Hardly anyone is social networking

People all over the world are logging onto to social networks. At least that’s what you would believe if you looked at the media coverage of things like MySpace and Facebook. However, new research from Nielsen NetRatings suggests something altogether different. According to their latest analysis less than one in …

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Women prefer web sites to advise them

Women prefer web sites to help advise them in making purchasing decisions. New research shows that over half of women will take the advice of a web site over the information provided by friends or family. In the past people generally took the advice of friends, family and colleagues first, …

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How Gordon Brown got his job

Gordon Brown becomes the Prime Minister of the UK today. In a much heralded move, after ten years as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he gets the job he really wanted in the first place – the boss. How Dr Brown achieved this is a tale that anyone marketing on the …

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How to back up your blog

Blogging can contribute a great deal to your web site. But if you don’t back up your blog and your blog server breaks down, there’s a chance you will lose everything. Even if you only write around 150 words a day, that would be 55,000 words over the year. If …

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Business bloggers are in the minority

Bloggers are rare. Strange as it may seem with millions of blogs being posted every day, blogging is a minority activity. Yet as anyone who knows anything about Search Engine Optimisation will tell you, blogging is a sure-fire way to get attention. So it’s a surprise that so few businesses …

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Criminals given golden opportunities by online businesses

Criminals are having fine old time online. Indeed, yesterday The Pentagon had to shut down its entire email system because it had been broken into by hackers. This news comes less than a week after a study showed that almost half of online businesses are victims of cybercrime. The editor …

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Future Internet users won’t concentrate on your web page

Internet users of the future are unlikely to have full concentration on your web page. New research on teenagers shows that they are significant “multitaskers”. In other words, unlike the average Internet user (aged in their mid-40s) the future Internet users will not only be looking at your web page …

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How much choice is too much for internet shoppers?

Researchers at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have discovered some interesting new information on the effect of choice in buyer behaviour. According to the study published in Psychological Science, choice of available options has a varied effect on buyer behaviour. Previous research suggested that choice actually prevented buyers from making …

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Social networking set to boom worldwide

Readers of the Financial Times are a canny lot. After all, you don’t get to be concerned with the financing of the country unless you know a thing or two. So it was interesting to read in yesterday’s newspaper that the City believes that social networking on the Internet is …

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Internet will halt new education plans

Gordon Brown plans to “revolutionise” the British education system. According to his Mansion House speech last night when he becomes Prime Minister he wants a world class education system. At least that’s what he told us. However, he is either missing the point, doesn’t understand what is happening in the …

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Marketers not exploiting Internet

Marketers are still not exploiting the potential of the Internet. In spite of record numbers of people coming online, even though there is more money being spent on the Internet than ever before and although entrepreneurs are targeting the web first, traditional marketers are still reluctant to use the Internet. …

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Increase web site traffic by dramatically upping your blogging rate

Web site owners complain constantly that they don’t get enough traffic. Indeed, if you don’t receive sufficient visitors to your web site, you won’t sell anything. And if your web site is designed simply to build your reputation, you won’t get far if you don’t have many people reading what …

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Email is so 20th Century

Younger people – those under 40 – don’t rely on email. They may use it, but rarely check their inbox. Conversely, the over-40s love email so much, they feel their life would not be complete without it. If you run an online business these differences are important to notice. If …

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Gatekeepers will become your search gurus

Internet users are suffering increasing problems finding what they want. Often you will find that whatever you are searching for advertisers, or “aggregation” software brings to the top of the search engine listing material that’s not directly relevant. Clearly, the search engines attempt to bring you the most relevant results. …

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Internet shopping needs reliable checkout

Shoppers at supermarkets have witnessed a silent revolution in shopping in the past few years. Supermarket giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco and so on have all installed new checkouts that are rapid and reliable. One of the bottlenecks in the whole supermarket “shopping experience” was the checkout. You would happily (perhaps) …

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