I am thrilled to say that my book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day has been published and is now widely available. Thrilled is perhaps understating it, I am giddy like a schoolgirl. There I said it.
It has been such an amazing journey to write the book, and for it to come up almost exactly a year after I started this blog. All the hard work seems to be worth it when I hold my third child in my hands. Damini, Chirag and now the book! :)
The book has already been shipping from Amazon for the last week or so. Hopefully some of you have received a copy and have had a chance to browse through it, and maybe some of you polished it off in a weekend (thank you!).
I am a huge fan of This American Life (and Ira Glass), I'll borrow from their format and write this post in three parts:
Part One: The book (my side of the story, details).
Part Two: Request for help (your side of the story).
Part Three: A contest, 300 winners (the stories intersect).
You can skip forward to a part you are most interested in, but I hope you'll stay around for the entire story.
Part One: The book (my side of the story, details).
My contract was to write a book that was 250 pages, the book is now 480 pages! Beyond the thickness of the book I wanted to share some compelling reasons to consider buying the book.
Five Reasons Why You Should Buy Web Analytics: An Hour A Day:
Web Analytics: An Hour A Day for the first time provides a Practitioner's in the trenches perspective on web analytics.
It is a book about Web Analytics 2.0.
The book will turbocharge your execution capabilities.
Immediately actionable web analytics (your biggest worries covered).
In 480 pages the book goes from from beginner's basics to a advanced analytics concepts.
Bonus: Interactive CD: Contains six podcasts, one video, two web analytics metrics definitions documents and five insightful powerpoint presentations.
Please permit me to share some detail about each of the above:
Web Analytics: An Hour A Day for the first time provides a Practitioner's in the trenches
perspective on web analytics.
It is chock full of real world insights, examples, actionable recommendations on every page. You'll make a direct and deep connection with what you read because the book is written by someone who has actually been there and done that in large and small organizations.
There is little beating around the bush and talking from an ivory tower. The book takes a stand on issues, makes choices and cuts through the fog/FUD, in an attempt to make your life a tiny bit easier.
It is a book about Web Analytics 2.0.
Qualitative and quantitative. Clicks and outcomes. RSS and RIA's. Experimentation & Testing (A/B, Multivariate, you name it). Competitive Intelligence (learn from your competitor's success) and Web 2.0.
Each of this Web Analytics 2.0 topic has a Why, What, How section to fuel your success.
For far too long web analytics has been relegated to the art of analyzing clicks on a site. The book, like this blog, rips up that definition and provides a expanded and more realistic business focused world view.
The book will turbocharge your execution capabilities.
The book shares insights from years of painful lessons learned, mistakes made and big leaps of faith that paid off. You'll significantly speed up your own analytics and decision making journey.
How should you approach web analytics? What should you worry about when selecting a web analytics tools? What's the optimal organization structure (and who should own web analytics!)? What to look for in great web analysts? What ideas to test first on your site? Should you hire Consultants (and if so when and what to look for and expect)?
Immediately actionable web analytics (your biggest worries covered).
The book contains a jumpstart guide for any business to get off to a flying start on day one (jump to Chapter 7), as well as for ecommerce sites or those that just do Support and of course a blogs.
You'll learn not only why Process is important but in addition you'll learn how you can apply six-sigma inspired methodologies to create your own web analytics processes and then optimize them by applying the DMAIC methodology.
Benchmarking (exactly how you can do it), impactful actionable executive dashboards (what they should contain), creating a data driven organization. All these are covered in the book in some detail.
There are approximately 205 images in the book, images the illustrate ideas, show reports and analysis, dashboards and tools, graphs and tables. Sadly the color pictures got converted into black and white, but still plenty of pictures to make concepts easier to understand.
In 480 pages the book goes from from beginner's basics to a advanced analytics concepts.
The book is for CEO's and Marketer's and Search Specialists and Web Designers and User Researchers and Website Administrators and Website Owners and HiPPO's and of course Web Analysts.
If you have no experience with Web Analytics then you'll learn what it is and the nitty gritty of data collection and core metrics such as Visits and Time on Site and Bounce Rate and Top Destinations etc.
If you have fifteen years of experience you'll still learn loads from chapters that cover holistic search analytics (internal, SEO, SEM/PPC) and Statistical Significance and Multi Channel Marketing Analytics and Advanced Conversion Rate measurement and more.
Bonus: Interactive CD.
The book contains a cd with six podcasts, one video, two web analytics metrics definitions documents and five insightful powerpoint presentations.
[If you have already received a copy and had a chance to read it, please share your own perspective via comments below.]
100% of my proceeds from the book will be donated to two of my favorite charities: The Smile Train and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Not a reason to buy the book, but I am thankful that the opportunity to write the book will translate into a tiny bit of good for others.
Part Two: Request for help (your side of the story).
There are four important factors that might work against lots of sales of this book.
I am a first time author, that surprisingly does not work in favor of any book!
I am sadly lacking of sugar daddies. :)
I am quite clueless about how to game the system to get on the Times / Tribune best seller lists..
There is no order for 10,000 copies of the book waiting.
I don't plan to shamelessly flog the book in repeated posts because this blog is not about PR. The promo will be there in the right nav and I am going to resist the temptation to pepper every post with praise for my own book or mentions of my own greatness with a desire to flog more books.
So if you are up for it I would like to ask for your help:
Recommend: Please consider recommending the book to someone you know whom it might be helpful. After you read the book please point out how the book could be right for them (if it is).
Blog / Website Reviews: If you are a blogger, and hence have a platform, please consider writing a review of the book, or otherwise mentioning it on your blog.
Affiliate Link: If you email a link to the book or use a link on your blog please consider using www.snipurl.com/wahour. That's a redirect that goes to amazon and contains my amazon affiliate id. 100% of the revenue generated from the amazon affiliate program will also be donated.
Marketing Ideas: Given my cluelessness when it comes to selling books, I welcome your tips / tricks / techniques / hints / suggestions about what I could do to effectively market the book.
Amazon Review, please: Once you have the opportunity to read the book I'll be deeply appreciative if you could consider writing a review for the book on Amazon. My goal is to have 75 reviews (based on the assumption that everyone in the universe uses Amazon and hence this will work brilliantly in terms of marketing).
Bulk Orders, pretty please: If you are in the market for 10,000 copies of an excellent web analytics book please email me (blog at kaushik dot net)! I'll be happy to do anything within legal and ethical limits in exchange. :)
This blog works because you all generously participate in the conversation, something I am already very thankful for. So please consider this to be a request and not an imposition.
Part Three: A contest, 300 winners (the stories intersect).
In true social media fashion I want to get to know the readers of my book a bit better, and we can all have some fun along the way.
I want you to send me a picture of the book with something interesting in the background. It can be a picture of the book with your pretty face. It can be with your dog. Or Grandma. Or on your lawn. Or with a historical building. Or with your child. Or your business card. Or….. Let your imagination go wild.
The first 300 people who send me a picture will get an autographed bookmark from me, with a dedication in your name (or a name of your choosing). You can email your pictures to blog at kaushik dot net, you can send a picture of any size.
I will mail the bookmarks anywhere in the world, and I'll pay for all this myself so not to worry the charities will still get 100% of the author proceeds from the sale.
The bookmark will be autographed but surely not gold plated. :) But hopefully you'll think of it as sentimental as I think of it and play along. I am sure you have a digital camera handy! :)
[UPDATES: #1: Please see the lovely photos below in comments! So nice. #2: Since the book will get later to international destinations, there is a separate contest for international. I have ordered a additional 200 bookmarks and those are reserved for the international pictures, please send in your pictures!]
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
I am truly excited about the book and the journey ahead.
[ PS: As you might have guessed, the pictures above are of other cover designs for the book that did not make the cut. I rather liked the lady with the laptop and cars versions. Mostly because of all the white and starkness. Do you have a favorite? ]
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