Author: Graham Jones

Online Business

What Internet Marketers can learn from golfers

Golfers the world over have their eyes fixed on San Diego this week because it is the start of the US Open Golf Tournament. The world’s top golfers are chasing one of the top prizes in the International game and they will do everything they possibly can to prevent the

How to get in touch with your online customers

Customers are a funny lot aren’t they? Some want you to email them, others prefer letters in the post and some would rather have a phone call. Just what are you supposed to do for the best? And just when you think you have cracked it, everything changes and some

How to avoid shopping cart abandonment

Your shopping cart on your web site is more likely to be abandoned than used. Around six out of every ten people who select a product for purchase, give up just before pressing the “pay” button. It’s rather like walking up to the checkout in a bricks and mortar shop,

Your social networking friends are just chance happenings

Friends are people we share common interests with, who have the same values and morals, who cheer us up when we are down and who truly understand us. At least that’s what we would like to think. However, new research from psychologists in Leipzig shows that friendships are actually down

Think local, not global, to make the most of the Internet

People are creatures of habit; we tend to do similar things each day. However, when asked about what we do in surveys or in research studies, guess what? We lie. We like to tell researchers what we think they want to know, or we want to make ourselves seem more

Credit crunch, downturn? Not on the Internet..!

Business owners are looking increasingly worried these days. Almost every conversation turns to the so-called “credit crunch” or to a potential recession. People are worried that a financial crisis is looming for business. Each day in the newspapers we read about job losses, businesses closing and companies having difficulties in

Your web site needs to create social currency

Anthropologists in the USA have just published the results of a year-long study performed on behalf of the Associated Press and which has some pretty important findings for all web site owners. The study’s results were announced today at the annual World Editor’s Forum in Sweden. The research is a

Web design is not that important

Business owners who decide to set up a web site, or revamp an existing one, seem to always start by talking to web designers. The discussions then get focused on the look and “feel” of the site, colours and site structure. Apart from the fact that this takes the business

Don’t put your money into Internet banks

City bankers are a funny lot; they live in a world which few people inhabit. They have annual bonuses in the millions, they swig champagne as though it were water and they buy Porsches as though they were going out of fashion. At least that’s the stereotype we have all

BBC Radio interview

BBC Tees interviewed me this morning – we discussed the value of Evernote.

Impatience rules the day online

Web users are becoming increasingly impatient, according to the web usability expert Jakob Nielsen. Apparently, we spend much less time waiting for pages to load and to find out what they are about. If it’s not an “instant” message, we move on. Well, apart from the fact that Jakob Nielsen’s

Virtual worlds are useful after all

If you visit Second Life you will find me propped up against a grass bank, close to a river, watching the “world” around me. I’ve been there for several weeks now. The virtual world of Second Life is fascinating and many people spend part of each day “flying” around and

Build online trust by appealing to your readers’ hormones

Neurologists have published new research which shows that we trust people when our levels of oxytocin are high. Oxytocin is a hormone that for years was thought mostly to be involved only in childbirth since one of its principal functions is to open up the birth canal. However, more recently

Blogging

US General is an Internet hero too

Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV, is a highly decorated and very senior commander within the US Army. Not only is he a military hero, he is now a hero for bloggers and those interested in the whole concept of “user-generated content”. LTG Caldwell has gone further than any other

Internet businesses should cut down online promotion

People who own or run an online business tend to focus all their energies into online promotion. They look at Pay Per Click advertising, banner ads, social network marketing and article marketing. Then they consider online PR, affiliate marketing and online joint ventures. Rarely do online businesses focus their attention

Blogging

That question keeps coming back – should you blog?

Business owners keep asking whether or not they should have a blog. They’ve heard of blogging, but they are not convinced it has any business benefits. Rightly, business owners need to know if their is a return on their investment in blogging; and it’s not just the costs of the

Focused social networking – the way to go…!

People gravitate towards people like themselves. We all love people like us; anyone who is a bit different we tend to shy away from. It’s the same online – we tend to “hang out” in groups and clubs in places like Facebook and Ecademy where the people we meet are