The problem with being in ‘I.T’ is that you get called upon to fix anything even remotely computer related. So when I was round a friend’s today, the task in hand was to connect the Wii to the Wi-Fi to ensure it got all its updates.

This involved some configuring of the router and that’s when I thought it had all gone terribly wrong…

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Allow me to lighten the mood for a few moments.

Amazon have just released figures showing an increase of 9% in sales over the festive period and a continuing demand for their e-book reader. I.e. people are still buying things and they’re also buying gadgets that cost an awful lot of money.

Oh. I thought people had stopped buying things, the tech industry was in decline and we are all doomed. I really must stop reading the Daily Mail…

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I said this was catch-up!

One of our recent customers thought their existing website was confusing to customers and so they asked us to make it simple, easy to navigate and eye-catching. We did all three and using some clever technology we created a site that never needs to be updated, yet has the flexibility of a fully blown CMS system.

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Spending more time on the road means less time for keeping up to date with website housekeeping and so I often find I’m behind with telling the world about all our new websites going live. A terrible state of affairs and one which I’m hoping to fix after the purchase of a new and spangly netbook thingy. More on that in a later post, for now, let’s get down to the business of self promotion!

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Whilst the economic gloom threatens to drag even more traditional businesses down, It’s been easy to find areas where ‘digital’ business has actually been bucking the trend and not only surviving but thriving and outstripping results for their High Street counterparts.

With figures being banded about of 20%, 50% and even over 100% increases in online sales, it seems there are even more reasons now for taking your business online than ever before. But a new report due out today will push for even more investment in digital technology which could see the gap between online and traditional trading grow even further.

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Wow, what a fortnight!

Two solid weeks of seminars and presentations and hopefully we’ve managed to get the point across about SEO to a whole new bunch of people.

If you were at the Britannia Hotel in Wolverhampton and listened to me rant on about how great the Internet is, then I thank you; it was absolutely fantastic to see you all there and I hope you come by this blog often to catch up on all the stuff I spoke about.

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I’ve been on the road this week extolling the virtues of selling your products and services on the Internet to groups of people who have only really got experience of selling through traditional channels, normally via printed catalogues.

The Internet is rapidly changing the way their market moves and to some it can be a bit of an upheaval. Having worked in an industry for many years, the thought of exposing your business online can be a daunting one, especially if your local web geek blinds you with science and big words you really don’t want to understand. But if you don’t act now, you could see your business disappear.

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We did!

OK, it’s snowing out and it’s cold enough to freeze your hand to the door knob, but in the midst of all this, our thoughts are surely going to be on looking for a fantastic escape to the holiday sun?

Well a few months ago we started on the new website for the ‘Saress’ – an item of beachwear that allows women to throw away the sarong that they’ve been struggling with for years and replace it with something they’d actually be proud to wear down the beach.

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OK, I’ll admit it, I do these things as experiments to test out SEO techniques and to see what markets are like before I enter them. However in the back of my mind I’m also looking for something that might make a bit of money on the side, so here’s the story of how an ‘idea’ formed a couple of weeks ago turned into a daily check to see how much money I made…

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There have been some interesting comments lately on the role of the ‘gut instinct’ when making business decision. It was made even more interesting because I had a ‘gut feeling’ myself yesterday afternoon, then someone blogged about it and then when investigating followers on Twitter, I happened across Richard Branson’s blog (http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/2009/01/05/what-virgin-does/) which in the first few lines talks about his own gut feelings.

Is there some force at work here that can explain all this? Why would I get three seperate pointers towards this subject in a matter of hours? Does this mean there is some cosmological significance to what I’m about to write about?

No.

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