Don’t annoy your web site visitors

As the Christmas trading season takes force online, retailers are being urged to ensure their web sites don’t annoy visitors. So what’s  the most annoying thing you can do? Add a pop-up advert. According to research from Taylor Nelson, 84% of people find pop-ups “extremely annoying”. Dead links are also …

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Women and the Internet

I was chatting with Karen Skidmore today and we were discussing why women don’t take part in Internet activities as much as men do. I know that’s a sweeping generalisation but we agreed that on business sites, such as Ecademy, the bulk of the discussion is performed by men. Then …

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Professional Speakers show the way for web site owners

I’m currently at the Professional Speakers Association’s annual congress at The Belfry. Two speakers today have confirmed something that many web site owners don’t appear to know. And that is the fact that people connect to what you say and what you write at the emotional level. They might justify …

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The Internet has potential but people don’t use it

Clearly plenty of people believe the Internet has potential. That’s obvious from the latest Netcraft survey which reveals there are now more than 100 million domains listed on the Web. However, the survey also shows that the vast majority of those (around 60%) are inactive. Over 60 million domain names …

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Could the Internet lead to misinformation?

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is concerned that if the development of the Internet is left unchecked it could lead to the spread of misinformation. Some would say that is already happening. You can find plenty of web sites that are blatantly untrue; you can …

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Human behaviour will dictate your Internet business

Like it or not, your business will have to change. That’s because human behaviour changes from time to time, even though the fundamentals remain the same. In a new report out today on TV watching habits, there’s an interesting nugget in the details. It seems that 28% of teenagers watch …

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Google shows the way ahead for the Internet

Once again, Google is showing us the future of the Internet. Today it seems that Google has bought JotSpot. This is a “wiki” gadget – essentially it allows your visitors to create your web site. It’s used by many big players on the Internet. For instance, Ebay uses JotSpot to allow …

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Stop Looking for Mass Audiences

The days of mass audiences are over. I remember as a child when a typical TV programme would get 15m viewers mid-week, sometimes 20m. The BBC used to attract around 12m people to its Radio One breakfast show. Almost half the nation used to listen to Noel Edmonds in the …

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Adobe is about to mess with the PDF concept

Just when you thought you had this infoproduct business cracked, along comes Adobe to mess it all up for you. For several years now, people have been getting used to – and liking – the PDF format which allows you to publish your books online and for your readers to …

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Film Makers Don’t Get the Internet Picture

You would have thought, wouldn’t you, that those creative types based in Hollywood would be really switched on when it comes to new technology like the Internet. But they are not. In spite of a few examples, such as the Blair Witch Project, film makers in Hollywood have yet to …

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CISCO has new virtual meeting tool

CISCO, the technology company, has just launched a new virtual meeting tool which it hopes will replace typical video conferences links. The product competes directly with Hewlett Packard’s “telepresence” technology which some people say is so realistic they even try to shake hands with people in the meeting. These new …

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Internet success depends on flexibility

Yesterday I was running a workshop on blogging where I pointed out that you should include an email address in all articles you publish. That way, I argued, you can get to know exactly who is interested in your information. If you only included a link to your web site, …

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Top websites are not always the best

An interesting comparison of highly ranked web sites reveals some interesting findings. The researchers looked at the top 10 web sites for helping people lose weight. They then analysed the quality of the material offered on those web sites. The Mayo Clinic, for instance, ranked 9th in terms of web …

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