See photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/darlenemoore/WAW or on Facebook - the photos are open to all.

We are meeting in the Snug Pub room at the Preston St. Heart & Crown (corner of Preston and Aberdeen). Alex Langshur of PublicInsite will present a short case study on tracking and analyzing a web-based social marketing initiative, followed by discussion and appetizers.

Come meet your colleagues in the Ottawa & Gatineau web analytics / site optimization community and let everyone know you are attending by registering (for free) at http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com.

See you there!

Follow Web Analytics Wednesday Conversations on Twitter…

1. Set up your goals
2. Set up on-site search
3. Creating multiple profiles of the same site
4. Define Filters
5. If you’re selling anything at all, switch the e-commerce tracking on

If you would like assistance setting up your Google Analytics account or perhaps an audit of your data to get an understanding of how you are doing, contact us for a quote!

Co-located & produced with eTailXpo

* 100% Online and Virtual
* Free to Attend
* All the Benefits of a Top Tradeshow
* Includes 1st ever Virtual Job Fair
* More than 8,000+ Attendees, 150 Exhibitors and 30 Presenters
* 100+ Archived Presentations at eComXpo University

At eComXpo Discuss And Learn About:

* Developing Strategic Partnerships To Enhance The Overall Customer Experience
* Becoming Increasingly Relevant To Customers’ Lifestyles And Aspirational Needs
* Merchandising & Marketing Strategies
* Actionable Analytics: Real Data, Real Decision, Real Results!
* Giving Consumers A Voice On Your Site And Creating Relationships That Drive Long-Term Loyalty And Retention
* Building Affiliate Programs From Scratch: 1 to 1 Basics of Affiliate Marketing
* Forget Usability! Design For Real Customers

Register now!

Writing Compelling PPC Ads
July 9, 2008 1:00pm (EST)
Cost: FREE Webcast | Register now!

Upon opening the bill I was quite surprised to see a Domain Name Expiration Notice and the opportunity to send in my order by mail! I have registered domain names for years and just last month renewed 2 domain names online!

After reading the entire piece of paper (ok the front anyway) I have come to realize that the Domain Registry of Canada is NOT who I registered the domain with (I registered with my hosting company, but ultimately the domain is controlled by Canadian Internet Registration Authority or CIRA).

The Domain Registry of Canada would like me to TRANSFER my domain name to them and renew it… for $40 for one year. Crazy talk as I have a very reliable firm I have been using for years, who do not waste trees to send my renewals - and they charge $5 - $10 for a one year renewal!

The Domain Registry of Canada is abusing their power as a domain registrar by trolling the database for expiring domains and contacting the owners of these domains to transfer and renew their domains, when in reality these domain owners will be contacted by their own registrars shortly for a renewal.

Perhaps it is not illegal activity but it sure is shady. Many customers will be duped into believing they need to do this. Weigh in - have you been duped?

In this first screenshot you can see where you would change the date view options from day to week to month:

How the first quarter of 2008 appears in day view:

And week view:

And finallly, month view:

Way to go Google! Now if date selection could just be a touch faster we’d be happy :-)

And yes I realize the quality of pictures here is not very good. I’ll have to get Jess the Intern to fix those up this afternoon :-)

Wendy Boswell at Lifehacker lists a few of her favourites - and I am going to try out at least one or two of them! Copied here for your convenience are a few that I found interesting:

1. Clusty: Clusty is a metasearch engine, meaning it combines results from a variety of different sources. However, Clusty adds extra search suggestions arranged by category (clusters) for example, if you type in “coffee”, Clusty responds with clustered results to the left such as Tea, Espresso, History of Coffee, etc.
2. Indeed: Indeed.com is a job search engine. It is not a list of message boards, or a place where you can actually submit your resume. Indeed is extremely simple to use, and covers all the major job boards, newspaper classified sites, niche industry sites and corporate job sites. I found more jobs in five minutes on here than I did searching on other job boards. You have to go to the individual websites in order to apply (which is kind of a pain) but this is a great way to generate job leads. Indeed also offers a nice toolset for the job searcher, including a JobRoll, “a customized, dynamically-updating list of jobs that may be placed on your blog or website.”
3. FoodieView: FoodieView is a recipe search engine searching over 175,000 recipes from all different kinds of sources, including AllRecipes.com, The Food Network, Martha Stewart Recipes, and many more. FoodieView is a targeted recipe search engine with a lot of really interesting features; it’s also extremely easy to find good recipes on FoodieView that are actually relevant to what your search query is, which, if you’ve ever tried to find a recipe using certain ingredients on one of the bigger search engines, you’ll agree with me when I say that it can be a huge time-waster.
4. Healthline: Healthline.com is a medical information search engine, with lots of interesting features that make it very simple to use (in other words, you don’t have to have an MD degree to find what you’re looking for here). Healthline is solely dedicated to finding medical information online, and it offers medically filtered results developed by trained medical personnel.
5. FirstGov: FirstGov.gov is an absolutely mammoth search engine/portal that gives the searcher direct access to searchable information from the United States government, state governments, and local governments. It can be overwhelming, simply because there is SO much information here. I would suggest that you get your feet wet with FirstGov by using the Information By Topic directory, or you can choose to drill down by viewing the Site Index. In addition, FirstGov offers an above average Advanced Search help page.

By using Google Maps (or Google Local) I looked for catering near the client’s postal code. After looking through a few websites (and finding companies that don’t have websites (????), I found what I was looking in Druxy’s. Druxy’s is known for their deli sandwiches and, unlike many other caterers, offers breakfast catering.

One can view the menu and price per person and then in order to place a catering order, must create an account. No problem - this is typical in the world of ecommerce.

I go through my entire order, indicate I would like to pay by visa, enter the delivery address, etc. thinking that the next screen will ask for my Visa # and billing address. Nope! Bang the order is done and the only phone number associated with the order is my clients! I receive a confirmation email that the order has been received. Thankfully there is a phone number at the bottom of this email so I can call and circumvent Druxy’s calling my client for payment. Unfortunately I was too late - they had already left a message for my client, seeking payment.

*ack* How totally embarrassing. I ranted how this is a poor setup on their website and did I miss the obvious? Apparently I did - I should leave special instructions for them to call me rather than the client to request payment information. Wake up Druxy’s - try taking credit cards over your website and like other ecommerce sites, offering a different delivery address from the billing address.

It gets worse unfortunately. As much as my online transaction indicated $42, the final bill turned out to be $52. Delivery charge. Hello people - put the delivery charge online and include it in the total purchase. High delivery charge given that the client is within walking distance of the restaurant but really the dollar value is not the problem - the poor usability is the problem.

The end result of poor usability can be canceled orders, negative publicity and loss of repeat orders. Definitely worth fixing on a website.

CWS said the “cheque was in the mail” in Dec. Then they asked for my PayPal email address so they could send the money. 3 months later there is no sign of the money and their latest gimmick is to tell another Montreal based company to pay me. Yup - “hey Montreal company we are no longer satisfied with your services so since we gave you a downpayment we want you to pay DriveTraffic”. Insane.

I’ve sent them to a California collections company but the collections agency was not successful at collecting the money either.
It’s a sad day when this happens; fortunately in all of our years of business, it has only happened twice and the last time was a mere $450. But it hurts and it’s rude.

Don’t buy from CWS, a California company that sells unlocked GSM phones. I wouldn’t trust them with a sale if they can’t be trusted with their contractors… By the way one thing I don’t understand is why they have paid their India based programmer reliably for 2 years?

May 5-6: Gerry McGovern Masterclass: Creating Customer-Centric Websites
This Masterclass is an updated, encore presentation of the November 2007 session. It will give attendees the tools and arguments to show why a customer-centric approach is the best way to serve customers in Canada—whether they are citizens, customers or your own staff. The future of Web management is task management—and this Masterclass will give you the road map to achieve it. Gerry McGovern will show you why the key to success for your website is a relentless focus on the tasks of your customers—and how to keep that focus.

More than 280 people attended the sold out November workshop. The response to Gerry’s powerful, communicative and entertaining style was overwhelmingly positive. Typical feedback included: “Gerry is an excellent, knowledgeable and entertaining speaker who captivates your attention throughout the session” and “Mr. McGovern offers some outstanding insights, research results, and advice.”

* See details of the Masterclass - Creating Customer-Centric Websites

May 7: Special half-day session: Managing Customer-Centric Websites - Executive Session
A special 1/2 day executive session focused on quickly getting quantifiable results from a Customer Carewords approach to managing your website. This Executive Session is for senior managers and executives who have to translate strategic plans and visions into coordinated actions by other people. It is for those of you who want to:

* Take your vision and manage your website to realize your strategic objectives
* Make decisions based on data rather than opinion
* Establish a clear return on investment
* Maintain a clear focus to get maximum impact from limited resources
* Develop actionable metrics for effectively managing the web channel

The Executive Session will take place in the Penthouse, Sheraton Hotel, on Wednesday May 7, 2008, from 7:30am - 12:00 noon. Seating is very limited, so reserve your place early:

* See details of Managing Customer-Centric Websites - Executive Session

May 8-9: Work with Gerry McGovern to apply his Customer Carewords techniques

In the two days following the Masterclasses, Gerry will be available for a very limited number of private team sessions intended to kick-off a Customer Carewords project within your organization. Visit the Customer Carewords website for full details of the process and pricing and details about applying the Customer Carewords techniques in your organization.

Note - The Masterclass and Executive Session will be presented in English only

Help has arrived in a new feature of Google Analytics called Industry Benchmarking.

To put it simply, if you agree to share your information (anonymously) for Google to compile, they will provide you with a comparison between your stats and aggregate industry verticals.

Now, I can understand how this might elicit some anxiety in users, particularly those who fear Big Brother. But in this case, the positive really does outweigh the negative:

First of all, by surrendering your statistics anonymously, you aren’t losing anything. (Plus, didn’t you kind of assume Google was using it anyway?)

Secondly, the statistical information you’ll receive will teach you indispensable information about your industry. It can give you hints about when you might need to improve or when it’s OK to stop worrying.

Most amazingly of all, this service promises to become more and more helpful as time goes on. The more users who opt in to the service, the more valuable and accurate the statistical information it generates will be.

So if Google turns around in two years and takes over the world with its vast bank of information, I’ll be wrong. But until then, I’ll use Google Maps to find my way around, enjoy the best web-based email and keep getting my stats, all for free.

A little about me:

I am just on my way out of the Interactive Multimedia Developer program at Algonquin College. I have a background in print-journalism, but decided to take up “web site stuff” so that I could combine my love of writing with something exciting, visual and nerdy. So far, so good.

I’ve learned a lot of coding and design over the last two years, but absolutely nothing about SEO. Thankfully, Darlene has welcomed me to DriveTraffic and is ready to teach me some serious skills over the next two months. I’m bringing snacks.

Perhaps we can convince Jessica to blog about her experience along the way :-)

XML Sitemaps are useful for telling the search engines about the pages of your website to make it easier for them to index said pages. Up until now, the xml sitemap had to reside in the root directory of the website to which it was applicable; with the recent update, the xml sitemap can be stored in any folder - even on a different website!

This means that webmasters or SEO’ers for example can store all of their client sitemaps on their own domain which would make management easier and eliminate the possibility of the client accidentally deleting.

This new feature makes it necessary to use robots.txt to indicate the location of the file in the format of:
Sitemap: where should be the complete URL to the Sitemap, such as: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml.

PS. Although this is a sitemaps.org protocol, Google is the only search engine that recognizes this update so far.
Want to know how a sitemap may assist your website in being more visible in the search engines? Contact us for details.

Using the RankQuest Server Header Checker, sure enough, the SonyEricsson site is returning code 302 (Moved Temporarily). Unfortunately I am not interested in now searching that website to find the Sony w950 so back to Google I went.

A good lesson in why your 404’s should generate 404 error codes at the server level - so you can monitor and repair broken pages/links/URLs on a daily/weekly/monthly basis!

So instead of whining, I’d like to wish our American clients and colleagues a Happy Thanksgiving!

Talk to you all on Monday when you are back at work!

Darlene

Start Time: 11/15/2007 12:00 PM
(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US and Canada); Tijuana
Duration: 01:00:00

Register for this one hour webinar.