Web analytics, web metrics, and how to use them to track and improve conversions

When I go to Ad-Tech NY on Monday I plan to film a lot of the interviews I do - in some fashion - and put them up on YouTube and/or Google Video (which are pretty much the samething now ..right?).

So I went into a Radio Shack yesterday and asked a salesperson to show me something that would take video and podcast material and the first thing the salesperson came up with was a Sony Camcorder for a little less than 500 dollars.

Nope...I said that's not exactly what I had in mind - so I went over the features I wanted again - a device that produces a MP4 movie, does Podcasts and what I was shown is the 99.00 (for this weekend) Optimus DV-5040 5.0MP Digital Camera  (near the bottom of a long page that has a lot of camaras on it) that does everything I asked for for 99 bucks (I had to add a 1GB SD card to get 30 minutes of movie time - so it's more like 150 bucks ....not bad).

The features include:

A device for all your digital needs.
With five different functions, you'll have no problem putting this 5.0MP digital camcorder to good use. Shoot digital video, take digital photos, listen to your MP3s, video chat online and record your voice all with the same device. Includes an SD™ memory slot so you can store up to 512MB of memory.

• 5.0-megapixel CCD captures great images for sharp pictures full of detail
• 4x digital zoom makes it easy to get a close shot
• 2.0" LCD color display makes it easy for you to view and line up all your shots

Well, I tried to figure out how to use the camara yesterday - was a little frustrating - and I'll test it out today .... but what I plan to do is take as much footage of Ad-Tech and other shows as I can - Edit it, if I can, and then upload it.

Interestingly - the customer reviews really help (though I bought the camara already) - overall you can categorize the audience by looking at the reviewers comments (the web analyst in me likes to do this) and this is what I get.

Audience 1: People who did not expect that much and were plesently surprised

Audience 2: People who expected high end camara and were angry when it was not the perfect camara for them.

There's not too much you can do about Audience 2 - they really wanted a more simple solution that's higher end - even though the camara had most of those features - it was too hard for them to figure out how to use it.

I think I'll go to an art show that's closing today and see if I can use the camara the way I envision.  If so, I'll post a link to the uploaded video in www.ArtNewYorkCity.com.