Products make you more believable online

People love to see evidence that something or someone is what they claim to be. It’s all very well having a web site that points out you are the most brilliant expert in your field, but without any evidence your web site visitors will not believe you. One way, of …

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The Johari Window and your web site

Psychologists sometimes use the “Johari Window” to help demonstrate aspects of the self. the “window” was invented by two researcher – Joe and Harry – and their “Johari Window” has become a common feature of many self development courses and text books. A new article on the Johari Window puts …

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Why your web site must be a good experience

Visitors to your web site need to have a good experience. Firstly the pages must provide what they were looking for. Then you need good navigation so they can easily find their way around. And you need a search facility so they can look up specific items without having to …

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What journeys do your customers make?

Your customers are unlikely to arrive at your web site without having been somewhere else first; even if they are time travellers, like Dr Who, and they suddenly port themselves from outer space to your web pages, they will have been somewhere else first. Understanding how people got to your …

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Could you run your business without the Internet?

The UK supermarket, Sainsbury’s, is rather red-faced at the moment. For the past 24 hours it has been unable to operate it’s online store, costing it around £1m in lost revenue. That’s bad enough, but the company has also had to face several media stories about its failure, such as …

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Unique content is vital on your web site

Marketing experts are constantly banging on about our “USP” – our unique selling proposition; for anyone to be interested in us we need to be different. Online, uniqueness is even more important. There are just too many place to go, sites to visit and people to contact who all do …

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Assumption is your enemy when it comes to online business

People often assume things about the Internet, yet frequently those assumptions turn out to be incorrect. For instance, many business owners I meet assume, it seems, that email marketing is dead. Yet, despite the problems caused by spam, email marketing is still the most successful method of selling online. Another …

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What Internet Marketers can learn from golfers

Golfers the world over have their eyes fixed on San Diego this week because it is the start of the US Open Golf Tournament. The world’s top golfers are chasing one of the top prizes in the International game and they will do everything they possibly can to prevent the …

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Web design is not that important

Business owners who decide to set up a web site, or revamp an existing one, seem to always start by talking to web designers. The discussions then get focused on the look and “feel” of the site, colours and site structure. Apart from the fact that this takes the business …

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Internet businesses should cut down online promotion

People who own or run an online business tend to focus all their energies into online promotion. They look at Pay Per Click advertising, banner ads, social network marketing and article marketing. Then they consider online PR, affiliate marketing and online joint ventures. Rarely do online businesses focus their attention …

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How central is user testing to your business?

Experts in “usability” gathered in London today to discuss several issues surrounding this topic. The meeting had been called by TechSmith, the producers of Morae the leading usability testing software. It became apparent during the discussions that usability testing is often seen as something that is performed at the end …

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Online businesses need more refined targeting

Online business owners need to target their offerings in a much more refined way. Evidence is mounting daily that Internet users expect web sites to be devoted to their specific needs. For instance, let’s say you offer software on task management. You could have a site devoted to managing tasks …

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The Internet World is all about relationships

Your friends like you; honest, trust me, they do. If they didn’t like you, then you wouldn’t like them and, hey, you wouldn’t be friends. Web sites are the same; if they demonstrate they like you – by providing exactly what you are after – then you like them. It’s …

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Joined-up marketing is essential online

BBC Radio FiveLive carried an interesting item on the news this morning from Sony BMG that they are making their entire back catalogue available as a “free to listen” service. Wow – that’s great, you might think. But this is another example of how big business still has not understood …

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Old-fashioned PR brings search engine benefits

A new study of online behaviour confirms that good old-fashioned public relations is essential in getting search engine results that people actually click on. The research, conducted by the search engine marketing firm, iProspect, reveals a significant “click behaviour” which every online business owner needs to take notice of. The …

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