I'm not 100% who is the interviewee and the interviewer when you have two of the very best people in web analytics talking to each other; I read the Adotas interview The Analytics Assessment: Gary Angel Goes One-on-One with Web Analytics Guru Eric Peterson last night before going to bed but was too exhausted to comment on it.

My first impression is the interview took place partly to promote the Aquent & AMA Webinar on Web Analytics that Eric is conducting next month.

"

G. Angel: Eric, I take it that your upcoming AMA webinar is about getting people started in web analytics. You’ve probably had as much experience with that as anybody. What kind of things will the webinar cover and (by inference) what kind of things does it take to get people started in web analytics?

E. Peterson: Yep, when Aquent and the AMA approached me about this web event they said they wanted to provide a presentation that would level-set web analytics for a very broad audience. They felt that “Web Analytics Demystified” would be an excellent basis for this.

I think part of the interview was focusing on which of Eric T. Peterson's 3 Web Analytics books is suitable for what audiences and I'm glad to hear that Eric is re-writing Web Analytics Demystified - or at least, in the process of doing it.

And then, the main point of the article (right in the middle - in the second page) - is a nice statement I want to put up on the wall and frame:

"…But web analytics is not easy, I’m not actually sure it is supposed to be. I think of web analytics as a science, one that benefits greatly from deep consideration of the questions and the ramifications of the answers before you “jump in and start measuring,” looking around for easy answers that will supposedly encourage the entire organization to stop what they’re doing and embrace web analytics.

The thing that makes web analytics ** seem easy ** in my experience is rational processes that support measurement — processes that help the entire organization understand what is being measured, why it is being measured, and what will be done with the results when they’re available. One of my worthy competitors scoffed at this notion, saying the time it takes to implement process is wasteful, but he seems to be a lone voice in the wilderness."

I'm sure the Web Analytics for Dummies and the Web Analytics one hour a day books are going to be in my collection of Web Analytics books but I'm glad Eric Peterson is clearly staking out his opinion….and it's accurate.

Look, I was at the Omniture event two days ago and where was a bunch of A List clients of Omniture - and I heard over and over of how few people there are out there to take these platforms and give actionable intelligence that moves the business forward.   Many of the people I spoke with had spent money up the Ya-zoo for Omniture - yet they still needed people like me - to take that information and give it meaning.   Don't tell me that Web Analytics One hour a day is going to do that.   It's not - it's going to get more people interested in Google Analytics - which is not a bad thing - and maybe raise the bar for smaller sites - but your not making a living doing Web Analytics from reading the Coffee Table book on Web Analytics or the "Let's learn Web Analytics in 24 hours - over the weekend " series of books. 

I'm glad Eric was clear on this -  what we do with Web Analytics is not a commodity and should never become one. Popularizing Web Analytics to the world so they understand what we do - that's OK; making it a Commodity …..that's not OK.  I'm very clear about that one.

An interesting thought - Gary Angel thinks Web Analytics is a CRAFT, more like a highly specialized skill - I  agree.