beta testing facebooks hyperlocal augmented reality:
Met up with some interesting intruiging and exciting peeps last night in Cardiff #cdfblogs meetup with @getgood @hrwaldram @carlmorris @stuherbert @GlynTansley Am excited again about the concept of local online. 
Might even do something like a “secret swansea” facebook group.
I read recently that the Tetris website has games on it that are designed to last exactly the time it takes to travel between stops on Japan’s commuter trains. This struck me as an extremely efficient way to waste time. Tetris is a real time waster – addictive and consuming and lots of fun – and I guess there is a demand from Japanese commuters that they get as much of it as they possibly can in their allotted ‘downtime’.
I do it, too. I enjoy an evening in front of the TV when I can but hate adverts and filler. So I look at the listings and meticulously plan my viewing schedule: ‘Is this programme on a channel that has adverts?’, ‘If so, can I use the Watch Again feature on my cable to see it another day?’, ‘Can I fill up this 1/2 hour gap with anything I have left over to watch from yesterday when there was two things on at the same time?’.
It seems like a new gadget comes up on the web every five minutes. The latest must-do thing to join up to. And as a complete gadgetphobe I initially sneer at them all. That, combined with the fact that I hate the phrase ‘web 2.0′ even more than ‘brand building’ or ‘multi-media’ or even the use of ‘old school’ to describe any hip hop more recent than 1990 and you can see I don’t make a natural Social Networker. However, this post is all about what can be done when you make use of the right tools at the right time to plug your business.
Read more…
Comedy series Flight of the Conchords pretty much passes me by to be honest. Could just be my dislike of comedy in songwriting. Sometimes though, it throws up a gem, and this is certainly one. It provides perhaps the definitive example of Qualifying Statements put to music.
“And when you’re on the street, depending on the street,
I bet you are definitely in the top three,
Good lookin’ girls on the street.
(Depending on the street).”
The joke throughout the whole thing is a play on the exagurated claims of R&B stars on the qualities of the lady they have just met. The girl that the Conchords meet is beautiful, sure, but they make sure that they keep the claims they make about her in perspective.
The past 6 months I’ve been elevating the importance of landing pages in my projects. Typically it’d only be the homepage that I’d paid substantial efforts on. However, with my increased efforts on pay-per-click campaigns, and SEM, I wanted make sure the page that visitors first see continues the experience of where they’ve come from and removes barriers to them actioning either first contact or a sale.
So here, I’ve brought together some of the real world examples of psychological tricks people use in the real world attention locations that translate superduper well to landing pages, and are things that you should definitely consider on your landing page design.
With all the fuss recently about MP’s expenses it’s easy to forget that there’s an angle here for us lot tightening our belts in the recession – don’t forget to claim for yourself!
For business owners that means getting proper invoices from all your suppliers and outsourced jobs. Detail all office expenditure and petty cash. Get yourself a good accountant. If he finds things to claim for that you haven’t thought of that’s probably a good start.
My company is planning regular ‘work for free days’ throughout the spring and summer. Working for free is a sticky one. Why would you do anything that wasn’t going to make you money? For one thing, we’re in a recession. But just because money is tight doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore the opportunities to get our name, and our work, out there that won’t come any other way.
Anyone who knows me will know I’m a bit of a gadgetphobe. I dislike getting new bits of kit because it’s something new to learn how to use, it’s probably not as good as the thing it’s replacing (or worse, it’s not replacing anything in particular) and, let’s face it, it’s bound to go wrong and then there’s the hassle of taking it back to the shop or ringing up to arrange a return and then having to wait in all day for DHL to pick it up and then chasing it when it still hasn’t re-appeared in a month and then arranging another day to wait in while DHL deliver it to your neighbours…
So it’s no suprise for my friends to hear me being snooty about the iPhone and Similar Devices Too Small To Look At The Internet With. And how I sneered at the advert about Apps: The things that let you know where to go out to eat, or calculated how to divide the bill between friends just made me angry as they all seemed to be over-engineering solutions for problems that don’t really exist, or making stupid people think that they can work something out that would be easier if they just gave it a go themselves!
Thought I’d post a few of my less-written-about ecommerce tips for your eshop. There should be some superfly marketing ideas here for even the most maveric eshop owner, all helping you maximise your business in this crappy economic climate.
I always make a point to contact people who look like they need help with their sites. It might be a e-newsletter I’ve been sent made out of block graphics and that definitely hasn’t been tested in Gmail, a flyer with a URL that produces a 404 page or a business card that has a URL that leads to a ’site coming soon’ message. Read more…
Paolo - glorious leader of South Wales web empire Refresh Creative. Paolo also reviews cheap laptops for his other website.
Andy - runs a web consultancy based in the sunny city of Bath. He has been working in the online industry for 13 years. His mission is to get his clients to "improve their business, achieve the results they want and not get suckered into spending money on things they don't need!".
