Play before you Pay – Blackberry’s missed opportunity

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

When Marcus Tettmar (creator of the astonishing Macro Scheduler) showed me his BlackBerry a few years ago, it took me about 48 hours until I had my own. I won’t ramble and drool here; suffice to say that I know of no-one who has downgraded from a BlackBerry to an iPhone… As a (then) new BlackBerry user, I was a … Read More

M is for Mac, Marketing and Madness

Posted by Dave CollinsDigital Marketing

At this year’s Software Industry Conference in Boston, USA, I gave a presentation on The A to Z of Online Marketing. Letter M dealt with the Mac. Chances are that you don’t have or use a Mac, and aside from seeing them in a store, you probably only know one or two people who have one. I’m guessing they’ve already … Read More

Make your website work for you – CNN vs. BBC

Posted by Dave CollinsDigital Marketing

The new CNN website is scheduled to go live next Monday, and a TechCrunch article gives us some details and screenshots of what’s to come. The New CNN.com (First Screenshots) I don’t really visit CNN for news, but have always found the similarities (and differences) between their main navigation and that of the BBC News website oddly interesting. CNN’s is … Read More

Google vs. Yahoo – the pyramid of realism

Posted by Dave CollinsDigital Marketing, General

Google recently announced a year-on-year 7% increase in revenue, with profits up $25 million. Not bad for a recession. Yahoo, meanwhile, just announced (or tried not to) a 12% decline in quarterly revenue, with a 19% decline in search-ad revenue year-on-year. Paid search appears to have three contenders, in theory. Yet the charts speak for themselves: Google: Microsoft: Yahoo: At … Read More

The best Google AdWords ads. The cheapest way to the moon.

Posted by Dave CollinsGoogle Ads

Questions have started to trickle in for our Marketing Q & A plus free exposure offer. “I’ve been reviewing the text for my Google AdWords lately.  I find the tiny 25-35-35-character format very restrictive and frustrating.  Do you have any tips for writing good ads in that tiny space to draw quality traffic (that is, not just clicks, but buyers)?” … Read More

Marketing Q & A plus free exposure

Posted by Dave CollinsDigital Marketing, General

In 24 days I’ll be speaking once again at the European Software Conference in Berlin, this time on Google AdWords and also the subject of online marketing. I’ve been working in online marketing since 1997, and have spoken at conferences in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. As I’ve had the pleasure of working with … Read More

Unleash your quivering headlines on an unsuspecting world

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

When your new product is ready, will you release or unleash it? Google displays 470 million results for release, and only 8 million for unleash. And this is in the age of sensationalism. By coincidence, a search in Google News for the two words shows two different reports: Health insurers to release report projecting rising premiums Los Angeles Times EC … Read More

Miss the boat? Is the recession already over?

Posted by Dave CollinsEconomy

It depends who you ask, what you read and where you look. It does appear that we’re past the worst of it, but it will be a long time before the recession is well and truly behind us. Everything has changed. Even if most people don’t yet realise it. And guess what? More change lies ahead. In the same way … Read More