Rating: 
Summary: Everything You Need to Know
Review: A complete how-to book to determine the success of a Web site. Sterne clearly explains how to use metrics to quantify business goals. The tools, services, and techniques for measurement described in the book will be helpful for any e-business or other company with an Internet presence. A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book For Those With SEO Responsibilities
Review: As a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist I found this book to be an excellent resource to clarify the differences between website traffic analysis, search engine optimization and tracking business success metrics. I like to drive home to my employer that we need to focus on the goals of our sites and define our own metrics as to what success means. My interest is always, "How will this increase sales?" This book makes very clear which numbers matter and why, including web traffic, sales and marketing. I especially like the focus on "actionable" intel: metrics are great but what do they tell us to DO differently? How will this give us a competitive advantage? What does it tell our sales people? I recommend this book for newbies as well as pros. If you're a pro there is so much in this book that there has to be something new that will help you compete. If you're a newbie you will soon be talking like a pro. Career advantage. It is written so anyone can understand it in a kind of Dr. Phil tone. I also like that it uses examples from all sizes of companies instead of just telling me how Amazon and EBay did it - like we're all in that league. There is a lot of information here, it will take you a while to read it. No I did not find every chapter riveting but I seldom find that in any non-fiction book. Many times however I put the book down, weighed the insights provided against how we do things presently and pondered how I could convey the points to the marketing department. If I can give the sales force an edge we all win.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm sure there's some good information in here somewhere.
Review: Jim Sterne clearly knows his stuff, but he has such a disconnected, rambling style that it is hard to figure out what he's trying to get at in this book. For example, early in the book, he's just starting (in an unusually oblique way) to explain how log files work, then changes gear and reprints a long email from someone else about an application fault management tool, TraceBack. Helpful for some, I suppose, but off track. This is one of those books, like "3000 Tips for Better Golf" that is probably best read in small random bits while on the john. Best used as a treasure trove by those who already are famililar with the landscape.
Rating: 
Summary: insightful and informative
Review: One key phrase from this book sticks in my mind and summarizes the entire theme of the book, "You know your Web site is serving pages. But is it serving company?" Indeed, this is the most business-focused book among the ones I've read on web metrics. The author focuses on two major areas: marketing and customer relationship management metrics, which are closely related. If you're seeking a more technical book, I recommend "Scaling for E-Business: Technologies, Models, Performance, and Capacity Planning" by Daniel A. Menasce and Virgilio A. F. Almeida. Not only does this book go deeply into the business-related metrics, but it also shows how select the most meaningful metrics (you cannot economically measure or understand everything). It also shows you how to develop a strategy for gathering and using the metrics, including convincing upper management of the need for the strategy. Interestingly, you can also take the information provided in this book and use it as the basis for a competitive intelligence strategy, because the very metrics that are meaningful to your business are also key indicators for your competitors. You can either benchmark your competitors, or determine if their measurement strategy is as mature as yours. While the author didn't explicitly cover this, the material in the book certainly gives you the foundation for such a strategy. If you work in marketing or are responsible for CRM you'll find that the book's approach and wealth of ideas and techniques can be put to immediate use. As a side note, if you are using this book in conjunction with a CRM strategy, you'll also want to read "The CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to Customer Relationship Management" by Jill Dyché, which touches upon the metrics aspects presented in this book, and goes deeper into CRM. In addition to the material presented in the book, the accompanying web site is equally as valuable, especially the numerous links to related material that is grouped by book chapter.
Rating:
Summary: A "must read" for marketing and CRM professionals
Review: One key phrase from this book sticks in my mind and summarizes the entire theme of the book, "You know your Web site is serving pages. But is it serving company?" Indeed, this is the most business-focused book among the ones I've read on web metrics. The author focuses on two major areas: marketing and customer relationship management metrics, which are closely related. If you're seeking a more technical book, I recommend "Scaling for E-Business: Technologies, Models, Performance, and Capacity Planning" by Daniel A. Menasce and Virgilio A. F. Almeida. Not only does this book go deeply into the business-related metrics, but it also shows how select the most meaningful metrics (you cannot economically measure or understand everything). It also shows you how to develop a strategy for gathering and using the metrics, including convincing upper management of the need for the strategy. Interestingly, you can also take the information provided in this book and use it as the basis for a competitive intelligence strategy, because the very metrics that are meaningful to your business are also key indicators for your competitors. You can either benchmark your competitors, or determine if their measurement strategy is as mature as yours. While the author didn't explicitly cover this, the material in the book certainly gives you the foundation for such a strategy. If you work in marketing or are responsible for CRM you'll find that the book's approach and wealth of ideas and techniques can be put to immediate use. As a side note, if you are using this book in conjunction with a CRM strategy, you'll also want to read "The CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to Customer Relationship Management" by Jill Dyché, which touches upon the metrics aspects presented in this book, and goes deeper into CRM. In addition to the material presented in the book, the accompanying web site is equally as valuable, especially the numerous links to related material that is grouped by book chapter.
Rating:
Summary: insightful and informative
Review: Sterne does a good solid job of presenting material nicely. He also talks about the important stuff. Sterne explains What to measure, how to measure it, when to measure it, but not why (i.e. what is the significance of measuring this particular metric?). Overall a real eye opener regarding web metrics and their importance in the overall value chain of the internet experience and success of the site.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of how to run a Web site like a real business. If your mandate is to improve the success of your company's online presence, and you're unsure of where to start, you'll find value in each chapter. Sterne does a nice job of connecting Web metrics to traditional business concepts. If you have a strong understanding of the value of Web metrics, or if your company already takes a serious approach to analyzing site data, setting specific business goals, and carefully measuring success, then you're better off selecting a more targeted book that delves deeper into your area of interest. Sterne covers a lot of ground at a macro level across a wide range of subjects. The table of contents provides a detailed overview, I recommend looking it over.
I read this book in 2004 and still found it current and informative. A few sections are a little behind from a technology standpoint, but don't let that deter you. This book gets full marks for making it easy to understand why tracking and analyzing Web metrics is critical in today's online business environment.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Keeper
Review: This is *the* book to read about web metrics and measuring web site success. I read much of this book in a couple of days and found it to be superb -- clear, to the point, funny and informative. A really excellent, useful book -- I rarely read whole e-marketing type books because, to be honest, most of them bore me to tears. This is a winner.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Keeper
Review: This is *the* book to read about web metrics and measuring web site success. I read much of this book in a couple of days and found it to be superb -- clear, to the point, funny and informative. A really excellent, useful book -- I rarely read whole e-marketing type books because, to be honest, most of them bore me to tears. This is a winner.
Rating:
Summary: Good resource for Business Executive Understanding Metrics
Review: Web Metrics is an important book for those of us on the business side. Why? It is a great basic introduction to the technical side of Web analytics, without being a textbook and with a good dose of framing business practices and objectives. That means that it helps focus technical people on business goals as they develop their analytics.
As a basic introduction to the ins and outs of Web analytics this book is great. Sterne leads you through what you get, how it gets there, and some of the angles on measuring. Web design and usability are discussed along with the array of patterns, formulas, and ratings when you add users in the mix. At every step of the way it is always related back to business needs and objectives.
One size, one style, one way does not fit all. Jim Sterne returns again and again to WHY as much as HOW. Sterne warns against getting attached and enamored by data that is not pushing your business goals. Standing in my own frame of reference on the business side, this is very much using metrics to measure the execution of your corporate strategy. If your strategy is aligned with execution your metrics show Web success. Given the cost of collecting data, the cost of storing it, and the cost of analyzing it and the cost of interpreting it - how much to invest in your Web channel depends on a solid, articulated strategy plan- not just the "goals du jour".
Compaq gets mentioned, as well as many other companies that are no longer in existence and some of the Web links he recommends are also long dead, though don't think this book is dated. If anything it is more relevant now that businesses have to be more effective.
Jim Sterne has a very engaging style that is fun to read, he can stay on track and on task, has great stories and examples that are just long enough, and gives you insight and understanding about Web metrics.
If this is going to be a book you give a business executive, go to page 46 and with your favorite highlighter underline WHAT EXECUTIVES NEED, which is already easy to see. Then in the Peter Drucker quote immediately under it, just highlight these five words, "...information system integrated with strategy." Put your business card to mark that page and send it out.
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