Gaza, Cannabis and Internet Marketing

Ordinary people – the likes of you and me – are often bemused about decisions taken by politicians and those in the “establishment”. Today we see two seemingly different decisions – one about the charity appeal for suffering in Gaza and the other for the reclassification of cannabis as a …

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How do you relate to your own web site?

Business owners have a variety of ways in which they relate to their company’s web site. And not all of these relationships are good. Rather like a child, a web site is your offspring and it continues to develop. Anyone who believes you set up a web site and then …

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Larger numbers mean you will sell more

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered that we just love big numbers. In fact, the bigger the better it seems. The study has important implications for anyone in business – particularly online where people are looking for the prices of your products and services rather keenly. Here’s what the …

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New President, New Era, New Internet

President Obama was responsible yesterday for a significant slow down in much of the Internet. During his inauguration more people than ever before decided to watch the speech online, rather than on TV. More people than ever before posted status updates on Facebook, saying they were watching the speech. And …

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Online retailers do not know if their techniques work

Internet retailers are trying all sorts of techniques to sell stuff online without any real knowledge as to whether their techniques are likely to work. That’s the conclusion you can draw form research conducted by Cormetrics which reveals that few people selling via the Internet actually analyse what they are …

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Music industry still fails to understand the Internet

Most people who download music from the Internet do it illegally. According to a new industry-backed survey 95% of all music downloaded from the Internet is from “pirate” sites. This morning on BBC Radio Five Live, a UK industry spokesman came out with the same, old, tired arguments that if …

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Email marketing is more art than science

Statisticians have been bent double over data about email marketing and have come up with an answer to a question that is pretty pointless. Every year various people try to analyse what is the best day of the week to send out a marketing email. The notion is that if …

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Top 10 online retailers show Internet hopefuls what to do

Internet shoppers were hungry for bargains on Christmas Day it seems. Indeed, John Lewis reported a 12-fold increase in visits to its web site this Christmas, compared with 2007. But that may well be because they launched an online sale immediately after their physical stores closed their doors on Christmas …

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Google pollutes the air – and knowledge

Executives at Google have been quick to respond to the claims that surfaced this weekend about the harm the search engine does to the environment. According to a physicist, Alex Wissner-Gross, a single Google search produces 7 grams of carbon dioxide – the “greenhouse gas”. Not so, says Google, it’s …

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Get ready for web meetings

Frequent flyers are going to have to make do with fewer points, lower bonuses and less shopping in airports. That’s the conclusion from the latest Hitwise analysis of online searching for flights. Compared with the same period last year, interest in booking flights online is down by more than 42% …

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Pleasure is the key to Internet success

Many Internet marketing “gurus” will tell you that if you are trying to sell something online all your copy, your advertisements, your headlines and so on should lead the reader to realise you can help them avoid pain. Indeed, much of the marketing advice given by many experts is on …

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Internet information overload starts the New Year

Welcome to 2009; never before have you been on the receiving end of so much information. There are more web pages than you could read in your entire life, assuming you lived to 100. More books are published now than ever – and there are more printed magazines and newspapers …

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Did the Internet stress you out today?

Today was, apparently, the most stressful day of the year. Not bad considering we’re only five days in. Allegedly, the combination of a mass return to work, the financial meltdown and the Christmas “overload” meant that we were all doomed from first thing this morning. Well, I did manage to …

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Happy New Year: What will the Internet bring you in 2009?

Happy New Year; I hope you have enjoyed the celebrations and that you don’t start off 2009 with too much of a headache..! At this time of year, of course, it is traditional to look towards the future and set your resolutions for the coming 12 months. Don’t. Resolutions are …

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Do you remember this time last year?

Memory is a strange feature of our brains; it is essential for everything we do (think for a moment if you had to learn every day to walk again as your brain had forgotten what to do.l.!). Yet it fails us so much. Everyone you speak with lately is worried …

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