Sunday Seven (or Friday Five, two days late): by the numbers

Life beyond the blog went crazy last week, so I didn’t make a Friday Five. Today, I make up for it with a Sunday Seven. Think of it as a Friday Five with two bonus tracks.

Today’s list is all about numbers.

  1. This first one’s for the guys: Esquire lists the 75 skills every man should master (hat tip: Jordon Cooper).

    13. Throw a punch. Close enough, but not too close. Swing with your shoulders, not your arm. Long punches rarely land squarely. So forget the roundhouse. You don’t have a haymaker. Follow through; don’t pop and pull back. The length you give the punch should come in the form of extension after the point of contact. Just remember, the bones in your hand are small and easy to break. You’re better off striking hard with the heel of your palm. Or you could buy the guy a beer and talk it out.

  2. The 25 most rockin’ guitar riffs. All the greats are there, plus some not-so-greats. (Yeah, “Born to Run” is a great song, but the guitar riff is only so-so. And it shouldn’t rank higher [No. 8] than “Johnny B. Goode” [No. 19]).
  3. 5 grassroots organizations worth a look.
  4. For Gmail users: 13 experimental new features — a review from Lifehacker, originally posted June 5 as a sneak preview. Google unveiled the features on the 6th. I still haven’t tinkered with them.
  5. 15 great gadgets you can’t get in the United States.
  6. One egg, 100 baskets: social media leverage. Andy Beal turns the “all your eggs in one basket” axiom on its ear.
  7. The 5 essential elements of social media marketing.

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Now playing: Pete And The Pirates – Ill love
via FoxyTunes

Get smart with web analytics

getsmart.jpgGoogle Analytics can a wonderful tool for evaluating web traffic, but as Linda Bustos of Get Elastic notes in a recent post on Marketing Pilgrim, it’s a tool that can be misused, or under-utilized.

In her article, Bustos points out 8 stupid things webmasters do to mess up their analytics, and offers remedies.

Topping her list is a cardinal sin of web analytics: tracking your own IPs. Including your own IP address in your stats will lead to some bad assumptions about traffic, referrals, time on page and other valuable metrics. Google makes it easy to filter out your own IPs or any others you wish to exclude.

Take a look at this article for tips on how to fine-tune your analytics. “This is WAO: Web Analytics Optimization — and there’s a huge need for it that many don’t realize,” Bustos writes. “Why not become a WAO ninja and offer it alongside your SEO, SEM and SMO services?”

P.S. – Kyle James also picked up on the trail and included this in his latest links of the week post.

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Now playing: Santogold – Lights Out
via FoxyTunes