I was just sent Complimentary review copies of two books by Wiley Publishers – one that I didn't know about but am very interested titled Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics by Brian Clifton. 

The other book is Online Marketing Heros by Michael Miller (which I did know about). Of the 25 "marketing heroes" in the book, I know Greg Jarboe (who I spoke with a few times last week at SES NY, Heather Lloyd-Martin (who I also spoke with at SES NY and have met a few times over the last 3 or 4 years), Lee Odden (who I also talked with briefly at SES NY), Kevin Lee (who I've met and spoken with a few times – not much lately – and also saw at SES NY), Jill Whalen whom I've briefly met in the past at Webmasterworld – maybe two years ago was the last time, and I also have briefly met Steve Rubel last year at AlwaysON NYC.  That means I know about 25% of the people in Online Marketing Heros on some level.

It'll be interesting to be reading and reviewing both books and I thank Ashley Evens over at Wiley for taking the insight and initiative of mailing me advanced copies.  I did not ask for these books – they just sent them to me – but I'm glad they did and I think it leads me to think that Wiley did some marketing research to figure out who were influentials for certain topics and didn't ask those people to review the book – they just sent the books directly, no strings attached.

That's a good strategy – and I wanted to read both books anyway – so there … Wiley got it right – this is the right approach for bloggers like me – just send me the book – if you think I'm the right person to read it – and I am.

The Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics book appears to have a lot of the nitty gritty  detailed stuff other books leave out – but which you need to know if you run into implementations that are non-standard (I believe every client has some "unique" requirements that really demand you have to do something "special" for them  – often stretching the tool in a non-standard way.  When you have to do that (more often than you'd expect – having a book that explains how to do the advanced things in Google Analytics is great to have – except there wasn't a good one out there – this one looks good.  After I read it I'll let you know for sure.  

Next week I'll be at Virtual Worlds 2008 and Blogger Social 08 – between Thursday and Sunday – and I have have yet to really study the materials for Blogger Social 08 (there's 3 packets of information). 

But I really like the online quiz I took today – and think there's potential in setting up more of these – I actually found out a few details about people I'll meet that I didn't know (IE: that Crayon PR is going to have 3 people at Blogger Social).

Here's the online quiz about Blogger Social 08, in case your interested in taking it yourself.  I think another quiz built for Virtual Words 2008 would have been good to have also.

My engagement level most of gone way up – and that's not easy now, I just got back to my office from lunch – perked up while filling out these questions. 

Next week is going to be really, really crazy for me – 2 conferences and maybe 4 or 5 dinners – but one I didn't know about till last night and I immediately registered for it – it's the

Blogger dinner in NYC, March 31st

Yep, with Charlene LI, who I have never met – or even been at the same conference with – but I've read her blog, on and off, for several years.

If your in NYC, or you live nearby, and your a blogger (yes, a blogger) and it's not sold out – this might be a good dinner to come to – take my word for it.

Anyway – I'll be there, and I operate largely by my gut (I'm an artist, after all, besides being a Web Analyst).