I discuss many topics on this site. My approach is to give you a well rounded view into all the various areas you need to be aware of and have a working knowledge of to be successful online over time. This is assuming your desire is to have your own site, shop, or other online entity and profit it from it. Of course you do not need to be a Jack, or Jill, of all trades if you work in one of the areas I touch on and are looking to be an expert in any one area.

When it comes to one area in particular, I have a personal affinity for web analytics. What you can derive from your website analytics, analytics from search engines you may advertise from, and other niche information you may track, is the key to assuring your site is performing. Performing may be obtaining the lowest customer acquisition cost, increasing the number of pages per visitor, enticing visitors to download an ebook, or take advantage of a particular offer and more.

I wrote an instructional article recently on understanding Google AdWords and Google analytics for conversion tracking and business intelligence, and have touched on analytics in general. I spend a lot of time with metrics, particularly with respect to site traffic and customer acquisition as well as retention through our Phase One Accelerators consultancy.

As I have been spending more time on the subject of web analytics I came across the Web Analytics Association. A great site to watch and depending on your interest, a good organization as well. Their mission, taken from their site is:

“The Web Analytics Association leads and supports the members by providing quality education, developing standards and best practices, conducting research and advocating for issues that advance the industry. the Web Analytics Association

As you can imagine, when looking at Google Analytics, Nielson, Omniture, and other analytics programs, trying to reconcile the disparate information. Web Analytics Association is attempting to help develop standards. I came across this site by way of a web analytics consultancy practice Web Analytics Demystified and a link to their Analytics Blog is here. They have excellent well written articles.

I hope you find these two web analytic sources helpful, particularly the organization as they seem to have frequent educational webcasts.