Robbie's shared items in Google Reader

The misunderstood pleat

2011-09-27T13:36:56Z

Pleats are useful if you wear your trousers high, or if you are overweight. Otherwise they are useless.

Traditionally, most trousers had pleats rather than being flat fronted. Usually two on either side, and usually outward-facing (meaning that the hollow of the fold was on the side of the hips rather than the fly). The pleat closest to the fly was deeper. The English often wore their pleats inward-facing, considering the way they fell to be more elegant as less likely to gape.

But this was because they wore their trousers on the natural waist. This is easy to find: it is above your hip bones; often around the level of the belly button, though this can vary from one person to another. The waist is normally the slimmest point on a person, which is one reason men wore their trousers there, and why jackets are nipped in there – to accentuate the difference in width from shoulder to waist. It is certainly why women wore their skirts on the waist, and why many women still do so today. Their jackets are usually nipped in more obviously as well.

Now if your trousers have a high rise (the length from crotch to waistband) and are sitting on your waist, they need to go out before they go in. They need to expand from this slim point to get up and over the hip bones. Otherwise they would be skintight from the waist all the way down to the middle of the thighs. Pleats are necessary. They enable this expansion neatly and elegantly, dovetailing back into the line of the trousers when width is no longer needed after the mid-thigh point.

But you do not need them if you wear your trousers on your hips (as most do these days). This is also easy to determine – your trousers sit on the hip bone. The skin has hard hip bone underneath, not squidgy stomach. Why some men have trouble telling where their waist is I’ll never know.

Pleats worn on the hips make your thighs look like melons. They create needless volume. Combine pleats with a sharp narrowing to the ankle, and cuffs at the bottom of the trouser, and you have the abomination of so many American khakis. The pleats give volume at the top of the leg. The narrow ankle accentuates this proportion. And the cuffs make your leg two inches shorter.

It is hard to see how, without wearing pedal-pushers, a pair of trousers could be less flattering. Except that Americans have done it – they finish off the ensemble with a large pair of white trainers. So the trousers puddle at the ankle as well, their line being entirely unsuited to falling elegantly onto ankle-supporting Nikes.

Pleats, again only if worn on the waist, can be flattering for larger men. They mean that their trousers fall straight down rather than going in first, highlighting a belly.

That is the limited, albeit useful role of pleats. Ignore anyone who says they just want roomier pockets.

An Interview with Luca Rubinacci

2011-09-29T08:53:08Z

I‘m off to Asia today – and I’m leaving my Macbook at home, so I’ll leave you with this delightful post.

“A generation of master craftsmen devoted to elegance and refinement”, is something the Rubinacci family has often been characterised as. In my mind, they offer some of the most mouth-watering menswear available, especially if you are soft- shoulder inclined, as I am. Their sartorial influence goes back to Gennaro Rubinacci, who opened a store in downtown Naples in 1932 called London House. For the past thirty years, The popular and perhaps blog famous, Mariano Rubinacci has been keeping his family’s heritage alive and making his tailoring house extremely well known to the those who love bespoke clothing and footwear. In fact a book is available, if you can get hold of it, as I understand they are limited edition. It’s called Rubinacci and the Story of Neapolitan Tailoring, written by Nick Foulkes, who needs no introduction.

Bespoke suiting is the main part of their business, but their accessories are to die for, you may have seen me post about their pocket squares before (see here). When I return to London in December I will no doubt pick up a few pieces. What I love most is the cut of their jackets, something the family can explain a little better than myself.

“To dress well doesn’t mean wearing ostentatious designer clothes. A well dressed man is someone who is comfortable in what he’s wearing. Rubinacci is synonymous with the garment known as Neapolitan jacket. Renowned and praised for the unique broadness of its sleeve, which follows the body’s movements almost like a pullover. Its soft lining is designed to give freedom of movement to its wearers, because a fine jacket should not simply be hand stitched and custom made, but should also be comfortable to wear“

Rubinacci now have branches in Milan, Rome, London and Naples and an output of about 1000 bespoke suits per year – they have become a force to be reckoned with in the suiting world. Often using silk for their lining… I was always told that silk wears hot, perhaps this is not true. I’ve notived that they had been receiving a lot of attention to date, possibly due to the sartorial tastes and style of Luca Rubinacci, Mariano’s Son , who is often celebrated by The Sartoralist and a The Rake . Walking past Harrods not too long ago I noticed a wonderful photo of him, an advert for the collection Harrods carry outside the store, so he must be doing something right.

What I love most is his choice and mix of fabrics, this is the classic tailoring with a modern inflection. I caught up with Luca for a quick interview very recently, and found him to be an extremely humble person. The bespoke industry that we love tends to be a little snooty at times, but Luca is thankfully nothing like this at all, which I feel makes him even more intriguing…Enjoy

Hi Luca, Please give us an idea to what influences your personal style?

My personal style is influenced by everything on the street and world surrounding me…I always try to change, look for new looks and trends, in order to find the right colours for my collections. Everything is all around, you just have to catch it!

Please can you give us an overview of the Rubinacci tailoring?

I’m the third generation of a Neapolitan Tailor dynasty established in 1932, my grandfather was the pioneer of the Neapolitan jacket, I’m trying to give today a new way of understanding classic, more funny with the touch of character that everyone has inside them. We are (my father and me) considered as bespoke stylist, we are not tailors, we are in between the customer and our tailors (more then 50 craftsmen).

What is you most cherished item?

Everything I have in my wardrobe.

(I imagine this would be the case when all your suits are Rubinacci)

Please can you describe your favorite suit?

Usually my last suit is my favourite one. So far is a very big grey and black Prince of Wales linen waistcoat, 3 buttons, lapels, silk painted scarf in the back, trousers with pleats, cuff and 8 cm wide waist band !

Who is the clientele of the Rubinacci?

Ten years ago the average age of my customer was set on 40-50 years, today is arrived at 25-35 that means that the new generation is coming back to classic world understanding that with a tailor everone can build proper style, and be unique! That’s who Rubinacci customers are, and I’m very happy !

What 5 tips could you give to our readers hoping to start a business in the menswear industry?

- Always be yourself.
- Find work that you love and you will never have to work.
- Quality is the first thing.
- Never exaggerate!
- Good Luck!!

A big thank you to Luca for giving us so much time.

WordPress SEO Tweaks Without Plugins

2011-08-19T15:00:38Z

If possible I like to tweak WordPress installs and avoid adding extraneous plugins. Generally the more plugins you have, the slower your WordPress site loads, and you can have compatibility issues when you upgrade.

One area for consideration is duplicate content, and there are a number of excellent plugins available for handling duplicate content issues. All in One SEO Pack and Joost de Valk’s WordPress SEO Plugin are very good, however, for my personal requirements both these plugins add a lot of unnecessary functionality.

If you prefer full control over your WordPress source code, by making a few slight tweaks you can handle an SEO duplicate content issue using the Meta Robots tag and have more control over page titles. If you are new to SEO or the Meta Robots tag, you can read more about this element here.

Basically, I prefer to noindex,follow category (is_archive()), tag (is_tag()), search (is_search()) and pagination pages (is_paged()). This enables search engines to crawl the pages for links which are subsequently followed. Therefore, the blog homepage and individual posts are indexed as normal, but duplicate content issues with category and tag pages are avoided. Also other unnecessary pages that you wouldn’t want indexed and returned in search results are noindex,follow.

Meta Robots Tag

The code for enabling this feature is as follows, and needs to be included in your header.php file which can be found in your WordPress admin panel under Appearance > Editor > header.php.

<?php if ( is_tag() ) {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\">";
    } elseif ( is_archive() ) {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\">";
    } elseif ( is_search() ) {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\">";
    } elseif ( is_paged() ) {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\">";
    } else {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index,follow\">";
    }
?>

You may choose to tweak the above code to enable indexing of category pages (is_archive()) for example. To do this, you would simply delete the line:

elseif ( is_archive() ) {
    echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\">";
    }

Title Tag

Another area for consideration is the page title. Again, there are a lot of plugins that make it easy to control titles for different pages. However, if you prefer manual control, you can add the following code to your header.php file which can be found in your WordPress admin panel under Appearance > Editor > header.php.

<title>
    <?php wp_title(''); ?><?php if(wp_title('', false)) {
      echo ' | '; } ?><?php bloginfo('name'); if(is_home()) {
      echo ' | '; bloginfo('description'); }
    ?>
</title>

The above code basically includes the blog homepage title at the beginning of the title tag on the homepage, and includes the description taken from Settings > General > Tagline. On individual blog post pages, the post title is included on the left–hand side of the title tag, and the blog name is moved to the right–side of the title.

Title Examples

Homepage:
Robin Parduez | Blog | Front-end Development Tips & Ramblings

Blog post:
WordPress SEO Tweaks Without Plugins | Robin Parduez | Blog

Disclaimer

Please test any code changes that you make to your WordPress installation. Test your blog to ensure the meta robots noindex,follow tag is only applied to category, tag, search, pagination pages and index,follow is applied to the blog homepage and individual post pages. Be sure to test your page titles as well, they should follow the pattern shown in the examples above.

There are of course many more features available if you use an SEO plugin, and for some users a plugin will be suitable. You may also wish to tweak the code examples above to meet your needs.

If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to give some feedback in the comments section below.

3 Must-Learn CSS Techniques for Perfect Web Typography

2011-07-05T16:52:55Z

This article presents an extremely useful set of tips and best practices for those who are still fairly new to working with typography on the web.

We’ll go over the most popular methods for embedding web fonts, sizing fonts and setting a solid line-height.

Like the article? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to stay up on recent content.

Web Typography: The Basics

I started my design career in print so one of the most jarring transitions to the web-based mindset for me was in the area of typography. For print design, I can use any font I want on any piece as long as I own it and it is resident on my machine. Further, no one really cares how I size my fonts, as long as it prints big enough!

This article contains some techniques that I wish I had known right off the bat and had to learn the hard way through egregious errors and others that I’m only just now learning about!

Each of these three techniques might seem pretty basic to a pro, and are even likely to be debated by some, but I definitely recommend that anyone new to web design try to get a firm grasp of all these concepts so that you can choose a defendable position for how you set up your type online.

Embedding Web Fonts: Use @font-face

A year or two ago the web font game was pretty uncertain. Everyone knew a revolution was coming but there were a number of various techniques that were being pursued and few were certain as to where we would end up.

Fast-forward to now, a single solution has been widely agreed upon to be the best for many or even most circumstances. If you’re going to embed custom fonts into a website, @font-face is the way to go. It’s a pure CSS solution with awesome browser support and unlike Cufon and its cousins, results in perfectly selectable text that works and feels just like a native font.

Fontspring’s Bulletproof @font-face Syntax

This is a perfect example of how best practices in web design are constantly changing. The last I checked, Paul Irish’s smiley face bulletproof @font-face syntax was the best way to go. However, in researching this article I discovered that a new method has appeared that Paul Irish himself calls “the best possible solution.”

The new method is Fontspring’s Bulletproof @Font-Face Syntax, which addresses concern over the lack of support for Android in Irish’s original technique.

@font-face { font-family: 'Some Font'; src: url('SomeFont.eot?') format('eot'), url('SomeFont.woff') format('woff'), url('SomeFont.ttf') format('truetype');
}

If you’re wondering about the question mark, it’s a clever trick to fool IE9 into submission with loading the proper fonts and avoiding a 404 error. For more on how this works, check out this post.

Two Free @font-face Services

If you’re looking to embed free custom fonts into your web page, the absolute easiest way that I’ve found is to use Google Web Fonts. This amazing service contains over 180 font families and requires zero file downloads on your part. Just browse the library, choose the fonts you want, then copy and paste the code snippets you’re given. It couldn’t be easier!

As an alternative, I always recommend FontSquirrel. Here you have to download @font-face kits, which is a little more work, but the payoff is an unbeatable collection of beautiful free fonts and the ability to upload a single font file of your own which will automatically be converted into several formats and turned into a usable @font-face kit.

The Font Sizing Dilemma

While we’re on the subject of fonts, let’s briefly discuss font sizing. This is actually a much more fiercely debated topic than the previous one. The truth is, no matter which method you choose, there are plenty of web developers out there who will insist that you’re doing it wrong!

For the most part, “em” seems to be the popular choice. The bottom line is that using “px” results in fonts that don’t scale well in certain browsers. Kyle Schaeffer has an interesting article on why using percentages may be a better option, but from what I can tell, most folks are still in favor of “em” (or at least an em % hybrid).

Now, since “em” can be a bit awkward to work with, a common practice is to set the body font size at 62.5% and then to use “em” for everything else. The reason for this is that the results are easy to translate: 1.2em = 12px, 1.4em = 14px, 2.4em = 24px, etc.

Unfortunately, this method causes an odd compounding issue when working with multiple levels of parent/children relationships. Once you get a couple levels in, sizing with “em” becomes difficult. The workaround is typically to declare child elements at “1em”, but Jonathan Snook might have an even better solution.

Font Sizing with REM

The “rem” unit is from the CSS3 bag of goodies and sizes fonts relative to the root (html) rather than the parent, which avoids the compounding issue. Here is Snook’s syntax from his article Font Sizing With REM:

html { font-size: 62.5%; } body { font-size: 14px; font-size: 1.4rem; } /* =14px */
h1 { font-size: 24px; font-size: 2.4rem; } /* =24px */

The downside here is that you have to declare backups in “px” for, you guessed it, various versions of Internet Explorer. However, the result, according to Snook, is “consistent and predictable sizing in all browsers, and resizable text in the current versions of all major browsers.”

Trouble in Paradise

As I mentioned above, there’s always someone around to say “that’s not right!” Developer Harry Roberts recently published an article at CSS Wizardry outlining why sizing with “rem” can be avoided. His argument is that the 62.5% trick arises out of laziness on the part of developer (a good thing according to Roberts) but ultimately results in more work (a bad thing).

Roberts goes on to argue against setting arbitrary base font sizes that you don’t need or even really use and instead encourages setting your base where you want it and styling only the exceptions.

Both developers have perfectly valid points. Snook’s method is certainly easier to figure out but Roberts makes a somewhat convincing argument for avoiding the 62.5% trick altogether. You should definitely take a close look at both and decide which one you can wrap your mind around!

Unitless Line Height and Typographic Grids

The last thing I’d like to go over is something that I didn’t even know existed until recently: unitless line height. Eric Meyer explains this idea in detail here, but I’ll give you a quick overview.

The concept here is a little hard to understand but bear with me. Basically, if you declare line-height with a united value such as “1em”, that computed value is then automatically passed down to its descendants. Here’s the example that Eric Meyer cooked up:

ul {font-size: 15px; line-height: 1em;}
li {font-size: 10px;}
small {font-size: 80%;}

This seems correct enough at first, but the result is actually grabbing the line-height of the child elements from that computed parent value. Therefore, the above code is exactly the same as if you had written this:

ul {font-size: 15px; line-height: 1em;}
li {font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;}
small {font-size: 80%; line-height: 15px;}

Notice how the line-height stays at 15px for all of the elements. To avoid this, Meyer suggests using unitless line-heights, which are used as a multiplier for the line-height of the child elements. Here’s the example above rewritten to utilize this technique:

ul {font-size: 15px; line-height: 1;}
li {font-size: 10px;}
small {font-size: 80%;}

The result for the code above is exactly the same as that of the code below. From this we can see that our line height of “1″ is being multiplied by the font-size of the li and small elements and the results are much more predictable.

ul {font-size: 15px; line-height: 1;}
li {font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px;}
small {font-size: 80%; line-height: 8px;}

Notice here that the line-height stays equal to the font-size of each element. It’s important to understand that this isn’t an argument for setting your line-height to exactly your font-size, this was done only for the example. Any number can be used for the line-height and you should experiment to find what works best (the next example uses 1.231).

HTML5 Boilerplate Approved!

To see if this is a common practice, I downloaded a copy of HTML5 Boilerplate and poked around in the CSS. Sure enough, right away I found a unitless line-height in practice, albeit in a more concise, shorthand version.

body { font:13px/1.231 sans-serif; *font-size:small; } /* Hack retained to preserve specificity */
select, input, textarea, button { font:99% sans-serif; }

Creating A Typographic Grid

If you really want to dive into creating nice web typography, check out Richard Rutter’s article, “Compose to a Vertical Rhythm”, which outlines some useful techniques for juggling font size, line height and margin or padding to create a perfect rhythm for your page.

Chris Coyier over at CSS-Tricks picks up this technique and takes it further by combining it with, wait for it, unitless line-height! Check out this page where you can view and download Chris’ prefab typographic grid utilizing these methods.

Conclusion

These three lessons can be summed up nicely. First, when you’re embedding fonts on the web, use @font-face for a highly functional, cross-browser solution. For now, Fontspring’s syntax seems to be the best solution for formatting your @font-face declarations. Google Web Fonts and Fontsquirrel are the places to go if you want free web fonts that can be easily inserted into any page.

Next, since “px” can and does have trouble resizing on various browsers, using “em” or “rem” for font sizing is probably the best way to go. Using “rem” allows for easy use of the 62.5% trick without compounding issues, but there is a decent argument against abandoning this technique, setting an intentional base font-size and doing the math manually for any exceptions such as headers.

Finally, when working with line-height, it’s a good idea to set up a vertical rhythm or all out typographical grid. One important method to keep in mind is the use of unitless line-heights to simplify inheritance.

These are current best practices as far as I see them. Feel free to leave a fierce rebuttal in the comments for any and all of these techniques. I love digging into and learning about this stuff and if you have alternative methods I want to see them!

Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Sitemap File Types & Expanded Navigation

2011-07-06T20:45:27Z

Bing has made great efforts in recent months to improve their webmaster tools. The most prominent feature updates happened when the company removed the need for Silverlight and streamlined their entire interface. However, Bing Webmaster Tools is continuing on its path of improvement. A recent set of feature updates adds sitemap file type options, expands the navigation, adds a notification option, and adds support for additional languages.

Previously, the sitemap upload tool on the site only allowed for the .XML file type. The new version allows for RSS, Atom, and TXT sitemaps as well. Both Atom 0.3 and 1.0 are supported. Bing has also promised “further expansion of this list of files types in the future.”

The expanded navigation for the site takes the form of a second bar that gives additional options relevant to your top level of navigation. For example, visiting the “Index” tab will provide index-related options that were previously accessible through less visible navigation.

Users can now access notification options in their Preferences menu. Notification can be sent for items such as crawl errors on the site, suspected malware, updates to the Bing Webmaster Tools, and more. Choosing which specific types of notifications you want to receive, however, is not possible. Users must opt in or out of all BWT messages.

And last, but certainly not least, Bing has expanded BWT to support 34 languages, including Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Polish, Spanish, German, Hindi, and Portugese.

Bing’s webmaster tools have more features promised on the horizon as well. It’s clear that Bing is ready to step up its game and compete with the webmaster and analytics tools provided by competitor Google. With Bing’s popularity rising, especially when Yahoo! figures are also tabulated in, the timing is ideal for improving webmaster-oriented extras.

[Sources include: the Bing Blog]

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Sitemap File Types & Expanded Navigation

Google+ Review – Can It Beat Facebook?

2011-07-05T13:30:56Z

A good friend of mine who was one of the first people on Google+ shared a photo of his wife with me yesterday. As he shared it through Google+ I was automatically sent an invite so that I could join up and see the photo. This has proved to be a great opportunity to learn a little bit about Google+ before it is released to the general public.

On first glance Google+ is very much like Facebook. Your homepage has your entries on, then you see notifications from friends and acquaintances. Your profile photo is to the left, the search bar above and the menu to change settings all on the top right. It feels familiar to start with.

However, Google+ features something which is very new – Circles. This is likely to be the single feature that will encourage more people to migrate from Facebook to Google. In the news tech reporters are talking about Google+ being more secure and having better privacy settings than Facebook. The main reason for this is that you have much better control over who sees you and your content.

Google+ Circles

Google+ Circles allow you to place other Google+ users and non-users (they receive an invite when you share something with them) into seperate “circles”. This allows you to avoid embarrasing situations such as your parents hearing about what you have been getting up to in the evening, or your boss hearing what you really think of the company that you work for. Here is how it works.

You start with 3 main circles; Friends, Family and Acquaintances. There are also Following and Blocked, which allows you to Follow people without them becoming your friend and also allows you to Block annoying people.

So, whereas with Facebook everyone will see your latest status update or photo, in Google+ you can upload a photo and then select the Friends circle to share with. Everyone else will be unaware of your new photo.

You can of course break this down further, for example you may want one group just for University friends and another for your friends in the football club. Likewise, you could use acquaintances for everyone in your work and business life, or use it exclusively for people you have met online but do not know very well. For example, I had added many people to Acquaintances who I have chatted to on forums and known through blogs etc.

So if I post something specifically about me or my family, I can share with just friends and family. If I post an article about a great new service I have found, such as MyBlogGuest.com, I can share it with Acquaintances only as many of my friends are not interesting in the business of the Internet. You can select people to individually share items with too, which makes it like a private messaging system. This is really what Circles is about. It is simple in theory but can become very powerful.

The other main features are the integration of Picasaweb photos into Google+. Any Picasaweb photos that you upload or comment on from now will appear on your Google+ homepage and be visible in accordance with the rules set in your Picasaweb settings. This is the first of the negative points though. If you chose to follow someone who is very popular then you may find that their photos infest your homepage as each time a new comment is added the photo will jump to the top of the page again. This is where the Mute button comes in very useful – you can chose to stop seeing updates on a post / photo / video etc.

Sparks so far seems to be lacking in any substance. The sites that come up in Sparks are generally not very well chosen. I have nothing else to say about Sparks at the moment other than it is a disappointment.

The other main feature is the Hangout. Here you can chose to arrange a Hangout with up to 10 people and chat in live with video or just audio, and generally use it to hook up. This is another feature which Facebook is severely lacking in and could be something to draw in the younger crowd.

Some Tips for Google+

When you first sign up by default you will receive email notifications for everything that you are involved in. You may want turn off these emails as your inbox will quickly get flooded. I chose to only receive notifications for when someone shared something with me for the first time. This seems to work well.

At the moment it is very clear that the Googlers are still doing a lot of testing, which is why not many people have been invited so far. Down the bottom right there is a “send feedback” button which will allow you to send a screenshot of any problems you are seeing.

The main difference between Google+ and Facebook at the moment, other than the lack of people, is that there are no diversions. No games, no extra add ons. It is refreshing in a way, but Facebook’s strength is that people login in the evening and stay glued to it all night as even when their friends are busy there are games to play or groups and pages to discuss things in. Google+ is a little quiet at the moment, and no groups either – apart from your own.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google+ Review – Can It Beat Facebook?

Some weekend wisdom from The Fonz.

2011-07-02T17:17:00Z

Some weekend wisdom from The Fonz.

Blekko Offers a Cool Blind Taste Test Tool

2011-06-21T23:09:41Z

In any market where the leader has a monopolistic marketshare it is a great idea to encourage innovation elsewhere and promote further competition. In the past Blekko was a great SEO data source but I couldn't use it as a default search service because the auto-firing of their slashtags were in many cases too restrictive. They did a recent update which still fires slashtag results, but now rather than requiring results to be part of that slashtag they allow the slashtags to compliment their search results.

That change has put their relevancy on par with Google & Bing for many head search queries, though a larger index size would likely help them score better on tail search queries. To help end users compare the results from the 3 leading search engines Blekko launched a meta-search service named 3 engine monte, where you can do a blind taste test of the search results from all 3 engines side-by-side.

The 3 engine monte tool is a great way to troubleshoot SEO issues, allowing you to quickly see if you are having issues with a particular search engine, or if the problem is something happening across the board. It is also a useful tool for checking out some of the algorithmic differences between search engines to understand how things like the Panda/brand layer impacts Google.

Put This On Episode 6: Body Jesse Thorn visits Carl Goldberg,...

2011-06-23T12:30:00Z

Put This On Episode 6: Body

Jesse Thorn visits Carl Goldberg, owner of CEGO Custom Shirtmaker in New York City, to learn the difference between a custom shirt and an off-the-rack shirt. Then it’s off to Alan Flusser Custom in New York for a visit with the proprietor, a menswear legend. Flusser offers some tips on dressing for your body with the help of three associates of Put This On. Finally, a visit with Ryu Kwangeol at Pro Tailor in Los Angeles to answer a viewer’s question about altering off-the-rack dress shirts.

Previously: Put This On: A Conversation with Alan Flusser

iTunes / Vimeo / YouTube

Clothing Credits

Funding Credits

How User Data May Reorder Search Rankings

2011-06-23T03:51:26Z

Follow @justinrbriggs
Over the last several months, I’ve seen a site take a series of hits in traffic that I feel is the result of increased usage of user data to reorder search results. What I’ve seen is that the homepage and high quality content continues to increase in rankings on highly competitive terms (#2 for industry head term after bringing them up from 80+ a few months ago). However, traffic to subpages with bad user experiences dropped significantly. Upon inspecting their rankings, there does not appear to be a “penalty” but these subpages dropped from #1 to #2 – #4 across a wide range of keywords. The summation of this slight reordering across a large number of keywords is resulting in a large overall drop in organic traffic.

Below are my thoughts on how search engines may be reordering results based on user data.

Disclaimer: This stuff is nearly impossible to prove, but my thoughts are from reading patents, listening to Duane Forrester talk at SMX, and from experiences of things I’ve seen.

User Signals Search Engines May Look At

#1 Bounce Rate from result returning back to the search engine.

If a user clicks a result after performing a search, then comes back to Google.com search in a relatively quick amount of time, this could be a signal that the result was low quality or did not match the searcher’s intent.

Yeah, there is a lot of noise and caveats to this signal, but look at these results from a Google paper about bounce rate and ad landing page quality. They compare mean bounce rates to quality scores from evaluators.

Results show that expert human evaluation of ad quality agreed well with implied user assessment given by bounce rate. That graph to me is a pretty big deal. The bounce rates for those in the excellent category were less than half that of those in the bad category.

Ads that followed AdWords quality guidelines had bounce rates that were 25.4% lower than those that didn’t. It might be worth checking out their landing page and site quality guidelines.

#2 The CTR on the result listing.

CTR = total clicks on listing / total listing impression.

You can bet Google is collecting this data.

They know your domain’s average CTR, average CTR per URL, and CTR per keyword SERPs. They could also rotate top listings and collect data over time to determine if particular result receives a disportionate CTR relative to other top results.

I find this graph from the same Google paper to be particularly interesting.

Ads with low bounce rates had high CTR. These two metrics had a correlation of -0.85. That’s a strong inverse relationship. If bounce rate, as shown before, is a good proxy for user satisfaction, so is CTR.

#3 The amount of time the user was away from the search engine before coming back.

Duane Forrester from Bing made a comment at SMX during a panel that not only is the return to the results noted, but so is the time the user was away. If the user is gone for 5 seconds, that’s very different than a user who was gone for 5 minutes. If a user clicks a result, returns in 5 seconds, clicks another result, and then never comes back, that’s a potential signal.

#4 Behavior post return

If a user comes back to a search engine after clicking a result, their actions upon returning can send corroborating signals to reinforce historical signals. This may include actions such as clicking another result for the same keyword, refining the search query, or even blocking a result. By crossing these signals with other signals, I feel Google can increase their confidence in evaluating result quality.

How This May Improve SERPs Quality

This type of user satisfaction data could be used to reorder results to create an improved SERPs.

Google Traditional Rankings

Potential Conclusion by Engines:

Site #2 seems to provide an improved user experience for this SERPs, so although Site #1 has a stronger relevancy score based on links and content, let’s move Site #2 to the top result. This will result in a larger portion of satisfied users.

Site #3 is the least relevant of the three, but its large brand creates affinity to this result and higher user satisfaction. Moving Site #3 to the second result will result in more satisfied users.

Reordered Results

Potential Conclusion by Engines:

A significant portion of searchers (~30% to 60%) are now likely to click on a result that creates higher user satisfaction. As a result of this reordering, this result page’s quality has been improved.

The Takeaway

This isn’t a “penalty” but moving a site down from a top result to a second, third, or fourth position is a strong drop in traffic for that particular term. If this is repeated across a large number of keywords, this impact on traffic may be significant.

I think this is one way Panda could have had enormous impacts on content farm visibility without applying a “penalty”. Although link building can keep pushing up rankings, and is still a strong signal, search engines can gather this type of information on top results and readjust accordingly.

Doing This Without Substantial User Data

Using the example above, Google would need to collect a fair amount of data overtime to make a significant claim about quality and user satisfaction. However, machine learning can be used to build a predictive model.

Just take a look at this quote from Google (emphasis mine):

This paper has demonstrated through quantitative and qualitative analysis that bounce rate provides a useful assessment of user satisfaction for sponsored search advertising that complements other quality metrics such as clickthrough and conversion rates. We described methods of estimating bounce rate through observing user behavior, and have provided extensive analysis of real world bounce rate data to develop the reader’s understanding of this important metric. We have also shown that even in absence of substantial clickthrough data, bounce rate may be estimated through machine learning when applied to features extracted from sponsored search advertisements and their landing page.

The SEO game isn’t really changing, just Google is getting better at applying machine learning to user data, spam analysis, and topic modeling. The goal is still, as it has been for a while now, to not chase the algo, but to work to at least deserve to be listed as a top result.

–

If you want to chat more about SEO, follow me on Twitter. I often write about link building, but I also love technical and research related SEO.

Firefox 5 goes official today, download it now

2011-06-21T07:32:47Z

WebKit-based browsers are about to pass Firefox which has been losing market share since December 2010 – and they absolutely dominate in mobile. But if you still rely on Firefox over Apple’s Safari or Google’s Chrome for your everyday browsing (and a lot of people in Europe do), Mozilla has you covered with a major new release of its browser.

Among the changes, Firefox 5 sports speed gains across the board, an improved do-not-tracking switch available from the top of the privacy pane, support for CSS animation, improved standards support for canvas, HTML5, XHR and MathML markup languages and more. The Firefox 5 page will be updated later today with release notes and features, but download links are already live so you can get downloading (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux).

Why You Can’t Ignore Schema.org

2011-06-20T14:29:57Z

The Internet is a vast world that is constantly changing and evolving. As more people log on, the necessity for organization of content and increasing findability of relevant sources are increasing at a rapid rate. This growing need requires major advances in the way information is cataloged, and developers have jumped on the opportunity to create new tools for this purpose. Among the more recent advances is the introduction of Schema.org, which allows search engines to more accurately gauge the relevance of web content.

When I use a search engine, I am under the impression that the highest ranked websites will be the most relevant to my search terms. Unfortunately, as you likely know, this is far from being the case. Changes to Google and the way other popular search engines rank web results, however, are constantly seeking new ways to categorize content in order to make search results more consistent. Schema.org has made large strides in this area, and you will notice that it offers many important benefits to both web searchers and search engines, alike.

The Goal

Let’s start by explaining exactly what Schema.org’s goal is, and then I will discuss exactly what it does to achieve that goal. Schema.org was designed in order to help search engines better understand your content. It also gives website owners or content publishers of another kind, a way to gain more control over their published content. It does this by offering crawlers more information to scan and analyze in order to determine the relevance of a certain page, video, or article.

In order to provide this additional information, Schema.org allows webmasters and content publishers to markup their content with facts and descriptions. Many formats are supported, including microdata, microformats, and RDFA. Even the outdated open graph platform of Facebook is supported in order to make this tool as accessible as possible. No matter which format you use, you will be able to markup your content in order to make it easier for searchers to find.

How Is It Different?

There is one clarification that I must make, and that is the difference between Schema metadata and traditional metadata. Traditional metadata is often viewed as being equal to tagging. For example, you post a “How to” video about building a table and then tag it with popular search terms, such as “do it yourself,” “table building,” etc., in the hopes that more people will view the video this way.

The trouble with tagging is that it is not a reliable source of determining relevance. Metadata in this form is much too easy to manipulate, frustrating search engines with results that pose no use to the searcher. In fact, this is why search engines like Google don’t pay much attention to keyword tagging anymore, as spammers were taking advantage of the rankings.

Schema.org works by crawling over descriptions associated with a page or video in order to gain a more complete understanding of the content. A search engine cannot read a video, for example, but has to rely on the video description in order to categorize it. Schema.org makes this possible, and it does so with simplicity.

Wide acceptance of Schema.org makes it very easy for you to start using this tool to your advantage. All major search engines support the introduction of Schema.org. I’m eager to see how it will change the face of search engine rankings, which I am sure it will do. How could it not, after all? By offering webmasters more control over their content, Schema.org is also offering Internet users more control over their searching experience. Everyone benefits from this new way to organize content, ensuring the highest level of relevance possible.

Not only does Schema.org allow the most relevant content to be isolated, but it works to analyze the different relationships between available content. Using what have been coined as “rich snippet tags” within the supported metadata markups, Schema.org allows a more accurate assessment of the relevance of competing content. While the URL of a certain web page was the priority at one time, the priority now becomes the content within that page, and how it relates to the search terms provided.

Additionally, because this is a relatively new introduction to the World Wide Web the potential is currently at its highest. Early investors are often those that see the biggest return, meaning this is the perfect time to start using Schema.org to filter your content. The longer you wait, the longer your competitors will have to build their own reputation over yours. I suggest familiarizing yourself with this incredible new tool as soon as possible in order to reap the most benefits possible!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Why You Can’t Ignore Schema.org

What The New ICANN Domain Names Mean For Google Rankings & SEO: Nothing

2011-06-20T16:50:59Z

ICANN – the organization in charge of internet domain names – has approved plans that may create hundreds or thousands of new “top level domain names.” I’ve seen some reports already that this will help with search engine optimization. It won’t. It’ll just...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Adding Your Site To Webmaster Tools May Reduce Your Rankings

2011-06-13T10:28:28Z

This title is a bit of a shocker, but it’s true, but before I can explain it fully you need to hear the background to my story. Back in December 2010 I bought a website off Anthony, the website is called Cockatiel Care, it’s a terrible looking static site that for some reason had been [...]

Adding Your Site To Webmaster Tools May Reduce Your Rankings is a post from: Dave Naylor's SEO Blog.

Google Testing New Design Without I’m Feeling Lucky Button

2011-06-19T02:56:52Z

A reader emailed us a screen shot of the Google home page missing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button as well as a new look for the inside search result pages. Here are those screen shots. Notice the home page missing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button: The next screen...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Patent indicates sophisticated remote surveillance for Find My iPhone

2011-06-16T15:24:02Z

An Apple patent application which surfaced this morning in the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s database envisions advanced proactive measures that are likely to end up utilized in the free Find My iPhone service (which can locate stolen Macs, too). Entitled “Proactive Security for Mobile Devices” and credit to Apple engineer Hooman Borghei, the patent application sets the stage with the following description:

Mobile devices, such as phones and media devices, have a high risk of being lost or stolen. If a mobile device is stolen, the information contained on the device can be accessed. Various security methods have been developed to prevent unauthorized access of information stored on mobile devices. Some methods will encrypt the data to prevent access. Simple encryption ciphers can be broken and more secure encryption techniques are also more complex and thus require more resources that may not be available on some devices. Other security methods allow a remote wipe command to be sent to the mobile device over a network. The remote wipe command, however, wipes out all the data on the mobile device accept a boot file. This forces the user to have to restore the wiped data, which can be inconvenient and time consuming for the user.

So, what are the aggressive countermeasures Apple’s been exploring? For starters, they propose selective protection of your content stored on the device. This would kick in when someone enters an incorrect passcode. We are more excited, however, about cool remote surveillance capabilities, such as transmission of the images and sounds that your device secretly captures. This could go a long way towards helping one figure out the thief’s surrounding without them suspecting anything. Yeah, kinda like this guy. Warning: This article will self-destruct in T-minus thirty seconds…

Apple explains: “A mobile device can proactively determine whether the mobile device is associated with a security risk and the level of the security risk. Upon determining a security risk, the mobile device can transmit coordinates of its current geographic location to a server. To protect privacy of authorized users, the transmission can be disabled by entering a password. If multiple failed password attempts are detected, the mobile device can proactively increase a security level of the device, and selectively protect files or other content stored on the mobile device. In some implementations, the mobile device can be transitioned into a surveillance mode where the mobile device records or captures information associated with one or more of user actions, ambient sound, images, a trajectory of the device, and transmits the recorded or captured information to the network resource.” You can browse this patent application by typing in the ID number 20110141276 into the United States Patent & Trademark office search engine.

Web Analytics Career Guide: From Zero To Hero In Five Steps!

2011-06-06T09:47:51Z

I got an email the other day with this simple question: "How do break into the world of web analytics?"

Actually I get that question almost every single day. :)

The interest is not surprising. There is a ton of excitement about web analytics. Companies are starting to think innovatively about the web (no more unintelligent banner ads or digital "crimes against humanity"), and they are starting to understand the power of data to delight customers and drive accountability.

I've said repeatedly that if I look into the next xx number of years Analyst is essentially a recession-proof job. In our field specifically, good Web Analysts will continue to be in high demand, for any conceivable time period. [Therein you see one way to "break into" analytics, or anything really, you have to be good!]

If you want to "break in," or if you've already "broken in" (welcome!) but desire greater awesomeness, here are some tips on taking a step back, thinking things through, and being strategic about your approach. . . .

#1: Figure out the optimal career path for you.

This might seem odd. Not asking you to jump into JavaScript classes or make love to Yahoo! Analytics or start pimping your resume left and right.

Why before what. Always.

It only takes two minutes of talking to most current "Web Analysts" in the world to realize that they actually are:

A. Web Analytics Implementers (they obsess about the latest tweak to the Omniture JavaScript code to eek out one more little bit of lemon juice)

B. Web Analytics Data Reporters (99% of their effort is taking in requests and working with above folks and simply regurgitating data out)

Before I go on I must stress that both are much required roles, without A you've got nothing, and without B most corporations would not function (as they believe sending data out is all it takes to be successful).

But neither role is that of a Web Analyst.

Having been around the block several times in several roles on all sides (practitioner, consultant, team leader, vendor, advisor) I've distilled the web analytics field into four distinct roles. Each requires very different sets of skills, delivers very different career paths, and, of course, leads to different salaries.

So first really, really, really understand what your actual skills are, and then, second, identify which of of the four career paths (at least initially) is the right fit. If you do, there will be happiness (forget money, at least initially, and focus on happiness). If you do, there will be progress in your career as you start (and you can always evolve).

How?

Read this post and the step by step process: Analytics Career Advice: Job Titles, Salaries, Technical & Business Roles. For each path it outlines Career Prospects, $$$ (Salary) Prospects, Long Term Job Title Growth.

On page 392 of Web Analytics 2.0 you'll also find this summary of the four paths, in a simple 2×2 matrix:

The numbers are there to give you a point in time perspective. They are there mostly to give you contextual guidance (between paths).

Remember:

1. The best path for you is the one you have the aptitude for.

2. Think of the four paths not as one point in the matrix, but rather as a dominant role with some (small) shades of the other.

3. If you don't figure out what your best (dominant) path is, you'll be very miserable.

4. Only one of the four dominant paths is that of a Web Analyst. The other roles are important in the world of web analytics, but they are not Web Analyst roles.

5. You can evolve over time. Your choice is for the time horizon just in front of you – the next couple years.

So what is your dominant quest? Individual contributor? Team lead? And which facet are you going to focus on? Business? Technical?

Read the analytics career paths post (or a much updated version on Page 386 of Web Analytics 2.0) and figure it out, before you do everything below. And trust me when I say this. the process is not easy. Especially for people who won't be honest with themselves. But of course that is not you!

[Update: This blog post is overwhelmingly for those who want to become Analysts ("Business" in the matrix above). Hence I am a little biased in emphasizing analytical skills development and the acquiring of business problem solving skills from practical work. Technical skills are important, perhaps I am under-emphasizing them here. Please see Alex's dissenting view (to mine), it is important and please take it into consideration in your evolution.]

#2: Pick Your First Two Web Analytics Tools.

It might seem silly to close in this early on a tool, after all you barely figured out what your skills are. Sadly tools are so dominating in our world as the determining factor for so many things that it is wise to make this choice up front (for the first x amount of time).

For example, if you choose Omniture or WebTrends or ICoreNica as your tools. then your choice to get smart about them and smart about your career path will lead through training and certification via those companies. You can't have free versions or free education or books on the subject matter. Let me hasten to add that these are wonderful tools; they are used by some of the biggest companies in the world who hire tons of people. So it is not features etc., it is how you are going to get your first job.

If you choose Yahoo! Analytics or Google Analytics or Piwik then you are a little better off in terms of your starting path. The tools are free. Anyone can download and implement them anywhere. There are books galore. There are very cheap trainings (YWA and GA) all the time if you desire. There are free sources like Conversion University (video, audio, more). So you can start on your own, tomorrow morning, get very good at the tool if you want to. DIY.

Important: Neither one of these paths is ultimately better or worse. Neither one of these sets of tools is superior or inferior, no matter what some silly vendors and some sillier consultants will tell you. Neither one will mean you will ultimately win or lose (see rest of this post). They are just different.

When you are starting out just make an explicit choice, simply because it will dictate your immediate next steps and, I cannot stress this enough, f o c u s!

I said two tools. Did you notice that?

Every Analysis Ninja I know (not implementers, not data providers, not excel cross data store integrators – all good jobs) is very, very good at Multiplicity (answering a complex set of digital business questions using the best – often non-clickstream source).

So in addition to becoming good at Omniture, Google Analytics, Baidu Analytics, pick one other tool from the Experimentation, Voice of Customer, Competitive Intelligence buckets of Web Analytics 2.0.

This will ensure two things:

1. It will be a very, very strong signal to your future employers that you are not one of the numerous one-trick-clickstream ponies out there. You get the world we live in, you understand sophistication.

2. You will start learning all of the awesome things I said above your skills / experience should signal!

If you can't make up your mind here are the simplest tools to pick up, primarily because they are easy to get into (and provide a lifetime of sophistication development). Surveys: KissInsights or 4Q Survey. Competitive Intelligence: Compete, Google Insights for Search, DoubleClick Ad Planner, Trends for Websites.

If you can't make up your mind do KissInsights and Insights for Search. It will teach you how complicated, hard, beautiful, datagasmic the world we live in is.

Pick two starting points. Start on day one knowing you are going to be a Ninja.

#3: Get Educated.

Initial career path choice? Check. Initial tools focus? Check. Getting smart about it? Let's go!

Books:

It might be old fashioned but I like starting with a book. Notice we are on #3 and I have not yet asked you to install anything! :)

Buy two books.

Get an overall web analytics strategy book, one that covers the ecosystem, the mental models to apply, key analytics techniques. essentially a "how to think" book. I would recommend my book Web Analytics 2.0 (in 5 languages!) or Steve's Cult of Analytics or Gemma's and Tristan's El Arte de Medir or Juan's Meta Analytics. [Important: If you have other suggestions that are current, please add them in comments. Thanks.]

Get a really good tool book. For Yahoo! Analytics please get Dennis's book. For Google Analytics get Brian's book or Justin's book or Timo's book (in German). While some things (like UI) about tools change over time, these books are your best, structured bet at learning about the tool and the power at your disposal.

Blogs:

There is no doubt that the most current knowledge exists in blogs (yes, yes I know that the fad of the month is Twitter & Facebook, for someone starting to build a career the most current distractions exist there :)).

Pick two blogs.

Pick one practitioner blog, someone who can teach you about web analytics (thinking, approaches, pure practitioner education, complete lack of generic stuff). There is a very long list in the blogroll on the right navigation of this page (and every blog post on this blog).

Pick the blog of the vendor you've chosen previously. Every decent vendor in the world has an active blog teaching their practitioners how to use their tool. My favorite is the Omniture blog. It is the prefect balance between pimping (a little bit) and teaching (a lot).

A list of my personal favorite top ten blogs are also in the right nav of this page (in the blogroll section). You'll notice they are a mix of Marketing, Design, Analytics, Critical Thinking blogs. A clue as to what I personally think it takes to be successful.

Two blogs are not overwhelming. Really read both that you pick. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Certification Courses:

If you want to jumpstart your education (and this is in addition to the above, not a replacement) consider taking a course with Market Motive (Disclosure: I'm the co-founder), University of British Columbia or the University of California at Irvine or Universite Laval. If you chose GA earlier, consider taking the Google Analytics IQ certification exam (the educational materials are free, the exam is $50).

My experience is that structured courses teach you how to think. None of them (okay except GA IQ) teach you how to use the tool. When you are starting out that is so important. Once you get sucked into s.vars and e.props and events and all that crap it is very hard to get your head to rise to a strategic thinking level, business analysis level, the things that really matter level. So if you can afford it, take a certification course.

You don't want to spend two years on this (look for fresh content); find the fastest three or six month jump start (because you'll still have to do the above and below).

University / College Level Courses:

For a career in Web Analytics you don't need a special degree (at least not yet). I've hired people with no college degrees, forest rangers, financial analysts, database programmers (as long as they have an analytical bent of mind). But if you don't have any exposure to Statistics then I strongly encourage taking an evening / part time course in Statistics 101. If an institution near you provides a course in quantitative or qualitative analytics (even traditional analytics such as direct marketing or market research) then that is also well worth the investment. It will absolutely jump start your career.

The trick will be how to make that massive investment as you'll have to read your two books (one time at least!) and two blogs (continuously) and take one course. So here's my recommendation: Read the web analytics strategic book while taking the three/six month course. Start reading the tool book when you start using the tool. Start reading the blogs when you get to the below.

#4: Play In The Real World.

This is where everyone messes up. People show up at interviews having just used Omniture with no experience of any other Web Analytics 2.0 tools. They show up with limited theoretical knowledge or just the UBC degree.

Ain't gonna happen. The job. Won't happen.

You can learn everything there is to learn about fishing in a book, or at a University. You won't actually get any good unless you grab that pole and sit for hours on end on the water.

A free very good tool is available for every element of Web Analytics 2.0. Go get a site. Your mom's. Favorite charity's. Your friend's business. Your spouse's sibling on whom you have a crush. Or. . . start your own!

The specific details on how to really, really practice (without permission from your boss or your company or Guru) are outlined here: Web Analytics Career Advice: Play In The Real World!

Do it.

It turns out the greatest thing you can pour into becoming awesome is your sweat.

And don't stop at website data analysis. Remember you want to be a Ninja because they earn more money, get any job they want and are 900% happier than the average human.

I love Romy Misra's approach. She is taking publicly available data, (bravely) publicly doing analysis using tools like Many Eyes and publishing her results on her blog! Here are two examples:

~ Data Deconstructed -US Foreign Assistance

~ Data Deconstructed -Earthquake data

Impressive is it not? It takes effort. It takes love. It takes a deep desire to get good. And yes you'll get something wrong (Romy's example), but can you think of a better way to learn?

And Romy, and everyone similarly brave, is not just writing a blog. . . she is creating the greatest resume a person can create. Think about that.

Don't wait for your boss to allocate budget. Don't wait for permission from your mom. Don't wait to sign up for a project. Don't wait to be picked. Don't wait. Go and play in the real world. Now. And if you want to stay good, do so constantly.

#5: Find Your First Web Analytics Job.

By now you've probably spent three to six months investing in yourself. In the latter part of that journey you've likely practiced using the Romy method or the Avinash method or the iamawesomesoicreatedmyown method. You have a publicly available portfolio of your work, no matter how small or basic.

Time to find a job.

Look in the obvious places. Dice (315 jobs today), Indeed (809 jobs today with salaries estimated over $100k!), Craigslist (82 in SF Bay Area) et al.

But don't top there, try less obvious options. . .

Look in local locations. Washington Post Jobs in DC (11 jobs). You have a newspaper in town right?

Look at associations outside your core area. For example SEMPO's jobs site (31 jobs). Or the DMA career center (240 jobs with minimum salary of $100k!).

Look at non-profit entities (who have paid jobs). For example my favorite idealist.org (272 jobs – some tangential. 252 North America, 11 Europe, 6 Asia, 1 Africa, 2 LatAM).

With non-profits you also have an option of just writing to them and offering to implement Yahoo! or Google Analytics and helping them with insights. If you are interested post / read NTEN Affinity Groups.

And don't forget the obvious hidden places. . .

Look at web analytics consulting companies. There are so many of them, literally exploding with growth, and looking for even junior people (especially those with a "public resume") willing to work hard. Reach out to them.

Look at the Google Analytics, Yahoo! Analytics authorized consultants. Choose your local geographic location in the drop-down, visit their site, bada bing bada boom!

Look at web analytics vendors. The industry is stuffed with people who started as junior / senior consultants with analytics vendors. Omniture, WebTrends, IBM, Google, and everyone else out there.

I am not going to mention friends and family as your best network to get jobs. You know that already.

I am not even going to mention company websites. You know where to check them. With companies the challenge is that they often ask for pink elephants, but don't let that deter you. Ensure that on top of the resume you send them is a link to your above mentioned "public resume." It is a great way to show your actual hard work and give the company some room to shift from looking for pink elephants to an enterprising person with a visible track record of hard work and learning investment. If you don't have a "public resume" then you might be in less luck than optimal.

Lots of places, lots of jobs. But. . .

Be open to contractor to permanent positions. Just don't pick a slimy placement companies whose core earnings come from having you stay a temp. I have done contractor to permanent (both in taking a job myself and hiring Analysts) and it has worked out well.

Be open to starting below where you were before (if you are switching careers). My first web analytics job came with a downgrade in job title (ouch!) and $14,000 less in annual earnings (ouch! ouch!). I was confident it was the right move. Joined. Worked hard. Both things got fixed astonishingly quickly.

Be open to the type of company you'll work for. For profit, non-profit, universities, Fortune 10,000, Forbes 10, B2B, B2C, A2Z etc., etc.

Bottom-line: Look everywhere, but mostly focus on the non-obvious, and even for someone starting out there is a job waiting in Web Analytics.

That is it. Five simple steps to "breaking into" web analytics.

The hardest are developing a true Web Analytics 2.0 skill-set / mental model, and creating your "public resume" (body of work).

You'll be busy with that for most of your first xx months. So before I close this post, here is a bonus item. . .

Bonus: #6: Avoid Massively Over-Rated Activities.

Your time is precious. I feel obligated to spill two "secrets" that you might benefit from as you plan your career. Here are two over-rated investments:

1. Spending four hours a day tweeting and getting into loads of "conversations."

Prioritize your time. And remember, I am going to Bing you before I meet you for the interview. It will find your Twitter feed. I will expect massively more from you if you are invited (and if your Twitter / Facebook feed was sub-optimal you are not getting the call – benefits of a social world!).

If you have time, at least early in your career, invest in yourself education and evolution (see steps above).

If you have four hours a day to tweet, take three and a half hours and invest in your long term personal and professional goals.

2. Attending five analytics conferences a year.

Maybe one or two, regardless of who is paying (you or employer). And if you've attend a conference this year, don't go to the same one two years in a row. The content simply does not change enough.

Also, think Web Analytics 2.0, think breadth. Try other conferences: Search, Affiliate, Direct Marketing, etc. Seek analytics sessions, broaden your mind rather than let it rot by staying in a silo.

I am sure there are others I'm forgetting. If history is any guide you are going to oblige me by sharing them via comments below!

I want to close by welcoming your interest in a career in Web Analytics. I am immensely excited at its potential to transform companies and lives. It is a rewarding career from any perspective: work, salary, satisfaction. It does take a special kind of person who is willing not just to do the work, but love the work and love the special joy that comes from a day's hard work. All you need is the will.

Ok it's your turn now.

If you are new to the field. . . did you find this five step guide to be helpful? Was there a step you were not aware of? Are you executing your entry plan as outlined in the above priority order? Are you trying something else? What did I miss?

If you are an old hand. . . what advice would you share with someone who is just starting out? Which step above do you think is most important? What surprised you about your own career? What did I miss above in my guide?

Please share via comments. Thanks.

Web Analytics Career Guide: From Zero To Hero In Five Steps! is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Q and Answer: What Color Shoes Should I Wear With a Navy...

2011-06-09T16:07:00Z

Q and Answer: What Color Shoes Should I Wear With a Navy Suit?

Peter writes: I was recently given a fantastic vintage navy blue suit from the ’70s by my father. The only thing stopping me from wearing it every opportunity I have is the fact that I do not know what shoes to wear with it. I have seen images of men wearing brown and black oxfords and derbys and I really have no idea what is correct. Also, how does the choice of shoe alter which sock is appropriate?

What color shoes to wear with a navy suit is a matter of perpetual debate. The general answer is that it depends on the circumstances and personal preference. The specific answer? Well, let’s run it down.

Brown: Once, wearing brown shoes with navy was heresy unless you were a Boston Brahmin or a particularly wild Italian. However, brown is the default choice for daytime wear today. The color makes a comfortable partner for navy blue, particularly in darker hues like chocolate. Whether brown shoes are appropriate in the workplace is up to you; there are traditional gentlemen in London who still think brown shoes are inappropriate at a business no matter what color your suit is.
Black: This is the traditional choice, particularly in the English tradition. Black shoes are more suitable for business and the evening, and while I don’t go to a lot of suit-wearing business meetings, when I wear a navy suit at night, I reach for the sharper, more formal black footwear.
Burgundy: Burgundy or cordovan shoes are the wild card here. (Note that “cordovan” is a color, “shell cordovan” a material.) They pair well with navy and are suitable for day or night wear. They’re certainly a somewhat bolder choice than chocolate brown or black, but I think they acquit themselves well. When I wear a navy suit during the day, I find myself pulling out my burgundy shell cordovan Florsheim longwings.

As far as socks are concerned, your default should be to match your trousers - that means navy socks. This applies no matter what color shoes you’re wearing. In fact, you can pretty much wear navy socks with anything other than shorts. If you don’t choose navy, you’ll want something with some contrast, and that contrast should compliment the rest of your outfit. It can pull a color from your accessories, for example. It can also be a wildcard - once in a while, with a white square, blue shirt, blue tie and blue suit, I’ll wear red socks.

(By the way: while this guy looks good, I don’t recommended fitting a suit like this.)

Introducing igloos—inuit.css gets plugins

2011-06-11T11:48:26Z

inuit.css has been my answer to the CSS framework. I launched it just under two months ago to great reception, you guys have had some excellent suggestions and some really supportive feedback which has kept inuit.css going, with me updating it as often as I can and adding new features.

I’m very excited today to announce that inuit.css is getting plugins, and to keep the theme running these plugins are called igloos! jQuery has them, WordPress has them and now so does inuit.css.

An igloo = an inuit.css plugin

I wrote a really rough spec for them this morning just to keep development on the straight and narrow but I thought I’d show it to you guys too.

It is important to note that inuit.css will have less features in the core framework after v2.0. The keywords and 12-col CSS will be removed from inuit.css and into their respective plugin files.

Here is the tiny spec:

igloos — CSS plugins for inuit.css

igloos are inuit.css specific plugins to extend and add functionality to the inuit.css framework.

Naming conventions

igloos shall be named thus: <igloo-name>.inuit.css. An igloo which provides annotation support for HTML5 figure elements would be named thus: annotate.inuit.css

How they work

An igloo is included in the page using a HTML <link /> element. This <link /> appears after the <link /> which includes inuit.css, eg:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/inuit.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/annotate.inuit.css" />

This does mean additional HTTP requests, however it does mean that we see the extension metaphor at work and the core inuit.css file remains unchanged, allowing for easier upgrades of the framework in the future.

In case you haven’t guessed, one of the first igloos to come to inuit.css is the annotated <figure> snippet I wrote last week!

I’m working on writing igloos and also preparing them and v2.0 for release. They should be ready within the next week or so but to keep up to date follow inuit.css on Twitter.

They’re live!

Some igloos are live and can be downloaded from http://inuitcss.com/#igloos

Free Up Disk Space by Deleting Files in the Hidden Dropbox Cache Folder [Dropbox]

2011-06-10T16:30:00Z

Inside your Dropbox folder is a hidden cache folder that stores deleted files locally on your computer for faster restores. If you use Dropbox a lot, this cache folder can eat up valuable HD space. Here's how to erase those files. More »