I’ve been promising this book review of “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day” by Avinash Kaushik for near six months and it has taken every week of six months to finally make it all the way through this book.  I’ve spoken many times about Avinash and his wonderful blog “Occam’s Razor” which this book being the pinnacle piece of the writings on that blog.  Avinash is an analytical genus and the knowledge and experience he pours into this book are unbelievably practical, but even more important downright effective.

As I mentioned it took me six months to make it through this whole book.  The problem wasn’t the wealth of knowledge, but reading through it I constantly found myself stopping to take notes and try out things that are mentioned.  Never have I read a book quite like this that packs so much knowledge in a way that I constantly find myself learning so much and wanting to make notes every few pages.

Avinash really strives for this book to be able to stand the harsh test of web time (where a year is an eternity) and does a surprising good job of making it practical even as it’s a few years old and will continue to be relevant going forward.  The truth is this book is designed to be consumed over a long period of time as the chapters are broken down to be consumed one a month with actionable and learning assignments given throughout.   The first few chapters focus on explaining how to build a successful strategy and the fundamental things you need to know about web analytics then dig right into monthly chapters starting with “Month 1: Diving Deep into Core Web Analytics Concepts” all the way through “Month 8 and Beyond: Shattering the Myths of Web Analytics”.  This practical tomb packs so much punch into its pages that I’m sure it will stay on my desk for a long time as a great reference piece.

Be warned that “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day” is not a casual read nor is it for someone without a hunger for numbers and data.  Bottom line is that if you are truly interested in the field of Web Analytics this tomb is your Holy Grail. I’ve already written quite a few posts simply from the applied knowledge I’ve learned from this book and I think anyone that chooses to read it will no doubt come away with tons of practical nuggets themselves.

Oh and did I mention the best part is that all proceeds for this book are donated to a couple charities that Avinash has choosen!  So go get your learn on and feel good about donating to a good cause by buying this piece of work that will only make you a more intelligent and better informed individual.

This post was written by Kyle James