I thought I was just going to work with roses...

I really did think that. We'll set up a rose nursery, grow our plants and ship them to customers. Along the way we'll put in a garden, have customers come visit us and even have time to stop and smell the roses.

What was I thinking I thought to myself this morning as I was pouring over Google Analytics trying to figure out how it worked. For those of you not familiar with Google Analytics just think of it as an Orwellian creature lurking in the background of every Internet site you visit. It tracks everything you do on a website from what website you came from, to where you go on our site, to search terms used, to what you spend; to even how long you are on our site. All this is made available to us, the web-site owner, so we can Analytic ourselves to greater profits and live the capitialist dream. But hey, the Google smiley face is on my Analytic page so how bad can it be?

But in these economic times even your small rose nursery has to be creative to stick around, so hence this morning. Ultimately what I'm looking for is information that lets me know what ad campaigns are working and what ones aren't. We have a few running that cost very little but only if they produce results. So now I can see what ad campaign you came from, where you went and how much you spent - and I will admit that does mean I am using my ad budget more wisely.

So apologies in advance for following you around on our website but since I don't know who are, only what you are doing I can live it. But if you want to do some rose stuff without being followed come browse our rose garden. I don't have time to follow you there!