Clicky Archive

Web analytics provider Clicky has announced the launch of customizable email reports today. Each report can be sent to multiple email addresses which is good when you need to get daily reports sent to clients. The reports can be customized to include the data points you are most interested in.

If you have multiple sites using Clicky, you can setup the reports as templates as assign them to multiple sites. The email reports option is currently available only for Pro account holders but founder Sean Hammons says they may provide a basic email report to all customers in the near future.

Currently you can only select daily, weekly or monthly. I’d love to see an open selection where I can pick the times and frequencies that work best for me. I am still hooked on the Clicky Spy. To be able to watch visitors in real time is just like heaven.

Here’s a sample report – note that this report has only a couple of options checked.

Check out our interview with Clicky founder Sean Hammons and why we included Clicky in our top acquisition targets for 2008.

Editor’s note: We are setup as a Clicky affiliate however no links in this post carry the affiliate code.

We’ve written about Clicky Web analytics several times including our first product review just shy of a year ago. It’s my favorite medium-level analytics application on the market. Why? Speed, features, the freaking addictive real-time spy and excellent support from the one person team of Sean Hammons.

Today Sean has posted about a variety of new visualization tools that Clicky now offers. Clicky has hired the team at Open Flash Chart to create even more customizations on their charting solution. Here is one basic example chart that’s now possible (bar charts were available previously):

The charts update on the fly and the "compare" feature is where the charting tool shows its strength. You can compare practically anything you want to see if there are correlations between the data. Sean has created an example displaying social media inbound traffic vs. bounce rate – perfect for checking how many Digg’rs come back a second time. The comparison possibilities are endless – I already have a list of charts to create.

In the title of this column, I included, "Clicky…Shows You How Freemium Is Done." Freemium means that the service offers a free version and then premium upgrades. I said this because these new charting features are free through this Sunday and then they move to the pro account (paid). Sean gives you the first crack rock free, gets you hooked so you keep coming back to him to buy more crack. I’ve written before that too many startups who employ the Freemium model give away too much for free and customers never have a reason to upgrade. But giving a taste of premium features every now and again makes perfect sense for trial.

In case you are interested, we are currently running the following analytical tools on CN:

• Clicky
• Google Analytics
• Mint
• ExtremeTracking
• A homegrown proprietary analytics tool

On the CN job board, Clicky is currently seeking a Web developer.

Online analytics service Clicky has announced their plans to translate and localize the service into about ten of their top requested languages. The languages include: German, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish and Dutch. Facebook recently began a translation project as well.

This is a "community" project — that means Clicky is asking its users to do the translation. You select a language and are presented with a term to translate. After the translations are in the system, you can vote on which translation is best and then a winner for each needed translation will be selected. What I’d like to see added is a percentage of total completion for each language.

Are you thinking about translation and localization as you develop your Web applications? While not applicable in every case, localization can bring new visitors and potential incremental revenue. If you aren’t thinking of localization, please share your reasons why.

We’ve written about the online advertising maximizing service Rubicon Project several times before including their new funding round last week. We applied for the service after receiving a beta key and were basically declined – what they noted is that "we would be a perfect candidate once the public launch happens".

While checking my Clicky analytics account today, founder Sean Hammons has a post about his experiences with Rubicon Project to-date. He obviously got into the beta. Here are some snippits from his post:

That optimization is a fairy tale unfortunately, and doesn’t do jack diddly. Plus we’ve had two major problems with the service, including them not paying us for our first month even though we had earned WAY above the minimum threshold, and both times their customer service sucked big time. And the ads are extremely irritating anyways, and that’s not at all what we want. 

This company has a raised $18 million in funding which is just unbelievable. There’s no way they’re using any more bandwidth or resources than Clicky is (they’re still in private beta), and we started on essentially zero dollars from our own pockets and have taken zero funding and have zero debt.

Clearly the issue with any of these maximizers is garbage in-garbage out. Have you used Rubicon Project or one of the other ad maximization services (e.g. YieldBuild/PubMatic)? If so, leave your thoughts in the comments.

After last year’s acquisition post, I thought it would be interesting to look at 5 great acquisition targets for 1st quarter 2008. I do not have financials for any of these companies, so I am working from a base of technology and visibility. For each company I list, I have also listed a possible buyer along with my commentary on why the purchase makes sense. Do you agree or disagree?

AOL

Buyer: Yahoo

Why: Yahoo needs to expand its base of distribution for the Yahoo ad platform. What better way than to acquire the population segment who uses AOL and loves it? AOL users click ads which means a potential cash win for Yahoo sa they could integrate contextually-relevant advertising into AOL, something AOL doesn’t do currently. It would also give them access into Hulu thru the AOL Video portal. It might even perk up the employee morale which I read has been quite low this past year.

Zoho

Buyer: IBM

Why: A couple times each week I read about IBM wanting to own the services market. Acquiring Zoho would give IBM a foothold into Web 2.0 and since Zoho targets the small business, would give IBM a chance to sell the small business on even more IBM-based services. It could even help IBM to slowly become a household name again in the Web space, something that they have no real presence in today.

Clicky

Buyer: Webtrends

Why: Webtrends is so completely out of the Web game, it’s sad. I remember beta testing the first version of Webtrends in the mid-90s and watched the company never move forward. Clicky is hot, both from the application-side and the buzz-side, and could be a good fit for Webtrends. Most small businesses need simple Web analytics and while Clicky is more robust than just simple, it would give a slow entry into the current Web market for Webtrends. That is of course if they actually want to move forward, something I’ve wondered for eight years now.

CrazyEgg/ClickTale

Buyer: Omniture

Why: To help Omniture move further into the Web testing market and provide a rounded suite of tools for their clients. Last year I said that CrazyEgg should be acquired by a large creative agency but I’ve changed my mind and am going with Omniture. CrazyEgg and ClickTale provide the testing and Omniture provides the analytics – I could see some nice A/B type testing with these acquisitions.

Pageflakes/Netvibes

Buyer: Yahoo

Why: Both Pageflakes and Netvibes have good footings into the early adopter, “cool techie” segments. This is a segment which Yahoo lacks on but could be a very influential segment for buzz. Completed correctly, Yahoo could (once again) start to get their search and other products in front of the early adopter, blogger crowd which can be an excellent way for Yahoo to get messages out and have forced use of their technology.

Note: Zoho is a current sponsor of CN.

Day 3 in the Ten Days of Holiday Gifts features Clicky. Clicky describes the service as, "Clicky gives bloggers and smaller web sites a more personal understanding of their visitors. Many analyzers give good summaries, and Clicky is no different – but the similarities stop there. Clicky stands out with its refreshingly clean and simple interface, innovative features like Spy and RSS feeds, and an unrivaled per visitor level of detail. You also get real time stats, outbound link tracking, download tracking, IP tagging, custom data tracking, and much more."

We use Clicky on CN and you can read my review from earlier this year along with our interview with founder Sean Hammons. I believe Clicky is one of the most useful Web 2.0 apps around and with my 10+years of analytics experience can say one of the strongest on features, especially for the price. Check out the feature list and comparison to other analytics tools.

Just for readers of CenterNetworks, Clicky is offering Two (2) Free Professional Accounts for the life of the account! To enter for one of the accounts, send in an entry using our contact form. We will select two winners at the end of next week!

(I’ve turned off comments on this post to avoid any entry confusion)

I’d like to thank each one of you for your loyalty and patronage over the past year. I’ve got a full recap coming but it’s simply amazing where CN has grown and of course it’s thanks to each of you. Like the Wine Man says, "It’s a lot of you and a little of me and together we are changing the tech industry." (I tweaked it a bit).

With that said, I’ve been working hard to line up a variety of exclusive Holiday Gifts for you. Over the next ten business days, there will be one gift each day. From service discounts, to premium beta access to free conference passes, we’ve got something you will like!

In the graphic below, you will note one slot with ??? in it. That’s because I have left one slot open. I’d like your feedback on who should fill that slot and I will go after them! Leave your ideas in the comments. And if you have a service to offer as a treat, contact us. It can’t be a free service is the only rule.

Here’s who’s participating — pretty impressive lineup!:

• OurStage – 12 free song downloads – get holiday gift
• Compete – free credits towards the search analytics tool – get holiday gift
• Clicky – two free pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Freshbooks – 30% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• TapeFailure – 40% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• Drop.io – free premium upgrade codes – get holiday gift
• CrazyEgg – Some pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Future of Web Apps in Miami – 5 free conference passes – get holiday gift
• CenterNetworks – 50% off job board posts – get holiday gift

Update: Please DO NOT signup for TapeFailure – the site will be closing at the end of this month :(

You won’t know which Holiday Gift will come which day nor what time – so be on the lookout! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to All!