On April 12, 2012 it would have been 51 years since Yuri Gagarin successfully orbited the earth and became the first human in space. The flight lasted 108 minutes.

Yuri Gagarin’s achievement kick-started the space race between the US and the USSR. This eventually led to the ultimate goal of landing a man on the moon and successfully returning him to earth.

Coincidentally, I had just finished a large acrylic painting of Yuri sitting in his space craft prior to his historic launch.

To celebrate the anniversary, Chabot Space center in Oakland California had a special one day Yuri Gagarin event and I had the opportunity to display this painting in their beautiful center. See photo of myself, my wife Leia and Yuri.

As a young boy I watched on live TV, all the Apollo missions, including the first lunar landing. This exciting era left an indelible impression that has lasted to this day.

This painting is a one of a collection of images from that pioneer age of space travel.

To see more of my space art paintings, please check out my website.

www.cashgraphix.com/original-art.php

Painting by Alan Cash of Buzz Aldrin

Some of you might not know that I’m a space enthusiast!

I’m not talking about flying saucers or aliens…no, no NO!

My passion is the early years of NASA, the moon landings and the Apollo years.

I was as a 10 year old boy living in London UK, lucky to have witnessed first hand, the incredible achievements of a golden space era. I watched the moon landing live on tv, and that excitement still inspires me to this day.

Unfortunately the current space program is common place and funds for revival are in dispute. In the 1960s era we had space heroes…Who are our national heroes today?

Recently, I decided to paint my passion and choose this as focus for my art. Now my goal is to create 20 or 30 paintings reflecting significant events during that period.

To check out my work so far, please see my original art link at:

http://www.cashgraphix.com/original-art.php

There will be more coming soon.

Just in time for Valentines day…

This is a program we should all download!

INSTALLING LOVE ON THE HUMAN COMPUTER

Customer: I really need some help. After much consideration, I’ve decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me through the process?

Tech Support: Yes, I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I’m not very technical, but I think I’m ready to install it now. What do I do?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your HEART. Have you located your HEART?

Customer: Yes, I have, but there are several other programs running right now. Is it okay to install while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running?

Customer: Let’s see… I have PAST-HURT.EXE, LOW-ESTEEM.EXE, GRUDGE.EXE, and RESENTMENT.EXE running now.

Tech Support: No problem. LOVE will gradually erase PAST-HURT.EXE from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programs. LOVE will eventually overwrite LOW-ESTEEM.EXE with a module of its own called HIGH-ESTEEM.EXE. However, you have to completely turn off GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.EXE. Those programs prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?

Customer: I don’t know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: My pleasure. Go to your Start menu and invoke FORGIVENESS.EXE. Do this as many times as necessary until it’s erased the programs you don’t want.

Customer: Okay, now LOVE has started installing itself automatically. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes. You should receive a message that says it will stay installed for the life of your HEART. Do you see that message?

Customer: Yes, I do. Is it completely installed?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other HEARTs in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops. I have an error message already. What should I do?

Tech Support: What does the message say?

Customer: It says, “ERROR 412-PROGRAM NOT RUN ON INTERNAL COMPONENTS.” What does that mean?

Tech Support: Don’t worry, that’s a common problem. It means that the LOVE program is set up to run on external HEARTs but has not yet been run on your HEART. It is one of those complicated programming things, but in non-technical terms it means you have to “LOVE” your own machine before it can “LOVE” others.

Customer: So what should I do?

Tech Support: Can you pull down the directory called “SELF-ACCEPTANCE”?

Customer: Yes, I have it.

Tech Support: Excellent. You’re getting good at this. Now, click on the following files and then copy them to the “MYHEART” directory: FORGIVE-SELF.DOC, REALIZE-WORTH.TXT, and ACKNOWLEDGE-LIMITATIONS.DOC. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching any faulty programming. Also, you need to delete SELF-CRITICISM.EXE from all directories, and then empty your recycle bin afterwards to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My HEART is filling up with new files. SMILE.MP3 is playing on my monitor right now and it shows that PEACE.EXE, and CONTENTMENT.EXE are copying themselves all over my HEART. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes a while, but eventually everything gets downloaded at the proper time. So, LOVE is installed and running. You should be able to handle it from here. Ah, one more thing.

Customer: Yes?

Tech Support: LOVE is freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everybody you meet. They will in turn share it with other people and they will return some similarly cool modules back to you.

Customer: I will! Thanks for your help!

This came from www.weboflove.org and the author is unknown.

Please check out the new website I created for Nuevo Mundo. A salsa / son band based in the Oakland Berkeley Area.

Nuevo Mundo play a mixture of Salsa to Son to Latin Standards and Latin Jazz. Nuevo Mundo features great vocals, driving horns, and a moving rhythm section.  The music is very spirited and danceable.

Check them out when they’re in your neck of the woods. See schedule for upcoming gigs!

www.nuevomundosalsa.com

The summer is nearly over and I hope you all had a good one.

Recently, I changed my blog over to a WordPress based platform. This is a custom theme that I designed using my existing site style.

I can seemlessly create a WordPress platform interface for you as well as a standard php platform (without WP sidebar functionality)

Call or write to me to discuss more details.

Happy blogging!

Alan

Stephen is a remarkable and inspiring man. Eco Artist, Educator and coach.

He walks his talk, sings his song (or in his case flute) and lives his life with purpose and passion.

You might want to check out his workshops, special events or one-on-one coaching sessions.

Check out Stephen Kelly’s new site at  www.stephenkellyartist.com for more details

Welcome back…Let’s continue where we left off.

The best way to understand Google Analytics is to have this blog entry open along side. Hope it helps.

Traffic Sources

The next category on the left side is traffic sources. Let’s take an in-depth look at this category and explore its sub categories further.

Overview

The first sub category is ‘Overview’. The graph indicates all the traffic sources and a total amount of visits. It will be broken down into Direct traffic, Referring sites and Search engines.

Direct Traffic

Direct Traffic” is visits from people who clicked a bookmark to come to your site or who typed your site URL directly into their browser.

Referring Sites

“Referring Sites” shows visits from people who clicked to your site from another site.

Search Engines

This shows visits from people who clicked to your site from a search engine result page.

After analyzing the above, you can see clearly where your traffic is coming from. All the results are a percentage, so if you’re getting 100% from Search engines, your site is very well optimized and you know what you’re doing.

What is AdWords?

AdWords is a service offered by Google that allows you to place sponsored ads on the right side and top ranking placement on google. You set a budget and are charged when viewers click your link.

I thought this is a good video to help you understand Google Adwords.

You might want to try this form of advertising and create landing pages to capture potential client lead information. I can build eyecatching landing pages, so let me know if this is an area you are interesting in.

Back to Google Analytics

AdWords

This report lists all of the kinds of traffic your site receives. To group this traffic by Source (for example, “google”), click the Source link. To group this traffic by Medium (for example, “organic”), click Medium. To see traffic itemized for every Source and Medium combination (for example, “google (organic)”), click the Source and Medium link.

AdWords Campaign

If you have an adWords campaign you can compare the campaign to the “average” visitor to your site?

Keyword positions

Use this report to determine your best search position for each keyword. Click “view result” next to any keyword to see how search position corresponds with Visits, Time on Site and Conversion Rates (Conversion rate is the relationship of visitors who convert website visits into preferred actions based on direct requests from content creators, etc.

Further down you can even compare website data to your Google TV Ads campaign data. As you can see. Google Analytics can be very comprehensive way of collecting useful data. Don’t get too bogged down with options that have no relevance to your site. There are many options that will not be applicable to you, but they might further down the line.

Content

Content Overview

This report provides an overview of pageview volume and lists the pages that were most responsible for driving pageviews. Entrance Points allows you to monitor the bounce rates for your most important landing pages if you have them. Consider redesigning any pages listed here that have a high bounce rate.

Top Content

Top content will show you the most commonly viewed pages on your site, and how are they used? The table lists all of the pages which were viewed on your site. If you have a high bounce rate for a particular page, you might want to rethink the design, content or functionality to produce a better result. GA is all about monitoring your activity on your site. If you are paying close attention and take the time to understand, you can be one step ahead of your competition.

A high ‘Time on Page’ may indicate content that is particularly interesting to visitors. You might find it more easy to understand if you click on the views button on the right side. A pie chart might make more sense for you.

Content by title

This section shows the most commonly viewed groups of pages on your site. This report provides the same information that is in the “Top Content” but with more detailed focus.

Content Drilldown

How popular is each page on your site and how important is the page to your business? A high Bounce Rate indicates that a design or content rethink might be necessary.  A high Time on Page may indicate content that is particularly interesting to visitors. The importance of Exits varies according to each page.

Top Landing pages

How effectively do your landing pages entice visitors to click deeper into your site? You can lower bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to their associated ads and referral links and placing a clear call-to-action on each landing page.

Top Exit pages

From which pages do people exit your site? The significance of Exits varies according to each page. For example, it may be common for visitors to exit your site from a receipt or “thank you” page. In contrast, a large number of Exits from a non-goal page may indicate that the page is confusing and unfunctional.

In-Page Analytics

This helps you visually analyze your website pages in order to assess how users interact with those pages. You will see you site through GA with percentage indications on most areas of activity.

For example:

• Is my page layout optimal for what I want users to accomplish on the page?

• Are my users seeing the content I want them to see?

• Are my users finding what they’re looking for on the page?

• Are my calls to action motivating or visible enough?

• Which links are users clicking?

Click any link on your homepage, and once the new page is loaded, the corresponding data are shown for that page.

In a nut shell, Google Analytics shows you how people found your site and how they explored it, and how you can enhance your visitor experience. With this information, you can improve your website return on investment, and enhance your visitor overall experience.

Ideally GA can help you make more money. There is is a lot to take in. Don’t get put off with the abundant analytical details. Start slowly and go step by step to what’s relevant with your current site and work from there.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Part 3 – the final part to follow shortly.

Van Gogh’s Philosophy

Simple and direct:

Google Analytics is a very useful free service offered by Google to help you analyze your website’s visitor statistics.

Google analytics can help you determine pages that are under performing on your site. Once you have this data you can take the necessary decisions and make changes.

The data can show you how people have found your site and how they explored it. Having this information is very useful to improve your return on investment (ROI).

Making sure you understand and keep up with your statistics can help increase your revenue from the web.

Implementation

The first step to adding GA to your site is to create a google account. Once this is in place, you can sign up for GA and access the tracking code. For those that aren’t tech savvy I can help you install this to your site. The tracking code is placed in the header section of each page you want to track. Once this is in place, you will need to confirm if Google is tracking your site. On your profile there is an edit button. From this link you can make sure the site is being tracked. The tracking status will have a green tick to say you’re receiving data.

Now let’s get started so you understand what Google Analytics can do for you.

The first page of the Google Analytics is the overview of your site. From here you can access a more detailed report, check to see current status, see how many overall visits, collect information about the time spent on your site, see the bounce rate (The percentage of visits where the visitor enters and exits at the same page without visiting any other pages on the site in between). There is also a button that toggles various information at greater detail.

At the top is a setting for day, week, month or yearly view.

On the left side there is a toggle button to select a report. Check your site URL. This will bring you to the Dashboard. The Dashboard allows you to compile all your information with your account.

Clicking on the navigation on the left side gives you several options:

• Intelligence
• Visitors
• Traffic sources
• Content
• Goals

As with most analytical data, when it comes to the web, one can go into overload with unnecessary data. As we continue, I’ll give you an overview of some of the most important information.

Intelligence

This option is still being tested out and is in Beta testing mode.

This feature allows you to see alerts. For example, if your site or any pages in your site either decrease or increase in traffic, you will see this in this section.

There are two types of alert settings, custom and automatic This makes it easy to be alerted when something significant happens based on your historical data. In custom mode you can be notified with custom data eg, if there has been an increase in the bounce rate of a certain campaign. You can also be notified by email so you will know when an event happens even if you don’t check your reports

Here is a video that explains in more detail:

Visitors

The visitors overview shows how many new and returning visitors visited your site and how they interacted with your content. The categories are broken down in to sub categories for example, average page views, time on site, bounce rate and whether visitors are returning or first time visitors.

If you are running a campaign you can see if you are reaching your target audience. If there is no increase in your visitor traffic you might think about alternative wording or new incentive idea to draw you audience into your web.

In the meantime check out this video tutorial – taking a tour of Google Analyticshttp://www.google.com/analytics/tour.html

There’s a hoard of information on the web. It’s worth taking the time to understand and digest.

This is the end of this section. I’ll write Google Analytics PART TWO shortly. Hope you’re finding this useful.