I did not discover the power of Google Analytics, until the Google Analytics Master Class.

Previously, I used Google Analytics to tell me how many visitors I have, where are visitors came from, what are the traffic sources, what search engine keywords lead to my site…

Google Analytics is much more powerful than that! From the Google Analytics Master Class, I learned some cool tips which would benefit me, as a blogger.

1. Set your GOAL

Do NOT check your site’s pageview or unique visitors! The 1st thing you wanna do is — “set a goal”!

Ask yourself about “what do you want to achieve with your site?” Is it more orders (e-commerce), more readers (blog), or anything else?

The site traffic data is meaningless if you don’t have a “GOAL”.

2. Track your visitors

Your every site visitor is unique. Use Google Analytics “segments” and “funnels” to track, compare and understand your visitors. Learn their behavior on your site against your GOAL.

3. Testing.. testing.. testing..

Use Google Optimizer to test your web designs to find out which design is the best for your GOAL. You can use a simple A/B test or the more complex Multivariate Experiment.

Here are example of Advanced Segments you can apply.

When picking a test page, pick the one has high traffic. Be bold to test different designs. Test big things that really make a different. Small changes are not worth to test at 1st stage.

4. The Google trend search tools

Find out what are the current hot topics related to your business using Google. All tools are free!

From the Google search, you can click “show options” to get the “Timeline” and “Wonder wheel” related to your searched keywords. Timeline, shows the “hotness” of the keyword. Wonder wheel, shows the related keywords.

For research, you can then use YouTube Insight (your own videos only) to find out the video statistics. (I never know that!)

Use Google Trends for Website to find out a website’s traffic and keywords. Google Insights, in the other hand, to dig further information about the keywords.

My two cents

After the Google Analytics Master Class, I learned that I could use GA and other Google tools to:

• monitor & improve ads clicks
• optimize blog design
• research for blog topicsx

Google Analytics Master Class is indeed the most meaningful event I have ever attended!

P.S. Google Analytics Master Class slides are available here or you can direct download the all the slides here (thanks, @icednyior!)

For Malaysians only. Exabytes is offering Malaysia .MY domain registration from as low as RM18/year (.NAME.MY) to RM38/year.

The offer is valid till 26th March 2010, and for the 1st year registration only. You can register few years at once to save more.

Please note that only .NAME.MY and .MY domains are available for Malaysian individual registration. .COM.MY, .NET.MY and .ORG.MY required company registration number.

This is a chance to save you a few bucks on .MY domain registration (Malaysians only) but remember to calculate the domain name renewal cost too.

Do you have a .MY domain? Mine is http://LCF.MY

I bet many webmasters are not aware that it has been a month and a week passed in 2010. Many sites are still sticking to copyright year 2009 or earlier in the footer.

Twitter and MySpace have updated their copyright year after Feb 1st, 2010. Google Blogs Network, haven’t.

Here is another list of top Malaysia sites which haven’t update their copyright year in footer:

1. Berita Harian Online — news site. 2009.
2. The Malaysia Insider — news site. 2009.
3. Kosmo! Online — news site. 2008!
4. Lowyat.NET — tech news & community. 2009.
5. CIMBClicks — online banking. 2009.
6. Maybank2u — online banking. 2008!
7. Maxis — mobile phone services provider. 2009.
8. Celcom — mobile phone services provider. 2009.
9. Lelong — auction & online shopping. 2008!

If you happen to know their webmaster, ask them to update their website’s footer. Also, kindly remind any webmaster you know to check their footer too!

[photo by Horia Varian]

While we try everything to avoid hotlinking to our images (read: bandwidth theft), there are some people do not realize that what they do is wrong, but threaten you to allow hotlinking!

P.S. The email is not for me, I got the screenshot via twitturly

I will go to KL to attend the BarCamp Malaysia held on 26th and 27th July 2008.

What is BarCamp?

Frankly, I am not sure too. According to BarCamp.org,

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.

Get the idea? It is a group of people gather together and sharing with each others. BarCamp Malaysia is the 1st barcamp in Malaysia. Check out the interesting schedule.

When is BarCamp Malaysia 2008?

Date: July 26, 2008, 10:00AM-6:00PM. July 27, 2008, 10:00AM-2:00PM.
Venue: xTrain Sdn Bhd, Unit E-7-1, Block E, Megan Avenue 1, 189 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur. (view map)

BarCamp Malaysia was a registration only event but due to the overwhelming responds, they are open to walk in registration at 9am, 26th July 2008. So, if you are not registered but interested, make sure you are there early!

I am not giving any talk at BarCamp Malaysia 2008 but I am very much looking forward for it! Surely, you will meet many geeks and experts there and discussing geek topics with them is FUN!

One of the fastest ways to learn Photoshop tricks is by following expert’s photoshop tutorial. Photoshop Lady is a website with collection of best photoshop tutorials around the world. You can bookmark your favorite photoshop tutorials on the site too!

Photoshop Lady has a clean and straight forward layout. It sort tutorials in a few categories as well as “most viewed” and “highest rated” tutorials.

Each listed tutorial has a short description, estimated time needed, number of views, and votes.

While browsing, I stumble upon a photoshop tutorial by kai loon, a Malaysian web designer. That’s cool!

"Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book"

Exabytes is celebrating its 7th anniversary and rewarding its customers with 7 great deals.

1. Express-All-You-Want — Exabytes loves your feedback. Submit your creative feedback in about any format (article, song, video…) and you stand a chance to win the Apple 8GB iPod Touch that worth USD299! You do not need to be an Exabytes’ client to participate.
2. Swipe 2 Win — Each time you buy Exabytes’ product with your credit card, you will stand a chance to win up to USD277 of credit. If your order transaction ID’s last digits is “7″, you win USD27 of credit. If the last 2 digits are “77″, then you win USD277 of credit. Winners will be drawn every day in May 2008.
3. Server Management Plan Discount — 70% recurring discount to Exabytes server management plans for new signup.
4. The Wonders of Domain Names — Exabytes offer Top Level Domain (.com/net/org/info/biz) registration at only USD7.77/year.
5. Increment in affiliate commission — 50% increment in affiliate commission, which means USD30 per hosting sale.
6. USD17 discount for all EBiz Gold — Every purchase of 300GB space EBiz Gold plan and enter the coupon code: SuperSeven will get USD17 discount.
7. Exaybytes Gift — With every purchase of EBiz Gold Plan or BizGrid Plan, you will receive Exabytes limited edition gift (T-shirt and/or Umbrella)

Most promotions will be ended at the end of May 2008. Make sure you grab the deals before too late! For more information, please visit Super Celebration for Exabytes’ 7th Anniversary

*This is a sponsored post. Disclosure Policy*

I have a community site powered by Drupal but it cannot display chinese characters, even though it supports unicode by default.

All non-English characters are displayed as question marks (???). I tried to reinstall Drupal but without any luck. Yesterday, I finally discovered the problem and solved it!

The problem

Last time, I installed Drupal using the cPanel Fantastico script installer. The installer created database using Latin collation. That’s why Drupal cannot display Chinese characters because the database is not unicode (UTF-8).

Lesson learned: Do not install script using cPanel Fantastico.

The solution

The solution is simple, correct the tables’ collation to UTF-8 using the following SQL query (thanks to neo_fox):

ALTER TABLE table_name CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

I ran the query using phpMyAdmin found in cPanel hosting control panel. But the drawback is that you need to run the SQL query for every single table…

I modified 20+ tables and it works! Now my friends can leave chinese message on the community website.

MYNIC has officially opening public registration of Malaysia 2nd level domain name (2LD) “.MY” at 25th March 2008. Dot MY domain name is open for personal and corporate in Malaysia. The domain registration fee is RM120 per year (~USD$27.50) via MYNIC domain resellers.

Requirements for “.MY” domain name registration

• Registered company in Malaysia (Form D / 24 / 49)
• OR, Malaysian above 18 year old (Identity card)

Do you need a dot MY domain name?

If you cannot get your desire top level domain name (.com/.net/.org) and you are Malaysian, you have higher chance to get the domain name you want ended with “.MY”.

However, RM120 is expensive for a domain name nowadays. The “.com.my” domain name registration is only RM80 and top level domain name is as low as USD$9 per year.

If your business is based in Malaysia, make sure you secure your “.MY” domain name before registered by others. As far as I tested, many famous names have been taken because MYNIC existing clients have the priority to secure their “.MY” domain name before the public open.

“Domain Names for Dummies”

Will I get a .MY domain name too?

Maybe. I plan to get a very short domain name (that’s cool!) for personal use. Also, I will register dot MY domain name when my ideal domain names are taken. Anyway, I will consider twice before registration because the RM120 per year registration fee is much expensive than others.

How about you? Have you get your .MY domain name?

“Penang Technopreneur Dialogs & Web 2.0 Sharing” will be held in Penang at 1st February 2008. The objective is to spark interest for Technopreneurship through building a strong community of Rails, Open Source developers, taking advantage on the Web 2.0 practice in Malaysia and encourage networking between the technical programmers and entrepreneur in ICT.

Date: 1st February 2008
Time: 9:00am to 5:30pm
Venue: BayView Hotel, Georgetown, Penang (map)
Entry fee: Free, online registration required

The programs including talks on Web 2.0, Ruby on Rail, dialog on Technopreneurship, funding criteria and innovation, as well as networking cocktail. The event is organized by MDeC, PDC, USM and investPenang.

[hat tip: Nasir Sobri]

penang, web2.0, event, technopreneur

Talking about registering keyword-rich domain names, a Malaysian blog advertising network, Advertlets made a serious mistake for not renewing their domain name. Their mistake caused their ad publishers’ blogs redirected to a domain parking page!

Image: Advertlets.com domain parking page

What happened?

The domain name “advertlets.com” was created at Jan 4, 2007 and expired 1 year later at Jan 4, 2008. Advertlets didn’t renew the domain name before the expiration date, therefore the domain redirected to parking page after expired.

Advertlets apologized for the mistake and promised compensation payout for the issue. They have renewed the domain name to year 2010.

It can be avoided

Now, I am surprised that the company only registered the domain name for ONE year. Did they mean to run their business for 1 year only?! You should register your company domain name for at least 2-3 years if not 5 years or even 10 years.

Generally, a domain registrar will send out domain name renewal notice around 60 days before the domain name expiration date. Not sure if Advertlets didn’t get the email or they didn’t pay notice to it.

Anyway, I am sure they learned the lesson. For domain name owners, have you checked your domain names’ expiration date? Check it now before too late.

[Thanks to everyone who send the tip.]

Related book: Domain Names for Dummies

domain, Advertlets

If you ever registered domain names, you will know that it is not easy to think of the domain name and have it available for registration. It is even difficult if you want a keyword-rich domain name. MEMWG shows a trick to get keyword-rich domain names in 3 easy steps:

1. Use AdWords keyword tool to generate a list of keyword phrases from they primary keywords you want to be included. Export the list as text file and save to your computer.
2. Edit the saved text file with your text editor and remove all the spaces. You can use the Find/Search function to find spaces and replace with nothing. Copy the revised keyword list.
3. Goto GoDaddy bulk registration page and paste the copied list. Tick “.com” checkbox, type the access code and click “Go” button. You will get a list of available keyword-rich domain names, the unavailable domains will be removed automatically. Choose the one you like and register them with your favorite domain name registrar (not necessary GoDaddy).

My two cents

This is a quick way to get a list of available domain names with the keywords you want. However, do know that the list generated might not quite relevant to your primary keywords. You might need to try a few times with different set of keyword phrases.

Related book: Domain Names for Dummies

domain, tips

The Malaysian Dotcom Youth Search is the hunt for websites, portals and even blogs with the ability to generate income and influence communities with an innovative factor. The contest is opened to Malaysians aged between 18 to 30. The winner awards including RM20,000 cash prize, a notebook, and more. The closing date is 10 January 2008.

How to join The Malaysian Dotcom Youth Search?

Firstly, submit your website to YouthMalaysia. Upon approval of your application (about 1 day), you will receive an email with a HTML code. Put the code on your website. The code will act as a hit counter and vote tracker for your site.

The nominated sites

Overall, most of the nominated sites are blogs, some affiliate sites, and a few of web apps and forums. I know about 1/4 of the listed sites/blogs.

There were some listing errors but fixed after I notified the site crew. But today I spotted another site listing error..

The organizers

The organizers of The Malaysian Dotcom Youth Search are YouthMalaysia.com, MIRC Incubator, and Nuffnang.com. The contest is established in conjunction with Youth`08.

My two cents

I have submitted my application of The Malaysian Dotcom Youth Search too (yes, I am under 30 ).

I had hard time to fill up the application form, which has very strict rules on number of words used: description of site note more than 3 words, answer “how is your site considered innovative?” in 15 words.

Trust me, I spent half an hour to edit the words!

If you have a website, forum, blog, or school/college website project, you should submit yours too. Who knows, you might be the winner? The submission is free, anyway. Join now!

Malaysia, youth

Verisign and other domain registries will be raising the rates for registrars on October 15th, 2007. The top-level domains being effected are .com, .net, .org, .info .biz, .us and .name.

The old domain price to a registrar was $6.20 USD, new price is $6.62 USD. Most registrars will pass the cost directly to their customers.

If you have many domain names, you should renew them now to save money. Do confirm with your domain registrars whether they will increase the price or not. Generally, if you are paying much for domain name (e.g. $15 USD) now, the price will remain.

How many domain names do you have? Will you renew them now?

[via DomainTools Blog]

domain, verisign, ICANN

WebAppers is a niche blog focuses on free resources for web application developers.

Image: screenshot of WebAppers.com

The author, Ray Cheung, is a web developer himself. He understands best the difficulty to find great (and free) resources for web developers, thus he created the blog to share with others. WebAppers has successful gained more than 2,000 feed readers in 3 months.

The blog posts are nicely categorized so that you can easily find the resources you like. Concern about the work license? The resources are categorized by license types as well.

My two cents

I was a web developer before becoming a full-time blogger, I understand the pain of searching for great resources. WebAppers is a blog that satisfies people’s needs, and its traffic and number of feed readers say it all. Nice blog!

Related book: Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

programmer, resources, web developer

Webmaster Malaysia Forum is having a gathering in Penang called Penang Webmasters Get-together session. Everyone is welcomed and it is free of charge.

Venue: Starbucks @ Egate
Date: 28th September 2007
Time: 8pm – 10:30pm
Admission: FREE

To participate, kindly confirm your attendance by SMS your name to 012-4202581 or email limcs@webmastermalaysia.com

I am an old member of the Webmaster Malaysia Forum. I wish to meet the forum members offline but Penang is too far. Maybe next time.

If you want to meet some local webmasters and get tips to improve your websites/blogs, it is the gathering that you must not miss.

webmaster, malaysia, penang, event

This is an update of the previous tip “Embed Google Maps to Any Website“. Previously, Google Maps embed HTML code is only available to certain countries but it has now widen the supported area.

The following the map of my living area – Kluang, Johor in Malaysia.

View Larger Map

Related book: Google Maps Hacks

google, google maps, map

Now you can add a Google Map to your website or blog by copy & paste HTML code. Just like the way you embed YouTube video player to your site. No more requirement of API key and JavaScript knowledge.

Image: Embed Google Maps to your website

How to embed Google Maps?

1. Goto Google Maps and search for the location you want
2. Click on the Link to this page link on the top right corner
3. The code is shown under Paste HTML to embed in website
4. (optional) click Customize and preview embedded map to select the map size (small, medium, large, and custom)
5. Copy & Paste the HTML code to your website or blog where you want it to be. Done!

Here is the example of embedded Google Map:

View Larger Map

Why cannot select the Google Map embed HTML code?

If Google Maps HTML embed code is grey out and cannot be copied, means the map area is not supported yet.

Image: Cannot embed Google maps

The ability to embed maps is available for Google Maps users in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia.

[via Google Press Center]

My two cents

This is the feature we have wanted for a long time. Previously, it requires programming language to embed Google Maps to our website, now it is as easy as embedding YouTube video. Too bad, the cool feature is currently only available to some countries.

Hey, I wish to show you where I am in my blog when I am traveling. How would you use Google Maps on your site?

google, map, google maps

Have you ever wondering who is the web hosting provider of your favorite websites? Who is Hosting This? might be able give you an idea.

Image: who is hosting this?, screenshot

Who Is Hosting This is a web tool that enables you to find out who is hosting any website. Simply submit the website domain name, and you will get a link to the website’s hosting provider. That’s easy!

If you use the tool often, web browser search bookmarklet and plugins are available.

How does it work?

WhoIsHostingThis is not mystery as it seems to be. Basically, it checks the IP address of the domain name then check the owner of that IP range and return a link to the IP range owner (hosting provider).

Therefore, the result might not 100% accurate if the hosting company does not own that IP range. Or, you will get the website is same as hosting provider if the website bought an IP range and is self-hosted (e.g. Google).

Have you discover any interesting result?

hosting, web tools, tips, webmaster, web hosting

In my opinion, Google Analytics is one of the best free web stats program. If you haven’t, read “Get the most of out your Google Analytics” to get an overall idea about what Google Analytics can tell you.

Google Analytics had a facelift and added many new features. BlogStorm published a great article on advanced use of Google Analytics. The tips includetracking exit clicks, banner clicks, downloads, e-commerce revenue, sales, and 404 errors.

Get more tips from Google Analytics 2.0 book »

google analytics, webmaster