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Whenever Google launches a new tool or service there’s much chatter and blogging. What I’ve found though is that many bloggers just give you the news and don’t really discuss the implications. One interesting tool that was launched earlier this month was Google Insights For Search.You can type in a search phrase or a number of phrases and then see the trends of usage of this term over time. Some fun examples; You can see how the phrase ’Beijing Olympics’ has massively ramped up in August (well, no surprise there then). Or how about the decline in interest for ’Tony Blair’ over the last year?I think there are more interesting applications for an e-commerce business to consider.Here’s 3 suggestions to get you started.Subscribe in a reader

This post is from from my other blog here

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This post is from from my other blog here

Increasingly, employees want to make sure that they work on a good team, and on the winning team. It's not enough to get a great job title, a fancy office and a big salary. Good people need to work with good people. Success breeds success.Personally, I believe in really working hard on getting the right people on board. If you recruit well, everything else follows. However, it's not just about you finding a person to do the job well. The best candidates need to find a company and team that they really want to join. It's a marriage every time you hire. If done well, the divorce rate is low (few people leave).Subscribe in a reader

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This is why I love the internet.Good things being done by good people. Who was it that said "happiness is only real when shared"?My brother and wife are off soon on an epic cycle journey from Kyrgyzstan to Vietnam.You can check out the neat site that they created here: Asia By Bike. I'm looking forward to following their progress, online (of course!)Subscribe in a reader

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From Telegraph.co.uk..."A former employee of recruitment firm Hays has been ordered by the High Court to hand over business contacts built up on his personal page of the social networking site LinkedIn......Mark Ions, a "middle ranked" consultant operating in Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, allegedly used his LinkedIn network to approach clients for his own rival agency called Exclusive Human Resources, which he set up in May last year, three weeks before resigning from Hays Specialist Recruitment.Mr Ions' solicitor told the court that Hays encouraged his use of the site and that once Hays' contacts accepted his invitation to join his network they ceased to be confidential as they could be contacted by anyone in his personal network.Mr Justice Richards last week ordered Mr Ions to disclose his LinkedIn business contacts requested by Hays and all emails sent to or received by his LinkedIn account from Hays' computer network.Mr Ions was also ordered to disclose all documents, including invoices and emails, that showed any use by him of the LinkedIn contacts and any business obtained from them."This is a groundbreaking case and for anyone involved in sales, commerce or business development, it provides case law that should be noted. If you use your LinkedIn network, during working hours, on your employer's IT network, for the purposes of soliciting business from your employer, you should be aware that in the eyes of the law, the fact that you use a "personal" email account, this doesn't let you off the hook.Employment law is what it's always been - designed to protect employers from rogue employees - and the law just caught up with the latest technology.Subscribe in a reader

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Here's a problem. Most e-commerce websites suck. They're average, sub-optimal.They suck. If they were high street shops you'd see what I mean. Some would not be signposted. My mother would not be able to find anything she wanted in the store, let alone figure out how to pay. They might not even be found if you called directory enquiries. Lighting would be poor, there would be no space to park and you'd be unsure if you were being served by rip-off merchants or a legitimate business.Sure, there are some great websites out there. A few. However, because web customers are in many ways "invisible" to the businesses that are trying to serve them, site managers running these sites get away with mediocrity.Small businesses or large businesses, the problem is the same.In small businesses you need an all rounder running your web business: he or she needs to be able to do a bit of everything and do it really well to be effective. These all-rounders are few and far between. So - good websites for small businesses are few and far between.In a large web business, you end up with different "specialists" taking on different roles. You get the design team, the merchandising team, the online marketing team, the tech team, the product planning team, the analytics team, etc. They are all brilliant at what they do. Brilliant. Just why does the site that you end up with suck if they are brilliant? The really great websites are the ones where the teams do "joined up thinking". The site design team know something about SEO. The analytics team knows something about PPC. The product planning team understand affiliate marketing. If they all understand the basic principles behind all of the main disciplines, you'll do fine. If not you can end up with mediocrity. Division of labour brings pockets of excellence and general mediocrity. The solution to me is clear: every person involved in delivering the website and running it should be familiar with the basics of how all the main disciplines work. I will give somple examples of what are these "key disciplines" that are needed to overcome mediocrity and suggest 5 tips on how to acquire those skills. I don't for a moment suggest that anyone can be an "expert" in all of these areas. What I am suggesting is that everyone in an ecommerce business that can affect the business results needs to be a "generalist" and be fluent in the basic principles. This is true whether you are a one-person site manager doing everything or whether you are a specialist in a big company.Consider ecommerce websites to be like high street shops. If you are running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you need to do three things...1. Attract customers2. Persuade them to buy when they come through the door. (And ideally, maximise this so that they buy more than they would normally have done).3. Encourage them to come back to shop again and become a regular "repeat customer".Quite simply, running a website / web service is all about customer acquisition, conversion and retention.AcquisitionRetail is all about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. So to get this right, there's some preparation needed in terms of customer insight / research, developing a brand, building a proposition, product planning & strategy, business case modelling. Then once you have a product you need a communications plan, (including, but not excluding online PR). On a technical side, you need to understand search engine optimisation (3 core pillars; site structure, content and reputation), search engine marketing (paid search), affiliate marketing, social media optimisation, RSS, blogs, ad serving.ConversionHere, the most important discipline is user-centred design, also information architecture, followed closely by merchandising techniques and understanding effective calls to action. Think about good error handling, optimising shopping "funnels", accessibility, compelling copy writing, tactical promotions and you might just have scratched the surface. RetentionPlenty to learn about here too, from email marketing to direct mail (CRM), use of confirmation emails, special offers, customer database management and that's just scratching the surface.And more...Underpinning all of the above is a good understanding of web analytics (for traffic sources, keyword analysis, conversion tracking - and a whole lot more).And to get stuff done, to make it all happen they also need to understand a little about technical things like technical architecture, software development methodologies, project management techniques, be a great tester.To add some real flavour to the mix, key principles of many academic disciplines come in useful, economics, sociology and psychology.And to be effective in business generally, you need to know about HR issues for the countries in which you operate, be a great manager, have good negotiation skills, know a little bit about contract law.If you find someone who does all of the above well and them let them loose on your website - now you're talking! Also, point them my way, I'd love to meet them!So - if you're just starting out...5 tips to become a great E-commerce "generalist"1. Work with great peopleWe learn so much from working with other people. Put yourself with the best you can find and learn from them. Soak it up.2. Apply yourselfThis industry is only about 10 years old. Most of the so called experts became experts by just applying themselves and learning from their mistakes. You can too.3. Attend trainingIf you can, go on specialist training courses. There are few places such as e-consultancy.com where you can get a kick start4. Read, read and readYou can never read enough. Some of my favourite books are listed here if you need ideas.5. Have a goFor me this is the most important advice of all. Have a go! I didn't know anything about setting up RSS feeds until I had to do one for this blog. Figure it out, and just try. One day, most websites will be great. Until then, if you are a "generalist", go make some money!"The General"Subscribe in a reader

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This really made me laugh.One of our senior guys (he shall remain nameless) showed us the perils of working in such a fast growing company.We share our offices with many other companies, we're on the 6th floor...He said, "I guess there are quite a lot of people that have joined us lately. On the way up in the lift this morning I spoke to a girl that I was convinced is working for us. I introduced myself and asked her if she was enjoying her new job. She answered a little hesitantly. Actually, she looked slightly shocked but I thought she was just a little apprehensive about speaking to one of the bosses. However, I was a little perplexed when she walked out of the lift on the 4th floor and said, “Bye-Bye, nice to meet you John”(Names chamged to protect the guilty).Subscribe in a reader

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I recently had a chat with the guys at e-consultancy.com about Livebookings Network (My day job).We talked about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model...Subscribe in a reader

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One of the most useful tips on copywriting I've seen in recent years was from "Call To Action" by Bryan Eisenberg and Jerrfey Eisenberg (2005, Wizard Academy Press).They start from the assumption that when you sell a product or service, different buyers need different information depending on their personality.The Eisenbergs describe 4 personality types. I am really going to oversimplify this, but in essence the different personality types are best reached through different communications.The Competitive. This person wants accomplishment. Goal oriented folks, who want to know why your product will solve their problem.The Spontaneous. This type of person likes the personal touch, hates cold hard facts. They like to know why your service/product is the right fit for their need. This person wants acceptance. The approach best used with these types is to provide assurances, guarantees, an emphasis on personal service.The Humanistic. Creative types who enjoy helping others and socialising. They want to know who else has used your service to solve their problems. They value testimonials, reviews and the knowledge that others have already used your product successfully. The Methodical. These types like accuracy. Facts. Figure, statistics, methodology. They like logical information displayed in detail.The Eisenbergs give an example of one paragraph that addresses all 4 types in 3 sentences. "Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted"Here's the same sentence with the personality types that are addressed highlighted..."[Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives]*2. The [bottom line]*1 is that [your results are guaranteed]*1. Explore our [methodology]*4 to discover how [thousands of clients just like you have been delighted]*3"1 = Competitive2 = Spontaneous3 = Humanistic4 = MethodicalI thought I would give this a go myself.I found this copy about Hummus Bros, one of my favourite lunch spots in Soho."Hummus Bros is about feeding you homemade hummus with mouth watering toppings, scooped off your own individual bowl with warm pitta bread, and accompanied by refreshing salads and juices. We focus on taste, value for money, freshness and simplicity. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."So, here's my attempt to re-write it using the personality type approach..."Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to create your personal feast. Add brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large) and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and enjoy with friends. We guarantee you will leave you feeling nourished and satisfied and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."Here's where the personality types are addressed:"Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. [There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime]*3. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to [create your personal feast]*2. Add [brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large)]*4 and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and [enjoy with friends]*3. [We guarantee you will leave feeling nourished and satisfied]*1 and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the [only place in the UK]*1 to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus".1 = Competitive2 = Spontaneous3 = Humanistic4 = MethodicalWhat do you think? Does it work better? Comments welcome.I would imagine that better copy should lead to better conversion.Subscribe in a reader

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Email marketing can be a powerful tool. Like all tools, you need to use it carefully.This example wasn't a disaster, but it did make me laugh...I was sitting on the Eurostar train in Paris, waiting for it to leave and my Blackberry buzzed to let me know I had new emails. So, without much else to do at the time, I checked the email.It said "Just got back from Paris? Tell Ted all about it."Great timing eh? I know the new train link is fast, but it's not that fast!The email continued...."You've walked down sun-filledboulevards. Dined in some of Europe'sfinest restaurants. Watched the sun setover a city, spread before you like abejewelled cape. Now you're back in the real worldand bursting to tell everyone aboutyour experiences. Even Ted from theaccounts department. Try telling Ted and you could win aweekend break to the Eurostardestination of your choice"It should have read...."You've walked down crowded metroplatforms. Dined in one of Paris'cheap creperies. Dodged the rainthrough narrow pavements to get back to a cheap hotel room. Now you're heading back home to yourreal world and dying to see your familyagain. Work is over for another weekand Ted from the accounts department can wait. Tell Ted how little you spent on your tripand you could go back again soon to the same fleapit for another meeting, (but you'd rather not if you had the choice)"Two lessons learned:Email marketing should always - have content relevant to the audience- be sent at an appropriate timeI don't mind though, it made me laugh.Subscribe in a reader