Napster and Spotify have an uphill battle because of their competition. They compete with your radio, your MP3 collection, your CDs, your dusty record collection, internet radio, illegal downloads, the music collection of your friends, apathy and more. So how do they persuade people to part with their cash? They do it quickly. Their website main pages are classic examples … Read More
Drop the hype and deliver quality
We live in an age of hype. Every product or service we come across is the latest, greatest, fastest and cleanest, and independent tests consistently prove it. Yet people appear to be growing weary of hype. 2011 might be a good time to start focusing on actual quality rather than hot air and hype. Take the concept of internet marketing gurus. Most … Read More
When will the Facebook bubble burst?
I’m perpetually baffled by Facebook. I use it and I like it, but I don’t see how they’re ever going to make enough money from their advertising to break-even, let alone make a profit. To me it’s simple. I go to Google because I want to find something. The search results and ads that I see in Google are (mostly) relevant … Read More
Pissing off customers is bad for business (Symantec)
Broadly speaking, there are two types of people in the world. Reasonable and angry. Reasonable people show sound judgement, make rational decisions and usually make logical decisions even when unhappy. They make good friends. Angry people, on the other hand, lash out at the world, are prone to rash decisions and can make really bad enemies. Here’s the key point. … Read More
Software Mad Men
A search for speed up my PC on Google (predictably) produces a lot of ads featuring surprisingly happy women. In fact five out of the first ten ads I clicked: Clearly this segment of the industry believe that deliriously happy (usually blonde) women sell software, but why? Could it be that they’re trying to sell to women? Unlikely. An old Squidoo … Read More
2011 predictions for the gullible
2011 will be the year of… Facebook advertising. Right now it doesn’t work for many companies because people going to Facebook are going to see what their friends are doing while they should be working. Not to buy things. I believe that Facebook can and will change this. It’s their only realistic source of revenue, so they have a good … Read More
Lack of clarity = confusion
After a recent (horrible) virus experience, I’ve taken all reasonable steps to protect my system. I use Google Chrome, and use the excellent NotScripts to protect my web browsing. One of the useful features of NotScripts is that when I get to a website, I have to allow scripts to run, and if I’m not sure about a domain, I … Read More
The world’s most expensive terrestrial broadband?
I just received an interesting email from our (second) broadband provider, with the following information: “100Mbps Internet connections We’ve just connected our first 100Mbps customer to our new Ethernet Direct Leased Line service. This is dedicated fibre delivered direct to the premises. It is aimed primarily at business customers and is the new very cost-effective 21CN alternative to legacy 20CN … Read More
blekko – an interesting alternative to Google?
If you work with Google you most likely enjoy a love-hate relationship with them. You love the traffic they send, but you hate the way they move, rename, camouflage and smoke-screen the goal posts. Yet what choice do you have? There are alternatives, but if you combine all the traffic they might collectively send you each month, you’re still only … Read More
Forms that kill sales – 7 ways to kill your customers
True story – almost live. I just went to buy a useful product – I didn’t need it, but I wanted it. Here’s what happened. I clicked on the buy button, and was told that I had to set up an account. (Hurdle 1) Clicked on the link to do so, and was asked for my name and email address. … Read More
