Thursday, December 28, 2006

Leaving an impression and making a sale

Today I did the sales shopping. With two young children this isn't easy, after several hours and lots of shops it's even harder.

I needed some new jeans so we ended our day in Debenhams sale. I found a few bargains one was a great coat. It should have been £70, but was reduced to £32 and then reduced further to £25. It was a total bargain so I took it to the till.

The assistant scanned my label and £32 came up. I said that the label said that the coat was £25 so the assistant checked with the girl in charge. She said "That's been marked with a red pen, we only use Black, I can sell it at £32 but not at £25."

It was busy, and still a bargain at £32 so I bought it anyway.

Later my wife pointed out that she thought the assistant had inferred that we had tampered with the label, without saying as much.

I'm sure the manager didn't mean any harm, but that perception is there now.

I wonder why with a full shop the manager didn't just sell the coat at the price marked regardless. She would have had a very happy family of customers and not left a bad taste in our mouths.

She was busy, but for the sake of a few quid she could have had a raving fan not just a happy shopper.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Like a finger pointing to the moon

Finally found the clip of Finger pointing to the Moon, from Enter the Dragon. Priceless.

Bruce Lee Video Clip

This is the best adaptation of a Bruce Lee Clip I've ever seen. Plus it uses Star Wars effects.

This is 70's kid heaven!

Invest in copy

Seth Godin, points to one of the greatest sins in advertising.
  • Just do pretty pictures

People forget the copy. On a bill board, pictures are king, the copy should be minimal (how much can you read at 40mph?)

On press ads and all other handheld print, not forgetting websites. Copy is king all the pretty pictures will get you is two more seconds attention. In that two seconds you need to grip the customer and get them to buy.

Only words can do that. Invest in them and they pay off 100 times.

BBC underestimate cost of translation

A recent report by the BBC into the cost of Translation by the UK Government estimated that they spend £100 Million per year.

The nation gasped, how could they spend all that. Well the nation don't know the half of it.

I work in translation and I recon that the cost is more like £500 Million! It's all hidden costs you see. Translation disappears into Marketing (yes me again), mysterious project costs and a million (500 to be exact) other things.

If only they bought it in a more sensible way and used Translation Memory and Telephone interpreting they'd save a huge amount.

As you'd expect, as Head of Marketing for Applied Language, I've done a bit of work on this already.

Here are the press releases for more information, oh yes and the podcast.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Google are human! At last I can call them!

After all this time, someone at Google has a phone number! At last there will be someone to speak to, even if it's only for Adwords it's a start.

I just got this email, you'll get one soon. But in case it gets lost in Spam here it is:


Hello,

Thank you for advertising with the Google AdWords program.

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide you with the best service possible, we are pleased to offer you the opportunity to contact our AdWords specialists by telephone. You can now call our dedicated local rate number.

If you are calling from the UK, please dial: 0845 358 0038, alternatively if you are calling from the Republic of Ireland, please dial: 1890 94 3980.

Then, for fastest service please follow the instructions below:

1. To expedite your call, press 2 to enter your Customer ID. This number is located at the top of every page in your AdWords account, next to your name and email address.

2. Press 3 if you do not have your Customer ID available and would like to be transferred to the next available AdWords Specialist.

You can reach our AdWords Specialists by phone Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, between the hours of 9a.m and 6p.m and on Tuesday and Friday from 9a.m to 5p.m.

As always, we are happy to assist you in any way possible.

Please also feel free to contact us via email at adwords-uk@google.com, and we will reply within one business day.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords UK and Ireland Team

How not to Translate or Interpret

In my line of work you hear a lot of stories about how companies have someone who speaks french, or they have a relative who can write Chinese.

So they use these people to translate or interpret and they end up with a terrible job. But there are a few reasons why they might continue to use these friends, for translation.

  1. They don't have any understanding of the languages so have no way to check the quality
  2. They are too embarrassed to tell their friend/colleague that they are doing a bad job
  3. They are too blinded by the cost of a professional translation or interpretation to pay for a professional

All three are really bad reasons. Would you trust an accountant to fix your car?

Then why trust one to translate for you?

Here's a great clip from the Catherine Tate show in the UK. It Illustrates my point perfectly.



Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Reg Vardy the worst possible customer service Part 1

A few months ago I went to buy a new car with my wife. We wanted a Citroen Picasso, nice car, just right for the kids. We figured Reg Vardy in Sheffield would do us a good deal and give good service. We couldn't have been more wrong.

Here is a copy of the letter and email we sent to Reg Vardy and Citroen to complain. I'm still waiting too months after for a good answer.

I've removed actual names, Reg Vardy is the one who should be ashamed of hiring and training their staff. It's not the staff's fault that they are allowed to work in this manner. Here goes, enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Would you ever buy a car from these people?

I am writing to complain about the appalling service I received from your team at Reg Vardy Citroen, on Penistone Road, Sheffield. On 17th September 2006, my wife and I visited the dealership and spoke to XXXX XXXXX, one of your sales representatives and informed him that we were interested in test driving a Citroen Picasso. After a lot of deliberation he found us a Picasso in our price range on your system. We were told however that it was in Sunderland and would need to be brought to Sheffield for us to test drive it and this would be done within the next few days. We were asked to leave a deposit of £100 to secure the vehicle and told that if we were not happy with it after a test drive we could have the deposit back. We were not totally happy about leaving a deposit but did so any way as a show of faith in the company.

As the following week wore on, we received no phone calls from XXXX or Reg Vardy. On Friday 22nd of September we received a message on our answer machine at home from XXXX saying that he had trying to get hold of us all week to give us an update on where we were with the car. This was the first message we received. I called him back on Saturday 23rd September and was told that the car would be in early the next week. I then waited and heard nothing so I called the dealer on Thursday 28th September and spoke to a man called XXXXX who said he was the sales manager. He said that he would check on the progress of the car and call me back in five minutes. He actually called 2½ hours later, and said that the car should be ready to see at the weekend.

We then called on Friday 29th September 2006 and were told that the car was in and having its checks and would be available to test drive on Saturday. We agreed that we would test drive on Saturday 30th September 2006 at 2.00pm. We arranged a babysitter for our children and arrived at the showroom at about 1.50pm with my father-in-law who we brought along to help us assess the car.

When we arrived, XXXX looked for the car in the back lot and couldn’t find it. He said it had been there 40 minutes earlier (approx. 1.10pm), he then went back into the office and said that it was in the mechanic’s garage and he would take us in there to see it. He then took us into the garage to show us the car which was up on a ramp without its wheels and brakes. I assumed it was part way through its checks. At this point I said to XXXX that I was upset because we had been promised that we could test drive the car and arranged child care to fit this in. I then said that I wanted to cancel the deal and wanted my deposit returned. My father-in-law then mentioned a scratch he had seen on the passenger side of the car. XXXX then became quite aggressive and asked who my father-in-law was. He then said that he didn’t want to discuss the matter any more in the garage and wanted us to speak to the manager.

Reg Vardy the worst possible customer service Part 2

We sat down in the showroom and a man who I believe was called XXXX came over to talk to us. XXXX apologised for the lack of communication and the fact the car wasn’t ready when it had been promised. He said that the garage closed at 12.00pm and that “these things happen”. This contradicted what XXXX said about the car being outside and ready to test drive 40 minutes earlier. This is impossible if the garage section closed at 12.00pm.

Alan then asked why we wanted to cancel the deal, I explained that we had been waiting for 2 weeks for a test drive receiving no communication about the progress, and that when we had arrived at the time arranged, the car wasn’t able to be driven. He then offered to give us a courtesy car for a week which was of no benefit to us as we already have two working cars. This to and fro discussion with XXXX and XXXX went on for about 10-15 minutes with them trying to change my mind in what I consider an aggressive manner. At this point my mind was made up and I just wanted my deposit back and to leave.

I reiterated that I still wanted to cancel and have my deposit returned to my card. XXXX said that he couldn’t do this straight away because there was no one in Finance. I have experience of credit card machines and I know that it is possible to credit back a transaction in minutes. However, XXXX was becoming quite aggressive in the middle of the showroom and I decided not to pursue the issue. I agreed that the transaction could be credited on my card on Monday when the Finance department was open. I left my credit card details on a compliments slip with XXXX and then asked if I could have a compliment slip in return with a signature from a manager to say that the transaction would be carried out on Monday. I was told by XXXX “I’m not putting may name to anything, you can’t have anything signed”.

I saw this as a reasonable request. But this seemed to enrage XXXX who asked us to step into another office. When we refused XXXX asked us to leave the premises and pushed my father- in-law out of the door. My father-in-law fell onto the floor on the forecourt outside. He is 68 years old and is quite frail on his legs. My wife was visibly upset at this point as she was very worried about her dad who has had surgery on his knee and the fall caused him pain around this area. My father-in-law was left on the floor by the people involved in the fracas, and as the argument continued we helped my father-in-law to his feet and I called the Police to report the incident. They issued me with a crime number, and as I write we are waiting for the Police to interview my wife, father-in-law and me.

I am writing this on Sunday 1st October 2006 and shall be calling Reg Vardy on Penistone Road on Monday to see if my deposit has been credited.

The main points of my complaint are:

  • The aggressive sales tactics of the staff at Reg Vardy Citroen on Penistone Road Sheffield.
  • The lack of communication regarding the arrival and test drive of the car.
  • The fact that even after we had confirmed that we would visit the showroom on Saturday at 2.00pm the car was not drivable
  • The aggressive nature of the staff when I asked for my deposit back
  • The delay in returning the deposit
  • And finally and most importantly the assault of my father-in-law.

I await a swift response to this complaint

Yours sincerely

I got the deposit back, by cheque. Not Credit Card as they said I would.

I'm still waiting for a response.

If you work for Reg Vardy I hope you read this. If you are thinking of buying a car from Reg Vardy I hope you read this too.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

How to find the right links for your site

Over on SEOmoz there's great article about getting the right links to help your site rank. It's quite a long process, but well worth it.

Take a look, I know I'll be referring back to it a lot.

Getting the right links

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Charles Handy Guide to Management Gurus

If your looking for inspiration you could do worse than begin here. With Charles Handy's guide to management. One of my favourites Tom Peters is listed, plus a few I've never heard of.

I'll be looking through and seeing what inspiration I can find.

Social media 101, how to actually do it

Just checked back and found this useful how to guide for Social Media Press Releses.

No excuse now!

Social Media and Press Releases, How it all works

I'm still getting to grips with PR in general. It's not my bag, that's why I have a PR Executive now. And very good she is too.

I keep reading about social media: Digg, Delicious etc. And I've tried to use it, but struggled. There's no definitive way to handle it and it all seems to vague to me.

I know I should be doing this, but it seems a lot of effort for not much return. I just found this blog by Brian Solis which helps to explain it a lot better. I'll give it a go and see if it helps me. I think you shold too.

Good luck.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Proofreading - the 30 minute rule

I've been writing copy for a long time, articles, mailing packs, websites, emails, shopping list and now a blog.

I'm not the greatest writer but I like to think creatively. Doing that means that on occasion I come up with an idea that really works well. The problem is that my mind works quicker than my fingers and in my rush to get a piece of writing out I read over my mistakes and even when I try really hard they can still creep through. That kind of kills the idea.

The obvious thing is to have someone proofread everything. That's fine, but I work at a small company and everyone is very busy. Sure they look and read but they are busy and trust that I've got things right. So they look past things too.

This is a real demon I'm struggling with, my keystrokes are my job. So a little thing I've come up with may help. It may help you to. I don't claim to have invented this, maybe I read it somewhere. Sorry if this is actually your idea. Anyway here it is.

30 Minute Rule

When you finish some copy and everyone has had their input and all the corrections have gone in and you're ready to send it out.

STOP!

Put the copy to one side for 30 minutes and then re-read it.

You'll read it with fresh eyes and may spot those little things which will haunt you if you send out your communication with them in.

Nothing will spoil for 30 minutes, but a rushed out email, mailshot, ad, website or god help you shopping list. Could haunt you for a very, very long time.

Tattoo Translations

How would you feel if you'd had a tattoo in a foreign language and then discovered years later that what you thought said "Happiness" really said "Ugly" or "Stupid". Once it's there there's no moving it.

We'll now you can be sure that your tattoo says what you think it does. Applied Language have a new online system which allows you to enter your text online and have a professional translator do your translation.

No more asking the man in the Chinese Restaurant!

Monday, October 23, 2006

Enter the Dragon

The wisdom of Bruce Lee

"Don't think feel. It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger all you will miss all the heavenly glory."

Friday, October 20, 2006

Professional online translation

Most online translation is done by machine. It's very good, and the best is about 51% accurate which when you think about it is amazing!

The only problem is that the other 49% in inaccurate.

Don't get me wrong machine translation is a great way to find out the gist of a text you can't read yourself. But it can't beat translation by a human. The problem with professional translation though is that it can be expensive to get good quality translation.

So on the Applied Language we've added a new service for Professional Online Translation.
This is and idea service for having Tattoos and Mottos translated which is a huge area. There are so many instances of bad tattoo translations it's frightening David Beckham, Britney Spears the list goes on.

All you need to do is log on type your text, pay only £6 and the translation will be delivered back to you via email in 24hrs.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Indian workforce moving up the ranks

A recent report from the BBC points out that India is having a problem finding enough graduates to fill the jobs they need in India. The cream of the crop from the Indian schools are being lured by the big US and European companies with large salaries and bonuses.

This is just another stage of the circle, in a short time this will spread from India to China to Russia and back to Europe and the US again. The world works in peaks and troughs of power and this is another blip on the way to the world levelling off until another major differentator comes along.

Who knows maybe agriculture will be the next big thing?

Friday, October 06, 2006

Google to by YouTube?

The BBC have just reported that Google are looking to buy YouTube

I'm not surprised by this Google already has Google video which is very similar to YouTube. The guys a Mountain View are just aquiring eyeballs, plus according to the report, a headfull of copywrite headaches.

Well they can just be added to the problems with the book scanning
idea.

Spam reporting checklist

I've posted before about spam. My day job involves (shock) getting people to buy things. I'm old fashioned I know but as far as I know that's what Marketing is all about.

On my site we have a section for people to leave details to ask for a quote. It's very clear what this form is for, there are no tricks. At the end we even tell you we'll be in touch.

Yet when I go back to the list of people who visited the form and left their details to contact them to see if they would still like information. They get shirty, accuse me of invading their space and abusing their email in box. Some, especially AOL users, reach for the "Report Spam" button.

Now, I'm ethical, I only contact people who come to me. I don't buy lists and I always include an automatic unsubscribe link.

Here are a few tips to deal with spam in a proper way

  1. Don't fill in forms on sites you never want to hear from
  2. When you receive something you don't recognise, check for an unsubscribe link/system and use it.
  3. If you're not certain that will happen then reply to the email.
  4. If the reply address is not valid, then just delete the email.

Real hard core spammers, don't care if they are marked as spam, they move so quickly it'll never stop them. Save yourself the time and anxiety and just delete or unsubscribe.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Stop using Flash Splash Pages

On SEOmoz, I found this very good article on why not to use Flash Splash pages

This is a great article which gives all the right answers as to why it's a total waste of time energy and money to have a Flash Splash page on your site.

What staggers me is that people still need to be told that this is a very bad idea. It was a bad idea back in 1998 when I worked on my first ever site, and it's still a bad idea.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Reg Vardy Sheffield

Deleted this entry til I've all the facts straight and talked to Reg Vardy Head Office. I'll post again when things are clearer.

Really not happy at all!

Friday, September 29, 2006

Another Bloody good idea

I'm sure I've said before, but if not I'll say it again. The best ideas are really simple but they need to engage.

Another Bloody Water, is the best example I seen in quite a while. To me water's water and I can't be the only one. This Australian company have the same point of view.

They're hitting the niche that's ironic as well as the one that doesn't care which water they drink. Now they can make a great anti-statement.

At last! - The Atomium Saved!

the cool hunter - KIDS SPHERE HOTEL - Cocoons for sleeping

I used to work in travel, well coach tours really (is that travel?). Anyway, we did tours to Brussels and one of the best pictures was the Atomium. Problem was it looked great, but was in the middle of nowhere and it was rusting.

I just popped on to Boing Boing and found that great link. The Atomium has been saved and is now a really cool retro-science type hotel. What an improvement, can they pop to Sheffield and help us out please? We've getting mowed over with drab urbanite ghettos!

Long tail on YouTube

I know that YouTube is now becoming old hat. Yes, it nothing new anymore, but it's now becoming the long tail of clips I used to search for in vain.

I just found a jem I'd forgotten about from a UK comedy series Big Train. Big Train never had a big following but produced some of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV. I wish it would be repeated (hint to any one who has influence).

One of the best things on it is the Staring Competition, which is a masterly piece of simplicity, the animation hardly moves and the focus is so strong. It's a perfection of understatement and that's what makes it so great. Enough waffle here's the clip.



These clips I've been adding recently don't really fit with the site and I'm sorry. But apart from being pearls of comedy, they demonstrate a few of the best marketing practices available.

  1. Simplicity
  2. Engagement
  3. Passive Interaction
  4. Word of mouth
  5. Long Tail
  6. Perfect targeting

Thursday, September 28, 2006

My lovely horse video

This is totally unrelated to anything I've posted before, but I love Father Ted and found a wikipedia entry on it while randomly surfing. My lovely Horse is a brilliant song, and once I found it I had to post it.

Enjoy

Really, Really, Really Bad Powerpoint!

Presentation Zen: Your moment of Zen
I'm a convert to the Presentation Zen way of putting together presentations. In my office we have a strict no bullets rule, I use only high quality graphics so that audiences listen to me rather than read a screen. Plus, I don't spend time looking at the same screen and reading parrot fashion what they can see for themselves.

Presentations now have a lot more life. I'm still learning, but it's a lot more fun.

Take a look at Presentation Zen and see how it will improve your presentations.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Daily Show Moment of Zen - American Madness!

In the UK for those with only PMT* the only way to see the Daily Show with John Stewart is on Digital Freeview on the More 4 Channel.

For me the Daily Show started off as a curiosity to see if a sense of humour existed in the states. It's now become compulsive viewing not least because of the odd UK comedy star appearance Dave Gorman in particular.

Anyway, apart from the ridiculous utterances of President Bush one of the highlights is the Moment of Zen at the end of each show. Tonight's was particularly cutting.

I can't find a clip but this is a very rough transcription:

TV terror Pundit:
"24 is one of the most popular TV programmes in the US today, and for me
the struggles of Jack Bower against the forces of terrorism is the biggest
endorsement of the {Bush administrations} war on terror I can think of."


I'm no TV exec or political pundit, but how the hell can this woman look herself in the mirror!

*Poor Man's Telly

Google develop machine translation tools

The Daily Californian reports today on the announcement by Google that they are taking their Machine Translation service to a higher level.

I have a vested interest in Google and in Machine Translation. On my site we offer free translation tools as a service to the public who want to get the gist of a foreign text. The service is free from our site because it drives traffic and is a perfect leader service to our professional translation service.

The issue for us is that while it's free on our site it costs us to keep it running. Google's entry into machine translation will help this because their entry into these markets always leads to a drop in service charges across the board and an increase in development as the service providers move up a notch to keep up.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Robbie Rotten on Wikipedia


The proof that Wikipedia is the ultimate Long Tail website is the in the fact that it has an entry dedicated to Robbie Rotten and the kids TV programme Lazy Town.

For those without children under at least 6. Lazy Town is one of the strangest, compulsive children's shows on TV at the moment. My two year old can only just speak, but he can sing the tune to Lazy Town!

Now that's perfect marketing!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Bad translation makes you look really dumb!

Jerusalem? Never heard of it - Yahoo! News

Yet another in the long line of bad translations, not proofread which just make organisations look really stupid. In this case Jerusalem they translated "Jerusalem. There is no city like it!" to "Jerusalem. There is no such city!".

My geography is lousy but I know Jerusalem exists!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

How normal people can avoid spam filters

Some people have mentioned that emails they send to customers get caught up in Spam Filters. These aren't people trying to spam these are people trying to get on with thier jobs which involves sending email to customers. The customers don’t check thier spam boxes for legitimate email and then get upset because they feel the email hasn’t been sent. So I thought I’d put together a few tips to see if I can help.

  1. Be careful about what you put in your subject line. This is the most important line of any email.
  2. In general avoid words like offer, discount, sale, deal, free. Spam filters tend to mark these as spam straight away. If you need to use these, do it sparingly.
  3. Make sure subject lines are as descriptive as possible. Subject lines like “Project hg5689020” are likely to get caught in Spam. Also they don’t look good to customers, who may just delete it anyway.
  4. Use the name of the person you’re emailing in the subject line.
  5. Ask your contact to add you to their address book.
  6. Follow-up with a phone call and ask them to check their Spam box.
  7. Avoid large files on the first email you send.
  8. Always have spell checking on, spammers tend to creatively spell their content and some spam filters pick this up. Also it looks more professional.
  9. If you have a really important email, run it through the Lyris spam checker. It gives a good idea if your email will be picked up by spam filters and what’s causing the problem.
  10. Let me know if you have any more of your own.

Write how you speak!

Over on Tom Peters Blog, he posts about people speaking and writing in a way they can't understand themselves.

This is one of the first things I did when I started my current job last year. The staff seemed to take on another body when they had to write a letter of email. They suddenly use words they'd never used before and didn't understand. Even worse the customers didn't understand either.

The letters and emails looked like a dictionary had been emptied on the screen.

The best advice I've ever had was from Courtney Ferguson a great DM copy writer (I wish she had a blog). Her advice was write how you speak, be personal, engage, do something unexpected. Her copy is joy to read and the best bit is it sells too. You don't notice it though. That's the best bit.

I pass this on to anyone who'll listen. Please do the same.

Microsoft play catch-up again

BBC NEWS Technology Microsoft to launch YouTube rival

Microsoft are lagging behind again and announcing copy-cat products due to be launched in several months. This time they're pitching against YouTube.

Microsoft need to stop this, fix the mess they've already created and then maybe come up with new innovative ideas.

No one trusts them, the reason YouTube has taken off is exactly because it's not run by Microsoft. All they're doing is bringing YouTube to light for the people who haven't heard of it. YouTube must be delighted that Microsoft have given them loads of free adverting.

Essential reading for building your website.

Content Publishing, Controlling Costs, Scaling Profits & Link Bait: Being Small & Competing With Big Fish

This is an invaluable post on how to develop a site and keep users interested, build links, authority and a great online brand.

Read it now! Bookmark it! Send it to your friends!

Blogging is spreading to the non-web generation

Last night my Mother in Law suddenly said to me "What's blogging?". Now this is not her usual type of question, normally it's how are you, you look tired or do you want a coffee. So I was a bit taken a back to say the least.

She'd heard about it on Radio 4 I think, the discussion was about the bloggers in the Iraq war and how they'd got news out during the conflict via blogs. At first she didn't see how she could get involved until I mentioned that it would be ideal to help her with her political ideas. At this she seemed to spark to life and asked me to show her a few blogs the next time she visited. Maybe she'll feel enthused enough to start her own. I hope so, because it's people like her who can do something great with blogs and not just the normal "Cat Blog".

Hopefully I'll be highlighing her blog soon.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Email is Still the Key to a Successful Link Building Campaign

SEOmoz Blog Email is Still the Key to a Successful Link Building Campaign

Great article on link building. Building these relationships takes a lot of time and effort. To give a case study, one which I'd built up changed their entire site for us and started to bring in more referrals than Google! The only approach I'd made once the initial links were on was to ask if they had any ideas how we could help each other.

Two months later the unique users rose from 20,000 per day to over 70,000!

These new referrals helped us take a whole new direction with the site and hopefully implement a new business model as well.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

How to enter the Chinese Market

Sometime I forget I work in the translation business on this website. To to redress the balance here's a great article on John Yunkers Blog.

Everyone want to get into China. The opportunities are massive, but you need to be very careful about how you take your brand forward or things could turn out very badly.

» The Good, The Bad and The éš¾ 看 Global By Design: The Web Globalization Resource

The lesson to take a way from all this is that translation is a skill like any other and putting your brand in amateur hands is not advisable.

Is this the worlds worst spammer?



Is this the worst ever spam?

I can think of a few reasons for this terrible attempt at spamming:

The guy is just really bad at this and should get back his real job.

He's a trainee and it's his first day.

It's a very very clever attempt to fool me into thinking that there is no way this could be spam, who would be so stupid.

Maybe it's a viral email from a Marketing Company trying to be cutting edge.

I'm no spammer but I'd guess one simple rule could be not to use anarchy in the email address you use.

Whatever the reason it's just really bad.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

When you can't give away beer!

I'm not sure about you but, if someone offered me a free beer just for the time it would take for them to tell me about a new job I'm interested I think I'd pop in.

Even just for the free beer and then I'd just nod at the person talking, thank them for the beer and disappear.

Well not in Huddersfield. This is exactly what we did, we flyered commuters for two days trying to recruit Industry Managers, we gave free apples, we had a stilt walker we offered free beer!

Take a look at the details on the website.

What did we do wrong, or was it just Huddersfield?

Maybe it all looks to good to be true? Would you like the benefits we offer?
  • FREE Parking
  • FREE Lunches (Monday to Thursday)
  • FREE Fruit
  • FREE t-shirts and winter jacket
  • FREE Laptop and Broadband access at home
  • FREE MP3 player
  • FREE 20 minute massages
  • Out of town location
  • Plus one 'Duvet Day' each year
  • Plus your birthday off each year

I just don't know what more we could have done to entice the great people of Huddersfield, maybe nothing?

Monday, September 11, 2006

Looking to hire

I'm trying to employ a PR executive in my day job at Applied Language.

I looking for a really enthusastic person who can come in and help take the PR forward, I don't have the time or the training to do it justice.

Here's the job spec. If you want more details then jump over to the website.

Position: Marketing & PR Executive
Office: Huddersfield

Role
This role will cover the development of Applied Language’s PR.

This will include:
Liaison with both Trade and news press representatives.
  • Writing Press Releases
  • Co-ordinating events
  • Handling on-line PR activity, including posting on forums and other social media.
  • Writing and proofreading copy for the website and printed publications
  • Research for articles and information for the website
  • Working with the international offices to co-ordinate Marketing and PR activity

Essential Requirements

  • Degree in marketing and PR
  • Experience of putting together press releases
  • Strong English language skills
  • Good IT Skills
  • Knowledge of internet and marketing techniques

Additional information
The successful candidate will need to be highly motivated and able to react and change direction quickly. They need to be outgoing and be able to build relationships with key people in the media and within the company.

This is the ideal role for a new graduate who wants to make a mark in the new media with a fast growing business.

If this suits you then drop me an email.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Law of economics - Pah!

I'm not very good at maths but clever statistical theories impress me. The long tail in particular makes great sense but it turns out that even monkeys can create a long tail (excuse the pun).

It's all nature in the end!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Seth's Blog: What should Starbucks do?

Seth Godin just posted another fantastic little nugget of insight

Seth's Blog: What should Starbucks do?

Yet again he get's straight to the point with common sense advice which in any large company would get caught by the lawyers.

My tip, by-pass them. Say you thought it was ok if they pick up on it.

Chances are they won't and you'll have a better customer experience. There's a reason your company lawyer has his own office and isn't let out into the real world.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Long Tail

I’ve just started to read The Long Tail. And for an economics book it’s great read, it’s actually been really hard to put down, no honest.

The main point is that the web now offers the widest spread of products available not just the hits which are at the head of the tail. All this starts to become really obvious once you begin to read it also shows why lots of traditional bricks and mortar companies have struggled with going into e-commerce.

I worked at one and they just couldn’t get out of the shelf idea that only the best sellers a should be available and they could get their heads around cross promotion.

Still to finish the Long Tail but so far it’s more insightful than The World is Flat was.

The missing Spam email loop

We've all sent email which appear to have disappeared until you ask the person you sent it to to look in the spam folder and see if it's there.

I've had many a fraught conversation over this which could have been solved if there was a Spam email loop. The bones of the system must already exist the same way out of office does or the undeliverable message.

All that's needed is a message that says "your email has been marked as spam". You can then contact the person to tell them. This would also help with the Spammer problem, because they would get so many of these messages that the admin would stop their systems.

If you know of any system like this please let me know. I'd definitely use it.

Ethics in Marketing, who'd have thought it!

Seth Godin makes a good point about Marketers ethics, I kind of agree. I've never thought about the waste too much when I posted millions of bits of paper over the years.

I've never had qualms about it because it is a legitimate tool for doing my job. Now my work is nearly all digital there's no physical waste but the waste could now be time.

Great piece Seth!

Friday, August 25, 2006

Adsense Test

From my previous post, I thought I'd try a test and see if I can change the Google ad to some thing totally unrelated by only mentioning the word once.

Sausage

There you go, won't type it again. Lets see what happens.

If the ad changes to relate the word then I have to call into question how Google's ads work. Clearly no other posts mention that word and the blog is totally off that subject.

Odd things on Google Adsense

In a post I put on this morning I used the word "Lady". This is the only mention of this word in my entire blog. But as soon as I posted it, the Google Adsense ad at the top of the blog, suddenly mentioned "ladies shoes".

I know my blog is still pretty new, but that is the most absurd and irrelevant ad I've seen in a while. I feel sorry for the poor site, who has that as an impression on their Adsense account.

This post has probably maintained that ad as I've just mentioned ladies again. Hope the wife's not reading ;-)

PR (press releases) to help your website

PR the old kind not Google Page Rank. Is a great tool and always has been. The tricky thing is working out the impact of it and assigning return on investment on it. I'm a direct marketer at heart and like to know how much I'm paying for my responses and how much I'm making.

Traditional PR has never been able to provide that. It's always been a finger in the air measurement. However web based PR changes all that. When someone reads your Press Release they can do an number of things to spread it, blog it, link to it and even come straight to your site. Over on Online Marketing Blog they've kindly listed a whole bunch of great resources for online PR.

For my two pence worth, the best way is to work long and hard and build strong relationships with key players in your niche. But you have to start some where and the online distribution areas are a perfect place

The best page jacking nutter email in a long while

Over on SEOMoz I found a great little article about page jacking. Page jacking for mere mortals is a waste of time, Google will see it as duplicate content and it will probably lower your serps.

The great thing abut this article is the link to a email exchange with a lady who thought some one had page jacked her site. In this instance and little knowledge does you know good at all. Then add on paranoia and you have a very funny, if long winded email rant.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I was right! Write for humans not search engines!

Paranoia has been raking me. Should I SEO my site or not?

Matt Cutts gives a cheeky insight into the direction Google appear to be taking. This is one of Matt's best blogs to date, but ensure you read between the lines I think he's giving an internet fable.

Monday, August 21, 2006

"The world is flat" - the trust issue

I'm getting through "The World is Flat". It's a great book, if several hundred words too long (get an editor Thomas). It's opened my eyes to what can be achieved when you look a little further afield than you would normally. Already I gained a small buying advantage buy going directly to China and bypassing the usual middle men involved.

The main issue in all this is trust. Yes it's great to be able to source from China and make a saving on budget. But how do you really know what you'll get when the world is only email flat? My point is that I'm only making a small order, I can't afford to visit the factory, it would wipe out my saving. So I have to trust the supplier. I hope I can.

Friday, August 18, 2006

SEO or No SEO?

What do you do with your site. Obviously you want to be ranked on Google and the other search engines.

There are a lot of things you can do to get there.
  • Inbound Links
  • Keyword Density
  • Getting the right title for your page
  • Clean Code
  • Link Bait
  • and million other things

But there seems to be paranoia doing the rounds check out Webmaster World.
Should you do these deliberately? How does Google know if these are deliberate or not?

I don't know the answer, maybe Matt Cutts does? I'm sure he won't tell.

If you know or know a man who does, please tell me.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Free translation added

You may have noticed I've added free translation to the blog. This is a service my company website offers, you can download it free from here Website translation.

This is only machine translation, but it gives a very good idea of the content all you need do is click the corresponding flag. And the site instantly translates.

I added this after taking a look at my Google Analytics and spotting that I have French visitors.

Au revoir!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Continual learning a missed trick

Most people realise that continual learning throughout life is a good idea. Trouble is that so same people can't be bothered doing it. There are so many things to do in a day where the hell are you going to fit learning something in.

At my work for Applied Language, a translation agency, we have a range of offices around the world: UK, USA, Bulgaria, Guatemala and France. Keeping all these people at the top of their game, in the company culture and continually learning is a tough job. Especially as we are a relatively small company only 44.

One of the many ways we achieve all three of thee things is by book competitions. Now this starts to sound very old and kind of school like. Well in a way it is. Every few months we read a business book.

We've done:
  1. Eat that Frog (time management)
  2. Fish (attitude)
  3. Broken Windows (little things help)
  4. and we've just done Who moved my cheese (coping with change)

We distribute the books several weeks before the competition to give plenty of time and then hold the quiz online using Survey Monkey.

All the entries are scored and the employee with the highest mark wins £150 ortheirr national equivalent.

All the staff take part from the MD down.

We're now taking this a step further and buying audio books as we've already given all the staff MP3 players.

This is a really easy way to achieve inter-department/country competition and continual learning.

Link building 101

Like most people I hate link building. It's a an evil you can't live without unfortunately.

Luckily Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall have put together a 101 of link building. This give great ideas and lots of information not just on what works but why it works.

I've already bookmarked the great links on here I need.

Cheers to both of you.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Top ten tips for Web Site optimisation

I love top 10 tips and these are great. Simple and straight forward just how things should be.

Marketing Profs have the answers

Things that bug me about Microsoft No1

No. 1 of an incidental series

Why is the Empty "Deleted Items" Folder in Microsoft Outlook under Tools and not Actions?

Emptying is an action.

Monday, August 14, 2006

England due to suffer in the flat world

One of the main themes of "The World is Flat" is that the decline in science being studied in the US means that the future of scientific development will ultimately move to the new developing countries: China, India and Russia. This is because of the pent up scientific knowledge and the ethos of a cultures yearning to learn more and more.

Evidence of this has now been reported in the UK. I know a lot of people who are worried about a flattening world and the loss of UK jobs to immigrants and overseas workers. The trouble is that they only see the disappearance of "traditional" manufacturing and labour intensive work.

They haven't twigged that the high level scientific and creative thinking will soon leave these shores as the developing countries continue to absorb knowledge.

Please sit up and take notice! You're all watching a game which already finished!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Your real website visitors are people!

Though search engines can only see and index text at the moment, they’re not your real visitors.

People are!

Any website should be built for humans. And there’s nothing that gives people more information than a picture. Your website can have the best possible description of your service or product but words are always down to interpretation. A picture on the other hand can take the place of a million words.

But be careful. Not just any old image will do. Be very careful to add the best pictures you can get hold of and make sure they are in character with your brand. For example I’d advise charities to steer clear of highly polished obviously professional pictures, because it portrays the wrong emotion.

From my time as a designer and a paper based marketer I know that the one thing people love to see is other people. A human face especially on a website is a really good idea. And an even better is real people, yes that means you and your staff.

When that’s not possible get hold of the best images you can, but remember the last point.

Here are a few great places for images which are either free or only $1.

The best one - iStock
Good and free - Morguefile
Good and free as well, good for backgrounds and textures- Image After

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Search Engine Optomisation - Where to start?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is now an essential part of any competent website. Whether it's handled in-house or sub contracted to a specialist company.

Without SEO you just have a bunch of really expensive graphics and text that only the people in your company ever see (oh and their parents and families).

Getting your site to number one in Google is most companies aim, but not everyone can be no 1 for every term. So the best idea is to find the niche terms that convert into whatever your company needs from its website, sales leads, downloads etc.

Search engines now run a large part of the world because so many people depend on them. So getting your pages to no1 is ever more relevant.

Here are a few of the places you can get more detailed info on what the latest developments are and how you can use them.

Where to start
First stop should be the engines own set of rules, these are always quite vague but the assistance is vital:
Google Webmasters guide
Yahoo!
MSN

Next top are some very relevant blogs
Matt Cutts Google's inside man
Aaron Wall's SEO Blog
SEO Moz Blog

And finally, the best forum there is
Web Master World

For seasoned SEO people these sites will be in there favourites already, but for beginners these are the best places to start.

This list is by no means exhaustive so if you know any more sites, then please let me know. I'll post the best ones here soon.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Internet myopia

Is it just me, or do you suffer from internet myopia too?

Every day I religiously visit the same set of web pages, looking for information, entertainment or just fresh content for a writer I like. I'm happy with how I do this but I get the feeling that I'm missing out on what's out there.

The trouble I have, and you do to if you have a website, is how to get people to make your site part of their daily round of sites and include it in thier own little myopia.

There are a few ways to achieve this both involve a either time or money. Choose whichever you have most of.
  1. Have link bait on your site - Money Solution
    My site is translation services so the link bait we have is free translation. Every body wants something for free and we give it to them. We don't make a penny, but the link bait gives us access to the audience we need.
  2. Update regularly - Time Solution
    Having fresh content is the other way to get and keep new visitors but it takes time. Just pinching other people's news or content is a waste. You need to make your own and make it highly relevant. That way you become and authority and the first and hopefully last stop.

In a ideal world you'll do both, but for most of us mortals you only have the time or money for one. Do one well is the best advice I'd give.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The world is flat - Thomas L. Friedman

I've just started to read "The World is Flat" by Thomas L Friedman. Just got through the first 100 pages and it's been a long haul.

If you've read this blog before, I'm guessing you haven't, you'll know I am a man of few, long, words. I ramble but the words are easy.

The ideas in the first section are rally opening my eyes to a lot of what I already do in my day to day work. I sure you do too.

Although I'm chained to Microsoft windows (when I long for my Mac back), I already use a lot of the remote software Tomo, as I call him, talks about.

You're reading my blog, which is free courtesy of Google. It's hosted for free somewhere in the ether, just for me and millions of others to write what we feel like. I use Gmail, Google Earth, Google Analytics and Google Desktop (have you noticed a theme?).

At work I send my email campaigns using a site called Campaign Monitor. I'm in the UK, they bill me in US$ and they're based in Australia! The service blinds any commercial service I've used and it only costs me $0.01 per email.

My own company has it's IT team based in Bulgaria, so my web designer (who's great, well done Viktor) works in the former communist block. This really is the walls come down.

As I said I've only done 100 pages and could do without the VERY detailed description of all the protocols for the Internet and Web. But I'm going to continue and let you know how it goes. I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot and hopefully share it too.

P.S. Tomo has a great Magnum tash!

Monday, July 24, 2006

STOP! Think before you report Spam

I hate spam. It annoys the hell out of me. I don't want viagra, I have no money to invest in shares, and I don't even enter the lottery!

This type of spam which everyone knows about and can easily recognise should be eliminated. Just as junk mail via the post has been.

I'm a Direct Marketer so I know that even those really annoying credit card mailing I and you get at least 5 of each week have involved a lot of hard work from Marketers, copy writers, printers, postmen and I hate to say it lawyers as well (sorry if I missed anyone). But the reason all the effort goes in is that's it's a numbers game and timing is all important. The one time these mailings win is when they drop through your door and the offer is just right, the timings perfect and the price is good. That's when you pick up the phone, email, visit a website or whatever is asked.

The same goes for email. The same guy who's slaved over the email is the same one who did the work on the postal mailing. The difference is that you didn't instruct the postman to stop having these mailing pushed through your door. You simply put it in the bin and forget about it.

But what if you've requested information from a company?

Lets say you want a holiday. You request lots of brochures, you need as much information as possible. After the brochure search you decide and that's the end of that. But the smart company remembers that you asked for information. So, next booking season they send you a brochure automatically. Last year you requested it, so they must be in the ball park somewhere. But just because you have different plans this year you don't tell posty to stop these brochures, or go an tell the Post company to stop the company sending their mailing s to any other people who they know are interested.

So, my question is why would you do that with an email from a company?

because when you hit Spam, rather than delete. The company who carried the email (e-Posty, if you will) gets a message from your email provider, and if they get lots the e-Posty stops the company emailing not just you but all the people who have requested information.

The internet is supposed to make worldwide business and entertainment better for everyone and email is a tool of that. Without communication the world stops and that mean for everyone. So before you hit spam think. Is this legit? Did I ask for this info before? If you don't want anymore hit Unsubscribe a good company always has one, or if it's just not this time just delete.

Sorry for going on... and on...

By the way I'm not a spammer, trying to double bluff you. It just makes me mad.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

You want Customers NOT clients!

This is going to be very one sided. I have strong views on this so get ready!

For me a customer is the type of person who you spend time with to fully understand their needs and wants. You tailor your approach to make the service or product they are buying from you as easy to buy as possible, you give them the best personal after service you can.

In return they value your help with the problem you can fix. This means they come back and buy more of your service. They also tell their friends what a good experience they had and tell them to come to you when they have the same need.

Before you know it you have an army of raving fans, who'll do your marketing and sales for you (as long as you keep up your end of the bargain).

On the other side. There are clients.

Clients are people you keep at a distance the owner of the relationship is your company, there is no give and take. Companies build client bases, huge faceless lists of money generators. They don't care about long term, they care about now.

There is a reason Solicitors and Prostitutes have clients (sorry to both professions)

I've tried to implement this in my company and it's tough, especially in sales, but this small difference makes a huge mental difference in the way people act.

For a much more lucid argument, with facts too, read this.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The day for saying sorry!

After my last post I thought I'd check back through the blog. Matt's comments was very welcome, but not the first one.

My apologies. Now I have two comments. Cheers Maverik

Wow! Now I have an audience!

Thanks to Matt Cutts at Google - And an apology

I've been a bad blogger! It's been a lot harder than I expected to keep up to date and maintain the enthusiasm to keep this going.

Anyway today I thought I'd have a read of the blog and see if I could get back into it. As I scrolled to me surprise I found a comment! My first one!

I eagerly clicked it open and found that Google are listening! Matt Cutts left a comment.

If you're curious you can read it here

So thanks Matt, for coming to my rescue and for being the first to leave a comment. Sorry it took so long to thank you.

I'm now re-rejuvenated and will be back blogging as I should.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Google's Big Daddy spat me out again!

Been a long time since my last blog sorry.

After my rant last time it seems someone at Google (I suspect Matt Cutts) was actually listening to the screams on the web about visibility of sites dropping off.

Well all is now well, my site www.appliedlanguage.com is now back up and working well, thanks Matt if it was you, if not thanks Google for being honest and fixing the issue.

On a positive note my site was recently honoured in the website Oscars the Webby's. We didn't win but we were honoured by the judges which is a big achievement and and testament to the hard work of the IT team at Applied Language who made the site what it is.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

BBC NEWS | Technology | China and the break-up of the net

China and the break-up of the net
The announcement of the Chinese proposal for their own set of domain names could spark the beginning of a a whole new internet, not centrally controlled by the US ICANN system. To be honest this can go one of two ways it will either free up the internet so that it's not as tightly controlled by the US- which makes people very edgy or it will mean that there will eventually be several internet around the the world, creating national private networks.

The only way to resolve this as far as I can see is to hand the whole thing to the UN. They're going to be the only people who can be trusted. The problem then is that all the UN's red tape will be added as well.

So maybe we the US control is what we'll have to put up with.

But then do we let the Chinese people have thier liberty supressed even more by thier authorities?

Monday, March 06, 2006

Big Daddy's still eating my site...

Big Daddy's still not showing my site. Although watching the threads on Websmaster world http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/33351.htm this should be fixed soon.

I'm not the only one suffering, Google's Big Daddy has put loadds of sites in "Supplemental" results. Think of the YTS kid backing up all the data and then leaving the CD on the number 62 bus. So rather than chase the bus or ring the company, he just decided to add loads on new results which aren't even remotely relevant!

There have been promises to look into the "problem" and have it fixed in a week or two, but my site and company are suffering due to this, and it's not our fault.

However after much soul searching all this has thrown me into a new frenzy of cleaning up odds and ends. Adding totally new content to the site to future proof it. Having all URL's as absolute links so all pages point to www. Addresses. And ensuring all deleted URL's have 301 redirect added to them.

In the next few weeks if and hopefully when the results get sorted out I'll update you on where I've e got in the rankings. Who knows maybe I'll write a book?

Monday, February 27, 2006

Google's Big Daddy Ate my Website!

I love Google, they do a great job. They look after my email, show me amazing detail of the world. But today they crossed a line!

My work site www.appliedlanguage.com which has been ranking in the top of pretty much all my keywords since I've worked on it has disappeared. Google have "improved" how they rank site and show results. However, when I check what's appearing in place of my pages I find a load of spam sites. With content not as strong or unique. With a poor Page Rank. With little or no links coming in.

My site, which Goolge loved last week, has been dumped by Google now and it's all Big Daddy's fault (he used to be a wrestler you know). And I'm heart broken. How can I woe them back? Well I was doing everything they asked before, every twist and turn reported I doggedly followed. How can I get my ranking back?

Big Daddy more like Giant Haystacks!

I've scoured the web and found no answers, maybe someone out there can help?

I'm really stuck here, any help/sympathy would be greatly appreciated.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Links are dead - long live links!

Shock - websites should be built for humans, not computers!

In this article Links are dead - long live links! Brian Turner points out what should have been obvious from the start. Websites should be built for people. Duh!

Whatever site you're building surely you want to get a human to interact with it. You want your users/visitors/customers to do something for you weather it's use your software, or part with cash. So, why on earth wouldn't you build your site so that they can get their way to what ever you feel is the end point of your site.

The old way of building sites is the reason why so many brand websites have been caught out cheating the search engines e.g. BMW Germany. There site was built for customers, but the search engines couldn't see it. So what are they to do but cheat. The all powerful search engines can't have it all their own way.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

INTTRANEWS

INTTRANEWS
Hey I made the news! Only in a small way but all the little things count. Click the link to read the story or visit http://www.appliedlanguage.com/translations_love_you.shtml to find the free "I Love You" translations. Happy Valentines Day!

Friday, February 10, 2006

Yahoo to offer incentives for using search engine?

Yahoo to offer incentives for using search engine?
When the stakes are this high, how on earth do Yahoo think they'll gain market share from Google with a cheap trick. For the sake of some cheap promotional freebies would you put up with bad search results and a worse interface. Sorry Yahoo! you'll have to try harder, try giving good consistent results for a start.

do you Yahoo? No nor do I.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Does Your Web Site Speak Dutch?

Does Your Web Site Speak Dutch?
Well it should. Take a look at the link and contact a translation agency quick. Can you here those Euros clinking?

Chinglish – Times Online

Language is a living thing, it's always evolving. English seems to have evolved faster than most, probably because it's so adaptable. Plus there is no guardian of the language, unlike French which only has about 100,000 words and is closely monitored.

Well English is soon to get it's Millionth word and it could just be from a new form Chinglish a variation the Chinese government are trying to stamp out before the Olympic games. Still it's preferable to Chav at least.

BBC NEWS - Dell in search tests with Google

It's on it's way. The Google OS looks like it's making the first steps and it won't be long before Microsoft gets a kicking. Unlike Microsoft people trust Google, they just need to be spoon fed.
Dell in search tests with Google

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

India's Internet Users Spiked in '05

India's Internet Users Spiked in '05
Sneaking around the back comes India. While your eye's on China up shoot India.

The Indian economy has a lot to offer. The skill set is unbelievable, they have excellent communication skills and the cost of trade is next to zero by western standards. Time to see how you can leverage India for your company.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Seth's Blog: More on stamps

Seth's Blog: More on stamps
On Seth's blog he talks about making marketers pay a "Stamp" for outbound emails, which in theory is a great idea. But, the problem will always be there will be millions of different stamp variations each competing to be the defacto standard.

When this happens, there'll be a stampede (excuse the pun) to compete on price, functionality, credibility and all the other issues, all marketers are trying to push for their own products right now. The only way round this is to have a monopoly take care of stamps and give a clean trusted playing field.

Google any one?

Translations of I love you

Translations of I love you
Valentines Day is just around the corner. And with so much hate flying around the world, I think it's about time we spreas a little love to all the coners of the world.

This page tells you how to say "I love you" in more languages than you can shake a stick at.

Have fun and spread the love.

Google takes aim at chat rivals

Google takes aim at chat rivals
I know there'll be millions of blog entries about this but I'd just like to throw my hat in the ring.

I love Google, I know some things seem a bit scary, Ads in your Gmail, Toolbars recording your site visits and Google Earth (I can even see my car) is a bit scary.

But I still love pretty much everything they do. Even though the issue in China made me step back a bit, if you think about it, it's a perfect business decision. China will soon, if not already, have the largest internet population earth and Google want a share of that.

The new chat interaction on Gmail is just another great idea get your self an account today.

Professional Translation and Free Translator for websites and text

Free Translator for websites and text
The world's getting smaller all the time. And only the arrogant think we should all speak English so do everyone a favour and speak to people in thier own language. Thanks to computers it's a lot easier than you think. There are plenty of online translation tools, here's the one on my website. Give it a go, and if you like it you can even add it to your own site.

Let me know if you think it's any good, or know how it can be improved.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Seth's Blog: Wait!

Seth's Blog: Wait!

So people size up your website in less than a few seconds. Why is that a surprise? People have always scanned stuff really quickly, it just that "new media" marketers never new the old rules so are shocked when they re-invent the wheel and it rolls on it's own.

Squidoo : Free Language Translation

Squidoo : Free Language Translation

This is my Squidoo Lens. The page has loads of links to free translation resources. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Squidoo is a great way to tell people about something you care about, it's what the search engines would love to be able to do have real handpicked sites listed by real experts.

Why not set up your own, and while your at it link to mine. Hey I pointed you in the right direction it's the least you could do.