#send happy unrelated to current events and us politics things

[oatmealspet]

I am One step away from having a complete and total mental breakdown

I can feel the heartburn and stomach ulcers forming already 🥲👍

[koholinthibiscus]

My Tumblr Journey and mental health

What the hell is this?  Where am I? What do I do and how do I do it?

You often hear of people getting to their 30′s and feeling more comfortable in their skin and just owning, accepting and loving themselves.  Well, maybe it’s because I need psychotherapy, and maybe it’s because I’ve come into adulthood in a period with huge economic and political upheaval as well as a pandemic; but I don’t feel that way.  I feel simultaneously old and young.  clueless about young things (like tmblr) and clueless about old things (like mortgages... even though I have one) 

I’ve deleted Facebook and use twitter sparingly these days so the reason joined this site is to purely vent.  To write my thoughts out and send them into the internet ether to languish, probably ignored.  But just getting it out might make all the difference to my physical and mental well being so I’m just going to give it a shot and see where things go. 

I feel terribly alone and isolated.  I have a type of social anxiety that you probably wouldn't notice.  You might just think I’m an idiot or a bitch.  You might barely acknowledge my existence.  I’m pretty average so I may not register.  But when I’m done talking I will think and think and think about it.  How did I come across?  why the fuck did I say that?  You think I’m a fucking idiot don’t you?  I will simply torture myself forever and ever.  And I avoid social interaction, especially with new people, as much as I can.  I can just about manage in a workplace setting but all my energy for this is taken up with that. 

I feel unheard, unseen and unsatisfied.  I feel a lump in my throat and a weight in my chest.  I feel exhausted and headachey most of the time.  I can’t bear this current situation.  I have a visceral hate for my country.  I can’t bear sad news.  I can’t cope with news that implicates humans as ignorant, unsympathetic, inhumane creatures.  I feel deep sadness at the existential threat our planet faces and confusion and sadness when I realise that barely anyone in my real life feels the same urgency and guilt.  I have changed my lifestyle (probably not enough) to try and alleviate the guilt but it hasn’t worked.  

So I get into things to try and distract myself; fandoms, stories, subjects, video games, novels and I feel sad about it because I feel useless “not good at it” or that they’re a waste of time.  I hate myself so much that my hobbies make me sad. How stupid is that?  I’ve recently been getting into DnD during lock down and watching critical role.  I enjoy it but it makes me sooooo sad and jealous that I don’t have a strong friend group like that who can enjoy playing DnD with the same level of fun, ease and camaraderie.  It literally hurts my heart and I’ve been feeling weird for days.  So I’ve tried to make myself better by consuming things.  I’ve bought a new set of dice and bought some unrelated books.  

I skip from one subject or thing to the next feeling unsatisfied and discontent.  I don’t practice things, I don’t finish things.  I give up. And I feel like I’m giving up at life. I am lazy and stupid.  My hobbies, likes and interests feel like a plaster over a gaping wound and was working but it’s not any more. Getting lost in a fantasy world just makes me feel sad I can’t create my own or be with a group of friends, either on line or on person where I can create together. 

I am petrified of parent hood.  I have an amazing 3 year old.  She is a marvel. But I have a constant dread of failing her. Doing too much, doing too little.  I want her to strive for happiness.  Take on hard things, work at things till she’s good at them, whatever it may be.  I honestly don’t care what as long as she enjoys it, has a passion for it and is ultimately happy.  I want to push her, but I don’t want to push her too much.  I worry about sending wrong messages.  I worry about not doing enough with her.  I do not want to bring her up the way that my mother brought me up. I am terrified of repeating the same mistakes. 

I’m ultimately a kind person who is trying their best but can’t unleash my true potential due to depression, anxiety and self-confidence issues.  I get so angry and sad at people who don’t follow the same ideals as me.  which.... isn’t ideal.  I can’t stand TERFs, racists, ableists, misogynists, right wing people, climate change deniers, ignorant people.  I can’t stand it when people think that poor people only have themselves to blame.  I hate capitalism and colonialism.  I want to change the way the world operates even if it is to my detriment as a white CIS English women living in comfort.  I feel trapped in suburbia where nothing changes and no one looks or is different.  

I don’t mean to fetishize certain communities with that statement and I reliaze that it’s probably ignorant of me to suggest that everyone is the same too, given that I struggle to interact with people.  And I’m not suggesting that I’m some sort of special flower  or that ‘I’m not like other women’ (eeww) either, I know there are people out there I would probably get on with but like I say, I struggle.

It frustrates me when people don’t feel the same way politically.  I think that people’s politics are based on their morals so I struggle with conservatives for example.  I don’t understand them or where they come from.  I want things that people need to be owned by the public and free at the point of access, healthcare being the main one and I fear for the future of the NHS.  Yes, even if it means higher taxes (but I obviously want the super rich taxed more) I don’t believe billionaires should exist.  I want universal basic income.  If the human race keeps breeding, if we keep suffering from pandemics, if we progress technologically to the point where mechanization is even more prevalent, we will not need people to have jobs.  We need UBI to level the playing field.  And I want a vegan world.  All of the above makes my head swim with anger and despair.  What type of world will my child have to endure when she gets to my age?  I fucking hope it’s better than this.  I can honestly say that I believe I am on the right side of history with my politics.  It is ultimately about being kind and humane.  But no... I’m probably seen as a soft SJW snowflake keyboard warrior twat by my family (which is why I went off facebook).  Even though I have a masters in Gender studies and a career in social justice work, but sure, I’m just after the ‘internet points’ or want to look ‘woke’.  I feel like not many people truly know me and if they do know all of the above and don’t like what  they see,  I don’t know man, that kills me.  I want people to think well of me. I want people to think I am a good person. 

I could yap on for ages about this honestly but it would make little sense.

I think I wanted to start this as a place to get my feelings down because I am starting a journey of therapy soon.  My sessions should begin in September but I feel the need to get stuff out now.  I’m having a bit of a shit time in my head right now and I felt like I would burst. 

I’m already worried that I will appear stupid and self centered.  There is nothing particularly wrong with my life.  I have a good job that I love but am also petrified of it and of getting it wrong so I self sabotage, worry and don’t believe in my abilities and I’ve been doing that since college.  (I need to un pack how I feel about work and my actions around it, I have a lot of thoughts, maybe for another time) 

I pick the spots on my face till they become angry red welts, I pick the skin around my nails till they get infected and then I hate myself for how I look, even though it was my fault in the first place.  I don’t shower, don’t wash my face, don’t get enough sleep then look in the mirror and see my greasy lank hair, baggy grey eyes and bad skin and I just hate myself.  Is this an analogy for the entirety of my personality? I am my own worst enemy and I need to give myself a fucking break.  Easier said than done. 

Things to unpack in therapy: 

My work 

My politics and how I interact, deal with people who don’t feel the same way as me

My child hood and family dynamics - It’s fucked up y’all. 

My Child

My husband 

My past relationship

The sick thing I do at night when i think about horrible things, like the death of my child for no god damn reason. (Is it punishment?) 

It’s frustrating being so aware of my issues and not feeling able to do anything about it. 

It’s probably an effect of lock down but I have been feeling really bad consistently for a very long period of time now and it’s exhausting.  I always have peaks and troughs, feel great to OK for sometimes a good few months then it just comes down on me like a bag of hammers and I feel like death for 2-4 weeks.  

I’ve been having those hiccups more often and for longer.  I’m so fucking tired man.  A couple of months ago a I had a terrible headache for 4 days, could barely move and felt tearful all the time.  I just thought it was a migraine attack at the time (which I very very rarely have) but I coincided with a particular event that I’m not ready to talk about (It’s really not that juicy it’s quite fucking pathetic actually) and I think it was a major depressive episode. 

I think I’m done now, I’m emotionally exhausted after reading this through and my throat hurts from trying not to cry.  Maybe this is the start of my tumblr journey maybe I’ll delete it all in a few days I don’t know.  I had to try something. 

[askdoctoroliver]

Rules

I am not an actual doctor. If you really need medical attention, please find someone qualified.

Do not send hate / spam me with the same question. Doing so will only make me uninterested in answering them.

Keep asks proper and not too NSFW heavy. While mun is indeed of age, I would prefer not to draw happy wands everywhere. Suggestive asks are allowed.

Interactions are welcome! Feel free to drop an ask or DM me if you want to delve deeper with our muses.

Do not ask me if Oliver is in love with his patients. He works as a pediatrician and they are underage.

Do not ask me about health issues [both physical and mental]. These questions make me uncomfortable and I am not qualified to give advice or diagnoses.

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Please don’t ask if you want a lollipop or if he has a certain type of lollipop. I get them constantly and it gets tiring responding to the same ask. To make things clear, he has most of the normal lollipop flavours that are sold at most stores (I.E. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, apple, etc.)

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[fistsoflightning]

unending character meme // zaya qestir

RULES: repost, don’t reblog! tag, and good luck!

TAGGED BY: tagged in spirit by @to-the-voiceless

TAGGING: any and all who want to do it but haven’t actually been tagged by anyone!

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Zaya Qestir

NICKNAME: none, really.

AGE: 29 by the end of Stormblood. 30-ish by the end of SHB? Haven’t figured out the time distortion thing.

BIRTHDAY: 17th of the 4th Umbral Moon (8/17)

ETHNIC GROUP: Au’ra; Xaelan

NATIONALITY: Nomad? From the Azim Steppe’s Reunion, if that helps.

LANGUAGE / S: Eorzean Sign Language, Xaelan (crude/unpracticed); understands most languages through use of the Echo

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Demiromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: dating Thancred Waters??? unsure of status during post-SHB but getting there.

HOME  TOWN /AREA: Reunion, Azim Steppe

CURRENT HOME: A shared room in the Rising Stones or a shared house in the Mist; depends on where they are at the time of night.

PROFESSION: jeweler, weaver, gladiator of the coliseum, bard teacher (appointed reluctantly by Sanson after many a problem with Guydelot’s schedule), adventurer and warrior of light

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Straight and somewhat below shoulder length. Most of their hair is black, but slowly changes to blue and white at the tips.

EYES: Dark blue; navy color? Light blue limbal rings that glow in the dark, too.

FACE: Sharp jawline accented by their scales, often covered with some royal blue facepaint similar to Arenvald’s own.

LIPS: Often chapped, but otherwise normal.

COMPLEXION: Ashen brown? Hard to describe bc of weird lighting everywhere they go.

BLEMISHES: None

SCARS: There’s a lot, and I might make a scar map at some point??? Major ones happen to be their legs and their left arm; the legs from Ifrit and the arm from Elidibus in Zenos’s body in 4.5

TATTOOS: None, no matter how much people think the facepaint is one.

HEIGHT: Taller than the average Au’ra, about 5’4

WEIGHT: about 135 pounds

BUILD: Muscular, especially due to their main fighting style requiring muscle literally everywhere. Fistfighting for money is no small feat.

FEATURES: Their scales are an odd color (think black and blue borealis dice, but as scales), and their horns definitely look a bit… ragged. Watching them fight will give the odd realization that lightning sparks in cobalt blue come off of them sometimes.

ALLERGIES: Some undetermined fish allergy. Higiri fed them some assorted sushi once and never did again, so the Scions (and themselves) have no clue what fish they need to avoid.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: Tied into a loose ponytail at the back. Sanson often comments how they share a hairstyle, but it’s simply from need of clear vision when moving around for monk skills and attacks.

USUAL  FACE  LOOK: Stoic as all hell. Not used to making full-on facial expressions outside of conversation, so normally looks bored.

USUAL  CLOTHING: Tabards, cyclas, or generally something with flowy fabric that doesn’t restrain movement all that much. Metal boots and gauntlets/knuckles are also common, but not always.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S: being the last one standing, change, losing their younger siblings/younger friends, spiders, breaking a promise with their mother.

ASPIRATION / S:  To have a proper adventure, and to inspire others to live their fullest lives.

POSITIVE ��TRAITS: Devoted, comforting, slightly protective, carefree

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Easily angered, impulsive, emotional, stubborn

MBTI: ISFP-T (Adventurer)

ZODIAC: Leo, apparently? Sort of fits, if you look at it closely.

TEMPERAMENT: Some crazy blend between phlegmatic and choleric? Generally carefree and easygoing with friends and willing to spend a lot of patience on them, but unrelenting and downright frightening in serious situations, especially when involving Garlemald.

SOUL  TYPE / S: Server/Caregiver

ANIMALS: Birds and dogs.

VICE HABIT / S: Drinking, although the Echo does prevent it from having any effect whatsoever, so its more of a taste thing? Tends to sleep a lot when stressed, and often spends their leftover money on gemstones for their shared collection.

FAITH: Polytheistic; the Twelve and Nhaama are gods they generally believe in.

GHOSTS?: Yes, mainly because they’ve seen one.

AFTERLIFE?: Yes.

REINCARNATION?: Probably, with how they’re sure they’ve seen someone who was supposed to be dead before

ALIENS?: before becoming Warrior of Light, it would be no, but with the revelation of Elidibus on the moon and Midgardsormr and OMEGA‌‌ (ALIEN‌ ROBOT????) they aren’t so sure anymore.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Does not care enough even though they are staunch friends with Nanamo. Didn’t care enough to try and challenge Oktai for the seat of Qestiri Khatun, certainly doesn’t care enough to take a political stance in Eorzea.

EDUCATION LEVEL: Barely any; just enough to read letters written in Eorzean and faintly Ishgardian (courtesy of Alphinaud and Haurchefant).

FAMILY.

FATHER: there was one, once, but he’d rather he be forgotten in pursuit of a happier future. Zaya remembers him as Baatar, but they don’t remember if that was actually his name.

MOTHERS: Erhi, Odgerel.

SIBLINGS: Oktai (older brother), Taban (older sister), Sarnai (sister), Delger and Tuya (fraternal twins)

EXTENDED FAMILY: any of the Scions (former or current) or their fellow Warriors of Light, if we’re talking found family. House Fortemps, Aymeric, Estinien, Sanson, Guydelot, Sidurgu, Rielle, and all of the Qestiri tribe are up there too, but you know, that’s kind of a lot of gifts to be sending around during Starlight. (zaya totally sends them all gifts anyways.)

NAME MEANING /S: Zaya means fate in Mongolian, which all of the other Xaelan names seem to be based on. Their previous name, Dzoldzaya, meant light of fate.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: Recorded history on the Azim Steppe is easily lost, but if asking around the different tribes, one could learn about a rather prominent Qestiri warrior whose image is painted in some of the caverns nearby where much of important, unforgettable Xaelan history is recorded by the Gharl, swathed in blue cloth. In the days of Amaurot, there was one standout Amaurotine who shared a love for lightning and birds…

FAVORITES.

BOOK: They don’t know enough Eorzean to read a full book, not even a children’s book. The Echo doesn’t help with reading. Urianger has read a book of myths and legends that turned out to be true to them, however, and that has been their favorite for a while. They’ve been considering asking him to read more for them, but that’s been placed on hold after the events of the First and following Mt. Gulg.

DEITY: Nhaama, or Rhalgr, if talking to someone who thinks ‘what’s a Nhaama’ when they mention her.

HOLIDAY: Starlight Celebration. Something about the festive mood always makes them happy.

MONTH: August (4th Umbral Moon)

SEASON: Summer

PLACE: On the Source, Reunion in the Azim Steppe just because interacting with other tribes is rather fun. On the First, Il Mheg all the way!

WEATHER: Clear nights where they can trace the constellations, but it isn’t too cold to need a blanket.

SOUND / S: Excited chatter, harp, singing, small hammers clinking against metal.

SCENT /S: Rain, fresh wood, the air in Gridania, light perfume, Syhrwyda’s food.

TASTE /S: Snurbleberry, honey, most Doman seafood, buuz.

FEEL /S: Soft and smooth fabrics, cold metal, the grip of someone’s hand around theirs, wind blowing through their hair on a warm day.

ANIMAL /S: Yol, chocobo (birds!).

NUMBER: 17, for their nameday and the first year they spent in Eorzea

COLORS: Cobalt blue and indigo, pale gold, soot black.

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Extremely good when working with cloth or metal; even more so when tinkering little trinkets. Interestingly enough, very good at playing flute and harp without much practice. Expert at pulling a person’s true emotions out with simply body language.

BAD AT: Sneaking around/stealth. Do not, under any circumstance, give them a job involving secrecy or stealth unless you want it to fail. Speaking/reading is also pretty horrible, due to how they were raised. Also bad at taking change or lies well.

TURN-ONS: Loyalty, bravery despite all odds, kindness and love even when it would be easier to be otherwise, being able to understand other beliefs, and a love of freedom or new experiences

TURN OFFS: Lying to their face knowingly, extreme greed, lack of self-worth, anger for no good reason

HOBBIES: making music with Guydelot and Sanson, attempting to keep a journal, idle tinkering, dancing, gardening

TROPES: Good is Not Soft, Hope Bringer, Magnetic Hero, Omniglot, The Power of Friendship, The Quiet One, Silent Snarker, Dark is Not Evil, Five Stages of Grief, Horrifying Hero, Magic Music, Warrior Poet, Dance Battler, Warrior Monk, Determinator, Pintsized Powerhouse, Pragmatic Hero (don’t let me stay on TV‌tropes pls)

QUOTES: have a snippet of some writing?

Scrawled onto a piece of paper underneath his arm in Thancred’s handwriting and marked with Zaya’s name reads, “Your words, no matter how I react, do not change how I love you all.”

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called,  what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?          

A1: Honestly, I think there would be two movies that could include Zaya; some comedy musical revolving around Zaya’s bard lifestyle while placing their active lifestyle in the background (called “A Bard Knock Life” bc i think puns are cool) or an action drama framed around Zaya and the Scions living some sort of high fantasy/DND type adventure bc I love that stuff called “The Unbroken Thread”. (THAT‌ QUEST‌ NAME STILL GETS‌ ME)

Q2: What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2: Something featuring a flute, probably. I got attached to Zaya playing the flute being a former flute player myself. (I only wish the oboe performance sound bank clicked with me a little more…)

Q3: Why did you start writing this character?          

A3: Originally, Zaya wasn’t meant to exist. I was literally planning on just creating A’dewah, Syhrwyda, and maybe Lumelle and Elwin in different roles. Then the Au’ra came out; I‌ used my free Fantasia from the sub rewards just to be an Au’ra (I was a miqo’te before; shh, i was still babu who liked cats) and suddenly Zaya started being formed as Menphina Jewel. Before I knew it, that Menphina Jewel grew a whole backstory and a new name and new friends (Azim Steppe arc of Stormblood MSQ? Final nail in the coffin.) that slowly took over the previous two Warriors as the focus of my attention. I wasn’t even supposed to keep playing FFXIV‌ past HW, dude. I had like a million other things to be doing at the time, but here I am, lying in my grave 3 years later still attached.

Q4: What first attracted you to this character?          

A4: They’re (mostly) mute. I really wanted to explore what it’s like to not be able to talk and only converse in body language, but then I discovered that might be a problem, so my interest in sign language collided with Zaya’s backstory. It also helps me work out a personality without them sounding/looking too much like what I think is Basic Story ProtagTM like I tend to do on accident (see A’dewah and Valdis’s dialogue sometimes.)

Q5: Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5: They can’t really speak. Funny how the thing I like most is also the thing I hate most. It’s very frustrating when I want them to convey something and then they can’t without using actual words and a voice because I haven’t got a clue on how to convey that through body language. How in the world do you convey ‘I feel like I’m doing arcanist calculations when you speak’ in nonverbal language??? I have no damn idea and every attempt looks like I meant something else.

Q6: What do you have in common with your muse?          

A6: The snark, man. I have friends constantly commenting on how I’ve made a burn without me realizing I’ve done so, and it’s hilarious. The love for music also carried over big time, especially after discovering how fun the bard NPCs were to write and how they’d fit into Zaya’s relationship web. (they’re totally the more comedic side, but I love Guydelot and Sanson anyways.)

Q7: How does your muse feel about you?          

A7: No clue, dude. Maybe thinks I’m boring? I don’t tend to want to drastically change things or look for new adventures; the biggest leap I’ve taken in two years is probably changing to a reed instrument from flute, and even then I don’t have to change key when‌ I read music, so it’s not that big a deal.

Q8: What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with?        

A8: Urianger and Lyse, maybe? I like the exploration of repairing relationships after something that might have ended another, weaker bond. It’s also kinda fun trying to see how Zaya would react; they’re a lot more rash than I am in real life, and that’s honestly saying something. Alisaie and Alphinaud, however, are the most fun just because I know what I’m doing when I write them, and it’s funny to see how Zaya reacts (or has a lack of reaction) to their dynamic. Guydelot and Sanson fall into another category of ‘dear god I simultaneously love and hate these two’, while Thancred, Y’shtola, Urianger, Syhrwyda, Duscha, and Ryne fall into some sort of strong found family vibes that just get me everytime I think about it

Q9: What gives you inspiration to write your muse?        

A9:…Doing job quests or side story quests or even MSQ I haven’t caught up on yet. Watch as I slowly rewrite as many MSQ‌ and job quest scenes as I can in any of my Warrior of Light’s viewpoints. (currently chiseling away at some backstory/before they were Warriors stories after reading too deep into the race/subrace text and lore keep an eye out LOL-)

Q10: How long did this take you to complete?          

A10: A day or two; don’t remember when I began. It was probably when I was procrastinating on homework, though. I didn’t post it until a week later whoops.

[homestuckhiveswap]

Land of Fans and Music: the Homestuck fanmusic scene

by /u/DrewLinky, previous article here.

Introduction

Homestuck, operating as a multimedia webcomic, utilizes many different forms of media over the course of the story. Music is an enormous element of what makes the webcomic enjoyable, for many people even being one of the main attractions of the entire story. As I’ve written about previously, Homestuck even had its own Music Team dedicated to creating works that could be incorporated into the comic.

Alongside this, however, there is a burgeoning fan music community. Innumerable people who were either too late or otherwise unable to get onto the Music Team proper were undeterred, sharing their musical creations with one another on the forums...

Their works were more often than not hosted on the website tindeck, and it was so heavily used for this purpose that the website eventually included “homestuck” as its own category. A quick glance shows that, at the time of writing at least, there are still people who upload their own Homestuck music projects there—quite the dedication.

There was one such person back on the forums named OJ who was involved in this process: for some time they were happy enough to share their music directly with others in lieu of getting on the Music Team, but after a while they conceived of the idea of compiling all of the fan music thus far into an album of their own. People would be allowed to nominate themselves and others, assuming the authors of the work in question could be contacted and were okay with being included. It was in this ad hoc manner that the Land of Fans and Music album was born.

I was given the opportunity to speak with two massively influential figures involved with the Land of Fans and Music group, or LOFAM, over the course of the last several years. Ndividedbyzero (more commonly known as Cait) and Lambda have both seen and done a lot to help LOFAM along in its several year history, and they were so helpful as to sit down with me and laboriously explain the project, and the various elements involved with its development.

Cait and Lambda themselves warrant some description. I’ve already written about them at length individually, but together they’re another story entirely. Throughout the entirety of our conversation, they would unabashedly begin talking about completely unrelated things ranging from the mundane to the spectacularly weird. In one breath they could go from describing the complicated interpersonal politics of musical development to the nature of blue raspberry flavoring and back again, not to mention the insertion of some rather shocking types of pornography at various points (this latter behavior being solely attributable to Lambda).

The exchanges between Cait and Lambda themselves were actually fairly interesting to watch—they play off of each other well and together were extremely helpful in piecing together the history of LOFAM, especially the later parts that they were directly involved in. They weren’t actually involved in the organization of the first album, but they were no less informative on the subject.

LOFAM1 - Beginnings

This first album, also known as LOFAM1, was a different experience from its successors. OJ was the main person who organized it, alongside a prominent Homestuck musician from the team named Solatrus. It was organized openly, with participants posting their songs and album art directly in the forum thread dedicated to the project.

For some time, the main page dedicated to unofficial MSPA music was Homestuck Gaiden, "where a few album projects that weren't greenlighted by hussie went between 2010-2011" (Cait). Most albums there were made by the Music Team or people very close to the team, and then LOFAM1 was included there.

Released in July of 2011 with 53 tracks (giving it the second greatest amount of content in any Homestuck-related album at the time), LOFAM1 introduced a plethora of fanmusicians for the first time. It also became the technical standard in terms of organization and setup: “it set the precedent for basically every fanalbum to come” (Cait). It did suffer its problems but Lambda remarks that the quality of the music submissions overall were pretty good at this point, saying "there was WAAAAY worse [submissions] with the other lofams" that they ended up leaving out, with the other albums to be described later.

LOFAM2 – Stupid o’ Clock and the UMSPAF Bandcamp

Unfortunately, Homestuck Gaiden ended up being shut down sometime after the release of LOFAM1. There is some speculation on why this may have happened, although none of it can be verified: one commonly suggested theory is that Hussie didn’t want fans to think that the albums were official and that he wanted more control over music production, among other reasons. This would make sense: "the music team ended up really really having to emphasize the whole UNOFFICIAL bit" (Cait), and if it proved not to be enough then they would have been asked to stop. Regardless of why, this development mixed up the fan music scene for a while.

Lambda describes that this is about the point where her involvement began. At the very beginning of 2012, there was a community stream celebrating the release of Bowman’s album Ithaca. Lambda began conversing with the people in the stream chat and then later outside of it. At some point she was thusly invited to a group jocularly referred to as the “Stupid ‘o Clock Chat”.

Hosted on Skype, Stupid ‘o Clock (SOC) contained innumerable people. In its greatest incarnation—of which there were many due to Skype’s tendency to crash or fail outright—it held approximately 80-90 people, which was almost certainly part of why it would crash periodically. Many of these people were important names in Homestuck music, but it also held some art people and a smattering of others.

Time passed in SOC, and in April or May of 2012 Lambda asked around if there were any plans to make a LOFAM2—people were still creating content, and OJ had neglected to step up after heading the first project. The vast majority of responses to her questioning indicated that there was interest in creating another album, but there was basically no desire to organize it. It was then that Lambda took it upon herself to do so.

Lambda recruited a person named Liza—who currently heads the official Bowman Discord fanserver—to help, and together they led the organization of LOFAM2. Lambda was fairly young at the time and inexperienced with coordinating such projects. Between this and other influences, the album’s development was fraught with problems: "i think lofam2 ended with like / at least one person saying 'wow, never doing that again'" (Lambda), a sentiment echoed by Liza themselves.

Before LOFAM2’s release, a user named Shadolith—more commonly known as Marcy Nabors and who currently works making sound effects for Hiveswap—was working on a fanalbum called SBURB OST. With Homestuck Gaiden rendered unusable, a new place was needed to host music. Thus, in November of 2012, SBURB OST became the first album to be released on the unofficialmspafans Bandcamp page (graciously shortened into the acronym UMSPAF). At the end of the year LOFAM2 was also released. For unspecified reasons, perhaps general lack of activity due to technical problems, the Stupid ‘o Clock chat was abandoned by the end of 2012.

LOFAM3 – Administrative Delays and the Hiatus

Due to the difficulties of making LOFAM2, making another album seemed unlikely at first. However, this quickly changed: "[making LOFAM3] was only unsure for like 3 or 4 months" (Lambda). Before long, LOFAM3 was being organized. Cait comments: “the head organizer for LOFAM 3 was VeritasUnae, who was a major contributor on Sburb OST, frequented the music thread on the MSPA Forums and worked on the UMSPAF website”. As with LOFAM2, songs were nominated by being posted in the relevant thread on the MSPA forums, or by sending an ask on Tumblr.

Cait had been friends with Lambda, Liza, and others, and herself was around for the creation of LOFAM2, but she claims she didn’t have enough skill to get onto that particular project. Despite this she was still heavily invested in LOFAM2 and was disappointed in the way it turned out: "i was an extremely active follower but not a major player, so i remember being real sad when i heard all the sentiment about drama on the lofam2 end" (Cait). When LOFAM3 started being developed, Lambda asked Cait to be a music judge, meaning she would get to determine which songs got on the album. She says she "was pretty surprised but definitely above all grateful for the opportunity".

Unfortunately, in late 2012 and especially 2013 the webcomic began to suffer in earnest from hiatuses: "homestuck died for 2 years" (Lambda). The decline in updates led to a subsequent decrease in fanworks, and fan music in particular languished considerably. There were very few albums released in the ensuing pauses of the story. Despite this, work on LOFAM3 continued for much of the year, with Cait estimating that there were nearly 100 contributors.

The overall process was smooth but festooned with numerous delays due to the sheer number of people involved. Finally LOFAM3 was released almost exactly one year after LOFAM2 on the 15th of December. Due to the lack of other albums in production at the time, it was a chronologically isolated event. There was a small stream to commemorate the affair, but this only heralded an intense quiet to follow after: for two and a half years, LOFAM3 was the last album to be released by the unofficial MSPA fan group.

Beforus – Decline and Resurgence of the Fan Music Scene

As mentioned earlier, Homestuck’s numerous pauses led to a drastic decrease in fan music production. Most of the so-christened “old guard”, the original members of the fan team, had moved on even before LOFAM3 came out. This trend only worsened over time:

it's hard to get inspiration for fanmusic when the music team itself has resigned to fate / ... / homestuck being on break drastically correlates with breaks in fanmusic production / except after homestuck ended / for some reason (Cait)

In this manner, the fan music scene for all of 2014 and part of 2015 was essentially dead.

At some point in 2014, however, a spreadsheet for LOFAM4 was created. It began relatively small, with a smattering of general concepts and "whatever we pieced together from the ashes" (Cait). At first, progress on developing LOFAM4 was extremely slow. There wasn’t a lot of material to work with and musical creativity was at an all-time low, so naturally LOFAM4 lay dormant for some time (although it was gradually building up steam, according to Cait).

Then in early 2015, a member named Josie began organizing a new fan album conceptualized as “the Beforus project”. Without going into too many details, “Beforus” refers to a portion of Homestuck that is oft-debated as being one of the worst facets of the entire story, so the subject of the album was already of major contention. To make matters worse, there appeared to be no quality control exercised throughout the album’s development, which lead to tracks that were extremely unpleasant to listen to, if not literally painful to the ear.

While many of the songs seem to have missed the mark ("i'm pretty sure like everyone on lofam4 was like ‘yeah, we'd... never let this touch a lofam’", said Lambda), Cait stresses that some of the songs were good or even great. Regardless of how one perceived the album’s overall quality, people who were fans of the subject material ate it up indiscriminately. It signified a new beginning for the fan music scene: scores of fresh artists and musicians were drawn in, and this lead to LOFAM4 being kickstarted into serious production: "in terms of lofam4, it absolutely helped us with contributions" (Cait). From there, the pace only seemed to quicken in leaps and bounds.

LOFAM4 – Conflict, Reconciliation, and Success

Following the release of the Beforus album, there was a significant upswing in activity: "the bottom line is that basically, starting in early-mid 2016, A Lot Of Shit Was Now Happening" (Cait). Not only was the fan music scene picking up, but this all happened to coincide with the release of Homestuck Volume 10 in June of 2016. "this was important specifically because we'd decided long ago that lofam4 shouldn't be released until homestuck volume 10 was" (Cait). Thus, with a significant personal barrier out of the way, speed picked up exponentially.

Some setbacks in the form of real life problems for many members of the team manifested: "this caused a few problems, namely that judging all the songs was a months-long task" (Cait). As soon as they caught up on their workload, more songs would be submitted that made the cycle repeat: "it was clear that some things had to change / luckily, things were changing whether we wanted them to or not" (Cait). This change would come in the form of the Cool and New Music Team (CANMT).

CANMT’s first album, cool and new voulem. 1, was released on the 2nd of July in 2016, serving as a second wind for the fan music scene. Ost, the founder and then-leader of CANMT, was later invited to be a judge for music submissions on LOFAM4 and were extremely active with the work, "which was exactly what we needed" (Cait). Makin was similarly invited to work on LOFAM4 about a month later (although he claims, perhaps appropriately, that he bullied Lambda into letting him on).

The first LOFAM Discord server was created on the 11th of November, 2016 as a replacement for the Skype chat that the group had been using. This switch happened at Makin’s urging, because Skype is generally regarded as an inferior program that people were very eager to drop. With an enormous group project like LOFAM, it was clear that more space was needed to facilitate their work just as organizers, let alone the countless content producers that would eventually be involved. Makin also suggested that switching to Discord would lead to an increase in popularity for LOFAM.

Unfortunately, at this point a rift grew between LOFAM and CANMT where some members of the latter group felt bitter about involving themselves with the former. CANMT had built itself a reputation as a music group with less of an emphasis on sheer quality and more on working with a theme, namely the Cool and New Web Comic (CANWC).

CANWC is a loose retelling of Homestuck in the style of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, which by nature connotes an outward shittiness that has carried itself forward in CANMT’s music. This is all completely appropriate: much of the early music in CANMT consists of bastardized versions of original Homestuck music and is predictably difficult to listen to, which is thematically appropriate. However, as time went by the music became less thoroughly dedicated to shittery and began actually improving. When their seventh album was released, it contained a significant number of songs that were considered of decent enough quality to be put on LOFAM4.

However, there were a select number of people who felt that working with LOFAM was inappropriate:

when canmt started to develop a distinct culture, there was definitely a subgroup who felt either that lofam was the establishment, or that the songs in 2/3 were too boring and canmt was better / so amongst people (i have no idea whether this was common opinion or a vocal minority) there was an idea that submitting to lofam4 would be to give away your True Loyalties (Cait)

This behavior ended up frustrating even the CANMT members who were working as judges for LOFAM, such as Ost.

Despite these naysayers, in 2017 LOFAM4 kept growing in intensity. Further elaboration:

on january 17, 2017, the second LOFAM discord was created, this time to facilitate contributors to the album instead of just the organization team. as makin had deduced, the floodgates opened fast and dozens of potential LOFAM 4 musicians + artists began joining, now under a much more conductive environment for sharing work, receiving feedback and communicating in general than the previous decentralized approach. many of these musicians, as it happened, were from CANMT, which eased the apparent problems between our two groups significantly (Cait)

In this way, the first half of the year saw the rate of development for LOFAM4 rise from already-quick to nothing short of a fever pitch.

Team restructurings happened: with such a dramatic increase in the number of people available for projects, the scale of projects they were willing to pursue increased substantially. LOFAM4 was of course being actively pursued and was wildly hyped up for release, but team members also began work on the Xenoplanetarium album. The music scene in general seemed to escalate in intensity, with another group known as FLSA creating a Problem Sleuth album known as Weird Puzzle Tunes.

FLSA itself is “perhaps best described as a short-lived music collective branching off mainly from the members of CANMT, but others such as myself also joined” (Cait). FLSA was the group that conceptualized Xenoplanetarium, but eventually they realized they were being subsumed into the larger group. In this way, “WPT could be said to be the first album released under the reinvigorated UMSPAF banner” (Cait). For the next several months, things ambled along at a fine pace with some unelaborated-on personal drama (never threatening projects), and a few amusing or exciting projects independent of LOFAM4.

Rather unexpectedly in June of 2017, a new album was uploaded to the bandcamp by Jamie Paige and Marcy Nabors. Entitled 『H☯MESTUCK VAP☯RWAVE 2016 RUH​-​RUH​-​RUH​-​ＲＥＭＩＸ』アンドレア・ヒューシー・グーグル翻訳 (seriously, go look at it yourself), it’s “mostly full of ironically shitty vaporwave remixes of Homestuck tracks by Jamie Paige and Marcy that was first uploaded to Soundcloud in 2016” (Cait). This was followed by another project called Ancestral; headed singularly by a person named Josefin at first, UMSPAF eventually stepped in to help master the album and upload all of the songs to bandcamp.

All of these things were happening quickly, and then suddenly in August a bombshell was dropped: act 1 of Hiveswap would be released on September 14th of 2017, only a month away. “This posed a problem…: LOFAM 4 was… probably going to be released in September, but if it were released after Hiveswap, there was a huge chance of the album getting buried in the hype surrounding the game.” (Cait) Thus, the team officially launched itself into overdrive to try and get the album completed before act 1 was released.

This proved very stressful at times, and it can't be understated that we were working hard; by the final 2 days, I had gotten in about 3 hours of sleep within 48 hours. But the deadline was met. On September 9, 2017, Land of Fans and Music 4, which ended up at a truly unprecedented 105 tracks spanning over 6 and a half hours in total length, was streamed on Twitch, then released… Seeing this many people react to the work that we had all compiled and worked on for years with hype and praise was a vindicating experience, to say the absolute least… A significant chapter in the Homestuck fanmusic community- and oddly enough, my personal life, as well- was over. (Cait)

Naturally, with this momentous occasion now passed, the group began to slow down in its efforts.

Xenoplanetarium – The Current Day

For a while there was some quiet, but eventually the aforementioned Xenoplanetarium album was published in December. “… the smallest in the discography by design” (Cait), it featured only 12 tracks, but was very well received in general. Another, less serious album called Gristmas Carols was put out by Christmas (even smaller at 9 tracks). As of this writing, Gristmas Carols is the last album the UMSPAF group has put out.

Aside from Xenoplanetarium and Gristmas Carols, the peaceful quiet post-LOFAM4 has lasted well into 2018. However, Cait assures me that UMSPAF is hard at work on its next project, labeled “Cosmic Caretakers”. She further describes that everyone is anxious to see it done, as it’s been “in the works for quite a while now”. Whenever it does happen to release, there will undoubtedly be a community stream and a large number of eager fans waiting for them.

Looking back over nearly a decade of community history is no easy feat, and something as richly storied as the LOFAM albums is something else entirely. The fanbase’s reception to these works and the group’s fierce, unmitigated dedication is quite something to behold. A community thrives when its members are creatively engaged and passionate—more than almost any other group I can think of, UMSPAF is exemplary of these qualities. Cait made a remark about the upcoming album, but I feel that it also serves as an excellent summation of LOFAM: “it's shaping up to be quite an experience.”

[bellabooks]

Cat Grant is here to save us all in this week’s “Supergirl”

Where do I even begin with the penultimate episode of this season’s Supergirl? It was a wonder, wrapped in a Balenciaga scarf, tossed in a light dressing of our current political issues, and unrelenting badassery. CAT GRANT CAME BACK! And so did President Wonder Woman, who revealed a hell of a secret. It was magical. I will do my best to not make this recap mostly screaming and gurgles sof happiness. So, when we left Supergirl and the crew, Rhea had kidnapped Lena and brought her Daxam army to invade National City. They even have the nerve to attack the DEO. So while Maggie is battling Daxamite soldiers on the ground… via idanversalex.tumblr.com   Alex is jumping out of buildings, doing this: via mzhyde48.tumblr.com Don’t worry, Alex is safe. Supergirl caught her. Now that’s some trust right there. Meanwhile on Rhea’s ship, Lena wakes up from one nightmare to find out she’s stuck in another one. Rhea wants her to marry Mon El. Same, Lena. via tmh-gloucester.tumblr.com Back at the local alien bar, the gang reunites to try and come up with a plan, and kiss. via dailysanvers.tumblr.com Lillian Luther strolls in offering a plan to help get Lena and Mon El back. She may be the worst, but she does love her daughter. No one wants to hear what Lillian has to say, but Supergirl’s heart tells her to keep her options open. Before you can say, “Those glasses aren’t fooling anyone, Kara,” President Marsdin infiltrates all the airwaves to tell Rhea she can suck it. She’s one Air Force One, jetting to National City and she has precious cargo. CAT GRANT! via tunneys.tumblr.com She tosses a few choice zingers Rhea’s way, but between that and the President’s demands, Rhea isn’t having it. She orders her soldiers to attack the plane. (It’s at this point, the Invisible Jet would have been a better choice.) CAT GRANT gets sucked out, and instead of fear on her face, she has a look like, “I can’t believe she disrespected me!” As CAT GRANT hurtles through the sky, she’s rescued by Supergirl. As they land at the crash site, they think all is lost until President Wonder Woman busts out of a piece of wreckage with a special surprise. via itberice.tumblr.com I’m with her. Back at the bar, while CAT GRANT chats with Madeline Albright and roasts Bill O’Reilly, President Wonder Woman explains herself. She is a refugee from Durla, whose family escaped enslavement by coming to Earth. And right now, she’s here to stop another maniac from doing the same thing to her adopted planet. She orders Alex to bust into the DEO and destroy Rhea’s ship with a positron cannon. Kara is freaking out because as she says, two people she loves are still on board. Alex plays it tough and acts like if Maggie were on board, she’d have to make the same call. Please, Alex, you are a marshmallow. You’d do anything to save your girl. Kara goes outside to take a breather and finds CAT GRANT, sitting near the dumpsters, which is the most unlike CAT GRANT thing ever. They catch up on what CAT GRANT’s been doing (living unhappily in a yurt) and CAT GRANT tells Kara that she went seeking happiness and a break from her loneliness, but she soon realized that it only followed her there. Love is where happiness lies, so it’s time to fly off and rescue the woman Kara loves… and Mon El. Kara zooms off, and Cat watches her like it never gets old. via ainokiseki.tumblr.com Naturally, Kara flies off to meet with Lillian Luthor and bust into the Rhea’s ship using some old Fortress of Solitude equipment. When Kara returns to share her plans, Alex runs to her and admits that she’d do the exact same thing if Alex was the one trapped on the ship. Because Alex has only a small window to get into the DEO and use the cannon, she begs her sister to do her part and do it quickly. via morepopcornplease.tumblr.com As Lillian, Hank Henshaw and Kara use the portal at the Fortress, Rhea is forcing Mon El and Lena to get hitched. How’d she do it? By threatening a Children’s Hospital. You are cold as ice, Rhea. Meanwhile, Alex and Maggie break into the DEO… via smolsawyer.tumblr.com while CAT GRANT reclaims her rightful position at CatCo. Sorry, James, I’m sure your new office will be super nice once they clean up all the wreckage. Winn tags along and they plan a diversionary tactic to throw Rhea off. If anyone can reach the American people in their time of need, it’s CAT GRANT. She delivers a rousing speech, which don’t tell me isn’t directly inspired by current events. It not only inspires the humans to fight back, it interrupts Lena and Mon El’s nuptials. via itberice.tumblr.com *shiver* I LOVE YOU CAT GRANT! Even Winn is like, daaaamn. Their moment is interrupted when Rhea sends Daxamite troops to kill CAT GRANT. Luckily, Guardian is nearby to bust a few heads. CAT GRANT is like, “thanks James,” much to James’ chagrin. James is all, how? And CAT GRANT responds, “I’d recognize those kind, thoughtful eyes anywhere.” Or something like that. I think this is a direct hint that CAT GRANT knows that Kara is Supergirl as well. A ponytail and some Warby Parkers aren’t enough to fool CAT GRANT. As Mon El and Lena fight back against the soldiers bringing them back to their cells, they run into Kara, Lillian and Hank. Lena runs straight for her mother, and Kara and Mon El have their moment. While that’s happening, Lena, Lillian and Hank bust out of there, leaving Kara and Mon El behind. Lillian gives Alex the word that all are safe, and surprisingly, Alex believes her and readies the cannon. Kara, being the Supergirl she is, already prepared for this and has remote access. She sends Mon El back, while she confronts Rhea with a chance to surrender with honor. Oh, Kara. As Alex gets ready to fire the cannon, Mon El breaks through and tells her that Kara is still on the ship. She’s horrified with the choice she has to make, and begs the insistent President Wonder Woman that she needs more time. Turns out they won’t need it because something destroys the cannon. What could it be? It’s the same something that punches Kara right in her pretty jaw when she tries to reason with Rhea. This guy. via tylerhoechlingifs.tumblr.com I haven’t trusted that dude since Batman v Superman. Obviously he’s under some sort of min manipulation, but we’ll have to wait until next week’s finale to find out how the heck! Wow, what an episode, right? CAT GRANT is back! No lesbians were killed! Why does this show make it so easy to ship everyone? What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments. http://dlvr.it/P8yS41

[seo53703]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[inetmrktng75247]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[repumktg61602]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[vidmrkting75038]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[realestate63141]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[seo90210]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

from FEED 9 MARKETING https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[vidmarket32514]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[seoprovider2110]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[ramonlindsay050]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

Open In New Tab >

And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

https://ift.tt/2uEDq8R

[lxryrestate28349]

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Digital Marketers: Don’t Be A Reporting April Fool

Every year around this time, people tend to make the same mistake. No, we’re not talking about falling for April Fool’s Day jokes (or publishing them in the first place… ha ha ha.) Rather, the mistake I’m referring to is about date comparisons and one of my most hated units of time… the month.

In case you were unaware, not all months have the same number of days. In fact, if that first sentence shocked you, you’ll be positively gobsmacked to learn that the month of March typically has 11% more days than the month of February.

So, whether you’re thinking about website and marketing performance with Google Analytics or clicks and impressions with Google AdWords, before you send off your monthly dashboard with your shiny green arrow comparing month over month performance, let’s take a second to consider what this means.

Each year, in companies all over the world, we can recognize a familiar pattern that occurs.

1. A Strong Start to the Quarter

A new year begins. January, with its 31 days, exceeds our December numbers. The holiday seasons in November and December took their toll, but now we’re back and running full steam ahead! (Of course, some industries will do better during holiday seasons…)

2. A Slump In February

Oh no, February traffic numbers dip pretty low. We might panic, we might explain it away by bringing up our ‘number-of-days’ issue or just attribute it to January being a great start.

3. Marching Forward!

Bam! And just like that, we’re back! Our numbers are strong, and this time, while explaining our reports, we may fail to mention those pesky ‘number-of-days’ and instead claim full credit for the strong rebound.

Just Give Me An Arrow

Digital marketers, and really anyone who uses data of some sort, often have to find ways to report on how things are going. Whether it’s the results of a specific campaign or just the current status of their website or project, everyone wants to know “How are things going?”

This has led to all kinds of innovations over time in how we communicate this information. Not only that, the number of data points that we’re expected to follow has increased exponentially, with every new tool that we purchase, or each new metric we decide is critical to our business.

Our methods for conveying the current status may be getting more technically advanced, with whizzbang dashboards built in Tableau or Google Data Studio, broadcast to corporate TVs or delivered via automated emails. Yet, too often, the amount of information we ultimately convey is no more than a thumbs up while passing someone in a hallway.

People love arrows. Green arrows, red arrows. They want the high-level, at-a-glance, give-it-to-me-straight-and-make-it-snappy version. Not only are we vying for budgets, job safety, political or corporate capital – too often we’re simply vying for someone’s attention.

This has led to the ultimate state of the Month over Month dashboard. It comes at an expected time, the end of the month, the time when things get reported on. Contracts, calendars, and fiscal years often align with ends of months, why shouldn’t our reporting?

Again, I’ll stop to remind everyone that months are terribly inconsistent units of measurement.

From Pageviews to Contact Form Submissions and possibly even to Opportunities Won to Revenue, the same problem exists. When we compare metrics that count up over time, some metrics will simply do better when we have a longer date range.

Well Fix It, Dear Henry

We know it’s an issue, but let’s talk about how we can address this. We can’t fix the calendar and realistically, we can’t get rid of our dashboards, monthly checkins, or green/red arrows. So what’s left? Here are a few options – take what you can!

This first step to fixing this issue is realizing that it exists. Just because there are a different number of days, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it so plainly. Any number of factors may affect your actual numbers, which may hide or even amplify the differences. A change in your Google AdWords strategy in February may completely make up for the lack of days, or timely factors may contribute to spikes or dips in traffic. Are you publishing blogs, holding events, or attending trade shows? What type of seasonality does your site or industry have?

Most likely, you’ve realized how many days are in each month. Perhaps it might even seem, dare I say, obvious. But – is it obvious to the people reading your reports? Glancing at your dashboards over coffee or while in the middle of an unrelated meeting? The responsibility lies with the report creator.

Explain and Add Context

Reports are better with context, with explanations. That might mean that you present the data and have a chance to explain everything, or you find some way to attach the WHY next to the WHAT. Look for ways to include the context or the story to help make it easy for the reader.

Google’s Data Studio (and almost every reporting/visualization software out there) has the ability to add text boxes and descriptive information into the report before distributing.

This is your chance to show off, explaining the factors that went into the numbers and adding your analysis – is it a big deal? Do we need to change something? This is what sets you apart from being a simple reporter vs an investigative journalist. You’re not just repeating the stats, you’re explaining the stats.

Choose a Different Date Range

This might not fly in your organization, but consider different date ranges when you’re comparing a month’s performance. Google Analytics offers the ability to compare to the “Previous Period,” which will take your selected number of days and compare against the same number of days going backwards. So for March, it will look at the previous 31 days, grabbing a few January days to mix with the month of February

As another alternative, you can take the smallest month (February) and always use that number of days for your comparison. You could even change the distribution of your reports so that you begin reporting every 4 weeks, rather than every month. This ultimately gets you away from the month model, which may or may not be realistic.

Compare Year over Year

Don’t just look back at March compared to February, but instead look at March 2018 back to March 2017. Same number of days to compare, and especially for months like December with lots of holidays, this will be a much more consistent comparison.

Use Different Metrics

The biggest issue here is when you’re looking at the straight numbers for things like Sessions or Pageviews. If you’re looking at rates or averages, Bounce Rate, Session Duration, Sessions/Day, etc. the effects of the too-many-days problem are largely minimized. (Though, if we really want to get into it, perhaps we should be looking at ratio of business days to non-business days per month…) Create calculated metrics if needed, or choose metrics related to specific campaign rather than a month.

Ideally, numbers about traffic to your site or engagement with your ads are shown side by side with meaningful numbers about your bottom line. Google Analytics does a lot out of the box, but it requires customization to set up important pieces like Goal Tracking and Ecommerce reporting inside of Google Analytics. Sure you may have had more traffic, simply because there were more days, but tell me if it affected your conversion rate.

Use a Different Report

We’ve written about this particular challenge before, and Hannah wrote about a better way to look at trends over time using something called moving averages. Take a look at how to use moving averages with your Google Analytics data to help spot trends over time and minimize the date issues you’ll get by using months.

Using Averages to Identify Trends in Google Analytics Data

By: Dr. Hannah Vogel Published: September 26, 2017

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And Now You Know

Whether you’ve always considered the number of days, or whether it makes a big difference for your particular type of report, the takeaways are the same. Make sure your company and team are looking deeper than the thumbs up/thumbs down to understand why certain numbers went up or down. Explain the differences in simple to understand statements, and make sure you’re tracking the right information to begin with. Happy reporting!

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