Year: 2008

Do you remember this time last year?

Memory is a strange feature of our brains; it is essential for everything we do (think for a moment if you had to learn every day to walk again as your brain had forgotten what to do.l.!). Yet it fails us so much. Everyone you speak with lately is worried

Word order doesn’t matter for marketers internet

Google doesn’t take into account the order of the words that you type into the search box – unless you tell it to by using quotation marks. Now, psychologists from Boston, USA, have found that humans don’t either. It turns out that in familiar word pairs, such as “Internet marketing”

Labour doesn’t understand the Internet – again!

Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has shown, yet again, that Government fails to understand the Internet. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph he proposed that web sites should only be published once they have cinema style ratings so that parents would know what

Happy Christmas 2008

Have a Happy Christmas. Thank you for reading my articles this year and I hope you have found them useful. Like many people I’m now taking a few days off and so I’m resting my fingers from the keyboard for a day or two (unless something suddenly provokes the writer

Will you check your email on Christmas Day?

This time tomorrow you will have opened your Christmas presents, stuffed the turkey and could be onto your second glass of champagne. But will you have peeked at your email account at all? Go on, admit it, you probably will do. Two years ago a survey suggested that a mere

Christmas pudding makers could teach Internet marketers a thing or two

Every year, 19 million Christmas puddings are made at the Matthew Walker factory in Derby. That’s an amazing 7,500 tons of plum pudding that serves everyone from the Queen, to soldiers, to school children. Not only that, but this single factory provides puds for every major High Street retailer and

Long Tail theory debunked – NOT…!

Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail Theory” has been debunked by two economists who have conduced an exhaustive statistical analysis, according to The Times. If you’re not familiar with this theory, it suggests that thanks to the Internet we will now be able to benefit from millions of tiny business “niches”, rather

People less satisfied with Internet shops

Shoppers are becoming less satisfied with Internet shops. The research company Foresee has shown that consumers are now less satisfied with Internet retailers than they were a year ago. One in four people are dissatisfied, according to the on-going study. For a site with millions of visitors that could spell

Small business owners are unsure about online advertising

Researchers at Microsoft have discovered that small business owners have a number of fears when it comes to promoting their business online. Nine out of every ten firms with an online presence have never tried to use any form of paid search marketing. Amazing! Google, for instance, is raking in

You cannot be addicted to the Internet

Psychiatrists are in an interesting position; their role is being threatened by the growth in clinical psychologists, therapists and a host of other health professionals who can treat certain psychological disorders. Earlier this week research was published which shows that cognitive behavioural therapy can have a lasting therapeutic impact. The

If you sell anything online you are being watched

Internet retailers are claiming victory in the battle for business in the run-up to Christmas. However, all is not as it seems. Anyone who has an online shop needs to take extra special care of their customers. One false move and your rise in income this year could be a

The Internet is more interesting than sex – official..!

Women are more interested in the Internet than they are in sex. In a study of more than 2,000 people in the USA researchers found that almost half of American women would rather give up sex than have to live without the Internet for two weeks. Men, however, tended to

Psychologies Magazine Next Month

Psychologies Magazine (a UK magazine aimed mainly at women) has asked for my input for an article on the need to constantly update your status online.

Pay per click just doesn’t connect with web site users

Pay per click advertising fails to really connect with people who use the Internet. That’s the conclusion from a new study by ClickConsult. The research reveals that if you combine search engine optimisation (SEO) with Pay Per Click, you get a 50% increase in conversions. What this really tells us

Now we discover people don’t believe blogs – so stop blogging…!

A major survey of over 27,000 people has discovered that blogs are the least credible source of information online. Coupled with similar research on the trustworthiness of blogs, this most recent study suggests the end is nigh for blogging. According to the study, we believe “word of mouth” over and

Online, honesty is the best policy

Tyrone is a hapless chap in the British soap opera, Coronation Street. In the latest storyline he is in trouble because he is not telling his wife-to-be the entire truth. She is putting two and two together and coming up with the wrong answer. If only he told her that