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Graham Jones <graham@grahamjones.co.uk> 4 days ago
So, Borders has gone into administration in the UK after a dreadful trading period. Apparently they have "cash flow" problems meaning they are potentially unable to meet their financial demands. According to several reports, it's the internet's fault. But this simply is not true. Nine out of ten books bought in the UK are bought in physical stores - NOT online. People often like to find something else to blame - other than themselves. Book shops still represent an "old fashioned" way of doing business Let's take a look at Borders - and other book retailers. Back in 1971 when the Borders brothers opened their first store in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it offered - well, er, books on shelves. Now, almost 40 years later Borders offers, er, books on shelves. OK, you might say they are a book store, what else are they supposed to do? Well, for a start they might have responded to the way people behave...! For instance, the university students who set ...Graham Jones <graham@grahamjones.co.uk> 7 days ago
News is, well, new. It's stuff that's either an update on information we already know, or it is brand, spanking new. Newspapers are not called "oldspapers" after all...what they give us is (relatively) new material. Online, of course, "new" means "within the last few seconds"; the race to be the first to publish the news has taken on a different meaning on the internet. "Coming soon" is not good enough in the fast-paced online world In the past, news could be 24 hours old, when we just had daily newspapers. With the advent of broadcasting it could be a few hours old. Then came 24-hour news channels, which meant the news had to be minutes old and now, online, seconds are what counts. So why, you may ask, has ITV not realised that the rest of the world has had a rapid online news channel for over a decade? ITV.com is still showing that its news site (which was taken down several weeks ago) is "coming soon". Following hot on ...Graham Jones <graham@grahamjones.co.uk> 8 days ago
Many bloggers are unhappy bloggers. They find it difficult to get inspired to write and when they do they are upset by the lack of readers. Then when they look at their website's statistical data they are even more saddened by the lack of time people spend reading their musings. In business, it's worse; many bloggers are tapping away on their keyboards because they have been told it is good for their business. Maybe that's true, but it might not be good for them. Feeling forced to blog will work against your online business This is the "blogging hell" many people find themselves in. They feel pressure to blog because the theory is it is good for business, yet they can't get inspired or even find it difficult to write just a few hundred words each day. Then, the time it takes them to produce anything resembling a good blog eats into their working time, meaning stress and unhappiness with their real job of work. That then leads to them being told they should blog more, ...Graham Jones <graham@grahamjones.co.uk> 12 days ago
Do you want to sell more from your website? OK, silly question, I know. But one of the difficulties anyone selling stuff online has is that they cannot really control the sales environment. People tend to buy more when they are comfortable. But your sales environment might be someones office, their bedroom, an airport lounge or a busy train. Selling your products and services on the internet is much more difficult than in the real world because you cannot control the variable environments of your purchasers. In a physical store they can manipulate the lighting, the temperature and the overall ambiance to make you feel more amenable to buying something. Successful shops go to a great deal of effort to get the environment right to sell their particular type of products. Butchers, for instance, can invest in lighting that brings out the redness of meat, making it more acceptable to us. Clothing shops can invest in heating that makes us feel especially warm and thereby more likely to ...Graham Jones <graham@grahamjones.co.uk> 13 days ago
Children who get bullied online should rightly be protected; so too should adults who get "cyberbullied" as it is called. Today, though, a major row has erupted between the police and Facebook over a seemingly innocuous little "button" that helps people cope with online abuse. Jim Gamble, the CEO of the UK's "Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre" (CEOP), has been on radio and TV all day doing a good impression of "Mr Angry"; he has been very outspoken in his criticisms of Facebook in particular. But, in spite of his in-depth policing experience, Mr Gamble appears to have missed the point on this topic. The CEOP logo is causing a major row over cyberbullying He is very keen to point out that the social networking site from AOL, called Bebo, has included his button. When users of Bebo feel they are bullied or threatened in any way they can click on the button and be taken straight to the CEOP website for advice and ...
