Read one Irish entrepreneur's blog as she operates a business in Dublin
Nokia Gamer?
December 18, 2003
Or not? I'm certainly not, but somehow my name got onto the ClubNokia SMS marketing list. Nokia were guilty of breaking the SMS marketing rules by sending texts to me, and not letting me know how to get off their list. If this is you, well I'm delighted to tell you of a way to get OFF the list TODAY!
Simply call (01) 4100522, tell them it's to do with the Nokia marketing promotion, and the lovely South African lady will take your name off the list - forever.
I had previously been told that I had to have some special number off my phone, but because I've changed my phone, I'd resigned myself to never getting off the list. There you go now, a useful Christmas Tip!
Christmas Season Hits Brightspark
December 17, 2003
I've got the best designer in town. Just look at my home page today, it's simply stunning. Adhering to Nielsen's best practice principles: a nod to the holiday season, whilst not detracting from the site's overall purpose.
Google Mistake Shocker
December 12, 2003
Google, the darling of the internet industry, the champions of search engines, the anarchists of algorithims look like they've made a rather large mistake. And you don't want to making serious blunders when you're just about to launch yourself as an IPO.
On 15 November, Google changed the way it ranks pages by introducing an Over Optimisation Policy (OOP) that takes into account the incoming link text and the on-site keyword frequency. If too many sites that link to your site use link text containing a word that is repeated more than a certain number of times on your home page, that page will be assessed and will either be demoted to oblivion or removed entirely from the rankings. In a sense Google is penalizing sites for being optimised for the search engines--without any forewarning of a change in policy.
Seemingly this is causing untold amounts of damage to businesses that have worked hard on their linkage strategy, and at a time of year when e-commerce sites are at their busiest. In my opinion, Google is attempting to address the problems caused to its quality ranking system by bloggers (ahem!) but have gone about it in a very unintelligent way. You'd think with all the PhD's working for them that someone would have thought about the consequences of this taking place just before Christmas!
On a more macro scale, I'm waiting for the Google IPO to happen with much interest as I believe it will signal the start of a new technology cycle which can only be good for my business. Cock-ups like the Florida Update (what the OOP thing is being referred to) are only going to slow things down.
International Tip
December 09, 2003
Gosh, a week has gone by already? How time flies. But I suppose I have been living it up in London, catching up with some mates, investigating and advising on all sorts of interesting business activities, not too much shopping, but lots of imbibing. It could be Brightspark Consulting International Enterprises real soon, watch this space!
Keeping on the international tip, I came back today to receive an email and later a phone call from Karen, a lady who owns and operates amazing lodgings in Los Canos de la Meca, in Andalucia, southern most tip of Spain. I was there on holiday in June and got to talking with her about automating parts of her ordering process, as well as engaging her client base through emails. She rang today and I'm putting together some ideas for her. Nice to have little seeds sown from 6 months ago come home to roost. Wrong metaphor there, but hey you get the gist eh?
On a music tip, I was at the launch of the new Missy Elliott album on Friday night. Listening to it right now, not bad. Like the lady, she's got attitude. Christmas party night tomorrow night. Dobbins for food followed by a casino somewhere. I"ll the the lady on the blackjack tables. Adios.
Bad Mood
December 02, 2003
I'm blogging in a bad mood today and what a pity because it's the start of a new month, the last one for 03. And what has gotten the normally sunny natured me into a black one you might well ask?
My business depends on email and web, obviously enough as it's an internet marketing one. So I give high priority to internet related bills I need to pay because without my site and my email, I'm in trouble. Yesterday I got an email off my hosting company, Digiweb, a terse short little thing demanding €215.38 and if I didn't pay it they would cut my services off tomorrow!
I can't understand how companies like this manage to stay in business at all. Their systems are so appalling they haven't even managed to send me a bill yet, a first demand. No they just go straight into the final demand 'getting heavy with it' kind of email. It turns out when I rang them that this amount is actually for arrears and payment in advance. Well they can sing for their payment in advance, I'm off to another provider. Hosting is such a commodity business it's not as if I get any value add from these guys.
On the other hand, here's a company that has its systems and its services right - Access Telecom.Now I know I may have mentioned them before, but they really are a great company. Cheap phone charges, email billing and when you ring with a question, they actually sound rather pleased to hear from you. None of the barely concealed aggression from the gusy in Dundalk, who incidentally, close their office every day for an hour for lunch. Yes, there was a day when their server was down, but the whole tech team went off for their sambos as usual.
My business is going to where it will be valued. I may not be a huge account right now, but the way things are going I certainly will be in the future.