Top Ten Signs of an Awesome Web Analyst by Avinash Kaushik

Web Analytics by Avinash Kaushik. This is one such book which can be read by a basic web analyst to a person who wants to set up a web analytics company. Yeah... You will also find tips on whom to hire and who not to hire.


I always had the habit of reading the author's acknowledgement before starting to read a book. While reading the acknowledgement of Avinash K I came to know that this is going to be a beautiful book. In the acknowledgement I came across two points which struck a very strong chord in my brain and are going to stay there for an ample amount of time... Those two points are
1. Eat like a Bird, Poop like an Elephant
2. Think "Book" not "dairy" when it comes to blogging.


Now here is something interesting I found in this book..something very interesting for a person working on web analytics.


Top Ten Signs of An Awesome Web Analysts
1. They have used more than one web analytics tool extensively.
2. They frequent the Yahoo! web analytics group and the top web analytics blogs. (Here is the list of those top web analytics blogs http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/top-ten-web-analytics-blogs-january-2007/)
3. Before doing any important analysis, they visit the website and look at the web pages.
4. They understand the technical difference between page tagging, log files, packet sniffing and beacons.
5. They are comfortable in the quantitative and qualitative world.
6. They are avid explorers
7. They are effective communicators.
8. They are street smart.
9. They play offense and just not defense
10. They are survivors.


I feel point 10 is the most important. The reality is that the web decision makers mostly just want to measure the hits (Jim Sterne author and organizer of eMetrics summit defines hits as: "how idiots track success"). a key skill of great analysis is the ability to have patience, survive and say motivated in the world where people ask for suboptimal things.


Well, if you meet 6 of the above criteria you are a good web analyst and are on your way to greatness.
If you meet 9, you are a great web analyst. Congratulations!
If you meet all of the above criteria, you are a purple squirrel and you can command any salary at any company in this world!!!


Source: Web Analytics by Avinash Kaushik 

My First Crush at New Job

I generally have a habit of judging an institution or an organization by its library. My school though not very popular had a huge library with a variety of books. 
The moment I checked my college library I was depressed. It was a small dark and clumsy place to keep the books and a huge empty hall to sit and read. 
I became even more depressed when I checked the library at my 1st workplace. It was a room, the size of my bedroom with a few 100 books and no place to sit and read.


From my past experience I didn't expect much from my new workplace. The moment I came to know that there is a library at this workplace too I jumped with joy and expected it to be atleast the size of the library at my previous workplace but I was shocked looking at it. It was a room smaller than my bedroom with a few 10's of books.


As i had lots of free time I thought why not have a look at the books.... they must have been really special as they were the chosen one for this library. I checked out the books and since that day I everyday spend an hour at the library. 


That day I realized something, its not the size of the library that make it special, its the books in the library which make it special. That day when I first stepped into the library I fell in love with this book called "Web Analytics" By Avinash Kaushik and every day without fail I step into the library and try to complete a chapter from that book.