Forty-one years ago, my Mum was six months pregnant, and probably starting to get a little uncomfortable. A few months later I was born and turned my parent’s lives upside down. For a first child there’s a predictable pattern of shock, intense anxiety, the start of routines and then problem-solving. The problem-solving is endless. Perhaps, forty years ago, my Mum … Read More
What happened to clarity? What happened to honesty?
I recently returned from the Business of Software Conference in Boston – the most interesting event I have ever attended. The hotel we were staying at, like many, is keen to jump on the Green bandwagon. Yet the card in my bathroom seemed to be lacking in clarity. Apologies for the image quality – this was taken with my BlackBerry. And … Read More
1 + 1 doesn’t have to be 2
We’re short of time, so I’m going to try to keep this quick and simple. Website X gets 20,000 visitors a day. 8,000 of the visitors remain on the website and click at least one link. 40%. 500 of them spend a significant amount of time on the website and engage with the content. 6.25%. 20 of them sign up. 4.0%. Website … Read More
TipFrom.Me – turning customers into sellers
What would you consider to be the most relevant source of information when it comes to what you buy? Magazines? Online reviews? TV ads? What about your friends? TipFrom.Me is a unique service that lets you turn your web customers into an active sales force. Whenever your customers purchase your products they will be given the opportunity to share a “Tip” to … Read More
Google’s creeping feature bloat
In the beginning, there were lots of search engines. Our SEO service used to optimise client websites for AltaVista, Yahoo, InfoSeek, Lycos and others. Each of which had their own priorities and methodologies. Great fun. Then came Google, and that was more or less that. As an early adopter of Google, I found it interesting that the very issue that initially … Read More
The most tragic website design mistakes #1: the wrong links
Most websites see the majority of their visitors arrive at the home page. From that point on, the website designer is in control of what happens next. Unless, that is, they make mistake #1 – the wrong links. The links you put on your website pages aren’t there to look good, fill space or offer a means of accessing every single … Read More
Can anyone help with my itch?
There are three groups of people. People who need what you sell, people who want what you sell, and people who don’t need or want it. For the people who need it, as long as you communicate that your solution scratches their itch, they’ll buy it. The people who merely want it are another story. They require more work, and … Read More
