What a month for Google Data Studio! There were so many big announcements it was hard to keep up with all the changes in September.   Among the changes were:

• Data Studio Community Connectors – A wide range of data connectors and the ability to develop your own
• Data Studio Embedding – the ability to embed directly into web pages, and keeping all the interactions in tact.
• More Data Control options – the ability to quickly switch sources for AdWords, Search Console, YouTube, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager inside live reports
• Lots of smaller enhancements , like column sums on tables, that have bi impacts on design and usability.

Here my favorite resources for September 2017

Outstanding Data Studio Template

Lucy Blair’s Books  – Lucy Blair’s reading list over 5 years put into data studio! Lot’s of inspiration and innovation  here. Good example of personal dashboard and styling.

You can troll around years worth of reading by Lucy and see all sorts of patterns.  She not only gives the viewer control over very interesting segments, but she also reviews all the books and has lots of stats.

Hopefully we will see more excellent examples of people using data studio to gain and share insights into their own patterns.

Best Blog Post for Data Studio

Community Connectors: Access all your data in Google Data Studio ?? 
– Ben Collins Jumped out of the gate shortly after the release of community connectors from Google early in September.  He must have been dying keeping what he knew under wraps!

This blog provides an excellent overview of how the new connector model works and excellent details on how to build and deploy your own connectors.

Ben gives 3 clear examples of how to use the new connector model:

• An authenticated data studio connector for GitHub
• An authenticated data studio connector for Mail Chimp
• A basic connector using a public API to show the current position of the International Space Station!

You rarely see such in-depth and really useful posts.  A definite 5 star effort and a piece I will be coming back to for reference.

Top Data Studio Video

Building an Ad-Hoc Funnel Report with Google Data Studio // Tutorial

It was a light month for adding videos – technically this video came in at the end of August, but I’m adding it here because it was a toss-up last month.

Benjamin Mangold provides another excellent and focused tutorial for adding a funnel report without prior funnel metrics from Google Analytics. He just uses the tools available in Data Studio itself.  This Ad-Hoc funnel report using data Google Analytics does NOT need special setup for goals in GA. Another great video from Benjamin and Loves Data!

About how I choose the top data studio resources…..

I’ve added posts to my Google Data Studio Resource finder since July 26, 2017.  Now it has grown to over 130 linked and reviewed resources!  Even with all reviews,  I like to give some credit to blog posts, videos, courses, templates and examples that I find extremely valuable and original.

I find most of my resources by using the Resource Finder itself – it is very easy to browse through the tweets section to find the newest material.  If you find something you think is really good , or original, please let me know! Thanks for sharing!