Planning Archives - Simon Fearby

Google Analytics is a popular easy to install and use statistics and reporting tool that you can add to your website (and it’ free)

To setup, Google Analytics go to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/ and create an account. From here you can add a site and generate a tracking ID.

The website tracking code was (I changed the code to 555555555).

<script>
  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
  })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

  ga('create', 'UA-555555555-1', 'auto');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),

m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)

})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-555555555-1', 'auto');

ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>

I opened WordPress and went to Appearance then Editor and selected header.php and added the tracking code under the <head> HTML tag.

This tracking ID allows Google to generate stats from your visitors.

I was unable to update the file in WordPress until I set permissions in Ubuntu in (Read these guide to setup an Ubuntu Server on Vultr for as low as $2.5 a month of setup a $5 a month with Digital Ocean or AWS). I have guides on moving WordPress here or setting up WordPress from the command line here). If you update WordPress you may need to re add the tracking ID.

sudo chmod 666 /www/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/header.php

1	sudo chmod 666 /www/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/header.php

I loaded my WordPress website and verified that the tracking code was loading in the HTML source. You can also embed the tracking code in static HTML websites.

After a few days, you can view your sites statistics. from the Googe Analytics home portal. This will allow you know when to publish, know how popular your content is, know what new content to create etc.

Page Hits

The best feature of Google Analytics is page hit information. To me, the total number of hits is less important than Avg. Time on Page and Bounce Rate.

Dashboard

The Google Analytics dashboard home is very informative.

Google Analytics Terms

Google has a glossary for terms here.

Users – The unique user that visited your site.
Bounce Rate – The percentage or users who loaded your site and left after viewing the initial page.
Active Users – The total number of active users reading your site.
User Retention – The percentage of users who have returned to your site.
Device – The device (Desktop, tablet or mobile device) that was used to read your site.
Organic Search – The number of users who found your site via a search engine. Having a highly efficient SEO will see a higher Organic search percentage.
Sessions – The number of unique sessions that your users have accessed your site.
Direct – The times a user has directly typed your website URL (or have visited your site in incognito/privacy mode).
Referral – The percentage or know referrals from other websites.
Social – Known number of visits to our site from social media platforms.

Overview

You can watch in real-time users accessing your site. This is important when you send out mailing list to users when new content is posted, will 1,000 visitors take down your site? Are you posting at the right time for your sites visitors timezone?

Audience Overview

This report will tell you a lot about who and where people are visiting your site form and what language they speak, OS they use, what browser they use and what city they are from.

Google Analytics allows you to drill down on most captured data.

I can see Apple devices are the most popular mobile devices accessing my site (but mobile devices in total only take up 12 % of my site’s traffic).

The User Flow report is a great way to see how people interact with your site (where they come from, what they do and where they drop out).

Google Analytics has a handy page speed tool that you can use to identify what you need to do to speed up your site.

Google Analytics have goals that allow you to set targets to meet. Usually, Google encourages you to assign a monetary value to a goal then suggest you buy Google Ad’s to achieve these goals (this is why Google Analytics is free). Read my guide on setting up Google AdWords on your WordPress blog.

You can set email alerts on key stats.

More to come later.

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v1.1 added page hits information

What are your strengths and weaknesses? Are you avoiding doing something because of your personality type or focusing on something else?

I thought this post would be helpful to a number of people as the Technology industry is filled with endless new frameworks and activities that require grit and focus. Sites like Udemy, Lynda.com, Pluralsight and others allow you to learn new technology but this might all be for nought if you can’t communicate well. Skills, education and experience are acquired but we use our personality daily to communicate and interact. Some say you cannot change your personality but knowing your personality type can help you interact or develop applications better. Knowing your personality type can help you interact better with family, friends, clients and colleagues.

It is important how you interact with people and personal alities is part of it (along with age, sex, religion, rapport, trust etc).

Personality Types

View the 16 Personality Types https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types (ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP, ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP, ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ, ENTJ).

Read about the background of the personality types on 16 personalities here.

The Myers and Briggs Foundation have a good breakdown on the 16 personality types.

Take a Personality Test

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test is a good site that allows you to take a 30min quiz and show your personality. I have tested myself, family and kids and it is bang on. Take the test here.

How to use the test results

How to talk and listen at work
How to talk with family
How to talk to children
How to talk to spouses.
How to understand your self and family better.

My Personality Type

I am an INTJ-T and proud of it. Here is a breakdown of my personality type https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality

“Innovative inventors with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.” (snip from 16personalities.com).
“The INTP personality type is fairly rare, making up only three percent of the population, which is definitely a good thing for them, as there’s nothing they’d be more unhappy about than being “common”. INTPs pride themselves on their inventiveness and creativity, their unique perspective and vigorous intellect. Usually known as the philosopher, the architect, or the dreamy professor, INTPs have been responsible for many scientific discoveries throughout history.” (snip from 16personalities.com).
INTPs are known for their brilliant theories and unrelenting logic – in fact, they are considered the most logically precise of all the personality types (snip from 16personalities.com).

My supposed personality strengths are..

Quick, Imaginative and Strategic Mind
High Self-Confidence
Independent and Decisive
Hard-working and determined
Open-minded
Jacks-of-all-Trades

My supposed personality weaknesses are..

Very Private and Withdrawn
Insensitive
Absent-minded
Condescending
Loathe Rules and Guidelines
Second-Guess Themselves

Natural Reaction to my personality types

My natural reaction is to accept my strengths and reject my weaknesses but knowing your weaknesses can help you plan better or improve skills or interactions.

What is normal?

JPSears talking about what is normal..

Positive Thinking

I am not a motivator so I will encourage you to read (or listen to) the books The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday , Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (Thanks, Zach) if you want to self-improve.

Psychology

Snip from (Wikipedia) “Personality is a set of individual differences that are affected by the development of an individual: values, attitudes, personal memories, social relationships, habits, and skills. Different personality theorists present their own definitions of the word based on their theoretical positions. The term “personality trait” refers to enduring personal characteristics that are revealed in a particular pattern of behaviour in a variety of situations.”

Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality | Brian Little is a good video on who we are and how we interact.

Psychology Dimensions = (Openness, Continuous, Extroversion, Agreeably, Neuroticism) = Wellbeing.

Being Understood

Here is a great video on being understood (great for INTP-T’s).

Personality Psychology

Snip (from Wikipedia): Personality also refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments, and behaviours consistently exhibited over time that strongly influences one’s expectations, self-perceptions, values, and attitudes. It also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and stress. Knowing your personality type can allow you to use on your strength and focus on your weaknesses.

Alan Watts Psychology of Consciousness HQ talks about the evolution of psychology and applications and shallowness.

Psychology

What is Psychology? (Snip from Wikipedia ).”Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. His work has been influential not only in psychiatry but also in anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies.”

SWOT Analysis

Direction and focus with SWOT Analysis technique.

Tips

Work to your strengths.
Plan around your weaknesses (use tools to plan better or don’t endlessly research solutions and not deliver).
Know other peoples personality (if they agree)..
Consider doing a SWOT Analysis with projects (or yourself).

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v1.4 added info on being normal

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