Web Analytics: An Hour a Day Reviews

• Turning online data into wisdom

  
  By A2DGNNCEXOD69X on 2007-05-31
  'Web Analytics: An Hour a Day' describes in an absorbing and insightful way the most important topics for a Web Analyst or any professional related to the management of a website. Topics covered include: basic terminology, tool selection/implementation, online segmentation, conversion rates improvement, competitive analysis, and many others.
  
  The Business trinity, created by Avinash, is a very powerful business process that can radically improve the performance of online efforts. It is also the spirit of the book. Avinash describes the trinity as follows: "The goal of the Trinity mindset is to power the generation of actionable insights. Its goal is not to do reporting. Its goal is not to figure out how to spam decision makers with data. Actionable Insights & Metrics are the uber-goal simply because they drive strategic differentiation and a sustainable competitive advantage (...) The Trinity mindset empowers you to Understand the customer experience so explicitly that you can influence the right customer behavior which will lead to win-win outcomes for the company and its customers."
  
  The book is indispensable to those who want to understand and practice the art and science of web analytics. It is organized in a very friendly way, turning the reading into a pleasant break amid the rush of day-to-day duties; like a challenging conversation. It is rich in examples, facilitating the understanding of the `what', `how', and `why' of online measurement strategies.
  
  I have profited from Avinash's writings in various situations; the practical advices given in the book are clear and bring great results. I warmly recommend reading this book and following the author's blog.
  
  

• 90% fluff, 10% knowledge...good if you have time to read 480 pages to get the 48 you need

  
  By A3PPSW4ML1PMGE on 2007-06-20
  The sheer size and length drove me away from keeping this book after getting through the first 200 pages. Let's face it...not everyone wants to spend their summer reading 480 pages to get through 90% fluff to extract the good stuff, especially in the summer time. In an ideal world, I'd love to have a succint, terse and to-the-point 100 page version with just the key takeaways because I know Avinash is one of the top thought drivers in the field in large part due to his spectacular blog.
  
  Honestly If I want 480, I'd go for Clinton's biography. I know the flip side is everyone saying the 230 extra pages is great but for busy people like me this makes me unable to touch with a 6 foot rod.
  
  Kaushik's book has a lot of theoretical learnings many of which are more pie-in-the-sky ideas, e.g control charts and standard deviations that are good carryovers if you are process-oriented and have time to implement these icing-on-the-cake schemes while detracting away from the core cake (driving ROI).
  
  If you want a good book recommendation go for Actionable Web Analytics. It's amazing how much of a spin they put on the ROI aspect of the business. At the end of the day, this is what we all here in business for. Dynamic Prioritization and Monetization (2 chapters in Actionable Web Analytics) are incredible for anyone in this field!
  
  
  

• Accessible and Marketing Driven

  
  By A1FGV8PGAKZF67 on 2007-09-05
  One of the first things that impressed me about this book was the fact that it went beyond what I was expecting to read: how to better read analytics dashboards. What I found was a sophisticated and marketing-oriented book that teaches how to use the available data to create a clear picture of return on investment in the online world. This is more than your typical programming book, this is a marketing book.
  
  Kaushik does a great job with the format. As is the fact with any subject you are committed to knowing, reading the information and applying it in small pieces is the best way to learn. The bulk of the content is arranged by subject and segmented into daily readings allowing you to focus and build upon the knowledge one brick at a time.
  
  The book is easy to read, full of practical application, and one that will be tattered, bookmarked, and referenced often.
  
  
  
  

• ISG's Media & Analytics Team gives this book two thumbs way up!

  
  By A33QAWLYR8IQSB on 2007-07-06
  We here at the ISG media & analytics team have been anxiously awaiting the publication of Avinash Kaushik's book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, since we first "met" Avinash at a webinar back in February. Avinash's passion for web analytics was evident throughout the webinar, and we've been subscribers to his blog, Occam's Razor, ever since.
  
  Web analytics is an important part of what we do at ISG. Years of experience in online marketing has reinforced the idea that there's no point in having a website, microsite, or campaign page if you have no idea how it's performing. That's why Avinash's book is a must read for anyone involved in Internet marketing. His book is a great read for anyone from the director of media & analytics to senior analyst to summer intern. Whether you are involved in complex decision-making and web strategies or are looking at conversion rates to provide actionable insights, this book is great for people of all levels of experience, while providing a fresh look at web analytics.
  
  The book is "a step-by-step guide to implementing a successful web analytics strategy." It is meant to be enjoyed over a span of eight months, but you can read it as quickly or slowly as you like. We here at ISG are sharing a couple of copies between us and are relishing each page as we read, so what follows is a summary of the book based on what we've read and reviewed so far.
  
  The book is divided into four parts:
  
  Part I: Foundation
  Part II: Trinity Approach
  Part III: Implementing Your Web Analytics Plan
  Part IV: Advanced Web Analytics "Data in your DNA"
  
  Part I gives a brief history of web analytics, which makes this book perfect for someone just starting out in the field. Avinash takes the time to describe all the metrics that can be analyzed, how they are derived, and how they are useful for web analytics. He focuses not only on the "what" but on the "why" and proposes a new framework called the Integrated Trinity Platform. Part I (19 pages in total) is chock full of information that will give you the background you need for starting your web analytics study or, if you are experienced in the field, propose a new way to think about the role your job plays in your company.
  
  There's also a bonus CD with 5+ hours of podcasts for your listening pleasure, a 45-minute video presentation, PowerPoint presentations, and other useful web analytics resources. And at the end of the book, Avinash directs the reader to two companion websites so that they may continue on their web analytics journey.
  
  The best part about this book is that it is written by someone who is so passionate about web analytics that he is voluntarily receiving no profit from his book: 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Smile Train and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
  
  

• Must-read for all Web Analysts

  
  By A1GX1OEFC546TA on 2007-07-11
  I'm a web metrics analyst in a top 20 e-commerce website in US. This book provides valuable knowledge and actionale insights in Web Analytics. The author has a significant experience as a web analytics practitioner - it really differentiate this book from other web analytics books.
  
  
• Right on the money!
  By A1HBDC9NYE4Y8U on 2007-06-04
  Just received my copy. Having read many great books on web analytics in past years, it immediately jumped out at me how every single page in this book speaks to the fact that the author is a practitioner with direct responsibility for giving love and attention to metrics. Anyone who wants to put themselves into the shoes of a real web analyst will find 400+ pages of insights that can be turned into gold. For example, the "three layers of so what".
  
  As such the book is severely UNDERpriced. For just a handful of dollars the reader reaps the lifetime learnings that the author has accumulated from working the web analytics trenches. I whole heartedly recommend.
  
  
• Probably a better reference than I am absorbing
  By A1W5B66MY8AEZ5 on 2007-12-28
  I purchased this book with the idea of learning (with very limited base knowledge to start from) about the analysis of a web site's effectiveness beyond "clicks"! I am about 1/2 way through Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and much of what is being discussed is over my non-tech head.
  
  That being said, my takeaway from the book so far is that I have learned usefully "dangerous" information about what I should expect from my web site, how it should be configured to capture information for analysis and, perhaps most importantly, "best practices" based upon this author's experience and perspective. Given that he is an expert in the field and his recommendations strike me as practical, I think this book is potentially valuable to someone of early to middle web utilization experience.
  
  Be prepared, however, it is technical and long.
  
  
• The Best Book in Web Marketing?
  By A3GQTTQFV91SU4 on 2007-08-14
  Avinash Kaushik focuses on the key issue: the visitors. Learn what your visitors want and then give it to them. Use analytics, competitive intelligence, and user polls to find out. Many sites focus only on customers (the ones who actually buy) and pretty much ignore the remaining visitors (who make up 60-80% of the traffic). By looking at visitors, you can improve the overall experience, and very likely the conversion rate as well.
  
  Avinash's book is far away the best book on analytics. He has solid experience in using analytics tools at large companies. He also has a degree in engineering and an MBA, so he understands both the technical and the business aspects. The book is a solid presentation of how to use analytics to establish and reach business goals. As you've figured out by now, analytics is not about tracking URLs or auto-generated reports. It's business.
  
  For Kaushik, there are three main strategies: discover the visitors' intentions, compare your website against benchmarks, and use analytics.
  
  The first item is to understand your visitors. Learn what they want. Find out what they are seeking at your website. It's a mistake to focus on conversions; at best only 20-30% of your visitors will convert. If you concentrate on them, you're ignoring 70% of your visitors. To learn their intentions, ask them. Add polls and surveys at your site. Avinash offers several questions to ask your visitors: What are you looking for at our website? Were you able to complete your task? If you were unable to complete your task, please explain why. How can we improve our website to make it more useful for you?
  
  The second item is comparison with your competitors: how are you doing in your industry. It's very nice to say that you have two million monthly visitors, but... compared to your top competitors, is that low? If they're getting one to two million visitors per month, then you're fine. But if they're getting 50 million monthly visitors, you're in trouble. So, find out. Avinash describes two services for competitive information and the features of each. You can find out your competitor's traffic share, level of activity, conversion rates, demographics, and so on. Other tools let you compare the amount of traffic for you and your top competitors. It's all in the book.
  
  The third step is analytics. There is so much useful content in this book that I can't give a short summary. Avinash has solid experience in setting up KPIs and dashboards for dozens of companies and you'll learn how to do this. He describes what is useful, how it matters, and how to use it. He tells you why you should avoid real-time reporting.
  
  A major issue in analytics is the soft numbers. Computers and the web gave us the promise of fully-trackable activity. Web analytics itself implies accurate measurement of data. This turned out to be an illusion. Nearly all of our clients are unaware that the numbers are off by as much as 30%. This is caused by a number of factors: the various analytics tools use different definitions for an event. Users block JavaScript, so tagging can't collect data. As much as 40% of users delete cookies every day. There are tracking problems with Ajax and Web 2.0 sites. And there are many more problems. The book has a clear explanation of log files, tagging, web bugs, and packet sniffing, along with the advantages and disadvantages for each one. You need to understand the technical issues to understand the strengths and limits of your numbers.
  
  Along with describing what to do, Avinash also tells you what to ignore. Analytics is not reporting, so don't deliver reports. Reports are not useful for business decisions. If they want reports, set up automated reporting. Nobody reads these anyway. You should also ignore page views, clicks, and exit pages. These are useless for business decisions. It sounds very nice to say you have four million monthly page views, but so what? What matters is the visitors' intentions and your KPIs.
  
  Avinash doesn't shy away from bold statements. He points out that analytics is interpretation and recommendation. But expensive analytics tools (which cost $50,000 to $100,000 per year or more) can simply be report-generating engines for your company, unless you have mastered their complexity. With tools like ClickTracks Analytics (which costs $90 per month) and Google Analytics (which is free) you can get all the reporting you want at a very low price. This allows you to invest in people or getting help from external consultants to move from reporting to doing analysis. You can even use both ClickTracks and Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses tagging and ClickTracks uses log files (or tagging); ClickTracks is good for SEO and Google Analytics is good for PPC. Each has features that the other is not capable of producing. By using easier tools, you can focus on the business goals instead of using the tool.
  
  He also brings up the problems with Web 2.0. We have a number of Web 2.0 clients. How do you use analytics in a Web 2.0 world? On Web 2.0 sites, the concept of page views is irrelevant, because Ajax and Flash tools don't require a new page or a page refresh. There are lines of code from Google that allow you to track JavaScript events in Google Analytics. His book is current enough to discuss these issues.
  
  A number of chapters are recommendations from Avinash: what is important? What is useful? What can you ignore? What is useless? He includes a list of best practices. The recommendations are extremely useful. That's why he is asked by Fortune 200 companies to help them with their analytics strategy. The same advice is in this book.
  
  Avinash Kaushik's book is easily one of the best books for analytics, SEO, PPC, SEM, or the web industry. If you read only one book on web commerce, this is the one.
  
  
• Not analytics ... more data collection
  By A37G9OV4KD3RPY on 2008-05-28
  If you buy 'Web Analytics ...' looking for some guidance, or even a few ideas, as to analysis of your internet marketing/sales endeavors, you will be disappointed. This book is about data collection ... nothing more.
  
  To Avinash Kaushik's credit he appears thorough. I did appreciate his flagging the limitations of data collected by the various methods. On the downside the book is repetitive and could have been better ordered. The '... Hour a Day' is appropriate, as that is about all a reader can risk in one sitting. The text makes an arduous read. If better structured, this book could have been half its length.
  
  If I learned one thing, it is this. I'll architect my approach to web analysis, define the data I need, and then recruit an IT type to build the process to collect the data. Having read the book, I now know what data there can be. For this I'm grateful to the author.
  
  
  
• An absolute must-read
  By ARWXGD1A0XHCV on 2007-06-05
  I got my copy of the book yesterday and read it last night--it's fantastic! I've been working with the web since the pre-Mosaic days and have used a number of WA tools, as well as parsing raw log data on my own. Your book is the absolutely first thing I've read that presents the business of web analytics from an objective and non-self-aggrandizing viewpoint. Thank you for the effort to get it all on paper, and thank you for bettering the world with the donation of proceeds.
  
  
• Incredibly useful and valuable book ...
  By A5SMLU82SNCAG on 2007-06-06
  Very useful, hands-on book about the fascinating topic of web analytics! Online marketers and business professionals alike have come to realize the importance of these metrics to determine their actions and results online. Avinash's book summarizes, explains and demonstrates what makes web analytics work. I can recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the topic. It is simple yet covers everything ... a must read.
  
  
• Web Analytics 2.0 Primer for Everyone
  By AYAVXW2T3VJEN on 2007-06-18
  Web Analytics: An Hour a Day is different because business acumen, technical considerations and common sense are all rolled into the succinct recommendations in this book. The result is a primer for any web organization to build a truly customer-centric web strategy.
  
  - Learn how to create a "check and balance system" between your clickpath data, customer experience (surveys, usability, etc.) and outcomes (revenue, etc.). This is called "The Trinity" in the book.
  - Learn what's most important to translate your raw (out of the box) analytics data into insights, e.g., by adding simple segmentation can provide great insight into your customers' behavior on your site.
  - Learn what you need to know about data collection (the what and why) without obsessing about the unattainable (i.e., perfect data!)
  
  Whether you're a marketer, product manager, designer, technologist or web analyst - buy this book and share it with your colleagues.
  
  Thanks for this book, Avinash!
  
  
• leveraging the power of web analytics
  By A2ZODU19RGCFZJ on 2007-06-26
  I got this book a couple of days ago. It is my first book on web analytics and was definitely great start for me in this field.
  
  If you have a website and are making money from it or plan on making money from it and dont know much about web analytics yet, the following tips I got from the book should help make your website more profitable and thus make the book pay for itself many times over:
  
  - Using internal search analytics to gain important insights about your website's visitors and optimizing for internal searches to improve user experience to make your site more profitable (on average 10% of a website's visitors are using internal search to navigate it according to the author). This one was probably my favorite chapter in the book!
  
  - a link to a (free) demographic prediciton tool that allows you to check how many % of searchers for a keyword/visitors of a (competing) website are male/female + their age distribution.
  
  Obviously such a tool cannot pinpoint the exact percentage, as it analyzes the data from a data sample. I have already checked this by typing in terms such as dress (73% female), dresses (80% female), sewing (73% female), crocheting (82% female, with a low percentage of under 34 year olds and a very high percentage of 50+ year olds - just as expected). I also checked a few URLs such as [...](67% male) and [...] (78% female)...and think it can give a good tendency.
  
  However, you should also apply common sense and take the insights as tendencies and not as exact values when using this tool to analyze demographic data (which you should do with ANY keyword research tool out there! If youve done keyword research before you should be more than aware of this).
  
  - Why overall conversion rate is nothing but a "nice-to-know-metric" and what you should do if you want to get real insights from analyzing and measuring conversion rate that can actually help you increase your conversion rate. I never knew how silly it was to dwell on "(overall) conversion rate". Now, I know though...
  
  
  
  
  
• Web analytics made simple..
  By A3B8JNS7HF5IBP on 2007-08-07
  For professional reasons and personal passion about the subject I have been reading for some years a lot of web analytics books; the first one was web metrics by Jim Sterne (at that times the term "Web analytics" was not created yet..), followed by Web analytics demistyfied by E.Peterson, until the latter ones "Actionable Web analytics" by J.Burby and, at last, this wonderful book by Avinash Kaushik. I think this book represents the tipycal web analytics journey that every modern and innovative Company should make to become more aware and gain competitive insight about its customers, its marketplace, its competitive (online) space, and its business in general. The book is structured as a step-by-step guide, but it's much more than this: it helps you to think about your strategy, besides the operations and the tactics. There is a chapter, the 4°, in which the author explains the Trinity Model, a framework to improve and address your web strategy. it consists in a 3-d analysis: the behaviour analysis of the visitors (what we can assume by their visits, how we can interpret their footprints on our site, the outcomes analysis (how it's their business contribution, in terms of sales, leads and how we can analyse the correlated rates..)and , finally, the experience analysis (why our visitors are doing what they are doing, how we can understand their needs and desires, or their satisfaction related to their online experiece..). the holistic approach, I think that it's the strength and beauty of this book. Compliments again. If you come across to Italy, I 'd like to share a lunch with you. All the best.
  
  
• A lifesaver!
  By AARDALLL7YD7P on 2007-10-23
  As a project manager for several small to medium websites, I'm faced with lots of responsibilities, like content and design strategy, online media planning, and site stats reporting. I've been using a robust stats program since 2004, but was literally drowning in data. Avinash's book saved me. I finally have a good, solid understanding of web analytics and how I can get the most from my stats program to really understand what's happening with my sites.
  
  I am not a math guy by any stretch, but Avinash actually makes this stuff fun, and he breaks down what's important beautifully, by outlining different core metrics and concepts in plain english, then following up with the REASON the reader should care about those metrics and WHAT SPECIFICALLY they should care about.
  
  I'm a little over halfway through the book and it's already dog-eared and marked up with notes and highlighter streaks - I don't think I've delved into a book repeatedly this much, ever. And I'll definitely continue to rely on it as an incredible reference tool for the next several years.
  
  Finally, Avinash takes all this to the next level by encouraging dialogue from readers via his active, informative blog, Occam's Razor, as an excellent living companion to the book. If you've ever wanted to get a good handle on how to interpret your website traffic and have a good time doing it, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
  
  Thanks Avinash!
  
  
• What analytics, (web or otherwise), should be
  By A3UYNDBRAKO4ZV on 2008-03-08
  Before I begin I must apologize for the length of this review, I suffer from acute conciseness deficiency.
  
  Avinash's greatest strength is his humility, and it comes through in this book and his blog in spades. All too often the broader analytic community (which I include myself in), is so caught up in its metrics, graphs, charts, esoteric calculations and acronyms that we forget that our fundamental purpose is to inform and assist in change. Even if we do not lose sight of that goal, we get so caught up in our analysis that we begin to think we know better than anyone else, including the people buying our products/consuming our content.
  
  With the risk of sounding terse, Avinash cuts through all of that crap to right the ship as it were, and his resulting material can be summarized in 5 points.
  
  
  1. Customers know best - should be self evident but really isn't (get over yourself and start trying to figure out what the customers want because you really don't know).
  
  
  2. Capture data that can assist said customers - in other words, if the data and other pretty charts you are constructing cannot lead to an insight or action that will assist your customers; you're wasting your time. Yes, even that amazingly color coded spreadsheet with pivot tables and charts bursting out of every cell.
  
  
  3. Quantitative data is limited in what it can tell you - another pitfall of the analytic community is that we're so caught up in numbers that we rarely stop to consider the source or validity of our observations, a particularly fatal flaw in an emerging industry with less than ideal methods of capture.
  
  
  4. Context is king - When it comes to data, context is everything and a second piece of data, incorporated with the first, can have powerful effects. As a quick example, page hits, combined with bounce rate (a metric that measures how many people left your page within a predetermined interval), can indicate how many people are truly coming to your website to engage in its content). In other words, if you achieve a 100% increase in hits but 90% of them "bounce", you're not doing as well as if the same site achieved an 80% increase in hits with a 40% bounce rate. A very different conclusion would have been drawn if hits alone were observed in this case.
  
  
  5. Qualitative data is a key piece of the puzzle - as a corollary of #3, a truly effective analysis of a website will utilize qualitative and quantitative data to help inform ones decisions.
  
  
  
  Avinish then does an excellent job of showing how one can go about creating, analyzing and acting out ones web analytics strategy within the framework laid out above. If one has even a cursory understanding of how a website is built and therefore how to input a simple tag into the relevant pages, one can utilize this book to get started analyzing their web traffic in a meaningful way, for free, this instant. In addition, and more importantly, you will have formulated the solid framework and understanding necessary to adapt as the industry changes, something it does at an exciting/terrifying pace. An excellent read.
  
  
  
• Awesome read and great for everyone
  By A23XO1KL0WRK38 on 2007-06-11
  Got my copy on Friday and have been glued to it since.
  This is a must read for anyone who is related to any work with the web.
  
  Avinash presents a very practical approach to any organizations web insights strategy and most importantly presents a very easy to follow material that can be put into action right away.
  
  The book also provides very revolutionary ways of approaching problems and gives a sense of understanding on various tools that are out there. The trinity strategy, the importance of Competitive Intelligence, and the importance on using qualitative data with the sense of importance in providing actionable insights is powerful. Every page and every insight is very practical and I like the direct and common sense approach to problems.
  
  This book should be called (excuse my political language) "The Bible of Web Insights".
  
  Cons:
  Can't believe the book is for $19. It is worth more than the retail price of $29
  
  Must read....
  
  
  
• The Best Book on the Topic
  By A1Y6B5Y4AIKEPW on 2007-06-20
  Avinash Kaushik is the best blogger on the web to write on the subject of web analytics and his book "Web Analytics an Hour a Day" is the best in its class. Web Analytics can be a very hard topic to write about (and still keep your readers awake!)but Avinash has a great way of breaking down complex ideas so that anyone at any skill level can understand them and begin using the techniques right away.
  
  This book was an easy read and appropriate for people just beginning their discovery of web analysis or those seasoned pros who thought they knew everything! (After reading the book you will find that you will definitely learn something new - I certainly did!)
  
  This book breaks down all aspects of web analysis. Most books of this type will belabor the what? and the how? with little mention of the why?. Avinash does a wonderful job of giving you the insight to understand user behavior so you are not just getting lost in thousands of charts and graphs and instead begin making sense of what reports actually tell you something.
  
  It is my great belief that if you decide to buy this book you will immediately begin associating yourself with a higher class of web marketer. Web Analytics is the future of the web, and this book is an awesome opportunity for you to make your website(s) begin to actually work for you.
  
  My last mention is that all of the proceeds from the book go to charity. So what do you have to loose?
  
  If I could give 6 stars I would. This book is the best in its class!
  
  
  
  
• An 'added value' bookfor your library
  By A3TED3GPG9QL80 on 2007-06-25
  I pre-ordered my book over a month ago...it was well worth the wait!!
  
  'Web Analytics: An Hour a Day' provides clear and concise information on how to best utilize the tools out there for measuring data for you web site. This book is an excellent resource for task-oriented realists who want to find a way to improve their Web site's search engine rank.
  
  Avinash does a great job in guiding the reader to understand how to take into account user behavior. Why? With so much data to decipher from reports and graphs, you begin to develop a better sense of what the numbers are really telling you.
  
  For those who are diving into using and understanding web analytics, this book is indispensable! The book is loaded with numerous examples, but is enriched even more with Avinash's input helping decipher the 'what', 'how', and 'why'.
  
  Reading Avinash's book will help you look at websites differently, and how to make better use of the data that's collected with your company's WA tools. The devil is in the details. This book helps you sort our those little devils.
  
  Avinash, well done my friend!
  
  
• Awesome book
  By A1W8QVDQJZAX8N on 2007-06-26
  "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day" is a real good book. I just received few days back and I am not able to leave it till I finish. I liked the contents and the way it is written. In short, I simply love the book.
  
  --Bhupendra
  
  
• Uncover a gold mine of insights about your website visitors
  By A3LP99Z6G12ETZ on 2007-07-04
  Regardless of the fact that this book gives us an excellent and detailed description of Web Analytics, it is not about the `clicks' and software features - it's about the people and engaging them in making the Web better.
  
  Avinash believes that 10% of the budgets should be spent on software while 90% of it on the people and their training. He also suggests a 20-80 rule: 20% of time should be allocated to presenting data vs. 80% dedicated to unstructured data analysis and thinking. Web Analytics - is a tool but it is people who should make the decision.
  
  Albert Einstein once said "Everything should be made as simple as possible -- but no simpler!" This is exactly what Avinash has managed to do - demystifying the analytics without making it overly simplistic.
  
  Analytics is an incredibly valuable tool available to every webmaster, marketer, analyst or just an amateur webpage maker, does not matter how big or small their site is. The reaction of many readers could be compared to an astonishment someone experiences when discovering that his house is built of gold. Website operators are sitting on the "gold mine" of available data frequently without realizing it. Not just pageviews - there is so much actionable information that could be uncovered using a few simple steps - it will change the Web landscape for years to come.
  
  As a fellow book author, I understand and appreciate how much work Avinash had to put in to make the material accessible and engaging to us, the readers.
  
  Read his blog (www.kaushik.net/avinash/) - an excellent source of information by itself and a continuation of the book. The fact that it has almost equal the amount of content generated by the author and the readers speaks for itself - Avinash stimulates your thinking, engages your curiosity. Be ready for many "Wow - I did not know I can do that!" and "I want to try it myself!" moments that will for sure interrupt the reading of every chapter.
  
  After reading this book, you will agree that Avinash has indeed deserved his title of Analytics Evangelist - at least, he has substantiated my "conversion" and reaffirmed my "faith" - I can't imagine doing any meaningful analysis of a website now without using the Analytics.
  
  
  
• If you want to learn about web analytics, start here
  By A344UOX5RJ1C5D on 2008-03-15
  I have read several web analytics books and Avinash's book is definitely the one I would recommend first.
  
  What you can learn from the book:
  - how to think about and how to approach web analytics -- this is where this book excels
  - how to deliver actionable results - the mantra of Avinash
  - how to start with the basic metrics
  
  What not to expect from this book:
  - you will not learn how to use any analytics software
  - you will not learn details about the technical aspects, frequent problems with data and measurement, what to avoid etc.
  
  Check out Avinash's blog to get a picture of what you can get from the book.
  
  
• Well written as well as the best hands on guide on the subject
  By A1C3SUGHIFI8XM on 2007-08-24
  I'm writing this review long after the initial surge of reviews (it IS a long book), which makes it hard to contribute much that's useful to discussion. Many others have explained how thorough and detailed the book is. I agree completely. It is, indeed, the best hands-on guide to the subject I have yet found.
  
  This book balances both the high-level aspects of web analytics -- the philosophy, if you like -- with a huge amount of specific, practical, how-to information. I don't see how it could have been any shorter and still delivered so much.
  
  The aspect of this book which seems to me to have been under-played in other reviews is how readable it is. The subject has been touched on in a few places, but I think it deserves more prominence. I like the language and the style of the book. Avinash's enthusiasm for the subject comes singing out of the pages. He makes the subject seem fun and he sustains that over hundreds of pages. That's a remarkable achievement when you consider the length.
  
  I disagree strongly with the reviewer who suggests that this is padding. I'm puzzled by that. I have a shelf full of business or self-improvement books which try to make themselves readable and accessible by interjecting folksy anecdotes full of people with made up names every few pages. It's a very common approach. The result is often repetitious fluff. This book is very different. There is no padding of that kind: the examples given are all very clearly based on personal experience and are there for good reason. They are informative. They are not simply structural devices.
  "Structural devices" brings me to the only aspect of the book which does not really work for me: the 'an hour a day' theme. I believe that might work well in the context of an on-line tutorial series, but in a book it seems a little out of place. Most of the time I wasn't really conscious of this element, but occasionally it popped up and seemed slightly intrusive.
  
  There: I've done it. In an effort not to gush praise, I've found something to quibble with about this book. It was a struggle, believe me. In reality I cannot recommend this book highly enough. One of my colleagues has a copy where most of the pages are thick with highlighter ink. The quality of information is that high.
  
  
• Must Have Resource
  By A1TRU5JEWLB8GQ on 2007-08-26
  As someone who works in the web industry and deals with web analytics daily, I highly encourage you to add this book to your library. Avinash knows his stuff. Everyone in the analytics's space reads his blog. He sometimes even helps the big guys, like Google, improve their analytics-related products (e.g., Google Analytics).
  
  There's something in this book for everyone. Beginners won't be overwhelmed and seasoned analytic veterans will find places to improve their analytics implementation.
  
  
• Great Strategic and Tactical book on web site analytics
  By A1PI453OTQNOZY on 2007-08-28
  When I first saw Web Analytics: An hour a day, I thought it would flow like the average programming books - an hour a day type path. Those types of books never appealed to me, because the books never seemed very deep. My first perception was quite wrong.
  
  What I found instead was a very deep book that explained not just how to tactically use web analytics to improve my systems, but also the strategy and philosophy on why and when.
  
  The book does a great job of giving real world examples on how to analyze your size, review and understand key metrics and what might be things to look at for improvement.
  
  I recommend as a reading plan to read through the book, or at least ahead a few chapters at a time. And then use the weekly/daily plan to constantly drive improvement in your system and analytics.
  
  One of the things that is great about this book, is that I could see using the weekly/daily plan, over and over on subsequent sites in the future.
  
  The other thing that is worth pointing out is how thorough this book is in covering subjects like multichannel analytics when dealing with stores, call center and a web site. It also covers difficult unchartered areas like Rich Internet Applications(RIA) and how to capture the worth while data points.
  
  This is definitely a book you need to own, if you have anything to do with improving your web sales or customer experience.
  
  
• Perfect guidance for every level of knowledge
  By A1SLSMW2D7AZ0D on 2007-09-04
  I loved this book. It is fill with lots of practical examples, useful URLs, graphics and summaries that help you really get the point of what all the theoretical part is trying to make.
  
  There is something for everyone in this book, whether you are a novice in the field, an experienced analyst, a Marketing Mgr or the owner of your own cyber-business, you will read avidly every page of this book with the feeling that you are actually learning something useful for your professional change.
  
  If you want to make a difference and be the reference for the Web analytics world of your surroundings (including friends and family!), buy this book and enjoy it.
  
  The learning will be painless and will last forever. I highly recommend it.
  
  
• A Must Have!
  By A1OG58CWWGLA3W on 2008-01-21
  I'll keep it short and sweet. This is the ultimate guide for web analytics. Unlike many other books which gloss over the details, this one does not. It is very topical in terms of having up to the minute information about competitors and key players in the industry.
  
  More importantly, it provides a methodology that is more important than how to use the tools and techniques. It is this high level vision of web analytics that will make your implementation a success or not.
  
  He reminds me of a great consultant, but without the BS or sales pitch. I recommend this book to all levels of readers!
  
  
• Essential Reading--A Manual For Analytics Practice
  By A3JQKPWU1UW4VC on 2007-07-25
  As a newcomer to Web Analytics (both me and the company I work for) this book has been an outstanding resource for understanding the field. Avinash successfully balances broad core concepts (like the importance of customer centricity) with instantly useful directives (even to the point of recommending specific key measurement metrics) so the reader becomes grounded in the the foundational theory AND is armed actionable steps he can take to implement the concepts.
  
  The refreshing part is that where Avinash truly believes in a concept he is unafraid to put himself behind it 100% (like recommending "task completion" as one of the most important metrics). A reader really can tell this book comes from the mind of one who has painfully learned lessons "in the trenches," and wholeheartedly wants to help others avoid pitfalls he personally experienced. Yet there is amazing objectivity in this book as well, as Avinash calls each practitioner to a sensible and fair assessment of his or her individual company needs (and gives insight how to do it).
  
  Starting a journey down the road of Web Analytics has been that much easier as a result of this book. Again, just an invaluable resource. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Finally! An Analytics Process Book!!
  By A3STIUX4APVD8Y on 2007-08-14
  I've read a lot of material on web analytics and it all has value. Some of it talks about the great need for process but none of it that I've seen provides the "how-to" of the process, until now. All you have to do is study the TOC to know how the mind of Avinash works. It's brilliantly simple, direct, and somehow finds a way to take advanced web analytics and present it in a manner that makes sense without requiring a slide rule or software to decipher. Avinash provides the necessary, foundational, background material first upon which he then builds the rest of his thesis, that of the Trinity (which has little to do with saving your soul; more directed towards improving your roi and your job security). The balance of the book is devoted to explaining the macro-picture he paints in the first segment. Gimme the big-picture then paint in the numbers, all day long. Never follow an act with animals, small children or anything written by Avinash Kaushik. I'm just glad he has to write his own sequel. Buy the book.
  
  
• A wonderful book on Web Analytics
  By AMRLC9AYEV299 on 2007-08-15
  Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik delivers an informative perspective on the subject of web analytics. This book is an excellent resource to Web analytics students, analysts, company executives and search engine/usability industry enthusiasts. While editing errors plague some of the chapters, I hope many of the shortcomings of this first edition will likely be alleviated by later editions. These problems are only a minor distraction to the web analytics story being told.
  
  The author, Avinash Kaushik is an industry insider and has generously put his practical knowledge to his readers. I highly recommend this book to any one who may have some interest in knowing about web analytics
  
  

• Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
• Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
• Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day

• Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
• Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
• Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics