A blogger friend asked me for advice about free demos of Web Analytics packages.  I had not really needed to have free demos as I have several clients who are running live packages.

5 clients are running LiveStats.NET

1 client running WebSideStory

2 clients running AWSTATS

1 client that used to run WebTrends (but now runs AWSTATS)

2 clients that now run KeywordMax

1 client that used Google Analytics (formally Urchin)

My work at IBM where I use Surfaid Analytics

I do get to see a lot of analytics packages and use them - though there are some I should be using and haven’t yet, like Omniture.  In fact, if there was any package to learn and be certified in, I’d pick Omniture now…as most big companies that care about the conversion funnal use Omniture, according to my co-worker and mentor, Bill Hunt of Global Strategies.

But if someone just wants to see what an analytics package looks like against a live site - there are some online demos you can try for free.

WebTrends offers a live demo.  Here are some others:

http://www.phpmyvisites.net/ 

http://www.visistat.com/tracking/index.php

http://www.websidestory.com/products/web-analytics/hitbox-professional/web-analytics-demo/overview.html  

I think NetTracker might offer a free online demo as well - not sure about that one.  I’m not talking about a free trial - rather a real live version of the analytics that is running against real data.

Too bad there’s no live demo of LiveStats.NET.   I have really taken to the ClickStream Overlay feature, it’s very powerful and shows Visitor Intent.