Information Critic
I've been asked a few times by friends and clients to assess their websites. So, what sort of things am I looking at and reporting on? Here's a list: Who's it for? Is it obvious? How is it designed for them? Does the language resonate with this group? Does it speak of...
Picture This
Adding pictures or graphics to the interior pages of my books has always been a bit of an issue for me because the resolution of almost every image I've wanted to use has been too low. And then it becomes a hassle to get the book past Amazon's publishing system and I...
Finally
Finally, I've been adding lots of the posts I've written on these pages to the first draft of the book (a Word doc which I back up on Google Drive after working on it). And as I do so, it's becoming clear that the book will almost certainly consist of three sections:...
With A Little Help From My Friends
When I think about how brilliantly the internet and mobiles enable us to maintain numerous close personal relationships in many places, I'm reminded of Dunbar's number. First proposed in the 1990s by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, his suggestion is that the...
Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3)
Bob Parsons is the founder of GoDaddy, one of the world's most famous hosting companies. While I'm not really a fan of GoDaddy (I've used Hostgator* for years), I am a fan of his 16 rules. His final point is: There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all,...
Walls Come Tumbling Down
There are few (if any) better ways to convince people to use your company or buy your products than by providing praise from your satisfied customers. Before would-be customers commit to something they haven't used or bought before, particularly if it comes at a high...
Got To Be Real
On holiday, I thought it'd be a good idea to pick up bits of driftwood and put inspirational lines on them so people to hang them in their home. Then I wondered about expanding the idea to include fabric and other materials, as well as wood. And I suggested to Shiana...
Spectrum (Say My Name)
My mate Big Jon, who designs my books' covers, said to me once that marketing is like pushing a wheelbarrow: Without effort, it won't go anywhere. But as someone who's naturally shy, my wheelbarrow usually stays in the shed. How nice it was then to receive an email...
Abide With Me
I’m a lucky boy. While I didn’t have the best relationship with my dad, I was very fortunate in some respects. Here’s one: Through his job, he was given two tickets to every event at Wembley (Stadium, Arena and Conference Centre), except the FA Cup final, when he was...
Move Your Body
A word on the book I’m writing: I’ve done some significant work on it this morning. I got up at 5.30 and focused on what I want to achieve with it so began by asking again: Who’s it for? What’s it for? Setting the alarm so early on a Sunday morning means I’m going to...