I love Google Analytics and can always be found looking through all the pretty reports it generates for various websites I am involved with. I never cease to be amazed at the various routes people find a website.

One major downside of Google Analytics however is its reliance on JavaScript which makes some things on a website difficult to track. One example of a figure I would love to know is the true number of subscriptions to an RSS feed.

I’ve found a half way house solution to this posted by Hamlet Batista which tracks people clicking on RSS links on a website using the same code I use to track conversions on dynamic pages. For your reference this is:

<a href=http://www.digital-rant.co.uk/feed/ title=”Subscribe to my feed” rel=”alternate” onclick=”javascript:urchinTracker(’/tracking/feed’);”>

Or if you are using the latest Google Analytics code:

<a href=http://www.digital-rant.co.uk/feed/ title=”Subscribe to my feed” rel=”alternate” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/tracking/feed’);”>

Where “/tracking/feed” is your goal URL setup in Google Analytics.

 However this code makes the following assumptions:

1. Everyone subscribes using the RSS links within the page and not the RSS details in the page header (picked up by various browsers).
2. Everyone that follows an RSS link actually subscribes to the feed.

If anyone has any other suggestions to overcome these problems give me a shout - I’d love to know! In the meantime I’ll have to survive on these approximate figures.

Of course if I had the cash I’d upgrade to Google Analytics’ big brother Urchin 6 which recently came out of beta which sorts these issues but as I don’t have $2995 I’ll have to carry on as I am.

Another reason for global warming! The end of the horrible gnat’s piss that is produced down under!

I’ve turned the heating up a few notches!

So why am I doing this now? I’ve been in the web industry for getting on 10 years and I’ve never, I repeat never had my own website let alone a blog that tends to require an ongoing effort of writing eloquently written entries (yeah right - I am from Somerset you know).

The first reason is a couple of people I work with - Mark Steadman of Bluemilkshake fame and Kevin Rapley or DigiKev as he likes to be known. Apart from making my working day more bearable by being the target of my many rants or unprovoked expletives they are also great for bouncing ideas off. Their encouragement is probably the main reason I’m actually putting some of my rants into words rather than just leaving their ears ringing! Not that it’ll keep me quiet unfortunately for them.

However not wanting to leave the boys in too much of an open position when I’m looking to blame someone when I need to write a blog entry and haven’t really got the time - why else would this be happening after all this time?

Maybe recently my priorities in life have changed, certainly my impending fatherhood makes you look at things differently. So rather than just working during the week for various clients I need to take the time to further my own online presence.

Another major reason for setting up a blog specifically is the whole social media movement - it’s about time I practiced what I preach to companies. This is going to be an even bigger year for social media no matter what the doomsayers are shouting - it’s just going to mature.

Confidence is another issue as for some unfathomable reason I’m quite happy to dispense recommendations during my working week (which I would hope work) but haven’t really had the confidence to publish these thoughts online for fear of being attacked. Why this is the case I’m not sure as I do have strong beliefs and I do love a good argument!

It’s also true that Mark’s New Media Junkie podcast that I sometimes make an appearance on has also boosted this confidence - if I can get away with cannibalism here what have I got to worry about?

So here is the first post of hopefully many - rant on.