A few years ago, I started blogging. Almost immediately, I signed up for a Google Analytics account. I soon discovered that there was an enormous disconnect between what Google Analytics reported vs. my server stats. The reason for this disconnect can be explained by differences in the way they measure traffic.

WordPress, Google Analytics (and others like Quantcast & ShareThis) all capture data through the execution of a script, or page tag or some similar mechanism that runs whenever a visitor loads a page at your blog or website. The problem with this is that an increasing number of users now have script and java blocking enabled on their desktop-based browsers. They also block cookies. Many mobile devices are not captured by these mechanisms for the same reasons. Consider this as well. Most government offices and medium to large sized businesses block cookies and java script by default. Whether people at work should be surfing to your site is an entirely different issue. The reality is; they do!

The server side stats on the other hand capture everything. They miss nothing (well actually they can miss the ‘odd’ thing due to caching).  The problem with the sever stats however is that they report every search engine, spider and bot that hits your site.

What does this disconnect look like?

Here is a snapshot of the Life As A Human traffic for April 22^nd as captured by WordPress Stats and by our sever stats.

Look at the enormous difference in page-views. Our Google Analytics stats reported similar numbers of page-views as WordPress did. The lion’s share of the difference between the two is due to spiders, bots and also the way that pages are loaded within the WordPress framework. Reality is much closer to what Google and WordPress reports. By the way, Life As A Human  had 184,951 hits that day! Ahhh .. for the good old days!

So how close are WordPress and Google to reality?

I have been experimenting with the use of StumbleUpon Advertising to drive some traffic to the site. I started using StumbleUpon for advertising at synaptici.com many months before we launched Life As A Human. In short, it costs 5 cents per referral to your website or blog. So, for $5.00 you can buy 100 page-views and target a specific demographic/geographic. It’s a great service and companies like Warner Brothers, The Huffington Post and NBC, use it, with much deeper pockets than ours!

I noticed when I started to do this that when the campaign was done, StumbleUpon would report having sent 100 referrals. My WordPress stats however showed only 90 or 95. As mentioned earlier, this is due to users using script blocking. I wasn’t really that worried about a 5 or 10% discrepancy. Recently however, I noticed this delta was growing. I decided it was time to run a simple test to see if I could measure the difference.

The Test

This is a very simple test that any one can run from their blog or website.

• I created a hidden page. I called mine ‘hidden test page’. Pretty original eh!
• I set it to: no index / no follow – so that search engines, spiders and bots could not see it and affect the test results.
• I e-mailed 50 people and asked them to participate in the test by surfing to the page (once) and letting me know via e-mail when they had. I also asked them to let me know if they had surfed to the page on a desktop or a mobile (or both) so I could capture the difference between the 2. Alas, this part of my test failed as I forgot to ensure I was capturing that data on the server side. Dang! However, this did not affect the main results.
• I let the test run for 5 days then took the page off line.

Here are the results

That’s a pretty significant delta, don’t you think? The server data contains no spiders or bots. It lines up ‘exactly’ with the number of e-mail replies to the test.

Ok, so what does that mean to me?

• If you have no intention of monetizing your site, other than the morale boost of realizing that you are getting more page-views than you thought, probably not much. According to this test, if you take your WordPress reported page-views and add 33.33% to them, you will have a more accurate total.




• If you are a small to medium size publisher (website or blog) and you are monetizing through ad placement mechanisms, then, at least according to this test, you ‘might’ be leaving 33.33% of your impression ad revenue on the table. I don’t believe there is much you can do about that but knowledge is always empowering. Certainly, the advertiser won’t be in a hurry to see this change. They‘re getting more bang for the buck! Why change that? If you have some ideas, please, share them in a comment.




• If you are a larger publisher with your own marketing team and you are handling your own ad placements, you probably already know about this and have taken steps to make sure you aren’t leaving that much on the table by using your own, more sophisticated analytics tools. If you haven’t, you really should.

From a bigger picture point of view, I believe what this trend shows is that in the coming years, this issue will most certainly need to be addressed. There are several solutions but none will be perfect. Please understand, I am in no way suggesting that there is something nefarious about this. This is not a conspiracy to keep dollars out of our pockets. It is simply an artifact of current traffic measuring methodologies.

Likewise, this is not a shot at Google Analytics or WordPress Stats! If you don’t have a Google Analytics account, you really should. They have done an amazing job of developing a very powerful tool that can provide you with a wealth of information about your traffic. Not using it is to deprive yourself of data that can help you grow in ways you might not have even imagined. That people and companies block cookies and scripts is not their faults.

Another  Test – Part 2 – Google Analytics

As I mentioned, this was a simple test and it is in no way conclusive. Further and much more robust testing is needed to more accurately quantify the actual delta between the traffic measuring mechanisms mentioned in this article. This is simply a snapshot. I just happen to believe it is indicative of the current realities associated with the measurement of website traffic, and I know I am not alone in this belief.

I will be running another test sometime soon. I will be looking to capture the difference between how mobile devices and desktops are captured. I suspect that we will see a much higher percentage of missed mobile devices. This test will compare Google Analytics data against the server and WordPress stats. Actually, I did include Google Analytics in the first test but the test data yielded +/- 12% inaccuracies so I am not comfortable presenting that data. What I can tell you is that like WordPress, the Google Analytics results were significantly below the actual total.

• A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this test. I hope that you have found the results interesting and more importantly, useful. I also hope you will participate in the second test!




• If you would like to be a part of the test group for the next test, please leave a comment indicating that you would like to participate.




• If you have run these types of tests yourself, please, share your knowledge and let us know.

Photo Credits

Thumbnail – Digitage Web 2.0 – Creative Commons – Maureen Flynn-Burhoe

© Gil Namur, 2010

Within a week of that idea, our team was built, and we have been working hard ever since to turn that idea into something real. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this vibrant and dedicated team. Six months later, this is the fruit of their labor. It’s February 1, 2010 and our doors are finally open.

Life As A Human has begun!

Please surf to this link to read the rest of this post!
http://lifeasahuman.com/2010/laah/life-as-a-human-has-begun/

Photo Credits

Public Domain Photo – courtesy of PDPhoto

Not far from the shores of Cortes Island, there is an ancient and mysterious mushroom pictographs. Beside it, high on an old-growth fir tree, is a giant fungal growth that may hold the key to curing the world of tuberculous. Coincidence? Renowned mycologist Paul Stamets thinks not. Join us on a journey we took last summer to unravel the mystery of the Mushroom Man.

From Bill Weaver – Across Borders Media

Length: 7 minutes 5 seconds

About Bill Weaver

About Across Borders Media

Whatever your faith or belief system may be,
I want to wish you all great joy and health always!

May your new year be filled with many blessings!

All of my very best wishes and hopes!

Be safe &

HAVE FUN!

Gil

Early on in our conversation, he began to tell me about an exciting prospect he was hoping would come together for him. It involved working with a very interesting and accomplished man on a fascinating project overseas.

Eric: This guy is amazing Gil! He has enjoyed a tremendous career and is a Prophet Western.

Me: (thinking .. huh.. a Prophet Western?) Excuse me Eric, a Prophet Western?

Eric: Yes, that’s right! I am really hoping that we get the opportunity to work together and that ….

Me: (totally befuddled now) I’m sorry Eric. I don’t understand! A Prophet Western? As opposed to an Eastern Prophet?

Eric: (now laughing heartily) Nooooo .. he is a Professor at the University of Western Ontario! A Prof at Western!

Me: (blushing a bit) I knew that!

As silly as this may seem, I have witnessed this type of misunderstanding on many occasions. Worse, I have also witnessed the results of not having the misunderstanding clarified. In the example above, had I not asked Eric to shed some light on my confusion, I might have assumed that Eric was embarking on some kind of deep spiritual journey. A Prophet Western evokes a very different mental image than does a Prof at Western!

Whether the word is spoken or in writing, if you don’t understand it, ask for or seek out its actual meaning. I have seen seasoned executives make catastrophic errors in judgment due to such misunderstandings often leading to loss of business and huge embarrassment. As happened with Eric, I would much rather blush a little bit by asking a question than to go off telling our mutual friends that I believe he will soon be working with a Prophet!

So, what does this all have to do with orange sandwiches you ask?

Some years ago, my wife my super fantastic and wonderful wife Colleen and I were discussing some things we needed to accomplish over the next few days. Neither of us was feeling very energetic as we were both fighting a cold at the time. When I suggested that we look after one of those things right away, the ensuing conversation took place.

Colleen: Why don’t we do that tomorrow?

Me: We should do it now. Tomorrow will have its own challenges.

Colleen: (beginning to laugh) What did you say?

Me: (wondering what’s so funny) I said, tomorrow will have its own challenges.

Colleen: (now in hysterics) Please .. umm .. HUH???

Me: (now laughing very hard but still not understanding why!) I said, tomorrow will have its own challenges. What’s so funny about that?

Colleen: (barely able to speak for laughing so hard) I thought you said, tomorrow we’ll have orange sandwiches!!!

Since that day, whenever we know that there are difficulties ahead, we lighten the moment by saying, “Yes, tomorrow we’ll have orange sandwiches!”

Postscript:

This is the first article I write since September 25th. Some of you have asked about that. I had been writing at least one a week, usually two! Well, let’s just say that there have been many days from then to now and many of them had their orange sandwiches!

Oh .. and speaking of orange sandwiches, just for fun, I thought I would see if there were any pictures of orange sandwiches out there before I sliced one and placed it between slices of bread for a photo shoot. Who knew! They actually exist and they look good too. Now, I’ll have to try to make one. I’ll let you all know how that turns out!

Photo Credits

Prophet from the MS Word Clip Art Collection – tweaked by me
Orange sandwiches – © Mourner / Vladimir Agafonkin

© Gil Namur, 2009

Until recently, I thought that the most difficult language to understand was legalese. Apparently, legalese is allowed to break all grammatical rules. Some of these documents have sentences that ramble on for an entire page without a period. Check it out sometime. Take a legal agreement, paste it into your word processor, and see what kind of reaction you get from your grammar checker. Mine complains by underlining everything!

Have you ever read the fine print on the back of credit card agreements? Holy Moley! Legalese outdone? I heard recently that a Professor of Law had given a copy of her credit card agreement to her second year students. She gave them all 20 minutes to read it and answer one simple question; what is my interest rate? Not one of them could figure it out. It’s no small wonder that the general population can’t figure it out either.

A few days ago, much to my amazement, the bewildering language of both lawyers and financial institutions were outdone by who I would have thought would be the least likely of culprits, philosophers. My wife Colleen and I were watching a show on TV that featured eight philosophers talking about the meaning of life. I love philosophy and have eagerly explored it all my life. I believe I have a good vocabulary and a reasonable understanding of many philosophical concepts. In all honesty, I understood perhaps 50% of what I heard in that show. Four of the philosophers were easy to follow. The other four, well, Colleen and I looked at each other with blank expressions and asked; “what are they talking about?”

The problem is the overuse, or perhaps, the abuse of vocabulary. While I understand all of the words they used, the complexity of each spoken sentence will require me to watch this show several times to get a handle on what they are saying. This is unfortunate, as I really don’t have the time to do this but would love to know what they were presenting. Instead, my lasting impression is that it was all gobbledygook.

Let me give you an example. Which of the following two sentences do you prefer? Which one conveys to you all you really need to know?

The meandering and nebulous nature of the homily expounded by these cerebrally inclined orators initiated intracranial cephalalgia.

or

Listening to and trying to understand these well-educated thinkers gave me a deep headache!

I have mentioned lawyers, financial institutions and philosophers. Marketing departments often speak in confusing language as well. For example, in the article Product knowledge is essential to your success, I talk about ‘toning down the jargon’.

When speaking with your clients, please, tone down the jargon. Don’t expect your clients to know all the buzz words. Use simple words and avoid acronyms. For example, avoid this: “We use a SCSI drive backplane architecture with RAID level 5 to provide your enterprise with systems that are fault tolerant thus providing built in redundancies to ensure the availability of your mission critical applications twenty four seven.” Please, find a simpler way to say that. Don’t go too far to the left though. “Dude, our storage solutions really rock” is not a great choice either!

My point in all of this is simple. When trying to communicate an idea to someone, it is my humble opinion that using the simplest language possible is the best option. Showing off your great intellectual prowess is not the point. Successfully communicating the idea is what counts.

The other side of this is even more important to your personal growth and/or the success of your business. When someone says something that you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to say so. Ask for clarification. If none is offered, get advice from a friend or a colleague. Too many people in this world are guilty of pretending to understand things in order to avoid embarrassment. That’s just silly. You are depriving yourself of an opportunity to increase your knowledge. From a business perspective, in order to make good decisions, you need to understand what you are signing, before you sign it. You need to understand your strategies and business philosophies before you state them to your staff and potential clients.

All of that now said, I have a decision to make. Seeing as I recorded the show on philosophy, shall I go back and watch it again or shall I move on to the next article, which is also about communication and how we often misunderstand things because we heard them incorrectly? I already have a title for it…

‘Tomorrow, we’ll have orange sandwiches!’

I think I’ll write more, my cranium will appreciate the break!

Photo Credits

All pictures from the MS Word Clip Art Collection

© Gil Namur, 2009

Steve Hartman revisits the Chandler Family Reunion, 30 years after Charles Kuralt, who found this story one of the most inspirational of his career. – From CNET TV

What a wonderful story!

Length: 3 minutes 2 seconds

By now, you have likely noticed the large banner in the right sidebar.

So, what exactly is Life As A Human?


www.lifeasahuman.com

The blogzine that comments on, critiques & celebrates
the experience of being human.

• Life as a Human will feature up to 25 international writers, each with a focused perspective, who contribute their unique insights on all varieties of the human experience.
• Our specialty is quality, not quantity. We’re interested in original, thoughtful commentary. We are not a news aggregator, nor are we interested in sensationalism.
• We will provide to our writers a generous compensation plan, as well as branding, marketing and media assets.
• Life As A Human will also have a philanthropic mission. On a monthly basis, we plan to provide help to those who need it most.
• The site architecture is being designed to scale easily to 30 million monthly page views in anticipation of a fast growth curve. All technical details associated with running a large website will be handled by our staff.
• We have built a team of highly capable, experienced and successful individuals with skill sets in: management, marketing, sales, search engine design, e-commerce, web development, branding, graphics design, public relations, media relations, writing, editing, coding, finance and administration.
• Bios about this team will be available soon.
• Life As A Human will launch on Feb 1, 2010.

Until the site is live, if you have questions or comments about Life As A Human, this is the place to ask those questions or leave your feedback. Either I or one of the Life As A Human team will reply. As well, I will provide you with more information in the coming weeks and months.

To say that I am excited about this new venture would be a huge understatement. The individuals I have the privilege of working with are outstanding at what they do and are a very creative group. They are also a lot of fun!

So there it is! I look forward to your thoughts and feedback about all of this. We have 141 days to go!

Cheers,

Gil

© Gil Namur, 2009

Never ever, say to a customer; “I don’t know”.

I absolutely refused to follow this advice and the conversations that followed with my boss were not pleasant. I wasn’t fired, but he was clearly unhappy with me!

Here is much better advice. When a customer asks a question that you don’t know the answer to, the best answer is this:

I don’t know, but I’ll find out!

When you do this, you are telling the truth and operating from a position of integrity. You are also making a commitment to get an answer. When you follow through and get back to your customer with an answer, you are demonstrating your reliability to follow through on your commitments.

Never forget that building long-term relationships based on trust are critical to your success. Demonstrating your integrity and reliability will go a long way towards establishing trust.

There is another very important dynamic to this. The statement; I don’t know, contains within it the seeds of learning. Freelance Writer Michael Kwan has written an insightful article titled ‘You’re Allowed Not to Know Something’. I highly recommend that you read this fine article.

Photo Credits

Gil and son Andrew © Gil Namur

© Gil Namur, 2009

Colin’s passion is to help others achieve their potential. For years, he has been delving deeply into books to discover the ‘hidden wisdom’ within them and link it to his personal and professional experience to provide what he calls “School of Life” manuscripts.

Colin succinctly and beautifully summarizes these books into ‘Wisdom Notes’. Wisdom Notes can help to open our minds to new ways of thinking, provide inspiration, motivation and knowledge to help us on our path to self-improvement.

So why am I telling you this?

Via Wisdom Notes, Colin is focused on raising US$ 1 million for orphanages in Poland via the Chiva Foundation, which Colin and his wife recently established with a $55,000 contribution of their own.

By providing children with the opportunity to grow up in a ‘family environment’, they develop their core values, including being enveloped with love and community. The Chiva Foundation is committed to helping underprivileged children grow up in a safe, loving environment where they are also educated in life skills, arts, music and sport.

How can you help?

The proceeds from Colin’s Wisdom Notes are going directly to the Chiva Foundation. The notes sell for $45.00. For that price, you will receive 104 Wisdom Notes to books such as:

Man’s Search for Meaning, Tao Te Ching, The Letters of Seneca, Think and Grow Rich, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Wisdom of Heraclitus, A New Earth, Happy for No Reason, The Success Principles, Joseph Campbell Companion, The Magic of Thinking Big, The Writings of Emerson, The Diamond Cutter, The Prophet, Walden … click here for the full list:

As Bob Burg put it, “You will receive the benefit of Colin’s remarkable wisdom summaries and be supporting some terrific and needful kids at the same time.”

Colin has provided synaptici with these free samples of Wisdom Notes to the Go-Giver by Bob Burg & John David Mann and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran! Have a peek and just click on PDF sample to view the Wisdom Notes.

Colin, you are making a huge difference in the lives of underprivileged children by bringing them hope and helping them to obtain an education. I wish you every success in your efforts and thank you for your giving spirit!

Please visit these other pages that also support Colin’s efforts:

Photo Credits

All photos from Colin’s web sites

© Gil Namur, 2009