High folks… long time no Blog.

Well as you can image things have been crazy.
But I haven’t forgotten all of you out there… pining for more Dougy Goodness.
I dispense said goodness…. now:

The new job is going very well.
I really enjoy the job, the people, and the company over all.
I can’t tell you how great it is to be at a company focused on technology.
I’m finally able to justify spending time learning about all sorts of things I’ve been “meaning” to get educated on.

For instance…
Web Analytics.

It’s terribly interesting stuff.
Now-a-days analyzing your website traffic goes much further than server logs.
Sure any hosting company can provide rudimentary site statistics… and even create fancy graphs based on those logs… but the data is pretty dumb.
It’s just raw data, and it’s not actionable on any significant level.

Websites that REALLY want to make use of web site statistics need to understand visitor behavior, and need to be able to take action on it.

Example:
Say you’ve got a website that sells sporting goods.
You’re going to launch an advertising campaign and put banner ads all over the internet.

At the same time you are going to send out a marketing newsletter to all of your 40,000 opt-in subscribers.

You need to make sure you get every bang for your buck that you can,
Here’s how web analytics can help

You design TWO emails and TWO banner ads.
Then you send each of the emails to 500 people.
You also place each banner ad on a few good sites for a short time.
Your web analytics platform will tell you which of your emails and banner ads generated more revenue.
You can then take the more effective email and send to the rest of your list.
And likewise put the more effective banner ad all over the internet.

Neat huh?

Well wait…there’s more.

Now that you’ve used your web analytics data to create a more productive advertising campaign… you’re going to get some more visitors.

Web analytics can show you how your visitors behaved while at your site. What were they most interested in. Why did the folks who didn’t buy … not buy?

Well by looking at the “conversion funnel” we can see where people dropped out of the buying process.

Did they look at a product? - Yes
Did they add it to the cart? - Yes
Did they click “check out”? - Yes
Did they enter in Billing Info? - Yes
Did they enter in shipping info - NO

Ah… something about the shipping dissuaded them.
NOW THAT’S actionable data.

So you quickly create an email that will be sent to all the folks that dropped out at the shipping stage of the process.

The email uses the web analytics data to generate an offer of FREE SHIPPING on the very product they had in their carts while they were at your site.

“What LUCK” says the giddy consumer! The item they wanted yesterday (but didn’t want pay shipping for) JUST HAPPENS to have a Free Shipping promotion!!

THOSE kinds of emails… targeted, personal, and relevant… they get much increased conversion rates than a “blind” advertisement campaign.

You can make more revenue with an email like that sent to a handful of users than you did with the large scale banner add and email campaign combined!

Really interesting stuff.

Of course there are many web analytics packages out there.
Some bigger and fancier than others.
Some free… some far from it.

So I decided to start using Google Analytics here on DougMeade.com
Google Analytics is free, but surprisingly powerful once you get under the hood.

Of course I’m not selling anything.
So a “conversion” for me isn’t a sale… I decided that a conversion for me is a new registered user.
I’m impressed with the data available already at this early stage.

I haven’t accurately defined the path a user would take through the site in order to register (a conversion) .. so I can’t give you any REAL insight as to where possible members are abandoning the process.

But stay tuned.

Oh and… a big hearty hello to the folks visiting from Bartlett, Tampa, Hattiesburg, Waco, Austin, and Lafayette.

Available Formats: [mov]

Video from my trip to the Consumer Electonics Show in Vegas.Music:“Two Shots” by Matt Dusk“Viva Las Vegas” by Elvis Presley

Available Formats: [wmv] [mov]

This is an older video.I taped it before I officially launched Vlogs here on the site.Still… I hope you enjoy.

So a coworker suggested today that we take a half day and head to a river boar casino.

What a STELLAR idea.

Unfortunately I don’t think I can pull that off.

But what a GREAT idea.

It’s been a REALLY long week.

Ditching at 12:00 to go play some poker would be exactly what I need right now.

I am soooooo gonna be thinking about how I CAN’T do that all day.

Recently I was in Orlando for a trade show.

It wasn’t as great as Orlando could have been…

I mean I was staying in the Disney Dolphin resort, and the weather was awesome, but all I saw was a hotel room, the trade show floor, and a few in-hotel restaurants.

But I did have one really memorable moment.

And I don’t mean a “I’ll always remember that moment at the trade show” type moment.. I mean “At the trade show I remembered that great moment”" type moment.

It sounds more complex than it is.

They say smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory.

I believe it.

The trade show had ended and we were all packing up.

The crew of the Dolphin was taking down the hotel’s stuff, and had some of the big loading bay doors open.

A warm breeze wafted in scented with a subtle mix of sea salt and orange. I’m sure the natives didn’t think twice about it, but that’s an experience you don’t get everyday in Indiana and I noticed it right away.

A flood of memories came back to me.

First the balloon ride Jana and I took when we first went to Florida together.

I really REALLY loved that trip.

I get all nostalgic thinking about it. We weren’t engaged or anything, heck we hadn’t even been dating all THAT long. But we had a BLAST. One of the highpoints was our hot air balloon ride.

We got up at dawn and lifted off from a hazy field as the sun came up.

I’d planned the outing for her… not expecting to get such a kick out of it, but it was really amazing. We swooped down over the orange groves and you could smell the oranges on the air.

Of course that trip was fun for a lot of reasons.

We walked the board walk, laid around clear water beach, and toured the Disney parks at length.

Really an awesome time.

And it all came back to me in about a tenth of a second.
Then (in the following tenth of a second) another memory came back.
This one much older.

Space Camp!!

Yeah space camp… like the movie.
But we never really made it into space.

When I was a kid Dave and I went to Space Academy (camp for the slightly older kids).
We were geeks.
We still are geeks.

But it was also a great time.

I met great people, and got to see/learn/do things that most people (of any age) will never get to do.

I mean think of this… both years I was there I was fortunate enough to be the commander of the shuttle that our team had for our simulations.

(and even though this isn’t an awards show I have to say that I was even MORE fortunate to have a really stellar team to work with. The pilot, the CAPCOM on ‘the ground’ all were great.)

Anyway… as a precursor to the BIG mission that concluded each year I was given a schematic of all the controls in the shuttle cockpit, along with a brief description of what they were for.

Same for the CRTS that would display various menu options.

More time was spent on the controls / menus that I would be needing in my mission of course. And as logic would dictate a very large part of my mission was successfully getting off the planet… and back onto it.

I can honestly say that if for some reason I ever find myself on a space shuttle, and the crew is incapacitated… I could land it.

Absolutely.

As long as the radio worked and I could talk to someone down there … I could land it.

How many of you can say that?!

But I digress.
We were talking about memories.

So in an instant I remembered the dorm I stayed in.

The full size shuttle in the center of the campus.
All the great people I met:

- Dave (Hilarious guy.. wonder what he’s up to)

- Crispy (My top notch Pilot)

- Jessie (The girl I had a crush on)

- And The Canadian (I can picture her .. but her name eludes me. When I’m home I’ll see if I can find a letter.)

The cafeteria…

Climbing into the flight deck.

Meeting all the “real life” astronauts.

It was a lot of fun.
And I hadn’t thought of it in a long, long time.

The flood of memory was interesting, and it made me think.
Will I remember these things so vividly when I’m 70?
Will the people I met remember me when they catch a familiar breeze?

Does it work the same for bad memories?

Does my Dad ever get flooded with memories of his buddies in VietNam on some random summer afternoon?

I guess time will tell.

I hope though that I can always remember those things so well.
Hopefully at home as well as in Florida.

Wow this is a long Blog.
Generally not the best idea to make huge Blogs… but hey I’m feeling nostalgic.

Some other time I’ll tell you about riding bikes up the ramp at the empty YMCA building during my childhood .

Well folks I’m off to Texas for a quick business trip.

I’ll be back tomorrow evening so I’m not going to have any time to really see anything “Texan”… unless the Courtyard by Marriott hotel is somehow uniquely Texan.

On the upside… I’m flying enough to be getting some good frequent flyer miles! I’ve been upgraded to First Class for my upcoming trip to Las Vegas Baby!

Yup I’m heading to sin city like the high roller I was born to be.

At least Northwest Airlines appreciates my greatness.

I’m forced to fly ATA to Texas and they apparently are unaware that they have booked THE Doug Meade.

Probably the Governor will be waiting with some key or ribbon cutting ceremony though so I suppose the oversight in my flight is no big deal.

See you all soon!

So here I am in Charleston, SC.

It’s been a hectic few days so far, but enjoyable too.

• We’re staying in an excellent hotel
• Charleston is an interesting town with lots of history and some really neat old buildings.
• Every other store front here is either a homemade candy shop, art gallery, or antique store.
• There’s an old city market with venders of all sorts.
• Good food, and so far no Hurricane.
• I got to enjoy a nice cigar last night.
• The night before I enjoyed a live blues/dixie band.

That’s not to say that everything’s been great… there have been a few things I could have done without.

• The other night I had a headache so bad I got ZERO sleep. None.
• The same night an alarm as loud as the voice of GOD himself went off at 3:00 am
• An impressively sized rat darted across our path while walking back to the hotel.
• Our dinner party starred horrified at a huge roach crawling the restaurant wall.

The waiter came by and said “So where are you all from?”

He could tell we were tourist from our reaction.

“It’s a Palmetto bug they’re all over here. We’re below sea level so when it rains they come out. Nothin’ you can do. They don’t hurt anything”

My coworker said “So it’s not a roach?”

The waiter replied: “Well.. no .. .they are similar though”

Yeah right dude.. we’re tourist not dummies.

You call it what you want to ease the minds of your disgusted patrons… that was a roach!

(at least we weren’t eating there… we were just drinking)

All for now…