How do I add a website to Google Analytics that has urchin code tracking?

Today I was making some changes for a client to an outdated website that I created for them back in 2003. Actually this one was likely a 2005 incarnation considering all the Flash that was involved in it and the design style I used to have. I came across some good, old fashioned Google Analytics Urchin code.

You know the old school stuff when they first acquired Urchin Tracker. Here’s the code snippet:

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">// < ![CDATA[
_uacct = "UA-XXXXX-2";
urchinTracker();
// ]]></script>

Where the XXXXX is actually my account number. Now here’s the problem. I still use that account number for a number of sites, but the domain in question isn’t showing in my list of sites. I’d be happy to upgrade the outdated urchin.js code to the new Google Analytics code.

<script type="text/javascript">// < ![CDATA[
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-2']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
// ]]></script>

My concern though is that I would like to have access to the historical data. I’m sure that it’s still recording it somewhere. When I decide to add the site it creates a new id for the site (i.e. instead of -2 it’s -45).

So my question I guess is this:

How do I add a website to Google Analytics that has urchin code tracking?

Hopefully some geniuses that are attending PubCon this week in Las Vegas will be able to help me out with an answer.

1 Comment | Filed under Code Development, Internet

Facebook is changing the way we surf

Last night while I wasn’t working, I was doing some reading on a number of changes to how the web and social media are evolving.

The first is an article geared more at SEO, which truly is everyone’s responsibility, in that Google searches are getting longer. Gone are the days of trying to rank for just a corporate name or single keyword term. People are getting more and more specific in their searches and these are things we’ll need to take into consideration as we move forward with web copy writing and our SEO strategy.

The other two were interesting and directly tied to social media. How Facebook plans to take over the web – more specifically Google, is a very interesting read that will no doubt have an impact on our channels and sites. The other is on a new plug-in that Facebook just released around what they’re calling recommendations. This one will truly change the web and is something I think we should get on the road map to implement soon. Essentially, without getting too technical, it will show personal recommendations to users via Facebook. This gives us more exposure in a user’s timelines on Facebook (which we all know had more traffic than Google last month) and actually should helpb with some basic link building from an SEO perspective.

I’d love to hear thoughts on implementing any of the above, as well as comments or thoughts on how Facebook might actually change the way we surf…and market our sites. EAVB_TNXJBJZNYL

No Comments | Filed under Code Development

The @ShoeMoney System & me

I’ve been meaning to write this review and insight of the ShoeMoney System for quite some time, but have felt as though I’ve been too busy to actually put any thought into a quality post. Something I’m trying to do more of. Quality over quantity (which goes somewhat against my 2010 goals). There’s no doubt that you’re probably wondering “what is the ShoeMoney System” and more importantly, why do I care.

Let me backup a little bit and give you some history. Just over a year ago I joined Twitter and began adding friends and just getting lost in various users through other peoples tweets. I stumbled across this guy who went by the name “ShoeMoney” and was intrigued. I read his bio (always something good to have if you want Twitter followers), and clicked through to his website. Well it was at this point in seeing his Google Adsense check for $132,994.97 that I realized I’d seen this bum guy before when doing some research. I started reading his blog and found out a little bit more about him. I got so lost and mezmerized that I almost forgot to follow @ShoeMoney on Twitter.

It all made sense on the “ShoeMoney” name. Jeremy Shoemaker, who coincidentally doesn’t make shoes, was a money making machine. Jeremy Schoemaker (the correct spelling of his last name) and I had several conversations on Twitter about a few things here and there. If he only knew how excited I was that an “online celebrity” was tweeting with me in conversation (kind of like what just happened with Lisa Barone & Rae Hoffman).

Well I’ve followed him ever since and in November of 2009 had the privilege to meet him and have a quick chat at DK‘s Purpose Inc. poker tournament at PubCon Las Vegas. (I really actually need to thank my friends Lyndsay Walker & Lyndon Reid for making that trip happen). It was a quick, but friendly chat. Shoe, as his friends apparently refer to him (not sure I can get away with it—yet), was friendly and approachable. I’m glad that my gut instinct was right through only some select tweets.

Fast forward to a few months ago and Jeremy was getting ready to launch the ShoeMoney System. The teaser videos were awesome and because I had the chance to chat with Jeremy in person, I knew that any content he would produce would be first rate. I was hooked. I watched the previews, signed up on the mailing list, joined a webinar and even signed up as an affiliate to promote the ShoeMoney System. YES, I was sure it was going to be that good. The price came down and calculating it with incentives and bonus gifts, Jeremy was actually going to be paying me to take the ShoeMoney System. Only 500 students were going to be accepted so I was going to act fast. Alas I had to cough up some cash up front, which makes perfect sense, but I wasn’t in a position to do so. It’s not that expensive&mdash;just $197USD a month for twelve months. That’s a screaming deal…but I just wasn’t there.

A couple of weeks ago some clients of SPRY had finally paid up their account and to my surprise the unthinkable happened. The ShoeMoney System was re-opened to new students. NOW was my chance to get in on the content the ShoeMoney System could offer. I didn’t hesitate and signed up right away. There was no chance the system was going to fill up and close without me being in it for a second time.

It was one week ago today that I got on board. I blew through the first couple of videos as I’d seen one as the teaser and the other was fairly high-level. I was eager to get more videos and they seemed quite slow. That is until now that I realized it’s only been one week and I’ve had an extra two. The pace seems good with a “real job” going on, family life, travel, etc. I’ve got a bunch of experience in the web design/development area and have briefly touched on some affiliate marketing concepts (yes, the site is about winning blackjack strategies) and even a bit of SEO (again, thanks Lyndsay). I eagerly await a new video and email from the ShoeMoney System every day so that I can work towards my goal to generate $80,000 online by September 15.

I’ll be keeping you posted with my progress and any information that I feel like sharing. I know that with Shoemoney and his team creating and testing the content, that there’s no better course out there for a beginner or advanced user or anywhere in between. My recommendation to you is to figure it out, get the cash and just enroll in the ShoeMoney System TODAY! Tomorrow, you can thank me for it.

No Comments | Filed under Affiliate Marketing

Implementing multi-domains with #WordPress

I’m busy working on an idea, and it keeps growing and evolving each day. I’ll essentially be creating a portal of information, for lack of a better term. For this example lets go with running only 2 TLD domains. Something along the lines of region.com & city.com should work. These are not my domains, but illustrate the example I’m going after.

When the visitor goes to region.com they will be presented with a landing page that has information for that particular region. I live in the province of Alberta, so let’s use that as a reference point. Some of the information will be aggregated information from the city.com category. I live in Calgary, so think of it that way. Now I do say category because I’m that this will all be one WordPress install, with multiple domains. The URL structure would be region.com/city/another_category/article.html on the main site. ( alberta.com/calgary/events/event-1.html) What I want to do is have someone that goes to city.com be directed to the /city/another_category/article.html portion, however the resulting URL would appear as city.com/another_category/article.html (calgary.com/events/event-1.html)- as it’s own domain.

I’ve explored WordPressMU and I’m not completely sold on it as the solution. I know that it can do domain forwarding with it’s sub-domain settings, but I still don’t believe it will populate correctly.

The other option would be to still have region.com with links to categories, but it would then link off to city.com, city2.com, city3.com, etc as needed.

The other issue is that each city might not have a domain. So city2 (let’s use Airdrie) might not have a domain. Without airdrie.com it would then be alberta.com/airdrie/events/event-1.html but if they decided to get a domain at some point, I’d want to be able to utilize that. I was initially thinking of simple domain forwarding (i.e. calgary.com would just resolve to alberta.com/calgary/) but don’t really feel that’s the best solution for branding and definitely SEO. The best way to take this forward is with a good keyword finder to find out the right words based on the target.

Thoughts on this? Am I clear? Am I off my rocker on what I’m trying to do? Does this make any sense at all? Oh, and of course I need a solution basically yesterday. Thanks in advance for your input.

Edit: I just came across Examiner and it’s similar to what I’m looking to do…but NOT what I’m doing, so I still need a solution.

1 Comment | Filed under wordpress

Discovering Google Apps with @sarahstanley

Today I had a brief chat on Twitter with the ever amazing Sarah Stanley surrounding a technical piece of her RunRideInspire.com website. Most of it took place behind the scenes through direct message, but in the end I believe it was of assistance.

You see part of what Sarah is looking for are Inspire Ambassadors (act quickly by sending an email to RunRideInspire@gmail.com if you’d like to be one). What got me thinking was that there was a domain name intact already, but she was essentially promoting Gmail. Many businesses do this, and I just don’t understand why – whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or their internet provider. The list goes on. With domain names starting out so cheap now from a place like GoDaddy.com there’s no excuse to NOT have a company branded domain name. In addition to that, even though GoDaddy.com does hosting, you can easily get your email handled for FREE through Google Apps.

This is where Sarah and I were at a disconnect. Being that Run Ride Inspire is charity, “every dollar counts” she stated. And I agree. Running a fund raising initiative of my own (I need to update it this week), I know that every penny does truly count. I’ve been using Google Apps with my domain names for a few years now and have been fortunate enough to never spend a dime on the amazing service. In fact I just recently switched two separate clients over to the service. I could go off on why it’s a great choice, but there’s already plenty out there on Google as to why it’s a good choice…and even why it’s not.

I was on my iPhone but determined to help Sarah out I did a quick search in Safari. It started to become clear as to why she didn’t want to use the runrideinspire.com on Google Apps for fear of having to pay $50 per user per year. Typical marketing. On the initial screen, you’re presented with two options: Business or Education.

Google Apps Signup Screen

Google Apps - the Hidden GoldOn the following screen they present the nice, pretty blue button to begin a free trial. But if you look closely enough, there are some boring text links under the button. This is in fact where the hidden gold is in using Google Apps with your own custom domain name…for FREE.

When comparing the Google Apps Standard Edition (i.e. the FREE version) to the Premiere version, there’s not a lot of difference that the standard, average user would ever want or use. You still get Gmail, Calendar, Docs & Sites. I’m up to about 7GB of storage space in my App Mail account of which I’ve used about 50% over the last few years…and my business handles lots of large files through email. The rest of the ‘business’ features, controls, support and reliability aren’t really required. I use my hosted Gmail with my iPhone without issue. In fact, it works better then my normal Gmail account does…so there!Google Apps Comparison: Premiere vs Standard

As much as I love my Shannon Poole (who yes, does love me), I’m happy that Sarah at least sees some value in me.

So now my question to you is do you use Google Apps and if so, which version? Is Sarah making the right choice by moving (I hope) her email from Gmail to her own domain name? Let me know in the comments.

2 Comments | Filed under Code Development