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Category: Keith-Hansen

If Everyone is Feeling a Recession, Why Is Amazon.com having a record Holiday Season?


Friday December 26, 2008

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This holiday season the ‘recession’ we are all hearing about and probably feeling too made this year’s retail sales fall as expected- except for Amazon who recorded a record year in sales. How could this be? The Washington Times is reporting that holiday sales was the worst this year in 40 years. This is major!

Amazon’s shares went up about 4% due to record traffic and sales. The online retailer rose 17% from a year ago. But how could this be during a recession when just about everyone else is dropping prices and making deals to lure in customers and still are having a tough time.
The online avenue of reaching customers is as efficient as ever not only in online sales, but in reaching who and what you are looking for effectively. The ability to search and buy online is not affected by weather and ‘deals’ are made and changed instantly. Service-based businesses similarly have the same controls and lack of limitations. Searching who provides a service well, closest to my house can be done without making phone calls or burning gas.
In this tough time, businesses need an extra push to get themselves that extra exposure. Webconsuls has customized solutions for every business model. We pride ourselves in adapting our methods to your goals. Contact us and start up a relationship that will build your business online, where clearly Amazon has proved is the place to succeed even in this tough market.
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Borrowing from a Ray Barone quote in an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond”: “I think I know one thing that can make this year all better…editing. When all is said and done we will only remember the good stuff. I think you’re gonna remember about 2008 what you want to remember.” And so today Webconsuls wants to wish all of our clients a healthy and joyous holiday season and take a few minutes to remind you about some of the “good stuff” that our clients and we have enjoyed this year. We hope you will enjoy the memories…

Client side…

UCLA Division of Interventional Neuroradilogy is featured on NBC Nightly News
On November 28, 2008, NBC Nightly News aired a segment that featured Dr. Gary Duckwiler as he discussed the new scan technology available to target aneurysms, allowing doctors to find the problems and fix them before they cause major problems. If you visit their site you can watch the NBC video.

Visions Adolescent Treatment Center featured on the Today Show
Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Chief Medical Editor for NBC News, talked with Matt Laurer on December 11, 2008, regarding “Teens Abusing Prescription Drugs”. This segment featured Visions Teen Adolescent Treatment Center, their Medical Director Dr. David Lewis and three Visions’ clients who are in recovery from prescription drug abuse. While the statistics on this problem are alarming, the segment offers valuable advice for parents and teens. You can view the video here.

Lodge at Moosehead Lake receives Four Star Diamond Award
In July 2008, Linda and Dennis Bortis, Lodge at Moosehead Lake innkeepers, were notified by the Automobile Club of America that once again their beautiful inn has been designated with the Four Star Diamond Award. According to AAA: “The 1,915 AAA Four Diamond Award winners include 1,159 lodgings and 756 restaurants throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Only 3.2 percent of the 60,000 AAA Diamond rated lodgings and restaurants received the prestigious designation.” This is the 14th year that the Lodge at Moosehead Lake has received this award and we offer our congratulations to Linda and Dennis.

Lou Ursone, Executive Director of Curtain Call, Inc, Awarded Fellowship
This past January “the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism (CCT) announced that Lou Ursone has been awarded the Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship for 2008, in recognition of his outstanding arts management abilities as executive director of Curtain Call, Inc., a community theater in Stamford. The annual Mahaffey Fellowship of $2,500 acknowledges the important role administrators play in Connecticut’s arts industry and is to be used for professional development activities. The fellowship is named in honor of Elizabeth Mahaffey, who contributed significantly to the development of arts administrators in the state during her 23-year career with the Commission.” Congratulations to Lou.

Leah Di Bernardo, chef and owner of Delyte’s Catering, featured in Press Enterprise Cooking Video Delyte’s Catering is located in the beautiful wine country of California’s Temecula Valley. Leah is an active member of “Slow Food” Nation and is the president of the Slow Food Temecula Valley. So it is not surprising that the Press Enterprise invited Leah to be featured on one of their cooking videos, “Chef Leah Di Bernardo cooks Chicken Cacciatore on Chinese black rice.”

And just in case you have not heard of the “Slow Food” movement, you can read Time Magazine’s Article, “Can Slow Food Feed the World?” to learn more.

Olive Crest, Homes and Services for Abused Children, Gets $1 Million Grant to Finish Coachella Center December 8, 2008, The Desert Sun reported that our client, Olive Crest, received long awaited funds to complete their Coachella Valley Children’s Center. This is good news for the children and for Olive Crest, an organization that has since 1973 provided loving care for over 40,000 children and families.

The good news stories continue: Seaward Inn will open for their 65th Season this coming spring; Susan Slaughter, FACHE, Director of Business Development at Pine Grove Behavioral Health Services, recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the nation’s leading professional society for healthcare leaders and Pine Grove and Forrest General hosted a ceremony at the Pine Grove campus this past October to celebrate an inspiring project. Officials unveiled The Paul McMullan Circle of Healing Plaza and sculpture as a part of the Pine Grove Spiritual Grounds project, representing the organizations’ promise to positively affect lives; The Whalewalk Inn & Spa was featured in the August 2008 Travel and Leisure’s article about “The Best of Cape Cod”; and Cottonwood de Tucson received a mention in Showtime’s popular television series Weeds!

Webconsuls’ side…

Working with and for our clients over that past year has been both fulfilling and challenging for Webconsuls’ team. We strive to keep you abreast of new SEO and SMO ideas, teaching many of you about the efficacy of blogging about your business and even committing to post to our own blog on a daily basis. We hope you will take a few minutes to read our blog regularly, as we are sure you will find good tips and stories. We worked with many of you in redesigning your websites and we updated our website homepage to include a rotating “thumbnail” of new site designs. This rotation serves to give new exposure for many of you.

Some members of our team reached milestones in their own lives… Malik Moosa completed his BS Degree in Business Administration at California State University Long Beach in Spring 2008. His major course of study was Information Systems, E-Commerce Track. Malik began assisting Webconsuls in early 2006, by updating current web-sites and designing new sites for Webconsuls’ clients. Malik’s skill set includes, Macro-media Dreamweaver, Swish MAX, Advance HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Actionscript, MySQL Database, Adobe – Photoshop CS2, PageMaker 6, Illustrator 8, Premiere, and Acrobat. Malik also became engaged and plans an April 2009 wedding.

Keith Hansen our Pay Per Click specialist announced this month that he and his wife are expecting their first baby in April 2009. In the meantime, Keith continues to work closely with many of our clients guiding them through the every changing world of pay-per-click.

Looking ahead

2009 promises to be an interesting year for all of us. We look forward to working with you and we welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. We would love to hear from you when you have exciting and interesting news about your business. We will include this news in our Webconsuls’ blog.

Happy Holidays,
Dick, Dennis and Judy

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In a year where the price of gas at one point topped $4 per gallon, you might be surprised at the top selling cars in the US this year. The usual suspects from Honda and Toyota are on the list, Camry, Civic, Accord and Corolla are numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. According to Forbes, the top 2 selling cars where pickup trucks- homemade by Chevrolet and Ford.

The Ford F-150 and the Chevy Silverado series were 1 and 2 in that order. An interesting argument the article makes is that when gas prices were so high, consumers buy what they need not what they want, and what is useful to Americans seems to be pickup trucks. This point does seem to be supported that no SUV’s made the list.
If you bought a car on the list or better yet, if you want to recommend one that didn’t make the cut, sales-wise- let us know. What is important to you in buying a car in today’s climate?
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Recently my 30GB Video Ipod started giving me trouble. The sound into my headphones was reduced to ‘mono’, coming through only the left earbud. I then contacted Apple and figured out the ipod was beyond repair- and yes I tried multiple pairs of headphones, which is not the issue.

As a result I figured I needed a new mp3 player but I had a large percentage of songs on my ipod that are not in my library. Therefore, I figured my next steps had to be to backup all my ipod contents, again in order to not lose a significant amount of music.
Ipod Copy Expert is the tool I used to perform this task of allowing me to backup my data; kind of a reverse Itunes Library. In my own example this allowed me to then put my entire library of songs onto a new or in my case, my wife’s ipod. Many people who like this tool just want a backup of their data to cover a lost/stolen or broken ipod, etc.
There is a $20 charge to use the full version of this software, but that is the price of recovering just 20 songs; so for me this was a no brainer. The interface itself acts like your Itunes library and is very simply to operate.
Go try out the free version (below) and reply/comment with what you think and with what your experience was.
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In pay per click marketing, in most cases I find myself defining the typical internet user/searcher/customer in very specific terms. I must assume that the potential customer is looking only for the particular item/service searched– nothing more nothing less. Therefore, specific landing pages corresponding to that search term are a must, while sending a searcher to your homepage is not optimal.

To quote the linked article, “The first and most important objective of the landing page is to convince the visitor that they’ve come to the right place.” In my opinion this must be done, clearly, simply, and above the ‘fold’ or without making the searcher scroll. The Szetela article uses the metaphor of going to a Sears department store. When you know the specific item you are looking to purchase, you can go directly to it by parking and entering the store in the door leading to that particular department. You then find, purchase and leave the store creating as efficient and seemless an experience as possible.

If the searcher then stays to browse or comes back later for similar items, it is all gravy. But the conservative, strict approach assumes this is not the case and in my experience, it is not. Secure the immediate sale- any other objectives cannot be campaigned for with statistical confidence.

The browser or the type of person who enjoys shopping and spending time do so is not the person we are concerned with as previous topics have covered. In short, the browsing shopper will either find the product regardless of what ‘department door’ they arrive in or aren’t looking to buy in the 1st place. They are simply browsing.

Please read the article for another point of view and as always- share your experiences, tips and tricks by replying and helping out the rest of the viewership.

http://searchenginewatch.com/3631984

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The old debate, Plasma vs LCD has existed as long as the technology has.

If you are like me and you have heard all of the arguments and everyone says something different, the video at the following link will sort the facts.
For example, which type is better for movies versus video games. The comparison mentions how the type and amount of light will affect each version and other aspects the lay person may not think about.
When it comes down to it for me, both Plasma and LCD bring positives to the table and while the other type may be better or worse at something else, neither is the greatest across the board. Therefore, which ever technology is a better deal for the money at a certain size is the one I will buy. Having said that, if you are using the TV for a primary purpose, then it would make more sense to utilize the technology that caters to that purpose.
CNet will break it all down.
Please feel free to add your vote- LCD or Plasma?
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As we all have probably noticed, unless you take a cab or public transportation in a major metropolitan area (excluding LA), oil and therefore gas prices have been dropping consistently over the past few months. More specifically, since July fuel has dropped in half, according to the linked article. I am far from an expert, but my review of the issue has this due to reduced fuel consumption, projected usage and other supply and demand factors.

This decrease in energy cost, including heat and natural gas is one positive of the current tough times. Moreover, this drop in energy cost then leads to a potential drop in food and transportation costs; the same areas that when gas was spiking were out of control- plane flights, food etc.
So while the economy is in a slight decline, the positive side of me says, here is what good has come of it. Hopefully this decrease in fuel will jump start the positive attitude we Americans need to pull out of this slump.
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Analyze Your Ad Performance
–Ads Diagnostic Tool Are your ads showing for a particular search? Find out with this tool.
– Ads Preview Tool See your ad on Google without accruing extra impressions, and preview your ad as it appears to users in other geographic locations.
– Disapproved Ads Find out which ads have been disapproved and why, (editorial status).
– Conversion Tracking Define campaign goals and then pull data to determine which ads are the best at helping you reach those goals.
– My Change History Browse changes you’ve made to your account since January 1, 2006.

When it is all said and done, your ad performance is what determines your minimum bids for keywords for positioning, or in other words- the above analysis is how to make your campaign as cheap as possible by being efficient and relative according to Google.

Contact us at Webconsuls for more information and feel free to add to this topic if you have additional notes.

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2008 10 Best Cars

1. BMW 3-series

2. Cadillac CTS

3. Chevrolet Corvette

4. Chevrolet Malibu

5. Honda Accord

6. Honda Fit

7. Mazda MX-5 Miata

8. Mazdaspeed 3

9. Porsche Boxster and Cayman

10.Volkswagen GTI

Three basic areas created the evaluation metric for this list (data from ‘Car and Driver’),

1st. how well the vehicle performs its intended functions. Sports cars are expected to be fast and exhilarating, whereas it is presumed a family sedan will be frugal and practical.

2nd, there is a preference for the more engaging cars in each category, be it athletic driving manners, a attractive look, or a powerful engine.

3rd, is it a good deal? An inexpensive car that’s fast, fun, and practical will certainly rise to the top of this list.
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This is that special time of year for sports fans where all of the major sports are playing at the same time, in addition to your very popular NCAA/college football. Until the Phillies cliched the World Series earlier this week, baseball was wrapping up while the NFL, NHL, and NBA all are active as well. Even Soccer, the MLS is in its playoff run.
Quick Notes-
NBA preview: Many analysts are predicting a finals rematch from last year, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. The stout western conference is no joke, where 50 wins is the bar to simply make the post-season.
NFL: The lone unbeaten team, the Tennessee Titans head the EPSN power rankings, followed by the NY Giants, Panthers, Steelers and Redskins in the top 5.
NHL: In hockey’s early season poll, the top 5 teams as ranked by ESPN fall this way- 1. Sabres 2. Canadiens 3. Red Wings 4. Sharks 5. Rangers
Now over to Dallas with the weather.

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Google AdWords has in a beta test a bidding tool called Smart Positioning. The function of this tool aims to place your ad in the most cost-effective position each time it’s displayed. Here are Google’s words in how it works.

How Smart Positioning works.

Here’s an overview of what happens when your campaign is opted in to Smart Positioning:
1. Smart Positioning calculates incremental CPC’s to evaluate the effects on cost and click through rate that would be associated with a higher position for your ad.
2. Once our system determines the incremental CPC for putting your ad in a higher position, it compares the incremental CPC to your maximum CPC bid.
3. Your ad is placed in the highest position possible, as long as both the actual CPC for that position and the incremental CPC are less than your maximum CPC bid.

So essentially, this Google AdWords tool attempts to give its advertisers the best position given recent click data and the bid landscape. It then actually changes the max CPC in the account to reflect the bid it deems most ‘efficient’.

I hate to always be the cynic, but with my history in working with one of the major search engines, I know that ‘helpful’ tools may or may not be as helpful as they are described, but they always work in the favor of the search engine.

Here are some things that make me question the tool and therefore whether I will use it or not in the long run.
1. Since my bids can be changed without my specific knowledge, I am dissuaded.
2. Because Google is providing this ‘help’ to multiple advertisers in competition with each other on the same keyword, I can see a problem developing; either the tool won’t be very effective or certain advertisers will be favored and/or others hurt.
3. Google only provides help in ways that increase revenue as I stated earlier, so I cannot see this costing me less, but quite the opposite.

In conclusion of this early evaluation of a new bidding tool, albeit before it is in wide use, I prefer a bid to position model where I am paying the least possible for a particular position and I have real expectations on my cost and display position. When things can be open ended, Google can take advantage of the account without having to defend their actions. I know what their defense would be when you finally reach a customer service rep- ‘in the terms and conditions it clearly states we can raise your bids’.

I am out.

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Regardless if you are rock n roll enthusiast like me or not, you have probably heard at least once over the last 15 years that the infamous Axl Rose’s (solo) Guns N Roses album is in the making, and then coming out, and then not. This has been what fans have been hearing for years and years- namely the its NOT coming out part. As a side note, I have marked it a solo Guns N Roses record out of sarcasm because the revolving lineup for the band has changed multiple times since the original memebers left Axl in the mid-90s. Effectively this is an Axl solo record, meaning no Slash, Duff, Izzy etc.

Rumored to be a Best Buy exclusive, bestbuy.com has a release date, picture and track listing for the record. This is as close as we can get to it actually happening people. It is like the 2nd coming, which in reality is sad if you are a fan or this band or just a fan of rock n roll because there is no way that the music itself can live upto the 11 year hype. But that will not stop me from persuing this record because that is what is great about music- its infinite possibilites.

Anyway, here’s to good music and the potential of greatness:

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If you have ever found yourself under the influence of your choice poison, which led your writing and sending a poorly thought out email, consider the new email tool Gmail Goggles. This email setting in Gmail makes you answer 4 math questions before you are able to send any email, between the hours you set for self restriction. The ultimate hope being you can’t do math intoxicated and therefore are unable to compose any email until the following day when cooler heads prevail.
So how do you enable Google Goggles? When logged into your Gmail account, access the “labs” option in the Settings page. Once you have enabled the goggles feature, you can then access the parameters of the tool in the ‘general settings’ page within that same Settings tab.
The parameters available to this tool are comical- you have a 1 to 5 meter you set for yourself on how difficult the math is for the questions that need be answered correctly before any mail can be sent. Additionally, there is a basic scheduling feature that allows you to set when the goggles apply to your email, and furthermore when you feel you may be inebriated enough to need 3rd party intervention.
But of course, if you can still do middle school to early high-school math when intoxicated, this won’t do much for you in being an obstacle.
We here at Webconsuls have been using a tool we think is better than Gmail Goggles– we call it self control; like Gmail Goggles, it’s free of charge. But I still like this tool because math is fun.
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If you missed last nights VP debates between Govenor Palin and Senator Biden, here is a video summary. For myself, keeping in mind my low expectations after the presidential debate, I was pleasantly surprised with the part I saw. Maybe it is because these opponents are a little looser than the presidential candidates were, but to be positive I thought there was less ‘speaking over the allotted time and repeating what had already been said’, over and over again.

Either way, the ‘winner’ of the debate varies depending on who you ask, but if you didn’t catch the debates, feel free to use this video and stay informed.

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The MLB Playoff picture is almost set, with the National League wild card and the American League Central division the last spots in each league up for grabs. The Milwaukee Brewers and the New York Mets fight for that last spot in the NL, being the wild card, whereas the White Sox and Twins are locked in the AL central. The rest of the division winners shape up this way.

National League-

West- Dodgers
Central- Cubs
East- Phillies*
Wild Card- Mets/Brewers

American League-

West- Angels
Central- White Sox/Twins
East- Rays*
Wild Card- Red Sox*

*= not clinched

Because there is so much in the air even with only 3 games to play, I look forward to update this playoff picture next week when things are more concrete. If nothing else it is nice to see both LA teams making a run at it.

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Demographic bidding is now available on select sites in the Google content network. Demographic bidding helps you display your ads to specific gender and age segments on some sites in the Google content network, giving you more control over who your audience is and greater insight into how your ads perform with those audiences.

There are two ways you can use demographic bidding. First, you can modify your bids for a particular audience segment, such as increasing your bid for 18-24 year-olds and males. Second, you can exclude certain demographic groups from seeing your ads if they aren’t meeting your ROI goals.

As a result, you can then run reports specific to these defined groups. These reports can show you campaign performance metrics (including impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversion data) by the age and gender of the users who saw your ad.

The only problem is, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, the Content Network is not the most effective tool and the majority of our clients do not use it. Moreover, this whole concept does not apply to the ‘search’ feature and as a result is limited in its usefulness.

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I am sure most people by now have at least heard of Randy Pausch’s story, and his famous book/lecture, The Last Lecture. If not here is a link to the you tube video, viewed about 7 million times- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo In short, its a story of a professor of virtual reality with Pancreatic cancer lecturing on achieving your dreams and how to live. He has just passed away a month or so ago.

Today I wanted to bring to any one’s attention who was inspired by Randy’s story and lecture a video of another talk I wasn’t aware of until yesterday called Time Management. This is another lecture format video.

For those of us who feel helped by a this man, a stranger to most, any material is welcomed.

Webconsuls would like to wish his family well.

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Do you remember who won the Superbowl last year?

The new NFL schedule kicked off last night between the Washington Redskins and the Defending Champion NY Giants. The final score ended, Giants 16 Skins 7- all of the scoring which was in the 1st half.

Here are my picks for the upcoming year”

AFC:
East- Patriots
North- Steelers
South- Jags
West- Chargers

NFC:
East- Cowboys
North- Vikings
South- Panthers
West- Cardinals

Superbowl: Jags over Cowboys

Those are my picks- Sunday is the 1st full day of games. Enjoy the new season, it will be a good one with the AFC as open as it has been in years mainly do to injuries. The Carolina Panthers are my comeback team of the year and yes, the Jacksonville Jags finally breakthrough the Patriots/Colts impenetrable wall to make the big dance this year. Its all about defense.

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Google AdWords does provide a way internally to get suggestions for keywords in your marketplace, its called the Keyword Tool. This tool is found when drilling into the account at the ‘keyword’ level. This means you have clicked past both the Campaign and Ad Group levels to display your keywords and ads.

This tool is free to AdWords users, so great right. Well in the past not as much because depending on what you gave the tool as a starting term for more suggestions, the tool spit out those suggestions from most general (least useful) to specific. Furthermore, the only information associated with these suggestions was 2 simple horizontal bar graphs detailing, ‘advertiser competition’ and ‘search volume’. So hopefully your are following me in that no numeric data was given whatsoever.

Now Google has expanded the tool to return suggestions with ‘approximate search volume’ for the last month and ‘approximate average search volume’ with an actual value. Practically speaking, your campaign has only to spend a predetermined amount any way, so its not as if one regularly finds him or herself adding up search volumes, but it is nice to quantify what Google used to shove into a half inch blue bar.

When it comes down to it, we need to have all the necessary keywords in the PPC account regardless of search volume because we need to target what it is we have deemed necessary in achieving our projected goals. That is, we do the best we can with what we can in the given market with a given budget for a certain business model. But I can say it is significant that Google’s Keyword tool is a bit more useful, and frankly it is nice to see Google sharing any real data with us at all. I’m sure tired of getting email replies that might as well have been some fraction of a bar graph. But Google must be listening to the people to some extent in changes as little as this one.

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I participated in a Google Analytics webinar recently and I thought a recap refresher would be helpful- just the basics.

Google Analytics is a tool that shows its users how people found your web site, simply put. Moreover, Analytics details how your site was explored and how to improve the visitor experience so that ROI, conversions and money made can be increased.

In short, this is done by defining ‘goals’ and utilizing ‘filters’ that help manipulate data to be most useful. Additionally, Analytics uses ‘funnels’ to determine where and how you are losing the customers lost.

This free program includes differentiation of traffic sources, namely organic vs. paid. With the use of destination URL’s, one can also track and report non-Google campaigns as well, i.e. Yahoo and MSN.

There are expansive reports that expand the idea of how your site was explored, like how they found you, from where geogrphically, and from where on the net.

The idea of one place to track and discern all of this information is ideal, and according to Google the coding is not difficult, but each page of your site must be manipulated.