Re: [analog-help] Reporting User Duration on a Site

[analog-help]

Hi,

At 12:13 15-11-2002 -0600, you wrote:

To begin with, I think the warnings Aengus, the developer and others on this list
offer about making assumptions are very important. Webtrends and other fancy
"analytics" packages do overpromise and exaggerate the validity of many of the
measures they provide. A counter-balance to these marketers' distortions of reality
is called for.

That said, the fact that a figure is based on an assumption does not mean that
figure is meaningless. It means you need to apply intelligence and a grain of salt
in using that information.

I love Analog for many reasons, one of which is the honesty of its reporting. But
I occasionally supplement it with tools that can extract session lengths and
similar figures, or better yet, cross-reference session lengths and referral
sources. When those figures show that referals from one site correspond with 60
second average session lengths, and another site corresponds with 200 second
average session lengths, that is not meaningless. It doesn't mean quite what it
seems to state, but it does carry some powerful implications as to where I should
focus my promotional efforts.

Moderation in all things, including skepticism.

james

Well yes, it could be not meaningless, but then you still dont
know the reason why there is that difference in session time between the two sites.
Maybe the visitors who visit website_B with an average session
length of 200 have an urge, while viewing the website to go more to the toilet while watching a page on the website, then visitors who visit
website_A with an averige of 60 in length of session time.

But then I cant image you are interested in the average time
a website visitor is spending time on the toiled while he/she has a
page open on his/her computer.!!!

So it is still bull.....

My two cents,


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