How to Use Web Metrics to Increase Online Editorial Performance

Today, I want to dig deeper into how editors, journalists, bloggers and other content creators can leverage web analytics to boost online performance. Measure Often Checking metrics once a month isn’t enough. Depending on your role and your industry, ideal time frames will vary, but consider at least creating weekly editorial reports. It can be… Continue reading How to Use Web Metrics to Increase Online Editorial Performance

Web Analytics for Bloggers & Journalists: Measuring Performance & Setting Strategy

I’ve been spending time looking at blog performance metrics, and wanted to share some ideas on how bloggers, editors and journalists can use web analytics to not just measure performance, but set editorial & content strategy. Typically, people talk a lot about monthly metrics, but I find so much more value looking at daily metrics,… Continue reading Web Analytics for Bloggers & Journalists: Measuring Performance & Setting Strategy

Frankenstein Content: Make Your Articles Come Alive

I have been pouring over metrics for some brands here at Reed Business Information, and keep seeing a similar trend. Check out this graph which shows the page views for new articles that one brand uploaded to their site in a given month: Sure, you see the Long Tail here – a few articles getting… Continue reading Frankenstein Content: Make Your Articles Come Alive

Getting Closer to Readers and Customers

A field director for Barack Obama’s campaign described the key ingredient to their success in a recent New Yorker article: “We had the best data operation of any campaign. You can have the most inspirational candidate, you can have the best organizing philosophy in the world, but if you can’t organize your data to take… Continue reading Getting Closer to Readers and Customers

Tying Web Analytics to Business Strategy

Reid Carr talks about taking web analytics a step further, and tying them to business strategy. “The connection between the traffic and sales is often not monitored as specifically as it could be. Companies need to begin to measure more business-oriented metrics related to the overarching goals of the organization and begin to draw tight… Continue reading Tying Web Analytics to Business Strategy

Do You Want a Large Audience, or a High Value Audience?

What is of more value: a large audience, or a smart, engaged audience? Robert Scoble takes a look at how much traffic he gets to his blog from those who link to him. He concludes that overall, few referrers give him loads of traffic; and those that do, may not be the audience he wants:… Continue reading Do You Want a Large Audience, or a High Value Audience?

Amazon Sales Ranking: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The New York Times looks into the affect that Amazon’s sales ranking has had on the book publishing industry: “When Amazon created the system 10 years ago, it could hardly have known how greatly its list would change the dynamics of the publishing business (much the way the company itself did) or how hard writers… Continue reading Amazon Sales Ranking: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Web Analytics 101

Eric Holter has a great video that explains the incredible value of looking at web analytics. No matter what your position, if you work in a media company, or are a journalist who posts online, this video is a great introduction to the topic. He takes a pretty deep look at two web analytics software… Continue reading Web Analytics 101

One Web Metric to Rule Them All

Nielsen/NetRatings has shifted how it values certain web metrics: A leading online measurement service will scrap rankings based on the longtime industry yardstick of page views and begin tracking how long visitors spend at the sites… it will start reporting total time spent and sessions for all visitors to give advertisers, investors and analysts a… Continue reading One Web Metric to Rule Them All