I just got done reading Bryan’s new book with Anthony Garcia of FutureNow, Inc. titled “Which Sells Best? A Quick Start Guide to Testing for Retailers” which you can get from the FutureNow web site for under fifteen bucks. Controlled experimentation is one of the most critical of the Web Analytics Business Processes, perhaps the most critical. But frequently folks I talk to complain that they’re interested in doing testing but there is some barrier to their getting started …

… well, knowing how to start is no longer a barrier.

In their book, Bryan and Anthony break down the process from beginning to end and cover all the bases. The chapters on “Know Thy Customer” and “Factors That Determine Online Success” are uniquely Eisenberg and uniquely FutureNow, which is great, because these guys know their stuff!

One of my favorite quotes in the book is this: “Proper testing is always hard work.” Bryan and Anthony don’t sugar coat it, but they’re clear that what you’re working to do with experimentation is not figure out what is best but rather what is best for your customers. In my experience, the difference between “best practices” and “best for your customers” is often millions of dollars.

Get your copy of “Which Sells Best? A Quick Start Guide to Testing for Retailers” right now!

I was chatting with my good friend Bryan Eisenberg today and he reminded me that the WAA call for nominations to the board of directors is STILL OPEN but is closing soon. You can review the requirements and nomination process on the WAA web site but there is more you should know:

• Bryan expressed that the current board is really looking for a practitioner as they have a number of consultants and vendors already represented. Nothing wrong with consultants and vendors … I mean hey, I think I’m technically both of those things … but the board needs some real-life, roll-up-your-sleeves web analytics practitioners to help shape the future of the association.
• My personal observation is that the board is kinda guy-heavy right now (apologies to Andrea and Shubhra) so if you happen to be, umm, not a guy, and if you’re a practitioner, that would be an extra-added benefit to all us normal WAA member folks out here.
• Another observation is that most of the people on the board are incredibly busy. Chris D’allesandro and Clint Ivy are too busy to blog. Jim Sterne is so busy he has to email us about his whereabouts from time to time. And Seth Romanow has a new job with Microsoft that is keeping him on his toes. Perhaps the reason that Bryan is looking for a practitioner is that they actually have the luxury of going home at night?

But enough of the soft stuff. Here are three people I’d like to see run for the board of directors and would get my vote (several times since I know how to delete my SurveyMonkey cookie!)

• Kristen Findley from Ameriprise. Anyone smart enough to use a lava lamp to drive interest in web analytics is getting my vote.
• Jodi McDermott from InPhonic. I had the pleasure of working with Jodi when she was at Visual Sciences and she’s as sharp as they come.
• Avinash Kaushik from Intuit. Yes, Avinash is a guy, but he’s the nicest damn guy I have ever met so he’s still getting my vote.

I’ll apologize in advance if any of my three candidates is uninterested or doesn’t have the time since I’m still going to write you in on the ballot.

Anyway, check out the nomination requirements and process ASAP since the time to vote is drawing near!

Awhile back I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Warzecha, Manager of User Experience and Analytics at ReelzChannel.com. Richard is looking to hire the company’s first web analytics specialist (the job is posted on my premium job board and can be viewed here.) The company is based in both the Twin Cities and Los Angeles and Richard said while they’d prefer the hire to be in Minnesota, they’re flexible.

Reelzchannel.com provides a ton of information about movies and is basically a start-up within a larger organization which provides the luxury of funding in an otherwise upstart environment. The company is currently running a free web analytics application but they would be looking for someone to take a strong leadership role in the organization to help select their next analytics platform and really help the company take advantage of all the great web data you, my reader, deal with on a day-to-day basis.

While the position is kind of split web analytics/search marketing, Richard said that they were willing to train someone strong on analytics to do the search marketing. From my perspective, this would give the right person the ability to branch out and add another valuable skill to their already in-demand resume.

If you’re in the Twin Cities or Los Angeles and looking to make a substantial difference using your web analytics skills, check out the ReelzChannel posting.

You can view the posting here.

Right after I got a new hair-do I took a quick trip to San Diego for BusinessOnline’s Online Marketing Summit which was great. Aaron Kahlow really did a fantastic job getting over 300 marketers to attend his first-ever event and the conference was very well done. If you’re in online marketing, definitely keep your eyes open for this event in the future.

I was fortunate enough to take my kids to SeaWorld and enjoy two crowd-free days in the sun, watching Shamu and petting the bat rays. While I was away, I missed a few things that I thought were worth passing along:

• Gary Angel from SEMphonic who I am fortunate to speak with frequently had an interview he and I conducted published in ADOTAS. Gary prefaced the interview by commenting that he wasn’t much of an interviewer but somehow he managed to get the single most interesting interview I have ever given on the subject of web analytics ever. We talked about a variety of subjects including my AMA/Aquent webinar on March 6th, the Web Analytics Business Process, and the notion that web analytics professionals are very much craftspeople.
• Jim Novo, a true web analytics guru, picked up on my recent rant about the death of page views … NOT! and did a little analysis of his McAfee anti-virus application and how the application treats tracking cookies. The thing I love the most about Jim is how practical his guidance is, especially regarding sessions as a replacement for unique visitors and page views. Jim closes his post with this:

“My advice to you is to start shadow tracking now using Visits or Sessions as the base in your most important metrics, the ones you are on the hook for. You don’t have to show them to anybody, just keep track of them in Excel or something and note the trends. Then when you start seeing your Unique Visitor based metrics collapsing on you, you can whip out the Visit / Session based metrics and say, “See! See! It’s really not happening! We’re doing much better than you think!”

• The often-cited-and-always-delightful Mr. Avinash Kaushik was interviewed by SearchEngineWatch’s Eric Enge. Avinash is always delightful to read, especially more so for me when Mr. Enge asks him about me an my recent work on measuring visitor engagement and Avinash replies:

“You know that Eric is obviously a leader in the industry. We are all following the trail that Eric has blazed. He is just an awesome guy and a really great thinker.”

I am truly humbled. If you’re not reading Gary, Avinash, and Jim … you should be!

Yep, twenty years of hair, lopped off the back of my head to donate to Locks of Love so that a child suffering from Alopecia areata can have normal hair, just like their classmates and friends.
It’s strange, not having all that hair anymore. In the past people have developed a strange obsession with my ponytail, some going so far as to offer hundreds of dollars for it (and later apologizing for such crude behavior.)

At the end of the day it turned out that it was only hair and nothing magical or worthy of such attention. The fact that I grew it for twenty years — over half my life — is perhaps more strange than the fact that I cut it off. The fact that I’m blogging about it details the depth the obsession.

People are strange, huh?

If you want to see how I look now, much the same but with substantially shorter hair, you can find me at the following events in the next handful of months:

• BusinessOnline’s Online Marketing Summit ‘07 in San Diego on February 22nd
• WebSideStory/Visual Sciences’s Digital Marketing University in San Diego on March 8th and 9th
• Silicon Valley WebGuild Web Analytyics Panel in Mountain View on March 14th
• Jim Sterne’s Emetric Summit in San Francisco on May 7th (note the agenda has been released and looks very good in my humble and short-haired opinion)
• WebSideStory/Visual Sciences annual customer event in San Diego the week of May 14th

Also, you won’t be able to see me, but don’t forget my free AMA/Aquent webcast “Web Analytics Demystified: Ten Simple Strategies for Using Web Analytics to Improve Your Online Marketing Efforts” on March 6th at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern. You can sign up for this free event at marketingpower.com.