Just saw a print ad with the bold header “Search this” followed by a generic search bar and keywords for the product. In other words, the trusty reviewer’s quote is being replaced by Google. This is a recent trend — I first read about its prominence in Asian advertising about a year ago. However,...
Free Web Site Advice
Free Trial — Ends Today (or does it?)
From the Incompatible Marketing Rules department: a) generate buyer excitement and b) tell the truth. Case in point: a few weeks ago, I signed up for a MagicJack free trial. On their (very aggressive) web site, it listed that the free trial was about to end — in fact, I noted that I had...
Lookin' Old
When do you need to redesign your Web site? If it’s doing it’s job — that is, if it is easy to use and the right information and services are accessible and provide value to you and your customers, you should be fine, right? Maybe. Some Web sites just look dated. They might function...
TOS Violation = Too Bad For You
Earlier this morning, my Web sites went black. No Web site, no email, no back-end access. Turns out, my hosting provider claims I violated their terms of service. Rather than contacting me to resolve the issue, they yanked the account without warning. All my sites disappeared in one fell swoop. What did I do...
Using Google's Cached Pages to Restore Lost Content
Earlier today, I deleted something I shouldn’t have. It was on a client site, and they had asked to have a promo removed. Easy, thinks I, and without much additional thought, I logged in removed the promo, and saved the page. Oops! In my haste I removed the wrong promo. And since it seemed...
This Amuses .me Even More Than .yu Did
I’ve long been amused by the marketing of country top-level domains for other purposes — recently, I saw an ad for domains using the .me extension (Actual ad slogan: “It’s all about .me”). Pretty funny, if you know what’s really going on. Turns out, it’s not about me. It’s about Montenegro. Here’s the deal:...
Beta Software: Not just for techies anymore?
I’ve got Olympic spirit, yes I do. But when I wanted to watch some online video a few days ago, the NBC Olympics Web site told me I needed to install Silverlight (a Flash-like multimedia player from Microsoft). Weird, thinks I, ’cause I’m pretty sure I’ve already got Silverlight installed. But I clicked the...
Don't Take SEO Candy (From Strangers)
Today I received an unsolicited email offering SEO services for one of my domains. Bottom line is, it’s worthless — but many people wouldn’t know it. For a business owner desperate to improve his rankings in search engines, this might sound tempting. Let’s deconstruct… Here’s the message, with the name and address withheld. Dear...
Customer Service: Where It All Breaks Down
I often advise my clients who have e-commerce operations to buy from themselves, and then try to return their order — it’s a visceral way to find out how bad (or good) their own customer service is. As I write this, I’m on hold with Adobe Customer Service, waiting for a manager to get...
It's Free! (With purchase)
People seem to expect Internet content and services to be free. We happily use the Internet to pay for tangible goods, such as a DVD or flowers, but if the thing we want is a service or information, we’re unwilling to pay. So we walk to the store to buy the newspaper, but if...