First, a brief interlude: AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHH OK. I’m good now. Primal scream complete. The documentation for Google App Scripts is… less than perfect. So I have to start by thanking Tom Critchlow of Distilled. He sent me the initial script that made Google Spreadsheets play well with the LinkScape API. Otherwise, I’d be in a small, [...]

I’ve been building some custom reports for Portent in Google Spreadsheets. They do fun stuff like grab Google Analytics data, insert data from other APIs and such. One thing that nearly drove me batty, though, was figuring out how to automatically add a new row below the last row with data. Turns out, Google App [...]

Hootsuite just launched a new analytics tool, and it’s pretty slick. It doesn’t do anything new, but it integrates Hootsuite, Google Analytics and other data in a really elegant, white-label-able interface. Cool features include: Nice PDF report export; Basic branding: Put in your logo, contact info; Track Google Analytics against retweets; Track Facebook likes/unlikes all [...]

I want the perfect marketing dashboard. But I can never seem to find it. Here’s what it needs to look like: Why is that so hard? If I’m missing something, let me know.

I cannot lie – The prospect of taking the Google Analytics Certification Test intimidated me. I know my way around Google Analytics well. I counsel clients. But Google has this way of concocting test questions that are just odd enough to make you question your answers. Would there be lots of questions on the code [...]

I once got fired for improving sales 300%. I showed a client a report. It was awesome and I was dang proud of the results. The report read like this: Sales from organic search last year were $50,000. Sales from organic search this year were $150,000. Sales from PPC last year were $60,000, against a [...]

Kevin Hillstrom is my analytical idol. So, when I bought a copy of his e-book, Twitter Hashtag Analysis a few weeks back, I was mostly looking for hashtag analysis techniques. But I got a huge bonus: This great e-book is a blueprint for Twitter community building. Hillstrom based his e-book on analysis of activity in [...]

I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful [...]

I lie at the beginning of this video. I say that there are some things I love about Google Analytics’ new ‘in-page analytics’ feature. Truth is, I hate it. You know I’m a fan of all things Google Analytics, but man, this one stinks up the joint like a rotting pig carcass. Watch the video [...]

Soooo, a few readers asked me why I don’t use PageRank as a statistic. I thought about writing a long, angry, ranty post about Toolbar PageRank, bank bailouts and the moron on NPR today who said the USA has reduced its carbon emissions since 2000, etc. etc. but stopped myself. Instead, I’ve got a nice [...]