Sam Michel's blog

Are Users Stupid?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - February 16, 2001

In the heat of the moment, usually in the last minutes before a website is ready to go live, some smart Alec will pounce and ask why it's so difficult to use. Usability, essentially the practice of making something user-friendly [I'm paraphrasing a lot before all the experts pile in with length definitions], can help alleviate these problems.

Feb. 13, 2001 Vol. II, Issue 2
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Writing Press Releases
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - February 9, 2001

Putting together a well crafted press release can be an arduous task, but if you don't have the budge to hire a PR company or even a freelancer, how do you DIY?

Banner Ads vs. PR
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - February 2, 2001

On the face of it might be tempting to think that buying banner adverts to promote your website would be easier than a spot of well-placed PR. Trouble is, it's not so easy to target banner ads, measure the results and roll-out a well formed campaign. Once you've gone to all that trouble, would it have just been easier to follow the PR route?

Successful Conversion Rates
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - January 26, 2001

Working on a new website, or testing a new marketing tactic is always a tad nerve-wracking, especially when you don't have any previous results to compare your campaign against. There are so many factors involved in successfully converting a passing browser into an interested party, a benchmark for a 'successful' site can be a real help in working out whether you're on the right track.

January. 24, 2001 Vol. II, Issue 7
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Effective Viral Marketing
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - January 18, 2001

To many it's the online marketing holy grail. An effective marketing campaign that once an initial (carefully planned, naturally) seed has been sewn, spreads like wildfire. They're notoriously difficult to achieve and sometimes happen by accident, but the effects can be enormous. Just ask Claire Swire.

Rising Cost of Customer Acquisition
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - January 12, 2001

Last year, flush with IPO/venture capital money justifying marketing spend didn't seem like such a difficult task. Nowadays with a very definite squeeze hitting the industry, justifying the budget and measuring the cost of acquiring the 'eyeballs' has leapt up the agenda.

Rising Cost of Customer Acquisition
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - January 12, 2001

Last year, flush with IPO/venture capital money justifying marketing spend didn't seem like such a difficult task. Nowadays with a very definite squeeze hitting the industry, justifying the budget and measuring the cost of acquiring the 'eyeballs' has leapt up the agenda.

Are Search Engines Still Useful?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - January 8, 2001

Fresh from festive over-indulgence, the uk-netmarketing list sprung back to life. With all the gloom shrouding the new media landscape, it's not surprising that one of the first topics cropping up concerned search engines' place in peoples' surfing habits.

Design the Jakob Nielsen way
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 15, 2000

Design crops up as a hot topic on the mailing list, more often than you might imagine for a marketing-related discussion forum. The difficult task of balancing cutting edge design and achieving all of a site's marketing objectives. Richard Gregory sparked the latest round when he asked, "In terms of design, which are currently the most successful web sites? This may be in terms of critical acclaim through awards but also in terms of site traffic."

Leaves On The Line One?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 8, 2000

 

The news that BT Openworld and United News & Media were pulling out of Line One and putting the ISP up for sale got tongues wagging. More doom and gloom in the ISP sector or a great opportunity for someone to snap up 1.4m subscribers?

 

Avoiding Prize Draw Pitfalls
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - December 1, 2000

Running a prize draw can be a great way to draw people to your website and more importantly capture valuable data about your visitors. Nick Horley asked, "I want to sell tickets for a prize draw on my site - anyone know where I can find the regulations governing this sort of thing?"

When is email marketing spam?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 24, 2000

Marketing via email can be a cheap and effective way of building brand awareness, driving traffic to a website and even selling online. Yes, that's right selling things. The problem is: how do you make sure that your message stays on brand and isn't lumped in with offers to 'Make your business explode' or various pornographic sites or services.

Banners good? Banners bad?
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - November 17, 2000