IP.Metrics

[Garthilk]

In addition to tracking visitors, pageviews, signups, etc., IP.Metrics would show you how many threads and posts are being created over time. It also shows which threads are the most active, most viewed, etc on a daily, or variable basis. How many PM's were sent in a given period, who are the most communicative members. Give the most status updates, etc. What are popular topics, etc. I'd love to see topic trending, hot topics, topic metrics. Who are the power users, spending most time on the site, conversion rates for new users to post, new users time on site, etc.

Now, no one should disagree: message boards are hard to monetize conversations trapped inside them. If one could solve this quandary, they could somehow make money. I think good analytics is going to be key. If IP customers can make money easier, then IP in turn should make more money.

[philversprechend]

Your idea sounds interesting. I would like to see something like this. But I don't know if the demand for something like this is high enough to make it worthwhile for IPS to develop it. They would have to invest manpower, time and money into this and at the same time they should invest into the other IP.Products as well.

At the end it's their decision which products they want to make. But IPS seems to be one of the few companies that actually listen to input and suggestions from users and think about it.

[Olivier Turbis]

I like the idea, although I am not sure it would be very useful. Too much stats kill the stats imo :)

[bfarber]

While it's an interesting idea, demand would be key. My guess is that something like this would be sold as an addon, so there'd need to be enough demand to warrant the investment time.

[night23]

maybe something like IP.Stats or IP.Statistics

- you can be sure thet people buy! :)

[Gavrisimo]

This idea is absoluty fantastic! :) So +1 for the idea!

[krocheck]

Just imagine the possibilities for an advertising system to hook into such a metrics system. Not only can you do content aware ads but targeted ads based on each member's trends. Definitely an addon because such a system would add a lot of DB overhead ... potentially even a need for a separate data warehouse for larger boards.

Its a really nice thought. I'd suggest such an addon be encoded though because there would be a lot of proprietary code in there that IPS would not want to let out to the competition.

Keith

[Brett B]

IP.Metrics - Perhaps IPS's version of Google Analytics? Maybe IPS would also be well-served in creating an advertisement platform a la a less confusing OpenX. Although I'm not sure that either would really fit with the product line that IPS has created.

Just tossing around ideas..

[Garthilk]

Just imagine the possibilities for an advertising system to hook into such a metrics system. Not only can you do content aware ads but targeted ads based on each member's trends. Definitely an addon because such a system would add a lot of DB overhead ... potentially even a need for a separate data warehouse for larger boards.

Its a really nice thought. I'd suggest such an addon be encoded though because there would be a lot of proprietary code in there that IPS would not want to let out to the competition.

Keith

Krocheck,

You bring up a good point. Forums are notoriously difficult to effectively market ad sales for. The biggest issue usually revolves around effectively gauging interests, trends, and demographics and user habits. For me, and for any individual running their forums with the plans to sell advertising, they should be very interested in this product. Going to a potential vendor and saying, I have a forum about this thing you sell, is not enough. Being able to show trends, times, interests, key words, etc. Delivering the right content to the right user, is just as important as delivering the right ad to the right user.

Likewise, if you're a product owner, using IPB as your forums, knowing what your customer trends are very important as well. Knowing what topics keep coming up. Knowing where people are linking to the most, etc. Knowing what is going on in the communities you run is extremely important.

I figure you could go one of two routes. You could do this as an addon, or perhaps as a service. On technicaly end the database overhead shouldn't be that bad. I think there would be ways to make a lot of queries, but have them be smart queries. Perhaps the ability to mirror certain aspects of the database that are to be used for doing the data.

I think the amount of time required would be reletively minor.

[Glumbo]

I really like this idea

[Luke]

Why would you not use Google Analytics?

Also as far as add targeting, Google AdSense have bots that crawl your site to determine this. They even give you special comment tags that you can wrap the content with (to exclude the wrapper).

[pisaldi]

It would be fantastic to have this...

Google Analytics, does not give us much info as it would be possible to give with IP.Analytics because, an insice analytics program could analyse the time each user stays connect, and in which forums stays more time, so you could have the info of which forums have more attention for the users and several other important info that does not have with Google Analytics...

[iozay]

I love the idea how stats can be implemented however I personally wouldn't purchase a different product for it. It would add value to IP.Board itself though. But thats just my opinion

[krocheck]

Why would you not use Google Analytics?

Also as far as add targeting, Google AdSense have bots that crawl your site to determine this. They even give you special comment tags that you can wrap the content with (to exclude the wrapper).

Google can't track logged in users across different IPs (e.g. work & home). Its not that smart. Plus I don't like their JS. I prefer server-side, not client-side tracking. For instance, I actually have google-analytics.com blocked, so I am invisible to them and that skews the stats.

With this you could target segments using profile data (male, female, age), high post areas, specific groups. Granted, some of that you could already (profile stuff), but then that information can be combined. You could provide good demographic information to advertisers, not just pageviews, unique visits, bounce rates, etc. For someone who wants to actually sell ad space, not just let Google do it, this would be something to really bump up the CTR.

Keith

[Garthilk]

Great post Krocheck,

You're stated exactly what I'm talking about.

[Ali Majrashi]

+1 for the idea :thumbsup:

[Glumbo]

Great post Krocheck,

You're stated exactly what I'm talking about.

I agree

[pisaldi]

With this you could target segments using profile data (male, female, age), high post areas, specific groups. Granted, some of that you could already (profile stuff), but then that information can be combined. You could provide good demographic information to advertisers, not just pageviews, unique visits, bounce rates, etc. For someone who wants to actually sell ad space, not just let Google do it, this would be something to really bump up the CTR.

Keith

And adding this IP.Metrics, you could detect false users... who are entering using others user name... Google only counts IPs without detecting if they are entering with the same username...

It would be a great plus for IPS to offer this to all their IPB users...

I think that lots and lots of webmasters are very worried about SEO and this would help them with all metric so they could improve SEO for their web...

:thumbsup:

[Luke]

Well then I would suggest that it should be a built in feature, not something external. The existing statistics in the system lack anyway.

[Jaggi]

just wondering, i can get half those stats mentioned currently in the acp. Topics make daily etc, posts made etc.

[Garthilk]

Jaggi,

You are right, most of the stats can be gotten to easily, however there are a great deal many that cannot, like moderation trending, etc, reputation trending, etc. In addition, the presentation and ease of use could be seriously improved. I'm in the process of putting together an outline for the proposed product and some mockups to further the idea.

The goal of IP.Metrics would be:

• Listen, to what is being said.
• Engage, tactically and strategicially.
• Measure, quantify, rather than guess.

Core Features

• Group Scoping, get granular with permissions and the analytical information you're reporting. Create custom pages for different groups, showing them specific information relevant for them. Whether it's moderation metrics for your moderation team. Or custom reports for your community management team, showing them trending topics.
• Widget Reporting. The reports would be done by widgets and placed on pages. Allowing users to custom create their own widgets for their own communities.
• Graphing. Metrics can be displayed in various graph form or in detailed form, with important trending for comparible time periods.

How well do you understand your community?

• Are your keywords and phrases being mentioned negatively or positively?
• How are your members contributing to create content?
• Where are your moderators spending time?
• What content is most accessed?
• How is content being used?
• What are your sites strengths and weaknesses?
• What is the experiance time for your customer?

A couple of specific examples:

• Hot Topics - Helping you understand the customer voice, track the mentions of specific keywords and phrases.
• Temperature - Are posts with your specific keywords and phrases getting good reputation or bad reputation?
• Issues Radar - Find topics being discussed that you didn't know were important. If there are fast appearing topics that aren't in your existing keyword or phrase tracker, this shows you upcoming.
• Application based metrics. Show us which applications are being used, how, and the metrics.
• Identify - There are users who participate, those whom create. Tools to help you identify whom is who and look at the types of content they're creating or participating in.
• Track Searches - If you know what your people are looking for on your site, you can help them find it. Find the content and highlight it.
• Contributions - Reports for blogs, galleries, content pages, chat topics, etc.
• Types of users - Infleuncers (lots of friends, posts get lots of topics, posts have significant outbound links, posts have good reputation, recieve lots of views). Infleucners would be people in your community you want to assist to help in your community. Other types of users would be commentors, connectors, askers, answerers, originators, creators, etc.

That's a very rough outline mind you but you get the idea of why I think a solid metrics package could help nearly any community.

[Jaggi]

yea will be a good admin tool all the same to have a one stop place.

[C. Waffles]

With an advertising system integrated into this idea it could have great potential. But I don't personally see enough people buying it for IP staff to warrant spending the time coding it, unless perhaps it could be sold at a premium price to those fewer people.

[Garthilk]

With an advertising system integrated into this idea it could have great potential. But I don't personally see enough people buying it for IP staff to warrant spending the time coding it, unless perhaps it could be sold at a premium price to those fewer people.

I think if you did some customer education, you'd find that more customers may be interested than one might initially belive. If you show forum owners how they can run more successful forums, I think it would be easy to increase the number of sales.

[pisaldi]

The goal of IP.Metrics would be:

• Listen, to what is being said.
• Engage, tactically and strategicially.
• Measure, quantify, rather than guess.

And many more to come, but you-ve shown a very good example...

:thumbsup: