Although the title is not the actual literal definition of data collection, it is a much more practical definition of data collection for the home or small business. When you have a minimum of staff and time – especially if you are sole proprietor of a business – then you need to reinterpret the definition of data collection in order for you to help streamline your efforts at finding, contacting and extracting money from your target audience. All of this work can be done through computer software.

Statistical Analysis Software

You might have a multiple of campaigns going for your business, but more and more home and small businesses are relying mainly on Internet-based businesses and will need their data collection designed to just track what their websites are doing and how the customers or website visitors are interacting with it. This is usually called website analysis or statistical analysis, which all fits under the definition of data collection.

There are many advantages to using statistical analysis software to monitor the minute actions of your website (or websites). First off, many of these are free. Some even email regular reports about your website activity to you and to anyone else in your small business. Some of the statistical analysis software is a package deal while some only have certain features to help you in certain areas.

Popular Free Software

Redefine the definition of data collection for you through the use of free to low-cost statistical analysis software. Be sure to do any trial offers before making the big commitment. Also, check to see if there is a tech support group or if you have to go to a forum of avid users of the software to see if they might be able to help you. Beware of any software program that has not been updated in over one year.

Know your computer and website specifications, too, to be sure your can accommodate the software. Many also will include Google Ads, banner ads, direct mailing or other online ad campaigns as well as your website statistics. They can usually translate all of the numbers into easy to grasp graphs.

Some of the most popular free to low-cost website statistical analysis programs are:

SiteMeter Basic HiStats (not to be confused with HitStats) OpenX Piwik AWStats

And, in conclusion, remember the old saying credited to both Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.”

Sadly, regression analysis data has nothing to do with going back through your former lives to discover why you’re screwing up your current one. That’s regression therapeutic analysis and that has a somewhat more comprehensible reasoning behind it than regression analysis data. But in one sense, they are both similar – both try to discover why things are the way they are. Then, based on why they are now, regression analysis data hopes to predict the future, or at least the future of a business or a scientific hypothesis.

Come Again?

Say you are a big business wanting to know why people aren’t buying your big cars anymore. One way to help you find out is through the use of data collection. In the definition of data collection, you basically get all of the information you can from a target group about very specific topics. They have to be specific topics otherwise you’ll be sorting through data until the cows come home.

So, you find out that people aren’t buying big cars for a wide variety of reasons. But which is the most important reason? Now, you have to find out what the relationship between big cars and the spending habits of your former reliable client base are. This is where regressive analysis data can come in handy. It can help show you the relationship between events that could happen in the future based on events that happened in the past.

Regression analysis data does this through the use of very complicated mathematical formulae. Good luck trying to figure these out if you are not a Statistics major or are in any way mathematically inclined. But that’s just a breeze compared to discovering what numbers you plug into the formulae.

Couldn’t You Just Use A Crystal Ball?

Using a crystal ball, tea leaves, Tarot cards or any other speculative device has a lot going for it. They can be uncannily accurate at giving you a glimpse of the future, but usually only about six months into the future. Beyond that time frame, things get really fuzzy. However, you do have to take years in order to trust yourself enough to use such a fortune telling device. Most modern day people do not have that time.

And so they turn to regression analysis specialists. Often, their line of business is called RA, interpolation, forecasting or even just Stats. Whatever they decide to call themselves, they wind up building a regression analysis data model (or formula) for you and work with you to determine what values get plugged into the formula. They then also help you interpret the results.

Relax – you don’t need a degree in rocket science to understand what survey data collection is all about. Any information useful to a company, newsgroup or political party is called “data”. Keeping that in mind, survey data collection gets information through use of surveys. These can include mailed surveys, surveys on websites or phone surveys. There are many online businesses that use a network panel or volunteer group to fill out surveys for little rewards.

What Is The Point?

Companies, newsgroups and political parties use survey data collection in order to find out what is on the target audience’s mind. For example, it can help news groups find out how effective government policies are and who they are going to vote for. It’s also used to help figure out the variables of regression analysis data, but that’s a subject for another article.

Although political machines and journalism use survey data collection, by far and away the business world relies on this tool the most. Survey data collection not only helps businesses with research and development, but also learns what is working and what isn’t in their current marketing strategies, whether it’s for the latest product line up or for redesigning their website.

New Industry

Once up on a time, it was very rare to find a reliable survey data collection company for a reasonable price. Only incredibly big companies could afford to hire them and have them send out surveys to addresses on mailing lists or through the phone books of target areas. Now, survey data collection is available to even mid-sized or small businesses through the magic of the Internet.

Perhaps you’ve received many emails about joining a survey panel website. Some survey data collection websites partner with other marketing campaigns like the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes in order to ask you to join their survey taking groups. They are hired by companies or news agencies in order to help make a survey and distribute it to you.

There are a staggering amount of survey data collection websites online. Some are home-based businesses, while others are part of a larger advertising agency or statistical analysis company. Just like with any other business, some are much better than others. If you are looking to make money by taking surveys (as touted by these companies), forget it. Businesses can also set up their own survey data collection forms and emails, but that may take away time from running the rest of their business.

Once you put up a business website, your work has just begun. Think of your business website as a work in progress, with bits to add in and bits to erase to make an overall better work. Making use of survey data collection and statistical analysis are reliable and often inexpensive means to keep your e-business working for you and your customers.

A Big Help

Statistical analysis can help you and your business:

determine how to better give your target audience what they want help you determine the effectiveness of your current marketing strategy and developing new marketing tactics help you better channel your money and resources into the areas of your website development that will be the most productive get immediate feedback from your customers – or from visitors who choose not to become your customers help you see your website through the eyes of a new visitor help you have more control over your website get really cool techie toys to play with so it looks to the boss like you are working

Seriously, Now – Before You Shop

Although the old saying, “You get what you pay for” is true about many things, free web data collection and statistical analysis tools are not one of them. There are excellent free tools available. Why are they free? They are like free samples at a candy store. Get a taste of the free stuff and you will be more inclined to spend actual money for the paid services they offer.

If you’ve ever done comparison shopping for anything, then you already have the know-how to comparison shop for free web data collection and statistical analysis tools. Since they’re free for small to mid-sized businesses, then you don’t loose a lot should you decide to change your mind. (For large businesses, low cost versions of the statistical analysis tools with more bells and whistles are available at the same websites that offer free tools).

Before you go comparison shopping, ask for recommendations from trusted friends. You might even take a peek at what statistical analysis software your competition is using! All websites offering free tools will have references for you to pursue. They also should have demos or trial periods for you to see if the tools are a good fit for your site and are easy to use for you and your employees. Pay attention to what software has technical support or what forums you have to use for technical support. Be advised that some free software is still available, but no longer supported.

Granted, the thought of investigating statistic data collection for your e-commerce web site might sound like a cure for insomnia, but once you realize how statistic data collection can dramatically increase your presence on the Web, you won’t be able to get enough of them. Your team needs to fist come up with goals. For some reason, writing goals down helps those goals come to pass rather than just leaving the number be vague.

The Nitty-Gritty

And what are these magic numbers that make up statistical analysis? These are the nitty gritty about how your website is working to attract and keep customers … or not. Statistic data collection gives you marketing statistics that are also known as “website metrics”. But whatever you want to call them, marketing statistics will help you quickly see how your customers react to your site. Some things they can show you are:

how long your customers stay on your site where on your web page the customer clicked away what links or campaigns attracted the customer to your site in the first place what keywords are working on your site and what aren’t how many customers are repeat visitors

In order to target your best customer base, you need these numbers in order to keep your website alive on the rough jungle of the web. Your SEO strategy needs regular attention and pruning to help your online business blossom. You can pay for expensive software to get statistic data collection, but you can also find them by yourself for free.

Never Rest On Your Laurels

Statistic data collection, no matter if you use one method or a combination of methods, can greatly help you to improve your e-commerce website and services and improve them again. If your data shows that some calls to action were completely ignored, or if customers are mostly clicking away from your site at certain pages, then you need to cut out the dead wood and concentrate on what is working.

There are many ways to get statistic data collection. You can go directly to your customers with surveys. You could also implement website metrics programs. You could also harness the power of the soft-sell by going into We 2.0 sites such as My Space, social book marking sites or even video-sharing sites like YouTube. All of these are great ways to get the information you need to make your website magnetic.