.

TIP: Use Social Network Profile pages to control your online reputation.

Checking for “Dennis R. Mortensen” – you will find:

• LinkedIN (Profile Page)
• SEOmoz (Profile Page)
• Ecademy (Profile Page)
• Blogger (Profile Page)
• eMarketing (Profile Page)

Discounting my own blog and a Webmasterworld comment – there is nothing but profile pages on the first page of the SERP. Amazing; perhaps I should sign up for a couple other social networks and get “control” over the last couple of results and own the first page :-) – A super tip Rand. Thanks. As always Rand was pouring out his love for Action Tracking Action Tracking (a.k.a. Conversion Tracking) – and I absolutely think he is true. That it simply the first thing you have to get in control of, in any online venture! - find Rand’s post about SES Munich here: ses-munich-linkbait-truffles-more-insomnia.

Friends and Contacts from the show:
It was a pleasure to meet up with: Steve Johnston at lunch - still pitching his brilliant business card with NO information, but his name – you guessed it, he is in SEO. Sara Andersson (we need more blond good looking Swedish girls in the SEM industry – and what was up with the moderator at your session?? :-). And I would like to Welcome Timo Aden to the blogosphere – and that said from a newbie like me – by the way, will you be at Emetrics Germany?. Markus Reif, Patrick Ludolph, Andreas Vogt, Mark Kofahl. Udayan, I do hope I will be able to meet up with you at New York SES – do let me know when you are there. Sebastien Doyen – PLEASE, with sugar on top; I need those 10 minutes to pitch to your team that Omniture is but the same as IndexTools, just in a green interface. I of course forgot to thanks Matthew Finlay for a great German show, but it was indeed from a exhibitor point of view worth going there, I of course have the same high expectations to Emetrics now (as Matthew runs as well). Oliver and Felix and the nice people from Webtrends – I still think we are a cooler tool.. ha ha. And it was of course great to meet up with Michael Buchheit from ISA again!

Roger over! :-)

Discount Coupon: Search Engine Strategies, New York 2007

If you are thinking of attending SES NY in April, I am happy to say that you can get a 20% discount on the full conference or 1-day pass. Thanks to JoAnn and Elaine at IncisiveMedia... And do let me know if you are going.

Cheers..

Take a look at the coupon (click for a larger view)

Search Engine Strategies London 2007 (+Bonus Interview)

I recently returned from Search Engine Strategies (SES) in London. And I think most people would agree that an event / forum like this is successful if you return with ONE advice/input on how to optimize and improve your business. I of course, as an exhibitor, was there for the leads! :-)

Two of our really smart partners demib.com and SEOmoz.org were both part of the advanced track panel: “Organic Listings Forum” – where the following simple but powerful advice where presented and debated:

SEO Advice: “If one are to start a new web project – do NOT register a new domain, instead Google your industry keywords and start looking from 'page 5' for old mismanaged domains. Acquiring such a domain will give you a very valuable head start in your SEO efforts."


NB:
I had the pleasure of being able to add my comments on the Analytics industry in general - at the last London SES. So here goes a 5 min Interview With Dennis R. Mortensen (me!)