Entries tagged with “tracking” from Tools of Change for Publishing

Web Analytics Primer for Publishers

Mac Slocum
September 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Listen

Web content allows for a level of tracking and analysis unseen in other forms of media, but I get the sense some publishers are a little hazy when it comes to the established analytic measurements. This primer touches on the main measures I've used in my own efforts, but it is not exhaustive. I encourage other analytics folks to chime in with their thoughts and techniques in the comments area.

A few notes before we get into it:

• Note #1: If you check stats religiously and you're a whiz with your analytics tools, this post will be elementary and quite dull. You're better off perusing the excellent conversations at Webmaster World.
• Note #2: The term "hits" was outdated in 1999. I won't be using it here and I implore you to avoid this word -- and anyone using it within a Web traffic context -- at all costs.

With that out of the way, let's dive in ...

Visits -- When you access a specific Web site, that counts as one visit. If you leave and return, that usually counts as a second visit. I say "usually" because most analytics tools use a timer. For example: If you leave and return to a site running Google Analytics within 30 minutes, one visit is logged. But if you return after 30 minutes, a second visit is added to the tally.

• Caveat -- "Visits" should not be equated with "people." Even with a timer in place, it's possible for a single person to rack up multiple visits to your site.
• Recommendation -- Track visits over a period of months, not weeks. Long stretches will reveal the overall growth of your site and your audience.

Unique Visitors -- Unique visitors represent individual visitors to your site (in theory). This is an important metric because it gives you a sense of your audience size.

• Caveat -- Analytics tools rely on cookies to track unique visits, but cookies can be deleted or rejected by the user. There's also no way to differentiate between people using the same Web browser. Public terminals, lab computers and family PCs will all register as single users.
• Recommendation -- Limits on privacy (a good thing) and technology (not so good) prevent analytics tools from achieving the 1:1 visitor tracking utopia. For the foreseeable future, the unique visitors metric offers the best approximation of audience size. Just make sure bosses and advertisers understand the limits.

Page Views -- A page view represents a single view of a single page under a certain Web domain. If you click to another site and then click back to the original site, you'll log another page view. If you refresh the page you're viewing, another page view will be counted.

• Caveat -- A single visitor can log dozens of page views, especially if they've got an itchy refresh finger.
• Recommendation -- Page view figures should be used for general analysis. Their real value comes from the manual parsing of page view data. Close examination will reveal popular pages and topics, which can help guide future editorial efforts.

Pages Per Visit -- The Web's built-in context makes it possible to attract visitors with one piece of content, then present them with additional material on the same site through related links, embedded links, recommendations, etc. A high pages per visit average (3+ pages is quite good) means visitors are interacting with your content. A low average means visitors are viewing one page and quickly moving on to other sites.

• Caveat -- Want to see how the pages per visit average can be manipulated? Visit any major media site and look for the photo galleries. Placing a single photo on a single page and then encouraging users to click the "Next" button is an easy way to boost the pages per visit number. Pages per visit is also influenced by traffic spikes. If you receive an inbound link from a popular recommendation site (Slashdot, Digg), you'll likely see a huge increase in page views but a dramatic drop in pages per visit. Most visitors from these sites look at one piece of content and then move on to the next popular destination.
• Recommendation -- Like most analytics measurements, the pages per visit average should be examined over multi-month stretches. Traffic spikes should be disregarded -- not ignored outright, just disregarded in this case. If you see the average go up by a full page over the course of 3-6 months, you're doing something right.

Average Time on Site -- The more time users spend on your site, the more you can assume they're engaged with your content and your brand ... and your sponsors' brands. Given the hyperactive nature of Web browsing, holding visitor attention for a full minute or more is considered a success.

• Caveat -- As the Google Analytics FAQ notes, some visitors leave unattended browser windows open. Analytics tools make no distinction between an engaged viewer and a distracted viewer with messy browsing habits.
• Recommendation -- Analysis over a multi-month period is the best use for this measurement (sound familiar?). Consistent growth = good. Consistent decrease = bad.

Again, this primer is the tip of the analytics iceberg. There are many related topics worth further discussion and inquiry, including search engine optimization and Web advertising models.

There's an interesting shift that's also worth monitoring. Some publishers are looking beyond site-based statistics to gauge their overall reach across social networks, recommendation engines, RSS, mobile applications and other distributed platforms. Douglas McLennan, the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, touched on this topic in a recent interview:

I've come to the realization that ArtsJournal is not just a Web site anymore. Only 25 percent of our users ever come to the Web site, the rest get it through newsletters. We have 35,000 newsletter subscribers. Others get ArtsJournal through "newsbeats" that we provide on other Web sites. Some people get ArtsJournal through RSS feeds. In the course of an average day, there are 45,000 to 50,000 visitors -- people who use Artsjournal every day. The unique visitors per month is probably 250,000. We probably get 500,000 to 600,000 visits a month and a few million page views. So ArtsJournal is not huge by the scale of large Web sites, but it's substantial.

We may eventually see Q scores -- or a variation on that concept -- integrated into future analytics toolsets.

Related Stories:

• Google Analytics FAQ
• About.com: "Web Analytics Basics: Learn to Measure Your Web Site"
• Avinash Kaushik: "Data Quality Sucks, Let's Just Get Over It"
• Matt Belkin: "Unique Visitors or Visits - which metric should you use?"
• Joe Wikert: "The Booksquare on ePublishing"
• TOC DVD: "Search Engine Optimization for Book Publishers"
• Digital Experiments and Useful Analytics Must Go Hand-in-Hand

News Roundup: Dual-Display E-Reader Prototype, Content Tracking Not Just for Takedowns Anymore, Indiana "Explicit" Law Struck Down

Mac Slocum
July 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Researchers Develop Dual-Display E-Reader

Researchers from Berkeley and the University of Maryland have built a dual-display e-reader prototype that uses traditional book-reading navigation (i.e. page turns, flipping the cover under, etc.). From the New Scientist:

The two leaves can be opened and closed to simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare documents. When the two leaves are folded back, the device shows one display on each side. Simply turning it over reveals a new page. (See video of prototype)

Content Tracking Tools: Control for Some, Distribution for Others

An article in BusinessWeek looks at various uses for content tracking systems, from command-and-control monitoring to partnership opportunities via broad distribution:

Just ask Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet.com, owner of sites ranging from the Epicurious.com cooking site to fashion site Style.com to WiredDigital, the online arm of Wired magazine. A few years ago, Chub enlisted a team of people to scour the Web for unlicensed content use. Now she has a team that does the opposite -- figuring out how to get CondéNet's recipes, fashion photos, and other content onto up-and-coming blogs and social networking sites. Her team is using Attributor's [content tracking] system not to issue takedown notices but to spot new targets. (Continue reading | Related commentary)

Indiana's "Explicit" Law Struck Down

An Indiana law requiring retailers who sell explicit material to register with the state was struck down by a U.S. Federal Court on First Amendment grounds. From the Indianapolis Star:

The law would have required anyone who intended to sell sexually explicit materials -- which plaintiffs say could have included classic literature, as well as pornography -- to register with Indiana's secretary of state, pay a $250 fee and submit a statement with details about the materials. It would have applied to new businesses and existing ones that relocated or began selling the materials after June 30. (Continue reading)

Related Stories:

• See more publishing news and insight in the TOC News section

Content Tracking Tools: Control for Some, Distribution for Others

Peter Brantley
June 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

An article in BusinessWeek looks at various uses for content tracking systems, from command-and-control monitoring to partnership opportunities via broad distribution:

Just ask Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet.com, owner of sites ranging from the Epicurious.com cooking site to fashion site Style.com to WiredDigital, the online arm of Wired magazine. A few years ago, Chub enlisted a team of people to scour the Web for unlicensed content use. Now she has a team that does the opposite -- figuring out how to get CondéNet's recipes, fashion photos, and other content onto up-and-coming blogs and social networking sites. Her team is using Attributor's [content tracking] system not to issue takedown notices but to spot new targets.

"We used to build our sites on the idea that people would come to our home page," Chubb says. "Now, we're consciously trying to put our content in a lot of places. In most of those cases, there's a revenue opportunity for us," she says, adding that she has no interest in using the technology to launch lawsuits. "

Related Stories:

• Digital Experiments and Useful Analytics Must Go Hand-in-Hand
• Mark Cuban: Copyright Law Gives Hulu Advantage Over YouTube
• Sorting through Layers of Copyright

Digital Experiments and Useful Analytics Must Go Hand-in-Hand

Mac Slocum
May 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Experimentation without analysis isn't worth much.

It's a succinct and obvious point, but this one phrase was my biggest takeaway from the recent IDPF Digital Book event. Leslie Hulse, vice president of digital business development at HarperCollins, drove home the experimentation-analysis relationship while discussing one of HarperCollins' free audio download experiments. Hulse concluded:

The marketing people would say this was very successful because it got all kinds of attention, but we really didn't see an impact on sales. It wasn't linked to registration, so we didn't feel we got much out of this in terms of something we could use down the road. What we learned from this experiment was: when it's free audio with no DRM and no registration, it's too easy to take it and run. So we need to tie it to registration or use DRM or use a watermark so that we can contact these people in the future or know more about how they're using it.

The merits of DRM are debatable, but Hulse's broader point is important to consider: An experiment launched without a measurement device isn't really an experiment; it's a blind giveaway.

As Hulse noted, a simple registration form can provide baseline metrics and contacts for future products. For more in-depth information, advanced analytics tools (even free ones) can be integrated into experiments to track downloads, page views, unique visitors, user-session times, geographic targeting, forwards/emails and other social components. Privacy needs to be considered in any tracking effort, but a little common sense and planning can easily find the sweet spot between consumer comfort and detailed data points.

"The key thing for us is that all these experiments must be measurable," Hulse said. "We're trying to do things where we can measure the results and move from there."

Related Stories:

• BISG Study: Publishing Experimentation Catching On
• It's Time to Accept an Ambiguous Digital Fate
• A Comeback for DRM?

Writing and Tracking through Subversion

Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Programmers use version control systems to track and monitor code revisions. Writers can bring the same functionality to their drafts by following Rachel Greenham's Mac OS X Subversion tutorial:

What does it [Subversion] do? It manages multiple versions of a project in development. You check your project out of the repository, make changes and you commit those changes back to the repository. At any time you can view older versions of the whole project or of individual files, and revert to them, if the work done since was in error. You can make branches, which allows you to develop your work in two (or more) ways in parallel, and you can tag your project to say, at this point I met a certain milestone (eg: first draft, second draft, version sent to publisher X, version sent to publisher Y, published version, etc.)

(Via TUAW)

Related Stories:

• Google Docs Soon to Sport Offline Editing
• Haskell Book Author Adapts to Reader Comments While Writing