Firstly thanks for the great post.

I want to do this but I have a major concern.  My sites are tracked with Omniture as well as Google Analytics. I can handle the inflated PIs with a custom filter in GA but what will happen in Omniture? If I send the Omniture stats to hell my head will roll.

Thanks,
Andy

I need to get analytics of the most popular links on each of my url in the site. Also i need to display them on the same url.

Could you guide the best way to achieve this.

Regards,
Rick

Dam I wish this was available back in April before my company’s redesigned eCommerce site went live. I would imagine that the devs are going to charge me big $$$ to go code this awesome script in. dam dam dam

Anyways....

Thank You Thank You for taking the time to make it and share it with the world!

I’ve wanted to build something like this for a while but never got to it.  This is like what I was imagining but pretty much better in every way.

I’ll put this to use and let you know how it goes.  Great work!

Traffic is great, but it does nothing for your bottom line unless it’s being converted into a desired action.

Like a comment on a blog post ;)

Great article Anjali, keep up the good work!

I think this number needs to be taken in context of the site and the desired goal of the visitor.

If I’m on the IRS website trying to find a PDF to download, spending 10 minutes on the site isn’t a measurement of engagement but a measure of ineffective navigation and UI.

Right?

The majority of SM campaigns end up devolving into glorified billboards with only a trickle of interaction and low impression scores. The most straightforward solution, in my own personal experience, has been to focus on identifying clear value propositions. Smart blog articles and neat photos can work well if you already have an engaged audience, but that kind of content isn’t usually sufficient to build a thriving community.

I usually work it backwards by thinking like the fan. The first question is “is this content engaging” and the second question is “what do I get in exchange for interacting or reposting?”

The value can be as simple as appearing cool to their friends by reposting an obscure and interesting tidbit or as straightforward as receiving a reward in exchange for writing a brilliant photo caption.

I usually use the more straightforward strategies (giveaways, contests, etc)to build the community and develop the initial momentum. At some point, campaigns seem to reach critical mass and begin sustaining themselves solely off their own content and user interaction. In a weird way, it kind of follows the same pattern as a startup financing cycle...you just have to make it through the initial valley of death.

Great articles, I’m having fun reading through them!

1. When creating a custom exclude filter, what do I choose for the “filter field” value? Some of the options include “Request URI”, “page title”, “host name” etc.

2. Then when naming the faux pagename (in the filter and in the javascript link) do I have to use the actual page name, or can it be a nickname? (e.g page is “example.com/?page_id=123”, but i want to call it example.com/buy-something").

Thanks in advance.

This is super helpful. What happens if the GA code is lower on the page than the links? Will they still work? Is it a big deal?

Thanks

Irfan, I agree with you--it all comes down to independent thinking.  It applies both to how a company is being valued, or how your competition is using Facebook.  Justifying your actions by saying “well, THEY’RE doing it” is how bubbles start and keep snowballing.  Critical, creative thinking is the antidote.  :)

The toughest thing I think is finding the balance of staying pragmatic, but continuing to push the boundaries of what *could* be, too.  Always an interesting balance, since no one ever hit the jackpot by taking the safe route…

In the drive to make place-based apps useful, it’s surprisingly easy to forget that people experience place as part of “movement” and that places together make up communities. Many of your ideas for dynamic items embrace these concepts. Since items are a shared experience, let’s use them to build together. I love that Gowalla doesn’t do much with “points” to make us compete with each other. Going to the other extreme, encouraging cooperation (even if it’s just virtual) fits their style much better.

Keep prodding.

Items are a fun differentiator, so we’re anxious to see what you guys have next up your sleeve. If version 3 of the app is any indication as to the diligence and detail...I’m sure it’ll be great.

jw

I agree, Gowalla could be missing out on a bunch of opportunities and could squash Foursquare if it were to implement some of these.

I would also love to see coupons and such like Foursquare does. Ex. Whenever I go to Chilli’s I get free chips and salsa via Foursquare. I’d love it if I could delete the Foursquare app and get all of the coupons via Gowalla.

I’m not sure there’s an ideal solution for your problem.  If you want the most accurate data, then you should continue to add new IP filters each time you get a new IP address.  If there’s some commonality in your IP addresses and you’re willing to sacrifice external traffic with that same commonality, that’s an option, too. 

Yes, you should delete the old IP filters, since they’re doing you no good anymore and since there’s a possibility (although extremely small) that the IP address will be re-assigned to another user or block of users who may visit your site and whom you actually do want to track. 

About the internal linking article--comments close on our posts after the posts have been up for a certain amount of time, but feel free to get in touch directly or to post your question here and we can try to help out. 

Thanks,
Paul

Question… what do you when you have only a low grade isp to get service from at your work and they have been know to switch the ip every time the connection is dropped.... and no from what I can tell the ips have a pretty big range instead of a set block of numbers.

So at the moment I have been manually adding a new filter for the new ip. Should I delete the old ip filter?

on a side note i have some questions about internal link tracking but I can’t post comments to the original post because its closed.

Thanks for your help!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/01/how-to-get-our-attention-a-case-study/

A colleague had this to say about the whole thing, with which I agree:

“Their whole approach seems kind of douchy, but then again so is TechCrunch.”

“We decided we’d rather not see the light of day for awhile than have to live with knowing that with just a little bit of creative, a pinch of logic and a dash of sexy, we could revive the productivity software world with a tool that would even make Apple cry.”

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/30/rule-your-work-productivity-with-rule-fm/

The best part is that TechCrunch promises a follow-up post that explains precisely why this made more than a blip on their radar.

<a… onClick="[removed] pageTracker._trackPageview(’/buy/OD-UK’);">

But is not reflecting anything…

Can you help me?

Thanks