Blog posts and articles on business psychology

Experts think Differently to the Rest of Us

You need to become an internet expert

31st October 201225th January 2011

If you want to succeed online you need to become an internet expert. That will change the way your brain works, it seems, and make your thinking much more intuitive. No longer will you sit there wishing – instead you will instinctively know what to do next in order to succeed online.

Falling Comet reveals businesses are poles apart

31st October 201219th January 2011

You can bet that William Hill is enjoying the media coverage it is getting today. In spite of the bad weather at the end of last year, the betting business is banking extra takings and reporting much higher than expected profits. Meanwhile, over at the electrical retailer, Comet, they are

Golden Globes reveal the real Ricky Gervais – perhaps

20th May 201117th January 2011

Comedian Ricky Gervais got mixed reviews for his hosting of the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in Hollywood last night. Apart from disappearing from the stage for an hour, he made some people laugh, but others were cross with his near-the-knuckle remarks. Some thought he was “genius”, others were clearly offended. …

Rap star 50 Cent proves Twitter is now ESSENTIAL to your business

1st May 201313th January 2011

The rap star, 50 Cent, is a lot richer this week, thanks to Twitter. Indeed, he is almost $10m better off just because he sent out a single Tweet. All he did was say that a company in which he has a substantial share investment was worth buying stock in. …

Australian floods are a warning to online businesses

22nd January 201112th January 2011

The people of Brisbane and other flooded areas of Queensland, Australia, could never have expected the disaster that has beset them. Even though there is a history of metres-deep flooding in the area, the last time it happened was 37 years ago. That means it is outside the daily consciousness …

Keywords matter more to people like you than Google

1st October 202011th January 2011

Chinese politicians outshone their British counterparts yesterday by focusing on the “aah” factor. While British trade ministers were busy talking about new business relationships between the UK and China and all the prosperity it will bring, the Chinese Vice Premier appealed to emotions rather than economic logic and promised Scotland …

Go global to avoid online arguments

20th May 201110th January 2011

Kate Middleton, the future wife of Prince William, grew up just a couple of miles from my home in West Berkshire. Indeed, we’ve even bought stuff from her Mum’s business, Party Pieces. But now, Kate has gone from being a local girl you might see in the village pub or …

Daily diet of exercises will improve your website’s fitness

5th January 2011

The former Playboy “Playmate” Kendra Wilkinson appears on ABC TV tonight in a documentary about her battle with her weight. It is one of dozens of TV programs and “celebrity specials” about dieting or getting fit. It is, of course, the time of year when you can get “special deals” …

VAT rise shows what you should do to your website

20th May 20114th January 2011

Labour leader Ed Miliband reckons that today’s VAT increase will hit small businesses hard. True – if you don’t understand much about business. The increase of 2.5% to a new VAT rate of 20% will not actually cost most businesses anything. If you are VAT registered you can claim it …

Google is not good enough

20th May 201123rd December 2010

When Father Christmas wants to know what a child wants as a present, who does he ask? That’s right – he asks the child. He goes straight to the source of the information. Santa doesn’t fish around by asking other kids, nor does he search on Google. Instead, as that …

Vince Cable exposes technology problems for your website

22nd December 2010

The Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable has got into hot water because he told the truth. In a much publicised and secretly recorded conversation, the Liberal Democrat minister told people what be believed in. But it is his honesty that has got him into trouble. According to his …

Perhaps you should make your website hard to read

21st December 2010

James Cameron (right), the director of blockbuster movies Titanic and Avatar, is well-known for being a perfectionist. So, you can imagine he would not let the choice of typefaces for his movies go without his personal attention. Both Titanic and Avatar use individual fonts – indeed, there has been much …

Annoying pop ups might actually boost sales

17th December 2010

How annoyed do you get with those pop-ups that appear on websites? The chances are, when used badly, you get angry. Indeed, there are dozens of ways you can block pop-up windows from appearing and much online security software blocks these annoyances by default anyway. Of course, the pesky marketers …

Three strange reasons for doing social media

16th December 2010

Well it had to happen, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is the Time Magazine “Person of the Year”. It was inevitable – an estimated 750m people now use Facebook and his struggles to bring the service to life are celebrated in an acclaimed Hollywood movie. Social networking is big …

Avoid trying to impress people online

20th May 201114th December 2010

Oprah Winfrey might be in danger. She could be thinking she is better at promoting Australia than the people who live there. In an eight-day visit, likened to a Papal tour, Oprah has just finished filming four episodes of her talk show which will be broadcast in January. They are …