Online Business Adviser

The Forum For Online Business Success

If you are one of the many businesses that have decided to create an online sales channel, there is a good chance that you are already operating a bricks and mortar business. If you do, you need to make sure that your online experience extends your business and doesn’t just duplicate it.

Think about it - the experience of a physical store is pretty basic. Products are lined on shelves, register at the front. People come in, browse around, perhaps buy something and then leave.  Read more...

In the great wide social tapestry, a lot has been written about the appropriation of the word “expert” by people looking to leverage the web for a return.

I’ve mentioned my opinion on these in passing previously, but I got a DM on Twitter that I thought needed its own post to discuss the pitfalls of the word. It was along the lines of “So I Can Be Your Social Media God, check this out” (I’m paraphrasing because I deleted the message and stopped following them), along with the ubiquitous link to their e book. Now, calling themselves a ‘God’ is a pretty extreme (and risky) example but it highlights the point.  Read more...

Yesterday I was sifting through ninemsn’s News site, when I was confronted by what you see in the screen grabs on the left (click the thumbnails to see what I mean). This all out advertising blitz consisted of no less that eleven advertising placements, two of which expanded even more when rolled over with the mouse. I’ve had to crop the second screen grab because of its size!

Certainly the clash of brands you see will not make advertisers too happy, as they would have all had a reasonable expectation that their ads were going to cut through. While the side panels do relate to the Codral ads, you wouldn’t know it at a glance, and this becomes even more confusing once the wine ad almost pushes Codral branding off the page all together. I really wanted to call this post “When Advertising Attacks”, but I want to use these examples to illustrate a different point.  Read more...

It seems like a social media frenzy this week in Sydney, with a couple of events bringing together some great minds and great discussion. I spent lunchtime today at an event organised by Beth Etling from The Insight Exchange to hear some interesting strategies from a cross section of different industries.

On the panel today was Kate Leaman of Foster’s Group, Digital and Social Media strategist Con Frantzeskos, Aisha Hillary of SBS and Chris Noble of World Nomads.

Rather than rehash details from each presentation, it is easier to distill them into what I considered the three standout messages and what it means for your online business:  Read more...

I don’t have much to write for this post, except to highlight some of the points I made in my post about credibility and ethics when dealing online.

Late last week, Ticketek here in Australia obviously decided to capitalise on the death of Michael Jackson, by putting up for sale on their site T-Shirts that were part of the merchandise for Jackson’s London Shows. You can see it here.

While they may bill it as an opportunity to own music history, to the very aware audience they are targeting, it is obvious that this is an attempt to cash in on the circus of his death.

Naturally, there was a backlash on Twitter, which you can see here.

This goes towards the earlier point of carefully considering your audience before posting anything to your site. Jackson may have been a very polarising topic for many, but it seems that many are united in their opinion of Ticketek’s decision to sell this merchandise – and they have no problem telling everyone.  Read more...