All posts by Editor

E-Commerce, Websites

Eight Point Plan to Channel Internet Information

How do you ensure that your time on the internet is used optimally, when time is short and there are so many fun things to do? You may want to insure your time behind the PC is kept to minum. This is how to do it.

1. First define what is it that your are interested in. So let’s say it is one of the following: Horse riding, work Management, and being healthy. It could really be anything but we’ll use these for examples for now.

2. Search for the information sources on Google, like this one:

3. Pick a result http://workconnexions.com/node/773 if you like the information after reading it, you need to simply look for the RSS. By selecting this you can save it to one of the many readers available here. Why use a reader? Because it does what it says. It helps you to organise and prepare your information for reading. Think of it as a little bit like a Magazine with only articles you want to read.

4. Email is cheap an easy form of communication. During the last years some of us got very excited about spam and online privacy. I am probably signed up to 150 different internet products, newsletters, companies, etc. Not once in that period have I ever had problem. If I get bored or tired of a particular service I just cancel my subscription. In my experience all the internet companies that I deal with adhere to my wishes. Using push email to receive blog postings, new products and offers is great way forward. Just remember you can as easily unsubscribe as you can subscribe.

5. Sign up for one of the many online messenger systems, From Skype through to Twitter. These provide instant contact online with associates and save time with writing long emails. It’s where you can just ask the question directly.

6. A little bit every day goes a long way. If you are receiving your information in byte seize packets it is much easier to digest than suddenly trying to research everything on the Internet. Manage information is as much as about the sources as about the amount.

7. Verify sources – one of the greatest downfalls of the internet is the source of the information. It also is its greatest advantage. Can you believe what you read on the internet? It is always a good question to ask. You could ask the same question from certain tabloids. So how do you verify your information? Here are some tips and pointers:

Does the website have a policy page?

Examine credentials in author bios and “about us” pages.

Examine grammar and spelling.

Examine links to and from other Web sites.

Look for references of the author or publisher.

Independently verify credentials.

Professional associations–check professional directory

8. Customization. Why drive a standard car when you can make you own. The great thing about the internet is that you can make it your own, bigger text, video or no video, display adverts or not- The possibilities are endless and can be all done out of your browser option panel. Fire Fox tends to allow more customization than internet explorer but you can still have your way.

It is not all that difficult channelling the information. I imagined when I started this how it could go on for ever. This point to point step plan is really all your need to get the most out of the internet. It is about making it manageable and do – able. Feel free to add your own experience below.

Marketing

Answer: How Much Does Online Advertising Cost in Relation to other Media Forms?

1 Comment

This is one answer to some questions I Posted here

I tried Googeling this one but unfortunately Google did not seem to have any relevant information, so I am going to have to answer the question myself. 🙂

I might be quite possibly asking the wrong the question, as the Internet does provide some very reasonable places to advertise. In fact is it advertising that is keeping the Internet going? I estimate ninety percent of sites are being paid for by advertising.

Arranging online advertising feels like a personal experience and it is time intensive. Once upon a time you could just choose a sports magazine, pay a few grand and have an advertisement made up and you were done. Is that so on the Internet? yes and no.

While it is clear that online advertising is increasing twofold every year as we spend more time behind our PC’s than in front of the TVs, it is not clear what the best place to spend those dollars is. Google has ad words its enormously successful advertising program. Microsoft has its less successful one too. There are hundreds of affiliate network sites, not forgetting Facebook, that wants to make a profit too this year.

If money is less of an objective you can pretty much contact any site; I am sure with the right smile your banner could be up there at a reasonable cost. With so much choice who do you choose? This is really where expertise comes in. A seasoned professional who knows your market will be able to track down the sites that will be suitable for your adverts negotiate the right deal.

Now is a good time to buy advertising on the Internet with most companies offering very good deals due to the immense competition. Who would you advertise with?

The last couple of days I have been looking at buying some online advertising for www.workconnexions.com I came across a wonderful niche that specialises in making miniature engines for enthusiasts.

Sponsorship was offered on the site at, so I contact the site owner and got this reply back.

“Pages for various craftsmen can be sponsored in exchange for a donation to the foundation. At this time we request a $100 (US) donation for 5 years of sponsorship on a craftsman’s page of your choice. Since many of the sponsors now shown there have been given free placement in order to get the page going in its early stages, you can request to sponsor any page even if it is already sponsored. If that person or business has not paid for the sponsorship, your request will take precedence. Please provide a 2nd choice in case your first choice is not available”

It appears to be a reasonable offer above and I am thinking about buy banner space. Than just this morning chatting with Owen. He pointed out that Seth Godin has brought a mass of banner advertising and managed to make less than his cost in return. Which made me think too. If Seth can not sell it, who can.

Well appears that there is a growing marketing for advertising on Face book and that a number of companies are making a nice return. I hope for Facebooks sake that is true or we may all have a problem.

E-Commerce, Marketing

Answer: How Much Does Online Advertising Cost in Relation to other Media Forms?

4 Comments

This is one answere to some queastions I Posted here

I tried Googeling this one but unfortunately Google did not seem to have any relevant information, so I am going to have to answer the question myself. 🙂

I might be quite possibly asking the wrong the question, as the Internet does provide some very reasonable places to advertise. In fact is it advertising that is keeping the Internet going? I estimate ninety percent of sites are being paid for by advertising.

Arranging online advertising feels like a personal experience and it is time intensive. Once upon a time you could just choose a sports magazine, pay a few grand and have an advertisement made up and you were done. Is that so on the Internet? yes and no.

While it is clear that online advertising is increasing twofold every year as we spend more time behind our PC’s than in front of the TVs, it is not clear what the best place to spend those dollars is. Google has ad words its enormously successful advertising program. Microsoft has its less successful one too. There are hundreds of affiliate network sites, not forgetting Facebook, that wants to make a profit too this year.

If money is less of an objective you can pretty much contact any site; I am sure with the right smile your banner could be up there at a reasonable cost. With so much choice who do you choose? This is really where expertise comes in.  A seasoned professional who knows your market will be able to track down the sites that will be suitable for your adverts negotiate the right deal.

Now is a good time to buy advertising on the Internet with most companies offering very good deals due to the immense competition. Who would you advertise with?

The last couple of days I have been looking at buying some online advertising for www.workconnexions.com I came across a wonderful niche that specialises in making miniature engines for enthusiasts.

Sponsorship was offered on the site at, so I contact the site owner and got this reply back.

“Pages for various craftsmen can be sponsored in exchange for a donation to the foundation. At this time we request a $100 (US) donation for 5 years of sponsorship on a craftsman’s page of your choice. Since many of the sponsors now shown there have been given free placement in order to get the page going in its early stages, you can request to sponsor any page even if it is already sponsored. If that person or business has not paid for the sponsorship, your request will take precedence. Please provide a 2nd choice in case your first choice is not available”

It appears to be a reasonable offer above and I am thinking about buy banner space. Than just this morning chatting with Owen.  He pointed out that Seth Godin has brought a mass of banner advertising and managed to make less than his cost in return. Which made me think too. If Seth can not sell it, who can.

Well appears that there is a growing marketing for advertising on Face book and that a number of companies are making a nice return.  I hope for Facebooks sake that is true or we may all have a problem.

Management, Personal

Eight Point Plan to Channel Internet Information

2 Comments

Carry on from this post: http://blog.wcx.me/2008/09/channel-the-information-the-queastion/

How do you ensure that your time on the internet is used optimally, when time is short and there are so many fun things to do? You may want to insure your time behind the PC is kept to minum. This is how to do it.

 

1. First define what is it that your are interested in. So let’s say it is one of the following: Horse riding, work Management, and being healthy. It could really be anything but we’ll use these for examples for now.

 

2. Search for the information sources on Google, like this one:

 

3. Pick a result http://workconnexions.com/node/773 if you like the information after reading it, you need to simply look for the RSS. By selecting this you can save it to one of the many readers available here. Why use a reader? Because it does what it says. It helps you to organise and prepare your information for reading. Think of it as a little bit like a Magazine with only articles you want to read.

 

4. Email is cheap an easy form of communication. During the last years some of us got very excited about spam and online privacy. I am probably signed up to 150 different internet products, newsletters, companies, etc. Not once in that period have I ever had problem. If I get bored or tired of a particular service I just cancel my subscription. In my experience all the internet companies that I deal with adhere to my wishes.  Using push email to receive blog postings, new products and offers is great way forward. Just remember you can as easily unsubscribe as you can subscribe.

 

5. Sign up for one of the many online messenger systems, From Skype through to Twitter. These provide instant contact online with associates and save time with writing long emails. It’s where you can just ask the question directly.

 

6. A little bit every day goes a long way. If you are receiving your information in byte seize packets it is much easier to digest than suddenly trying to research everything on the Internet. Manage information is as much as about the sources as about the amount.

 

7. Verify sources – one of the greatest downfalls of the internet is the source of the information. It also is its greatest advantage. Can you believe  what you read on the internet? It is always a good question to ask. You could ask the same question from certain tabloids. So how do you verify your information? Here are some tips and pointers:

 

Does the website have a policy page?

Examine credentials in author bios and “about us” pages.

Examine grammar and spelling.

Examine links to and from other Web sites.

Look for references of the author or publisher.

Independently verify credentials.

Professional associations–check professional directory

 

 

8. Customization. Why drive a standard  car when you can make you own.  The great thing about the internet is that you can make it your own, bigger text, video or no video, display adverts or not- The possibilities are endless and can be all done out of your browser option panel. Fire Fox tends to allow more customization than internet explorer but you can still have your way.

 

It is not all that difficult channelling the information. I imagined when I started this how it could go on for ever. This point to point step plan is really all your need to get the most out of the internet. It is about making it manageable and do – able. Feel free to add your own experience below.

 

 

 

Management, Uncategorized

Research, Research, Research.

1 Comment

I remember years ago seeing a business seminar with Mike Southon, who said  he had no idea why some ideas worked and others did not. He also mentioned that if it does not work you better move on quickly. Sound advice indeed, research is not a guarantee that a product is going to be successful in the marketplace, I have seen some of the most amazing research done to insure investment in different products here and in the UK only to fail.

So why research? One reason is to insure that basic due diligence in done on the idea. Secondly it is to secure investment whether time or monetary. It is great that you can verbalize your idea, but most people will want some proof of the idea and to take that idea/research away and think about it before making an investment.

So how do you do it? First you need to draw up a list of questions that  if answered would achieve your research goal/business idea. For example these questions might provide clarity that there is a need in the market for your product. 

 

Who is going to buy your product?

Why are they going to buy it?

How much would they be willing to pay for it?

Do you have any competitors?

What are the risks?

 

Then you need to go and find your answers, It is a good idea to get as a wide as possible review of your idea by as many people as possible. Be blunt and upfront, it is better now you get any possibly doubts people may have out of the way than when you have invested your time and money. When you have collected all this information it than time for analysis.

How one chooses to analysis the information is up to you. You could choose to do a swot analysis or my favourite a 360 review.

360 Review reveals crucial usability issues and offers actionable recommendations for improvement – before you invest in design. This review can include two complementary evaluation techniques in tandem: an Expert Review that focuses on what your design brings to users, and Usability Testing to examine what users bring to the design. More than a usability “to-do” list, 360 analysis identifies opportunities for cost savings and/or added revenue in your business model.

 

Features

Benefits

Stakeholder interviews to elicit business goals of the site/application.

A comprehensive usability analysis – before you begin a redesign.

Analysis of navigation, task flow, content and visual design – benchmarked against research-based usability principles – with concrete recommendations.

Keep your design efforts focused on the most important problems.

A usability test that targets your most important user task flows and interactions to uncover problem areas (performed remotely).

Reliable recommendations backed by solid data are easier to “sell” internally.

Prioritized set of tactical recommendations based on proven usability principles and validated through direct user testing.

Get timely, cost-effective feedback in just 3-4 weeks.

When the analysis has been carried out and presuming that idea has survived and is still viable. It is time to look at competition:

Competition is exactly what it means, you are competing in a local and more and more in a global market. What is it that your organisation can do better then your competitors? You will need to get hold this idea and grow it as it is your biggest selling point against the competition.

 

As always please feel free to add you own ideas to this.

 

 

business, ideas, Relationship

Setting Boundries and Scoring Points

 

There is always a list of things one should do online if you are using web 2.0, but none our more important than developing your own site. It is easy to caught up with all the tools/options and forgot why it is that you are doing it. Set clear boundaries and stick to it, only now and than going over it, if it is something off particular interest.

I found this fascinating quote today give an insight in social networking:

  1. Social Messaging – Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, Pownce…. (add your favorite micro blogging/social messaging service here). Each can suck up your time if you don’t get focused and put some boundaries around them.
  2. Social Bookmarking – many bloggers become somewhat obsessed with writing posts for and then gathering votes on social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz, Reddit etc
  3. Social Networking – building profiles and interacting upon Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc – all useful in building a brand and profile as a blogger, but potentially a distraction.
  4. Blog Design – blog design is important at creating a first impression but when you find yourself tweaking it, reworking it, planning your next one more than actually writing content for your blog you might be in trouble.
  5. SEO – like blog design there always seems to be something you could do a little better when it comes to optimizing a blog for search engines. It can be worth your time to do some of this, but one of the most effective ways of doing SEO is to write content that hits the spot with readers.
  6. Reading other Blogs in Your Niche – yet another great use of time, but many bloggers spend so much time on other people’s blogs connecting, leaving comments and even writing about them that they fail to write anything unique on their own.
  7. Reading about How to Blog – this might seem strange coming from a blogger who writes about blogging, but from time to time a blogger comes to me for advice on how to improve their blog who has done so much learning about blogging that my encouragement to them is simply to stop reading about it and start doing it.
  8. Guest Posting – I am a big fan about using guest posting on other peoples blogs to expand your profile and grow your readership – however the best way to utilize guest posting is to have great content on your own blog for the new readers you engage with to see when they come visit.
  9. Interacting with Readers – this is one that I hesitate to write about because I’m a firm believer in allocating time to spend one on one with readers – however as a blog grows it gets more and more difficult to do. There comes a time where most bloggers need to decide how to strike a balance on this front – boundaries and processes can really help.
  10. Networking with other bloggers – another great way to build brand and traffic to your own blog is to connect with other bloggers in your niche – however there are millions of blogs ‘out there’ and it can be an endless task.
  11. Monetization – finding and testing ad networks and affiliate programs can take a lot of time. Then optimizing them for your blog and tracking the results and extending your earning potential by finding private sponsorships and ad sales can really eat up even more of your time.
  12. Starting New Blogs – diversification is an important and worthwhile part of the journey of many bloggers development, however I come across some bloggers who start too many blogs too quickly and don’t give their early ones time to get going and develop before they branch out.
  13. Analyzing Stats – one of the biggest potential time suckers, that many bloggers become distracted with at different times, is analyzing your stats. Sure, you can learn a great deal from looking at who is coming to your blog, from where they come and what they do when they arrive – but at times, when you do it all day everyday, it can be a habit that takes you away from your blogging.
  14. Projects/Competitions/Memes – many bloggers wanting to run a competition or project on their blog don’t realize just how much work it can be to manage (or how hard it can be to get them working). They can bring a lot of life to a blog, but they can also be suck you (and your readers) attention away from your core blogging.
  15. Dealing with Trolls and Trouble makers – it is SO easy to get drawn into passionate (yet pointless) arguments with other bloggers and readers that can leave you emotionally drained and having wasted hours upon hours of your time. While at the time it seems to important to respond – many times it’s best just learn to hold it in.
  16. Tracking down copyright violations – unfortunately in the medium we operate there are people who scrape the content of others, whack ads on it and call it their own. While it can be important to track down these copyright violations down – the statement ‘how long is a piece of string’ comes to mind and some bloggers spend so much time tracking splogs down, issuing DMCA legal notices and attempting to get the content removed that they have little time for much else.

    17. Darren Rowse, 16 Important but Potentially Distracting Blogging Tasks, Sep 2008

You should read the whole article.

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Management, Personal

Charles Has a Point on Leadership

They say you should never underestimate the stupidly of large groups, it was one of the new age trendy poster that hangs in modern companies. By God they are right.

This week in Britain Charles Clark wrote and spoke out about the current inertia in the Labour party. To be honest you would have to be coming from Mars not to recognizes the deep dissatisfaction at the current state of affairs. I do believe that a large percentage of the people in Britain do recognise the need to tighten their belts in a financial down turn. You have good years and you have not so good years. What I believe is that people feel most betrayed by, is the lack of leadership as a whole.
To be frank in economy matters no government can really control them. They might tinker here or there, but the economy controls itself. What the people want in difficult times is emotional and spiritual leadership. They want someone who they can admire, who is honest with them and tells it like it is and the rolls up his sleeves, put the kettle on and gets on with the job.

Gordon Brown central policy seem to be to fight change. Nobody in history has ever succeeded at that and there is good reason why, it is not possible. Charles Clarke summed it up elegantly this week. Either Gordon starts communicating his message or leaves with honour.

The current state of affairs is bad for moral. The British people can withstand much as shown as shown in two world wars, the Falkland’s and the war in Iraq, but dithering idiot just makes you want to jump ship.