Updated: Google Analytics Has Major Data Processing Issue: Loses 6 Days of E-Commerce Data
Folks at WebmasterWorld have been complaining that their Google Analytics data seemed off for weeks now. Well, they were dead on. If you go to Google Analytics, you will now notice that they have admitted to having data processing issues between the dates of April 30th to May 5th. Google promised to recover most of the data but all some of the e-commerce data between those date ranges are gone. (New Info: Google tells me that those with e-commerce reporting are more impacted by the data loss, but not all e-commerce data is loss.)
Here is the exact notification from Google:
Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.
The Google Analytics team promised to take “every precaution to prevent such disruptions from occurring again in the future.” But what do Analytics users get for the loss? Nothing. Should you expect something? I don’t think so - it is a free service. In my opinion, if you need someone to take the heat, you need to pay.
There is no exact ETA on when the data that Google was able to recover will be represented in the reports. So keep an eye out on your stats for those date ranges.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Plaxo Confession: Acquired by Comcast
Finally, Plaxo has admitted to having been acquired, by none other than Comcast, for around the speculated $175 million, according to Reuters. After dodging rumors that eventually seemed unsubstantiated, the communications services company has in fact been the one to take on Plaxo.
Having an existing partnership with Comcast was surely a factor in the decision to take on Plaxo, as the partnership included alerts for customers, among other integrated options. And in acquiring Plaxo, thanks to its vertical expansion with Plaxo Pulse, Comcast is hoping for an opportunity to really insert its brand into social media across the web.
Plaxo is all about an open social web experience for individual users, and though this has caused a bit of controversy in the past few months, it’s a generally progressive company that is moving in the direction in which most web-based social networks will have to go.
There have been times when some of us here at Mashable had trouble thinking of an ideal acquisition situation for Plaxo, as it’s somewhat on the fringe of networking given its progressive moves and sometimes non-user friendly integration with existing tools like Outlook. Nevertheless, we’re all quite interested to see exactly how Comcast will be incorporating Plaxo into its own communications services.
According to Plaxo, the company will remain an independent operation, keeping on all 50 of its employees and working on growing its networked address book features, and Plaxo Pulse as well. So far, we do know that Plaxo will be integrating with some of Comcast’s online properties like Fancast and Fandango, as well as its own portal, so I imagine that the face of Plaxo and the application of its technology will be shifting a good amount over the next year.
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Good and bad landing page examples
Its always a good idea to check out your competitors landing pages to see what everyone is doing. The best way to stay current on the trends is to just browse ads in a certain niche. I was checking some of the ads on the first page Google results for the keyword”mortgage” the other day. You’d figure with such a competitive term and high dollar industry, these people would have the absolute best landing page. That is not always the case. Here’s an example of what I would consider 1 bad and 1 good landing page.
The bad:
This page is cluttered, unfocused, and leaves no clear call to action. There are a million links on the page to all the various lending programs, leaving the customer confused as what to do next. Although, it might get customers into the company’s sales funnel, I would assume this is a very low converting page.
click for full size
The good:
This page is very focused, its shows the current rate in large numbers, a big red “get started” button, a quick testimonial quote, even a smiling happy family with a dog. This page has all the factors which should lead to high conversion. A great landing page.
click for full size
So what do your landing pages resemble more? The good or the bad?
Mothers day recap - holiday strategies
Well, I just finished going through the stats from the big Mother’s day holiday weekend and it was a good one. I saw great earnings on several holiday related offers like flowers, gifts, etc. These were fueled by some solid 5 figure daily MSN spends that always lead to super high conversions. It’s always been tough to get good traffic volume with MSN so I was very pleased.
Holidays are always great to boost earnings and go after some low hanging fruit. You have the 2 major factors that help ensure success as an online marketer.
1. Increased traffic surge. Having a know date on the calender provides guaranteed traffic and allows you to plan ahead.
2. Motivated buyers. They have a deadline to provide the sense of urgency to the purchase, which leads to great conversion rates.
So what’s my holiday strategy? Well, I probably put 80% of my time into normal, non-seasonal or non-holiday related offers. These are your bread and butter offers that have solid year round traffic. They may have certain trends that you need to keep up on, but for the most part traffic is pretty even.
The remaining 20% I like to focus on holiday/opportunity offers. The earnings on these days are too strong to ignore, so I definitely recommend chasing holidays. The next holiday coming up is Father’s day, which is a lot less of a shopping holiday than Mother’s day. But there are still some offers to capitalize on the built in demand.
Upcoming Event: Mobile Social Networks and UGC in Amsterdam
On July 2nd through 4th at the Moevenpick Hotel in Amsterdam, attend the IIR’s Mobile Social Networks & UGC conference. IIR’s Mobile Social Networks & UGC has been specifically designed for mobile operators, mobile community platform firms, software & technology providers and content/media companies to share ideas, discuss future trends and establish a common view of getting the most value out of mobile communities and User Generated Content strategies. Delegates will benefit from best-practice perspectives over a three day period offering a programme packed with case studies, roundtable discussions, an interactive pre-summit workshop as well as numerous networking and information-sharing opportunities.
Get a 10% discount by registering with code CG2473MASH.
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Video Ad Support Comes To Google AdWords API Sandbox
An older Google Groups thread was just updated by Jeff Posnick the AdWords API Advisor, an official Google representative in charge of the AdWords API development and support. The Googler explains that the API Sandbox should now support the creation of video ads.
Now, simulating the addition of video ads may be supported in the AdWords Sandbox environment. Jeff Posnick explained:
Could you try your attempt to create a video ad in the Sandbox environment again? The engineering team made a config change that *should* have enabled folks for it.
So it should work, may not, but should. We know Google is at least working on making it work.
Also, Google released the NET Client Library 1.0.0 for the AdWords API v11 and v12.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 8, 2008
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Strives to Help Myanmar Cyclone Victims
After a deathly cyclone ravaged the Myanmar (Burma) region, thousands of people are still hoping for aid while the death toll rises into the six digits. Fortunately, if you go to Google.com today, you’ll see that they’re looking to help. A screenshot of what my homepage appears as is included:
The link takes you to the Myanmar disaster relief page which allows you to donate through UNICEF or through Direct Relief International.
Forum members believe that the poignancy of this link is a great gesture and are happy that Google is taking a proactive stance to help out the victims and their families.
More disaster relief resources from other search properties are described in Greg Sterling’s very useful Search Engine Land post.
Discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.
1 for charity blogger challenge
I am throwing out an open challenge to all bloggers out there. It’s very simple:
Give up one of your ad spaces for charity!
Let’s face it, many of us have done pretty well making money online - and giving up a little blog space isn’t going hurt anyone financially. Just think of all the donations that can be driven to charity of your choice by giving them free impressions. I’m not talking about charities with an affiliate program either, just anonymous direct links to their donation page. If all the hundreds of bloggers in the “make money online” niche gave up 1 block of adspace, the impact would be incredible!
It doesn’t matter if its a 125×125 tile, a 120×600 banner, or even a text link. If you are all booked up on ads, I’m sure you can find some space to carve out on your blog. I shrunk some images and shifted things around a bit to create a permanent space in my referral links area for the charity link. See, no excuses! If you have an empty ad space its even easier. Just drop a charity link in there instead of the “space available” image.
The charity I selected to start is the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I have been lucky enough to raise several thousand dollars for the LAF in the past and they money really goes to a great cause. We all have been affected by cancer either personally or through a friend or family memeber. It’s time we help find a cure.
Some come on all you bloggers. Accept the challenge and give up 1 for charity!
Healia Communities: Yahoo Answers for Health
Health search engine Healia has recently launched some community-driven verticals in order to provide additional value to users. This is something that several health-related search tools have done, in order to supplement existing search content with user-generated content.
This is typically a tricky situation for the health sector because of the sensitive and legal nature that can arise with user-generated content being provided within a health-related vertical. Some ways in which others in the health search industry, like Hakia, have begun to ensure quality content alongside user-generated content is to have it verified by a third party. What Healia is doing is installing a rewards system for members that participate on the community end.
I spoke with Healia founder Tom Eng about the new communities and the associated point system, which rewards users based on site activity. While this is a great way to encourage user activity with most communities, the health sector is a different story.
Giving users top billing just because they create more content and leave more comments isn’t the best indication as to their validity and trustworthiness. Eng took my comments to heart and the Healia team will be looking at ways to improve the rewards system accordingly.
A couple other new Healia features worth checking out are the new health guides, and other aspects of the Healia communities. Healia offers a pretty useful way to connect with other users and find the groups that are most fitting to your needs. It’s search and filter capabilities provide an easy way to seek out users and topics that matter most to you, and allow you to track each accordingly.
© Kristen Nicole for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. |
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