I've Got Your Number

October 16, 2009 11:00 AM

I love numbers! Especially numbers that track things. What services could I offer that involve fairly simple numbers? (Note: no significant statistics background; NOT advanced math.)

Lately I've been noticing how much I love tracking things with numbers.

I've been playing with CRONometer (calorie tracking software), and enjoying watching variations in all kinds of measurements (fiber intake! Vitamin A! sodium! Whee!).

I love playing with Quicken and watching the numbers go up and down over time.

I love tracking my website hit stats.

It just all makes me hugely happy.

I currently do website administration and development, with a focus on Drupal, and I'm fortunate enough to have plenty of work at the moment. But I can't help wondering whether there's a service I could provide that would involve this kind of number tracking. I can write clearly and enjoy writing pretty well, so reporting on numbers would be fine. I've even done some week-to-week tracking of AdWords and Google Analytics for a few clients, but I'm not sure how much need there is for that.

Note that I have no real background in statistics, and I am definitely not talking about advanced math here - I hope one day to learn calculus, but that day has not yet come.

So - any suggestions for services I could offer that would involve tracking numbers, and types of customers who might need those services?

Thanks!

posted by kristi to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Not a suggestion what you should do, but Daytum does track everything trackable. You might like to use it. Or in your case: love to use it.
posted by oxit at 11:24 AM on October 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Kevin Kelly and others have coined the term "quantified self" for the type of numerical self-measurement you are enjoying. You can look at that page for some more ideas, and go to the next QS Bay Area meetup to share your ideas with potential collaborators or customers.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:36 AM on October 16, 2009

Best answer: You may actually be really good at website analytics of some kind. Part of my manager's job is to parse the statistics that Google Analytics gives us back about our website. She has to trend where people land, where they are going, change in activity over time (month over month, quarter over quarter, year over year etc.) Track whether or not marketing campaigns are having an impact etc.

She does not have a statistics background either and it's kind of a chore for her because she isn't as delighted with numbers as you are.
posted by Kimberly at 12:30 PM on October 16, 2009

Best answer: If you did learn some statistics you would be able to do a lot more with this. Perhaps a self-study program starting with some sort of "Statistics for Dummies" intro and then working your way up to a non-calculus-based business statistics textbook. Also, learn how to use the statistical analysis features in Excel.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:14 PM on October 16, 2009

Well, sports jumps out at me. Maybe some kind of service for your coworkers for their Fantasy Football teams?

And if you don't have coworkers with Fantasy Football teams, well, then I envy you... (only kidding). sort of
posted by losvedir at 1:33 PM on October 16, 2009

I was going to mention Daytum as well. Also, read Freakonomics (and Super Freakonomics, which is out soon) if you haven't already. They both might provide some inspiration.
posted by backwards guitar at 2:24 PM on October 16, 2009

If you wanted to take it up a notch you should read the excellent series of books on graphical representation of numerical data by Edward Tufte.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:48 AM on October 17, 2009