woopra

After some brief rejuvenation time for our Web Analytics, we’re excited to introduce the brand new Web based version of Woopra for those times when you are away from your desktop but still want to get your Woopra fix! All you need to do is log into your Member’s Area and take a look at your stats!

Keep in mind that this new version is considered Beta so you may run into a few bugs here and there. We’re aware that there are currently a few issues, but we wanted to get it out to you guys so you could start using it right away. We’ll be updating it constantly, so just report your issues on the forums if you encounter any!

Elie and Jad have been slaving away for weeks but the results are definitely worth it! Heck, I’m pretty sure that many people are going to start using the new Web version of Woopra as their primary method of getting stats. And the Web version has a few tricks up it’s sleeve that even the desktop application doesn’t yet possess! And by the way, to answer your question in advance – it does not yet work on the iPad, but that will be available soon… ;-)

A Tour of the New Woopra Web Analytics

First of all, if the new Web Analytics look familiar – they should! Elie spent quiet a bit of time ensuring that the look and feel is similar to the desktop application we’ve all become accustomed to. This should minimize any learning curve associated with navigating the interface.

You’ll find all the familiar features built into the Web application including a dashboard, live view, world map, search functionality, filters and complete historical analytics. Each of these areas has subtle yet important changes as compared to the desktop application.
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One of the questions I continually get asked to address for people is, “Why do the stats from provider A not match the stats from provider B?” Often this is when comparing Woopra to another analytics provider like Google.

I have touched on this topic in the past a couple of times, but we’re going to expand on it further today:

• Woopra vs. The Competition (Technically Speaking)
• Q&A: Why Does XYZCo’s LIVE Visitor Number Differ From Woopra?

Different Tracking Mechanisms

There are a variety of different analytic systems in use today. Some, like Woopra, employ a JavaScript which sends information back to a central datacenter. Some, like Mint, store information in your own local database. Still others, like Analog, rely on reading the server log files that are collected by and stored directly on most Web servers. And finally, some services have you install a simple image file which keeps count of the number of times a page is loaded.

No method is wrong, but there are certainly differing degrees of accuracy and reliability associated with each, as well as differing amounts of data collected. For the purposes of this discussion I’m going to assume that we have chosen to use a JavaScript based tracking system and then compare and contrast it to other methods.
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A few months ago, we asked our members how they use the Woopra Live Chat. Since then, we’ve been digging into how our Live Chat feature is changing how people connect and communicate with visitors through their website or blog and wanted to share our findings with you. Without a doubt, Woopra’s Live Chat is changing how people connect through their websites with visitors.

The Woopra Live Chat is a feature built into the Woopra Desktop Client. While the conversation is only one way, currently, it’s amazing how creative users have become in connecting with their visitors, breaking down the walls. We’re working on making it two way, so the visitor can initiate the chat from their direction, not just from the webmaster to the visitor.

To use the Woopra Live Chat, click Start a Conversation on the Live panel with any visitor. It pops up a small window asking the visitor if they would like to accept or deny the live chat. If they accept, that window is replaced with a small dialog browser window and the two of you can chat. To customize the chat window look and feel, and even add an avatar, go to the Woopra Members Area > Chat Settings. For more information on using and customizing the Woopra Live Chat, see the FAQ on the Live Chat feature. (more…)

In the November issue of Solopreneur Insider, DeBorah Beatty of Living a Created Life and the Living A Created Life Show talked about managing multiple market sectors, the art of niche marketing. She made a powerful point that many forget in the race to mass market their business.

Until you can mentally sit down for a cup of coffee with your ideal client/customer, until you can close your eyes and see them sitting across the table from you; that means know what they like to eat, how they take their coffee, who they watch on TV and so forth, you won’t know how to approach them.

The fun for me and I hope for you, is the journey to get to know those you most want to attract. Go meet them, greet them, and get to know them intimately.

Web Analytics expert, Avinash Kaushik explained in his article on “Recession Busting Analytics” that we learn more about our business, and our opportunities, with our customers and websites by focusing on the “simple every day things you do to find actionable insights for your company.”

How many times have you heard me talk about limitations of ClickStream data?

Far too often.

One more time: You can try to torture your data and guess. But why not ask your customers?…

Why rely on your opinions and then fall flat on your face? Why try to argue with a HiPPO and let her decide what’s best for your customers?

By getting your customers involved means you magnificently increase the chances that you’ll get it right. More often.

As we’ve developed Woopra, we’ve never lost track of our “ideal customer” for our web analytics program. We have a clear vision of our audience. However, like everyone, it’s too ease to get caught up in the piles of numbers and stats in the hunt for customers. We constantly stop ourselves to remember, it’s about the individuals, our members.
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Avinash Kaushik of Occam’s Razor, one of the world’s leading experts in web analytics and author of one of my favorite web analytics books, “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day,”wrote an article called “Web Analytics Career Advice: Play In The Real World!” that is a slap in the face of everyone working on the web today.

He specifically addresses the challenges he faces interviewing job candidates for positions as analysts, marketers, PPC specialists, and other “data jobs” as he calls them. He says it is frustrating and depressing how many are really not qualified in his sense of the word.

Usually they are “qualified”. The depression comes from this singular flaw: The candidate’s education is limited by the companies they work/worked at.

All I know is ecommerce because that is all my company does.
All I know is lead gen because that’s my world.
All I know is PPC because my job involved just Search.
All I know is B2B because that’s my company’s vertical.

These are summaries of the excuses I hear. They don’t actually use their words, but it takes 10 mins of questions for that essential summary to emerge.

These excuses are extremely corrosive and and sadly indicate how the candidates have allowed their environment to limit their full potential, stunt their professional growth.

He’s right. We often let the limitations and restrictions of our company prevent us from expanding our knowledge and abilities. We also do it to ourselves. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve presented workshops and training programs on web analytics, social media, and blogging only to hear, “There’s just too much information. I only want to know what I need to know. Nothing more.”

When you live inside the box, you miss the world passing you by. You miss what’s going on right now, and now is important. Especially as we move into a real-time world where decisions happen in the now, not the later.
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You know what? Why is everyone treating “real-time” as if it’s something special? It’s not. It’s how I live my life, and I’m willing to put money on the fact that you do too.

When I’m talking to a friend face-to-face I don’t say something and then wait for an hour (or a day) for a response. The conversation happens as a steady flow. If you really think about it, the world would come to a crushing halt if everything happened at the “speed of the Web”.

That is so “Web 2.0″ isn’t it? Didn’t IBM have a commercial comparing faxes to emails or something? Well, guess what. The reason Woopra exists is that for at least a few of us, the Web sucked and everything was way, way too slow.

Now, it’s not like I’m asking anything to “speed up”. I don’t want to watch videos in double-time or anything. But I think that real-time equates to just-in-time, and frankly it’s the speed I’m comfortable with.
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@pratofundo tweeted that he runs four web analytics and stats programs on his site, including Woopra. While we understand that many of you want to run only Woopra, many people are using multiple analytics and web stats programs on their site for a variety of reasons.

Some like to compare their stats, checking how Google Analytics compares to Woopra’s numbers, or Sitemeter to Clicky. Different services track different information and data, and not all collect the same stats in the same way. They also offer the data in various formats and reports, giving the user different ways of looking at the same or similar data.

What I find interesting is how people compare Woopra to other stats programs and expect the numbers to be a perfect match. Each stats and analytics program tracks visitors and site activities differently. Woopra tracks individuals, not bots, while other analytics programs track bots and other server activities. Woopra is live, real-time data, so the numbers from a service like Google Analytics won’t add up because it picks a moment in time with hours between updates and Woopra is data now.
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As one of the first to offer affordable (currently free) live real-time stats and analytics, we are constantly asked if having real-time data is important. We thought we’d ask others to help us answer that question.

Care to join in with your thoughts on why real-time analytics matter?

Does Real-Time Analytics Matter?

In “The Case For Real-Time Analytics with Woopra” by V. Scott Ellis, he offers great examples of how to take advantage of Woopra’s real-time analytics to change your business strategies.

At an individual level we could watch people page by page as they navigated through the site, with information on where they came from, what search terms brought them there and we even had the ability to start a conversation with that person on the spot. But it wasn’t long after the initial joyous shock of feeling like you were looking at the bridge of a nuclear submarine before people started asking “what do I do with all that real-time information.”

We wanted to know, too. Recently I asked on the @woopra Twitter account why real-time analytics matter and and got some interesting feedback on how people use the real-time stats. (more…)

The Woopra development team has been working hard on segmentation, the task of breaking down the data into different segments or sections to evaluate.

In web analytics, there are many different types of segments you can analyze on your site that will help you learn more about your visitors and how they use your site. As web analytics has evolved, there are now many specializing in some collective areas of segmentation analysis such as Audience Segmentation (analyzing your demographics), Behavioral Segmentation (the behavior of the visitor), Geographic Segmentation (geographic analysis), and Traffic or Referral Segmentation (where are they coming from and who is sending them).

Just as each site is unique, so are their needs. Not everyone needs to study or use all the different segments of data. But what data do you need?

Do you know what information you need to study in order to help you make decisions about your website?

While it is critical to know what your audience wants and needs, it’s important first to clearly establish your end goals. That will then point you towards the data you need to monitor.

For instance, if your site is new, much of your focus is on getting traffic in the door, so your goal is on providing content that attracts search engine traffic and encouraging others to link to your site, thus driving traffic your way. The stats of most interest are going to be traffic and referral information, closely followed by search terms and keywords. The search terms and keywords help you track what your audience is searching for, giving them what they want, and the traffic and referrals help you track who sent them.

This is just the surface of the information. Ask yourself the following:

• Where is my audience really coming from?
• What are they really looking for? Do you have it?
• Are they coming mostly from Twitter, Facebook, search engines…?
• What country are they coming from? Does their geographical location matter?
• Which pages are getting the most attention? Do you have similar or related content? Are they finding it?
• What’s the gateway page most people enter through on your site?
• Where do they go from there?

If you can answer these and the answers match your goals, you are on the right track to narrowing down the segmentation most important to your needs and goals.

If your site’s goal is to sell product, then you have a different collection of questions to ask yourself to determine which segmentation information is important for you to track. Same if you want to just build a strong community or establish your reputation and find clients or a job. The clearer your purpose and intent, the more specific the data you choose to study.

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Have you been confused about the difference between a keyword and query in web analytics? In some cases, they are synonymous, representing the words people enter into their web searches via search engines or search forms, but not always.

In the SEO world, a keyword has come to signify the words people will search for, leading SEO experts to instruct people to write with search terms and keywords. A query is the act of searching, using keywords in the process.

In Woopra, and most web analytics, a query is the combination of words used in a search. For example, if you are looking for “Woopra web analytics” that would be your query. (more…)