This is a guest post from Corry Prohens of IQ Workforce.  Corry is a sponsor of the Web Analytics Demystified Job Board and one of the most plugged-in folks I know in our industry.  He’s helped some great companies find talent, and some amazing talent find great companies which is, as we all know, one of the hardest things of all about web analytics.  Thanks to Corry and IQ Workforce for sponsorsing the job board and I hope all of you have either a safe and relaxing 4th of July or a nice respite from U.S.-based email, depending on where you live in the world!

Without further comment, Corry Prohens:

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This past spring I was growing concerned with the condition of the economy.  Skyrocketing oil and food prices, plummeting real estate values, an unprecedented credit crunch, investment banks folding and teetering…

The lead question for business publications and programs shifted from “Will there be a recession” to “How long and how awful will the recession be?”

In a previous life I lived through the dot com surge and bust as a technology recruiter.  I did NOT want to go there again. The last few years have been very kind to our community / career landscape and my paranoia was growing that the good times were going to end.

As a coping device and because I assumed that my colleagues shared my interest/concern, I decided to poll the community on the issue in our Summer 2008 industry survey.

It turns out that while most economists say that the United States is either experiencing or entering a recession, web analytics practitioners in the US are overwhelmingly optimistic about their career prospects in the short and intermediate-term future.

A sneak preview into the survey results shows that individuals and departments around the country are downright bullish:

• 74% of practitioners expect that spending on web analytics will increase at their company during the recession (40% said it would increase a bit / 34% said it would increase significantly)
• 60% of practitioners said that the recession would either increase the likelihood of hiring additional web analytics resources or have no impact
• 17% said that their company was either somewhat or very likely to reduce web analytics headcount during the recession
• 2% thought that the recession would have a major negative impact on their career

Thank goodness! And just to prove that these folks are answering with their heads and not their hearts, my team is literally busier right now than we have ever been.  Entering the short July 4th holiday week, we have been absolutely inundated with new requests from clients for permanent and contract web analytics resources.

As a longtime LinkedIn fan, I decided to throw the question up there last week to see what kind of response I would get.  Eight people – all web analytics practitioners – answered in a single voice:  “What recession?”

The only concrete difference / pattern that we have seen in our business over the past several months has been the exploding demand for web analytics contractors.  A year ago we were working on one contract position for every eight permanent positions.  Now contractor requests make up over a third of all new requests for resources.  I am not sure if I am ready to draw a direct correlation between the economy and the rising demand for contractors since there are several other viable explanations.

Here is the link to participate in the current survey (or to view results of previous surveys):

http://www.iqworkforce.com/survey.asp

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Thanks again to Corry for his support of Web Analytics Demystified!

Those of you who have been following the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! groups will no doubt be as excited about this announcement as I am: I am delighted to let you know that Paul Holstein, co-founder, Vice President, and COO at CableOrganizer.com will be taking over for Daniel Shields here at the Web Analytics Demystified weblogs.  Paul has been a long-time contributor to the Forum, both in the conversation and behind the scenes, and despite the fact that he once told me that “web analytics was just a hobby” he has demonstrated his expertise time and time again.

What happened to Daniel?  Dan has taken a big step forward in his career, co-founding Wicked Business Sciences with Paul, and Nicolas Dubus and getting into the consulting game.  Given the list of service offerings these guys have already I have little doubt they’ll be hugely successful.

I will keep Dan’s posts up for the time being but they’ll be in Paul’s blog (although their original URLs should work just fine.)

Paul has indicated that his style will be short-and-sweet, touching on a relevant subjects as they creep up in his business, in the Forum, and at great conferences like the X Change (where you can meet Paul in person!)

Paul’s “welcome, Demystified” post is up and I would encourage you to check it out if for no other reason to add Paul’s blog to your RSS feeds.  (I have already added Paul to the “All Web Analytics Demystified Weblogs” super-feed, just in case you want to subscribe to our writing en masse … http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllWebAnalyticsDemystifiedBlogs)

If you’re considering coming to San Francisco for the X Change conference on August 17, 18, and 19 but are still wondering what the conference has to offer you may want to check out these interviews I did with Lars Johannson last week and Larry Freed this week.

Both guys asked good questions — my favorites were Lars asking “If someone only has the money and time to attend one conference, how should she choose between industry “default” event eMetrics and challenger X Change?” and Larry’s “With a “total absence of sales messaging and sponsored talks”, who will pick up the bar tab?”  Larry’s question reminded me that June, David, and I should probably start planning some kind of conference-associated Web Analytics Wednesday event since we had such a great turnout last time we were in San Francisco!

Check both posts out when you have a chance:

• Eric T. Peterson Answers Questions About X Change
• An X Change with Eric Peterson

If you’re interested in the conference, check out the official web site at Semphonic.

Two job related items worth noting, just in case you are either in the market for a new job or, perhaps more likely, are seeking smart folks to help you get your web analytics house in order.

First, the fine folks at Intuit in San Diego are looking for a Senior Manager for Web Analytics.  From a web analytics perspective Intuit is perhaps best known as the former home of web analytics super-star Avinash Kaushik and as a company that clearly understands the 10/20/70 rule for achievable web analytics success. While Avinash has moved on to Google, bright folks like my friend Dylan Lewis (who will be leading two great conversations at the X Change conference in San Francisco on August 17, 18, and 19!) and Jared Waxman (also leading huddles at the X Change!) are still making things happen at Intuit.

I traded email with Seth Greenberg at Intuit about the job and here’s what I learned:

Why apply for this position at Intuit?
The Senior Manager of Web Analytics position in the TurboTax division of Intuit is an amazing opportunity to help develop, optimize  and influence a multi-channel marketing mix backed by a substantial advertising budget.  The position will require the most qualified applicant to build on an already great process, and develop a methodology for incorporating multi-channel measurement into online advertising analytics.  In addition, the applicant will need to build a successful online advertising testing program that combines both website and offsite factors to optimize results.  Yes, this a lot, but if you are still reading then maybe this is for you.

Why make the move to San Diego?
Did you see the U.S. Open?  Do you like sunshine and paradise?  If so, then there is a lot of that in San Diego.  If you are a fan of outdoor activities, don’t like snow, and are not a big fan of rain, then maybe this is the best climate for you.  The cost of living is relatively high here on the coast, but many are willing to pay the sunshine tax.  It is as good as it looks on TV, and it can only be better if you are here.  We’ll also make your move easy with a nice relocation package.

What makes Intuit so special?
Intuit is a data driven company.  Intuit is also year-after-year one of the “Top 100  Best Places to Work”  There are many benefits to working here, including the ability to have a very focused tactical tax season, followed by a strategic period evaluating all the results and deciding what to do the next tax season.  It brings about some really great year over year improvements and lets you build on and prepare for success each year.

Having lived in paradiseSan Diego for three years while at WebSideStory and JupiterResearch I can vouch for what a great place San Diego is.  And as far as Intuit, from my perspective the high-quality people they are able to attract is testament enough to the opportunity.  If you have more questions about this job drop me a line and I’ll get you in touch with Seth or Dylan, or just review the job description and apply online today!

Second, and I feel a little bad for putting this below the fold, but international companies are now able to advertise on our job board!  Previously we weren’t able to offer listings to companies with non-U.S. addresses but our technology provider has given us a passable workaround that allows us to better serve the International job seeking and employee-seeking community.

If you’re outside of the U.S. and are interested in advertising on our job board, please drop me an email and I’ll explain the very easy process.

No, it’s really not, sorry.  But as long as I have your attention I wanted to talk about a thread developing at the Web Analytics Forum about IndexTools not yet being freely available to all that I think is pretty interesting.

Does anyone remember how long Google had Urchin before they gave away Google Analytics for free?  Eight months.  And everyone spent the entire time saying, “Naw, they’ll never give it away … it would be way too expensive!”  Then, remember when they did give Google Analytics away, they immediately had to stop.

So why would anyone expect Yahoo! to be giving IndexTools away for free to everyone barely two months after the acquisition?  Impatience?  Internet time?  An intense and building desire for really good tools for the best of all prices?!?

Eh?

I am very much in the “I bet it will be free” camp, but I suspect that in the midst of everything else Yahoo! has been dealing with lately that the acquisition and roll-out team will take a measured, thoughtful approach towards the next phase of IndexTools.

Based on the letter recently sent to existing partners, it kind of sounds like they want to build a few new data centers and make sure they can handle the needs of their existing customers and partners — nothing really wrong with that, is there?  I bet they’ll also take some time and think about how to avoid some of the problems the other guys had (rollout issues, service outages, extended betas, etc.)

I’ll go ahead and reiterate (and clarify) my original prediction: I think we’ll see free IndexTools for anyone and everyone sometime around Christmas 2008.  I know people around the world are still getting new IndexTools accounts through the partners — you can see that in my Vendor Discovery Tool — but Yahoo! has a lot to consider before they roll IndexTools out to the masses.  I mean, if you think web analytics is hard, you should try developing, maintaining, selling (or not selling), and supporting a web analytics application in this market …

I’ll also bet Yahoo is going to ask for something in return for the accounts as well: Agreeing to run ads on their sites, signing up for a developer account, allowing them use your data to improve their search engine, … something that justifies or offsets some of the cost associated with giving this fairly robust web analytics application away.

Finally, I suspect that Yahoo! will soft-peddle IndexTools when it is widely available.  What I’m hearing is that despite what a lot of people think, Yahoo! doesn’t really want to piss off Google, Omniture, WebTrends, or any of the existing web analytics providers.  But hey, why should they?  Why scream “AWESOME FREE WEB ANALYTICS SOLUTION!” when they can quietly release it and know that word will eventually get out?

Anyway, IndexTools is not free for all, at least not yet.  As Julien Coquet would likely say, c’est la vie!