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According to Anne Holland over at MarketingSherpa.com, “This year marketers will spend roughly 1/8th of their search budgets on Search Engine Optimisation, and 7/8th on paid search ads.” That, to my mind, is insane. Search engine optimisation (that is, developing your site in such as way that it gets high search engine rankings) makes far […]

Okay, now these results are from a web site that’s been live for 10 days. It’s a site selling horse tack (horse bits). It’s a new design of horse bit and for that reason people want to check it out thoroughly and see what others say. The testimonials page is the most visited page on […]

As the web developer on a site it matters a bit what I think across a whole range of areas. After all, I’m the one with the usability experience, marketing expertise and general web knowledge. But when it comes to what content to have on a page it doesn’t matter too much what I think. […]

Pew Internet have just released some findings that make interesting reading: “Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or Â?sponsoredÂ? results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not.” That’s interesting because most people say they […]

A recent survey released by lobby group the Parents Jury found that 72% of parents would consider changing where they shopped if a rival supermarket offered lolly-free checkouts. I assume this is because the parents have to deal with whiny kids in the checkout wanting to buy lollies. No Value Whatsoever This sort of survey […]

Every now and then I get asked why we have Google AdWords on this web site. After all, this is a site that is meant to position us as clever, knowledgeable and…did I say clever already?! Some people see having ads on the site as devaluing the site a little. “Heh, they must be going […]

My beautiful daughter Laura, who I mentioned below, has this morning (I dropped her off at 6.30 am) started her first Public Speaking lesson. It’s an 8 week course held by a local Toastmasters group. Public speaking terrifies most people – it’s usually listed as people’s major fear. My Top 7 Tips For Giving A […]

Mmmmm. Sometimes the little guys are best. On Sunday night I emailed Dell support to ask how quickly their ‘Express Delivery’ service was. That’s where you pay a premium and get the computer you ordered sent to you quicker than the standard 10 days. I received an answer late on Monday morning (I’ve deleted the […]

The Proper ‘English’ Suits As you’d probably guess, I’m a big fan of a blog being used by a business web site. It’s really helpful, like this blog is, in giving visitors a sense of the people behind the company and in helping to share information. Sure, it’s not the be all and end all […]

In these enlightened times you could probably develop a good argument that sex doesn’t sell any more. That we’re now too ‘civilised’, too aware of sensitivities related to using sex to sell or just plain over-exposed to pretty women or men being used to sell something. But all that would be wrong. Sex sells. And […]