I was recently interviewed for the Sydney Morning Herald on the topic of app building. As the title suggests, the theme was ‘Website or app: what should start-ups build first?” This is a question that many start-ups ask themselves, as apps are starting to become so popular that some start-ups start by building their apps, before they even have a website.
Weather this is the way to go depends on your business model and of course, as in most projects, it all comes down to the problem you are trying to solve. Will the website be a complement to your app or should the app be built to boost your website?
Location specific businesses will naturally benefit from focusing on building a great app and let the website be priority number two. But, regardless of what your focus is, every business will benefit from having a website.
Deloitte’s annual holiday survey of consumer spending intentions found that 48% of consumers will shop online for gifts this year. This means that Internet is now tied in first place as a favourite Christmas shopping destination, along with discount stores.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to prepare your online store or website to get the most out of the 2011 Holiday season. So what can you do? Well, the key to maximising the value your business can get our of the online shopping rush over the holidays is to offer the solutions they are after. So, why do people prefer to shop online?
Convenience - They don’t have to fight the crowds, find parking, carry heavy bags, spend lots of time queuing etc. How you can provide value: Make sure you remind the customers on your site that by shopping from you they can avoid the chaos of Christmas shopping.
They want to get the good deals and save money. How you can provide value: offer special sales or freebies with your sales, or offer bulk buying discounts
They are looking for gift ideas and suggestions – many people browse the internet looking for ideas on what to buy. How you can provide value: Create a gift guide on you site, listing all the items you sell and who the gift could be for. Make this guide downloadable as well, and don’t forget to brand it! You can also set up whish lists on your site where people can log in and save their wish list and send it to others.
They want to buy something that is hard to find in Australia or in normal shops, or something that is unique How you can provide value: if you stock an item that is hard to find, make sure you tell people about it. Talk about how your products are unique and share stories from the product users.
They want to be able to easily ship the gift straight to family or friends that live in different locations. How you can provide value: remind your customers how easy it is to shop from you, they don’t have to worry about gift wrapping or the logistics of sending the gift themselves. You could also offer free gift wrapping and a free Christmas card with a personal greeting for all of your Chrismas gift orders.
They want to save time. How you can provide value:Tell them again about the great benefits of shopping from you online, and how this will save them a lot of time.
You should also do some research into what keywords people use to search for Christmas gifts in your industry and make sure your site ranks high on those keywords.
A new type of domain name extension is available for registration; the dot mobi (.mobi) and companies all over the world are rushing to register a .mobi version of their domain name. So why do you need one? Well, the mobile phone is without doubt the new advertising medium, and this is very apperent through some simple statistics:
- There are four times as many mobile phone users in the world as there are internet users
- There are more mobile phone owners in the world than TV and PC owners combined
The dot mobi domain extension has been developed to use for your website’s mobile version, which, instead of showing a condensed version of your website will show a version that has been developed to fit the mobile format.
Even if you don’t have a mobile version of your website yet it might be a good idea to secure your .mobi version of your domain name now to make sure you can use it later.
Apple’s former CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56.
Apple has released a statement confirming Jobs’ death.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” the statement said.
“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”
In August, Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO with Tim Cook named as his successor.
On the Apple.com website – Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
Mark Toomey is a specialist in Corporate Governance of IT and an Expert in ISO 38500 and related standards.
Some time around the middle of June, one or more malicious individuals breached the security controls of an Australian web-hosting provider known as Distribute.IT, gaining access to several servers which were used to run websites owned by Distribute.IT customers. These malicious individuals then ran programs that effectively destroyed the data storage facilities of four servers. For the uninitiated, this can be likened to exploding a bomb in a library, destroying all the library catalogues and shredding most of the books. Given that computers do their work very quickly, it should be no surprise that the damage was caused in a very short amount of time.
AVS Networks has been nominated for the City of Sydney Business Awards 2011
The Sydney Business Awards is designed to embrace the wide range of businesses operating in Sydney, and AVS Networks has been nominated in the Information & Communication Technology category. The finalists’ selection is based on public votes, so if you want to support AVS Networks make sure you vote for us today!
So how did you go on the challenge I posed in my last blog post?
The fact is that two of them were convicted for discriminating sexes.
The ad above for Boxer (above) was convicted on the grounds that he is posed as a sexobject which can be offending to men. The company used a humoristic approach in the ad but the ombudsman did not find it funny. So how can it be reasonable to have a law like that, you might ask? Are the underwear companies, for example just going to show their products on dolls in ads? Well as with most rules, there are exceptions. You can show men or women in underwear/swim suits and the like IF it is related to your product! That is why Stadiums ad (below) did not get convicted.
My name is Jenni Hagman and I will be a guest bloggers today on Nigels blog! I am from Sweden so I thought that I could share some marketing practices from my country. Today’s post will be on the subject of ethical marketing, more specified: an ethical advertising ombudsman and pose a challenge for the readers on this topic!
An ombudsman is a “Government official appointed to investigate citizen’s complaint against government officials, large public and private corporations, and/or print media” (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ombudsman.html). The word ombudsman originally comes from Swedish and is actually one of the FEW words that have migrated from Swedish into English!
Google showed of it’s new operating system (OS) yesterday. You may have heard about this on the news but you may be wondering what the big fuss is all about. It’s just another software launch right?
About Google
Google started out as a search engine company. They provided great search engine results to everyone. A high ranking in Google is great for business because it generates so much traffic.
Then Google started introducing other applications such as AdWords, AdSense, Google Apps, Maps, and a whole heap of other services. Essentially moving away from it’s core focus of search results.
Google Chrome Browser
The Chrome browser has re-ignited the browser wars yet again. Before Chrome, MS Internet Explorer had 69% of the market share and FireFox had 16%. Things have changed here. MS Internet Explorer now has 49%. FireFox has 29% and Chrome has grown to 12%.
Earlier this year, I wrote about how newspapers and magazines were dying. They are suffering from lower readership and Rupert Murdoch wanted to introduce a ‘pay wall’. A pay wall is where users have to pay to read the news online. I do not think many people would want to pay to read the news when they have been getting it free for so many years.
The Times and the Sunday Times, owned by News Corp in the UK, have introduced a pay wall to read their newspaper online and through iPad Apps. It was far from successful.
The online audience for the Times and Sunday times has gone from 3 million unique visitors to about 200,000 paying subscribers. 100,000 of these subscribers are free accounts for customers who are already subscribed to the print version. About 105,000 are new paid users.
Affiliate marketing is a term usually used within the Internet marketing community. Ask the average person what an affiliate marketing program is and they’ll give you a vague description of something. It might not even be an Internet related description!
Affiliate marketing usually means that you lead people to a particular website that is tracked with the use of the URL and cookies. For everyone that buys a product or service that you led to the website, you get a commission.
On Monday night, I went and saw a pre-screening of The Social Network. This was on behalf of Mumbrella and Focal Attractions.
I have already posted about the Social Network preview here and I don’t want to give the story line away but I did enjoy the movie. It may not be what really happened and I am sure it was sensationalised as well.
Users browsing the Internet with their TV seems like it might be the next big other other than mobile Internet. Google TV is now here and Microsoft will be coming out with their version soon. Apple is re-launching their AppleTV product.
TV Optimisation
But is your website optimised to be viewed on the TV? There are many sizes of TVs from large 10 foot screens to 32 inch screens. Users are not sitting half a metre from their TV. They are often sitting 3 or 4 metres away from the TV.
I came across an excellent case study about the Old Spice viral campaign that has been doing the rounds for the past few months and I would like to share it with everyone –
Google Instant has now been rolled out in Australia. You may have noticed that search results start appearing as soon as you start typing. Each time you type another letter, the results are refreshed.
The biggest question in the world of search engine optimisation and website rankings is – How will this affect my search engine rankings and amount of traffic you receive?
Marissa Mayer, one of Google’s top executives was moved from Head of Products to Head of Location and Local Search. She has already started making changes with a great new improvement for local search results.
Previously, if you did a search for Pizza, you were assigned your location based on the information your ISP gave to Google. It was often inaccurate and it didn’t help the search results. I was located in Wollongong and a local Google search would often generate results for Sydney. Now that I am in Sydney, it would be a different part in Sydney.
The Social Network is a movie about the creator of Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg.
The movie has received mixed reviews in the US because the movie portrays Zuckerberg as someone who copied the idea. We all get ideas from somewhere but Zuckerberg created Facebook nad is now a multi-billionaire because of it.
“You don’t get 500 million friends without making some enemies”
Mt Everest is getting mixed reviews on Google Places at the moment. People are complaining about the lack of service, facilities and staff. Others enjoyed the views and will be back again next year with the family.
Great day out if you are properly prepared.‎‎ I’ve read many poor reviews of this venue from people who seem to be surprised at the lack of facilities. All I can say is that if you are unprepared then you can expect to be disappointed. There are no food outlets at the summit and those along the route take advantage of their near monopoly by charging tourists exorbitant prices, so it’s worth remembering to pack a few sandwiches and a flask of coffee before setting out. It can get quite chilly in winter which makes warm drinks preferable to cold ones. Remember also to bring a sweater in case the weather worsens and maybe a waterproof jacket in the event that it rains. The weather can change quickly, so it’s worth packing an umbrella even if the morning is bright and sunny. This is not a beach and some walking can be expected, making the correct choice of footwear essential. A good pair of walking sandals will be adequate under most circumstances although to be on the safer side boat shoes or similar might be wiser. One …‎
Do you advertise on Yahoo? Not as many people advertise on Yahoo and Bing which means cheaper rates for traffic compared to the sometimes over-competitive Google Adwords.
Yahoo Search attracts a different kind of traffic audience as well. Just like Bing users are sometimes more beginner types because they use Internet Explorer and do not know how to change their search engine preferences in their browser. They are just happy to use any search engine that is conveniently located in the browser.
Google has many products, not just search. This includes News, YouTube, Maps, Checkout, Chrome, Earth, Gmail, Picasa, Talk, Blogger, Gears, Buzz, Docs, iGoogle, Orkut, Wave, Latitude, Goggles, AdWords, AdSense  and the list goes on. Check out the full list here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products
There are about 100 blogs that Google uses to keep everyone up-to-date with all the different products. I subscribe to about 20 of them! But no one place to go to get everything new so Google created Google New.
Internet Explorer 9 was launched by Microsoft last week and this week, Microsoft has launched the new version of Bing, the decision engine powered by HTML5.
You may not know this but nearly every website uses HTML version 4. The next generation of HTML, known as HTML5 is incredibly powerful. It gives developers a lot more flexibility in creating user friendly websites.
There really isn’t much funny stuff that goes on in search engines. It’s all about the numbers, ranking, results, money, return on investment etc.
It does get repetitive – believe me I should know!
That’s why I would like to share with you this video from the Comedy Channels’ The Colbert Report. It features a funny interview with Google’s CEO – Eric Schmidt.
Foursquare is probably something you may never have heard of. In Australia, it is relatively unknown. Only early adopters are currently using it but it’s usage is rising.
Foursquare allows you to check in to places and businesses, leave comments, make suggestions to friends – very similar to Facebook Places.
I believe Foursquare will be a very big thing in Australia within the next 12 months. It’s taking the US by storm. It has grown from 50,000 to 2.5 million within a year.
Google has done it again! Caffeine made the indexing of web pages a much quicker affair. New results are entered in the grand database very quickly how, often within hours instead of days and weeks.
Google’s new innovation is Instant Results. As you type your search query, the results are display. This means faster, quicker searching for everyone.
Here is a video from Google explaining it in a very easy to understand way –
What is Google Places?
Local business listings is very important in Google. If you do a local search which includes a place, town, city or local service, Google will display the local business box. That’s how important Google thinks local search results are.
What determines your Google Places Rank?
Everyone is wondering what the ranking factors for local search engine optimisation. Do you stuff your Google Places page with as many keywords as possible or what?
Here are the top 10 factors that determine your Google Places ranking – From Least important to most important –
What is Local SEO? You may be wondering what exactly local seo is and how it can help your business. ‘Local Search Engine Optimisation’ is getting your business listed at the top of the search engine when local searches are performed.
A local search is defined as a search including a location, city, suburb, town, place, country or a local service.
Google Adwords is the sponsorship links that you see on any Google search. They appear above the organic search results and in the right column. They can also appear in the Google  content nextwork.
I have created hundreds of campaigns using Adwords and optimised campaigns for a lot of customers.
Many of the campaigns created by small business owners often have the same mistakes appearing time and time again.
I have complied this list of the 10 most common mistakes that advertisers make when creating and running their Google Adwords campaigns.
WordPress is open source software and one of the major players for blog publishing software. This blog was created with WordPress as well as many of the largest blogs in the world.
WordPress 3.0 became available in June and is ready to download and install.
There are currently rumours floating around the Internet that Google may introduce a payment system for paid content.
What is Newspass
Newspass will be a micropayments system for viewing premium content. This premium content listing in the search engine result pages will be indicated with a Newspass icon. When you click on the link, your Newspass account will have the cost deducted from it.
GIMP is a free graphics program which is comparable to Adobe Photoshop. GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
I am often asked what graphic programs are good to use for basic graphic design. GIMP is a pretty good candidate for this. It can even save files in Photoshop format.
Providing Shopping Cart Software
Providing Website Updates.
I am from Sweden so I thought that I could share some marketing practices from my country. Today’s post will be on the subject of ethical marketing, more specified: an ethical advertising ombudsman and pose a challenge for the readers on this topic!
