Early reading days...

This is a good overview of the tools out there for each area:
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/11/multiplicity-succeed-awesomely-at-web-analytics-20.html

Another great starting point: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/06/tips-for-web-analytics-success-for-small-businesses.html

I've also played around with dnScoop and I've found something odd, which is dnScoop values newzealandlair.com higher than auckandlair.com Which this has left me wondering, am I doing something wrong with auckandlair.com?? Can't be, so why is the other one worth more?? Perhaps the real reason is they are both worth so little it is all within some kind of margin of error...

This was an interesting article I've just read:
http://www.seologs.com/seo/the-essential-guide-to-link-building/
It was the bits at the end which I found really interesting, the tips to search for gov and edu sites as they get a heavier weighting. (also knowing that websites linkings to another on the same server are given less weight is news to me) However the rest of the article was all quite obvious

Also been looking around a few of the wikipedia articles, came across this very sneaky/disturbing trick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_stuffing
(I wonder how you would combat this, if at all?)

Today's study was mainly reading through all of this:
http://seo-tutorial.seoadministrator.com/

I had a thought today, there are many sites out there which just get "abandoned". It is a turn off for new visitors (or returning visitors!) to see the last updated entry was from early 2007 or whatever, so why couldn't the owner of the site repost (as "blasts from the past" or anything else you wish to call it) previous posts each week (starting with the oldest, and working around to the most recent in a circle). This could be done by an automated script, and will keep the site looking "fresh" (even though obviously this is hardly the ideal way to manage a website, but if you are looking for a no hassle method it is a million times better than just abandoning it). I thought of this while looking at this site: http://www.directnaturalgame.com/ Anybody can tell by just looking at this the site is "dead", yet with this little tweak that I suggested only the most dedicated followers of the site would realise what has happened.

My last idea of the day is a price comparison site, nothing of the sort exists for bootcamps of seduction companies & I really do wonder if such a site existed would it help drive down the price of bootcamps by much (or at all?)?

My Journey To Learn SEO & Web Analytics/Marketing

Have decided to throw myself in to SEO & Web Analytics/Marketing for the next couple of months, so I'll spend at least a few hours each day during the week on the theory and practical of this. Along the way I'll use this blog to track my progress.

First step is I've bought a few domain names for sites I'm interested in creating (seductionhistory.com pickupstyle.com & onlinepickupguide.com).

Next steps:
Decide on a webhosting service.
Create some content for my websites (the toughest step? Ah well, will be about topics I enjoy writing about so should be easy).
Now for the even 'funner' step... looking at and playing around with the data! (I'm serious, I'm actually looking forward to this as I have a degree in mathematics so I'd like to see what figures are coming out of this) So far I've already signed up to Google Analytics & I'll be applying that soon to the sites I already have up and running (I've had aucklandlair.com & newzealandlair.com for a couple of years already. Hmm... I wonder if I can use Google Analytics on my political blog on blogspot? Probably, will have to check that on monday).

Lately I've been reading http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ (a blog by the Analytics Evangelist for Google). If anybody else knows of good resources to learn from I'd be keen to hear about them.


Also I've just came across the concept of pre-sold pages like at http://www.presellpageman.com/presell-page-prices ($100/month & UP!) and http://www.publishyourkeyword.com/ ($20/yr). This to me sounds CRAZY, as you could buy some random relevant domain names yourself and link from there to your main site, so why on earth use this?! (yes I do understand that some of these sites would have a much much better alexa rank than a site you have only just started up, but I'm looking here at the CHEAPEST rates on each of these two websites. And who knows how bad the cheapest ones on offer might be? Perhaps more or less the same quality as a random domain and website you just started up yourself yesterday) Then again this sure sounds like a good way to make a buck for the guys selling the services....

I think for now I shall focus on getting my head around these tools:
http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer , http://www.google.com/analytics/ , http://www.clicktracks.com/products/pro/index.php & http://www.statcounter.com/
Because they are all free & come recommended.