Sam Michel's blog

The downside of an e-commerce Xmas: the painful delivery
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 17, 1999

After last week's deluge of posts about the poor customer service of online retailers, stories are reaching traditional media of lost orders and late deliveries. This was capped by Jungle.com's CEO getting short shrift on the BBC's Watchdog programme.

Ecommerce this Xmas: wet dream or nightmare
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 10, 1999

The frenzy of advertising and marketing for ecommerce sites in the run-up to Xmas coupled with a couple of bad personal experiences, got me thinking about the fall-out, "I suspect the New Year is going to be a fairly uncomfortable time for all those companies who advertised like crazy to boost pre-Xmas sales..."

Targeted email a 'smack in the gob'
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 03, 1999

Big bang or little whimper?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 26, 1999

The recent spate of launches and harsh criticism that these have received from list subscribers, I asked whether it was better for a brand to launch with a massive wave of publicity, or to launch quietly, test their product and grow gradually. C. Locke replied, "There seems to be a cultural divide between the desires of marketing teams and the potential of the technical teams... All of the recent disasters were caused by internal rather than external factors."

Using credit cards online: fraud or fantastic?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 19, 1999

The use of credit cards online and whether or not they're secure came under the spotlight this week. Prompted by a vote: "Does using your credit card online make you nervous?" - Naaah, it's safe enough (84.8%) Yes, it gives me the willies (15.2%) - a flurry of emails examined how to protect a business from credit card fraud and whether the perception matched the reality.

Is this getting boo-ring yet?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 12, 1999

The boo.com saga continues, although as time goes on the UK-Netmarketing crowd are finding more and more bizarre things including the following posted by L. Rickler from the code on one of their pages: "// first up insert the evil ad tracking shite, var evilAdTracker=(location.protocol". Perhaps this is their way of making their code as "street" as their merchandise?

Is Miss Boo a Boo Boo?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 05, 1999

It�s been a long time coming and there�s been plenty of speculation on the list about boo.com�s imminent arrival. The launch and the enormous publicity and PR offensive that followed resulted in a plethora of emails about the highs and lows of the boo experience. Things started off well, with the first posting from T. May exclaiming, "...it does look damn sexy." Unfortunately, subsequent emails weren�t quite so positive.

Long trek to a smile
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - October 29, 1999

Paxman's pearly Gates
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - October 22, 1999

Feel the need for speed...
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - October 15, 1999

UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - October 08, 1999

Have you ever noticed how bad many individual's homepages are? It came up on the list, this week, as T. Ireland asked why so many great creative types have such dreadful personal websites. To a large extent, it's true, however you can't beat a good analogy to describe it as chris pointed out "There are only two barbers in a remote town, and you need a haircut. One has excellently cut hair, the other is scruffy. Which one do you go to?"

UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - October 01, 1999

The announcement by Nominet that the registration fee for .co.uk domain names would be reduced from £20 to £5. This prompted a number of posts questioning why domain name registration companies haven't passed the discount on to their clients, with a number of people suggesting companies to try.

UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - September 17, 1999

Welcome to the first round-up of discussion from the UK-Netmarketing mailing list. The list is a discussion forum for those involved with using the Internet for marketing. You can subscribe at www.chinwag.com.