EmptyMind | Jason Thompson Web Analytics

Let All Things Take Their Course

By Jason Thompson | Published: March 13, 2011

WOW!!!! It’s been a long, eventful, and stressful couple of weeks.

Last week was Omniture Summit and it was amazing. I was fortunate to be included in two session as part of the Analytics All-Stars breakout session. I met a lot of amazing people. I had many wonderful and insightful conversations, many of those taking place in the Gibson Girl Lounge. I got my photo taken with Brett Error inside a photo booth at the ski party. And, I recharged my #measure batteries.

Oh yeah, if you missed the big news that was announced on Monday, I will be leaving Numeric Analytics to join Keystone Solutions.

I had an amazing year at Numeric and I am sad to be leaving so many wonderful friends but I am also very excited to be joining Keystone to lead the new Community Solutions practice.

I will begin sharing details as we build out the new Community Solutions practice and hope that many of you will be willing to offer your feedback as the practice starts to take shape.

Exciting things to come in 2011!!!

Posted in Tao of J | Leave a comment

Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, Vote Analysis Exchange

By Jason Thompson | Published: February 18, 2011

The inaugural edition of the WAA Awards for Excellence is just right around the corner. If you are a member of the Web Analytics Association and you haven’t cast your vote then please consider voting for Analysis Exchange as the Most Influential Agency/Vendor.

The requirements to be considered Most Influential Agency/Vendor center around the creation of content in the form of white papers and webcasts, which I’m sure the Analysis Exchange has more than fulfilled, however the Exchange has gone far above & beyond by creating a program that is training the analysts of tomorrow, all while providing a valuable service, FOR FREE, to all interested non-profits.

The Analysis Exchange is influencing the future of our industry by training the leaders of tomorrow, how can one be more influential than that?

VOTE NOW!

Posted in Analytics, Marketing | 1 Comment

Using Charles Map Local

By Jason Thompson | Published: February 8, 2011

Learn how to use the Charles Map Local function to debug client code.

→Charles:
Download a free trial of Charles here.

→s.apl Utility Function:

/*
 * Utility Function: apl
 */
s.apl=new Function("L","v","d","u",""
+"var s=this,m=0;if(!L)L='';if(u){var i,n,a=s.split(L,d);for(i=0;i

→DigitalPulse Debugger:

javascript:void(window.open(%22%22,%22dp_debugger%22,%22width=600,height=600,location=0,menubar=0,status=1,toolbar=0,resizable=1,scrollbars=1%22).document.write(%22%3Cscript%20language=\%22JavaScript\%22%20id=dbg%20src=\%22http://www.digitalpulse.omniture.com/dp/debugger.js\%22%3E%3C/%22+%22script%3E%22));

Posted in Analytics, EmptyMind TV, Omniture | 7 Comments

Introducing: Web Analytics TV

By Jason Thompson | Published: February 2, 2011

What is it?
Web Analytics TV is a free collection of video tutorials made by and for the members of the digital measurement community. Our goal is to create an ever expanding library of videos that span vendors and disciplines.

These tutorials aren’t made by professional training organizations, they are compiled by practitioners who are down in the trenches everyday.

To get updates on the latest tutorials, be sure to follow WebAnanlyticsTv on Twitter.

How Can I Help?
Web Analytics TV will only work with the support of the community. This is a 100% outsourced effort. No one is getting paid to run the site or make tutorial videos. Those who are participating are doing it with the knowledge that a highly educated community will benefit all of us.

Currently, Kevin Rodgers and I are making tutorial videos to seed the site but we need more help:

→Tutorials: We need vendors and practitioners alike to step up and summit training videos.

→Designers: We slapped a very basic, and free, WordPress theme on the site but as time goes on, we’d love to give the site a unique look & feel that helps create a wonderful user experience.

→WordPress Developers: We’d love to make the site as interactive as possible. To make this happen, we need a WordPress developer or developers to help us add functionality to allow for better social media sharing, better highlighting of contributors, and an easier way to consume content by vendor, platform, and contributor.

→Marketers: We need people to help us spred the word.

What kind of tutorials are you looking for?
If it is related to web analytics we want your video. Really. It can be a tutorial to teach an implementation trick, code examples, UI “how to’s”, analysis tips, etc.

Although we have started with Omniture related tutorials, we aim to compile videos from across all vendors, big and small.

I have an idea for a video, what do I do next?
1. Record your tutorial using whatever means you have available. Remember, it’s the contents that really counts.

2. Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo or whatever service you use, as long as we are able to embed the video in the site.

3. Contact Jason or Kevin and tell us:
→How we can access your video

→How you would like to be credited

I don’t have an idea for a video but would still love to help out.
Great. As mentioned above, we need help in a lot of different areas. If you have an idea about how you can help us grow this library out, we’d love to hear about it. Contact Jason or Kevin and we would be happy to discuss your ideas.

Posted in Analytics | 3 Comments

Using Omniture’s Link Handler Plug-in

By Jason Thompson | Published: February 1, 2011

In this tutorial you will learn how to use Omniture’s Link Handler Plug-in to capture additional data to describe links that are being clicked on.

Special thanks to Andreas Dierl

Code Mentioned

/*
 * Plugin: linkHandler 0.5 - identify and report custom links
 */
s.linkHandler=new Function("p","t",""
+"var s=this,h=s.p_gh(),i,l;t=t?t:'o';if(!h||(s.linkType&&(h||s.linkN"
+"ame)))return '';i=h.indexOf('?');h=s.linkLeaveQueryString||i<0?h:h."
+"substring(0,i);l=s.pt(p,'|','p_gn',h.toLowerCase());if(l){s.linkNam"
+"e=l=='[['?'':l;s.linkType=t;return h;}return '';");
s.p_gn=new Function("t","h",""
+"var i=t?t.indexOf('~'):-1,n,x;if(t&&h){n=i<0?'':t.substring(0,i);x="
+"t.substring(i+1);if(h.indexOf(x.toLowerCase())>-1)return n?n:'[[';}"
+"return 0;");

//code to capture friendly link name
var url=s.linkHandler(".zip","d");
if(url){
            var currentobj=s.eo?s.eo:s.lnk;
            if (currentobj && currentobj.innerHTML) {
                        s.eVar2 = currentobj.innerHTML;
                        s.linkTrackVars="eVar2";
            }
}

/*
 * Utility Function: p_gh
 */
s.p_gh=new Function(""
+"var s=this;if(!s.eo&&!s.lnk)return '';var o=s.eo?s.eo:s.lnk,y=s.ot("
+"o),n=s.oid(o),x=o.s_oidt;if(s.eo&&o==s.eo){while(o&&!n&&y!='BODY'){"
+"o=o.parentElement?o.parentElement:o.parentNode;if(!o)return '';y=s."
+"ot(o);n=s.oid(o);x=o.s_oidt}}return o.href?o.href:'';");

Posted in EmptyMind TV, Omniture, Omniture SiteCatalyst | Tagged code, linkhandler, omniture, plugin | 4 Comments

Documenting Optimization Efforts Using Omniture Test & Target

By Jason Thompson | Published: January 26, 2011

Posted in EmptyMind TV, Omniture Test & Target | Leave a comment

What is the Analysis Exchange?

By Jason Thompson | Published: January 25, 2011

Posted in Analytics | Leave a comment

Omniture ClientCare Stepping Up

By Jason Thompson | Published: January 21, 2011

I recently had an interaction with Omniture ClientCare that I think is worth mentioning.

I had contacted ClientCare requesting instructions on how I could migrate a client’s site from using 3rd party cookies to 1st party cookies. I had followed all the steps outlined in the knowledge base to obtain the cert, create the CNames, etc. but when I rolled out the updated tracking code, I didn’t want to drop all the past visitors. I needed a way to “migrate” my existing visitors from their 3rd party cookie to a 1st party cookie.

I had a vague memory of a variable that could be used to do this but I wasn’t sure how to implement it and I was unable to find any documentation on the subject. After a brief conversation with a ClientCare agent via chat, it was clear that we were not on the same page. I left the chat feeling frustrated and turned to Twitter for some help.

Behind the scenes the ClientCare agent, rather than just marking the incident as “closed” and moving on, continued to followup. He was following my conversations on Twitter about the incident and he had requested additional information internally.

Later that day, the ClientCare agent contacted me and apologized for the misunderstanding, told me he was informing all of the agents about the situation, and had submitted a requested (along with proposed wording) for an updated knowledge base article.

All it took was for one person, to go slightly outside the predefined boundaries of his role, to change my perspective of an entire organization.

My mom always told me, “do what is expected of you and then do a little bit more.” Seems like that is just good advice all around.

Posted in Omniture, Tao of J | 2 Comments

Injecting Search Keywords using Omniture Test & Target

By Jason Thompson | Published: January 20, 2011

In this episode of EmptyMind TV, you’ll learn how to use Omniture’s Test & Target to test if customizing a landing page by injecting a visitors search keywords will increase conversion rate.

* For best results view in Full Screen HD

Offer Code:

Posted in Analytics, Omniture, Omniture Test & Target | 7 Comments

Ad Testing Using Omniture Test & Target

By Jason Thompson | Published: January 17, 2011

In this episode of EmptyMind TV, you’ll learn how to use Omniture’s Test & Target to test different versions of an ad and also how to dynamically update landing pages to match the ad experience.

* For best results view in HD