thinks

And just to aid the process of testing your users’ behaviors, Bryan Eisenberg over at Future Now lists the main folks who can help you figure out what your customers want. I’d add me to the list, of course, but, y’know, these guys are pretty good, too.

Whither the page view? Steve Rubel points out that metrics across the board need to reflect the current reality and Richard MacManus provides some useful alternative metrics. Page views have a somewhat checkered past, useful if you’re making money from advertising, but of limited value elsewhere. Metrics vary by business; however, I recommend paying close attention to revenue per visitor. Regardless of your business model, you’ll get a clear snapshot of what’s going on with your site.

Now if you could just get your competitors to share that information, you’d really have something…

Google announced a new multivariate testing tool the other day, allowing marketers to test different
copy, graphics, layout, what-have-you on their landing pages. For free. Amazing. While ignoring, for a minute, the obvious questions as to how willing we are to provide Google this much information about our businesses - I doubt Yahoo will use it - the biggest barrier to this kind of information - high cost - is now gone. Why wouldn’t you use it?

I ran across this post on Fast Company this afternoon. Clever, actually. My favorite line is the part where they say, “In this case, advertising is trumping engineering in creating value.” That’s a bunch of hooey, though I think it’s a great example of strong advertising and marketing creating demand, at least for their tchotchke. The thing that I think is most interesting about the eBay Index, as Fast Company calls it, is its value as a metric of awareness. Clever, clever marketing idea, and an innovative way to build buzz around your product. Seth Godin would be proud (or better yet, read Trout and Ries. You’ll get more from it.)