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

Experts in “usability” gathered in London today to discuss several issues surrounding this topic. The meeting had been called by TechSmith, the producers of Morae the leading usability testing software. It became apparent during the discussions that usability testing is often seen as something that is performed at the end

Online business owners need to target their offerings in a much more refined way. Evidence is mounting daily that Internet users expect web sites to be devoted to their specific needs. For instance, let’s say you offer software on task management. You could have a site devoted to managing tasks

BBC Radio FiveLive carried an interesting item on the news this morning from Sony BMG that they are making their entire back catalogue available as a “free to listen” service. Wow – that’s great, you might think. But this is another example of how big business still has not understood

A new study of online behaviour confirms that good old-fashioned public relations is essential in getting search engine results that people actually click on. The research, conducted by the search engine marketing firm, iProspect, reveals a significant “click behaviour” which every online business owner needs to take notice of. The

People often ask me if their business could operate online. Many business people fear that their service or product would not translate well to the online world. But I tell them that I can’t think of anything that is impossible to sell online. After all, if just a few years

If your online business suffered a problem, would you be able to cope? I don’t mean problems like not getting enough traffic or not getting to the top of the search engines. What I mean is something that would actually prevent you from doing your work. What if you were

People often swap web site names between each other. They tell them to their friends, neighbours, colleagues and so on. Think how difficult it would have been for Google if their web site name (domain) had been something like “www.automatedsearchenginesystemnotrelyingonhumaneditors.com”. And what about people who try to recommend web sites

How many times have you ventured into an online store, only to find that you can’t get as much information about a company’s products or services as you would like? Only yesterday I wanted to know if my new video camera could take certain memory cards. Was that information in

Universities are pumping out technically literate graduates at a rapid rate. Indeed, you probably can’t even do a degree in Ancient Greek these days unless you are competent using online search methods, for instance. In other words, everyone joining the jobs market nowadays is technically competent. Until a few years

Small business owners are seriously bad at using the Internet. Two pieces of research combine to show that significant numbers of small business owners and those running medium sized enterprises are simply not aware they are missing out. For a start, research commissioned by “The Best Of” chain of web

Small business owners are at a real advantage online – providing they emphasis their “smallness”. Many people set up an online business to help them look big – but this could be working against them according to a new study in the USA. It seems that people trust small businesses

Mark Berriman has just been named as a “Young Business Person of the Year” for his Viverdi company based in South Tyneside. Working in two distinct areas – pet supplies and gift drinks – the company is set to bring in £2.6m this year, with growth predicted to £20m within

Customers that you form long-term relationships with are what you want aren’t they? A business usually wants a happy group of customers who keep coming back for more. But building such relationships can take time. In the offline world, businesses use all sorts of devices, such as loyalty schemes, customer

Online shoppers are clear about two things; they know exactly what they want and they also want the best quality at the lowest price. People do not “browse” online; they have a particular item they want or a specific purpose in mind. However, traditional retailers are used to browsers and