Posts

Solar Eclipse UK style 1st April 2015 10:36 AM
I have the same feeling about Victoria Falls, Rhodesia ...”
 

There's a name I've not heard in long time. What an amazing experience you must have had as a youngster.

Solar Eclipse UK style 1st April 2015 10:34 AM
You miserable lot!  I thought the solar eclipse was awesome!  It was sunny here and I had the proper glasses so you could see the moon passing across.”
 

Thanks to you I missed it! Was up to silly o clock going through all of your amendments and realising my grammar is crap 

Apparently the kids seemed to enjoy it though using a paper plate, pin hole and piece of paper. They can still see so they were looking the right direction

Well guess what turned up in the post today!

Another choccie bar from Nimbus

After we migrated the forum last year on to My Local Services, we sadly closed down the Nimbus server, but happy to keep flying the flag, especially for chocolate  

Ahh I see, I'm out of the office for a few days and you nick the chocolate!
 

Even better, guess who's off again this week 

This is for you Clive...

“..because they have been on a forum for years and have a huge post count then they must SURELY know more than the newbie with 6 posts and are thus entitled to tell it as they see it, including by way of insults..."
 

Completely agree and have seen it loads of times. It's almost like having a high post count gives and air of invincibility and superiority. You also find a pattern of similar high post count "cliques" that will back each other up and turn on a newbie.

It does seem to be the majority of blokes from what I've seen that do this, but then again put 3 women on an island and 2 will soon start gossiping about the other one 

Digital curtain twitching and trolls 30th March 2015 8:37 AM

An article on the BBC made me smile, Why are people so mean to each other online?

The internet acts like a kind of digital-fuelled alcohol, freeing us to say things to strangers that we would never dare to say if we met them.

Dave Harte, a lecturer in media communication at Birmingham City University, believes that social media gives us a connection with each other that we are all craving.

"We have a vague sense of having lost something - the idea of chatting to a neighbour or meeting at the village post office. In many ways it is a media-created perception. Maybe we have all watched too many episodes of 'Call the Midwife'," he said.

That has to be term of the week, "digital-fuelled alcohol 

It is true though, especially on larger online communities, some of the abuse between members is unbelievable. Normally it originates from something trivial, usually because one or two established members take the hump over a question, maybe it's been asked before, or the new member will talk about something that is deemed by regulars as off-topic. I've seen it from business forums, specialist forums, and more recently a lot more on Google communities.

Some of the sniping and community infighting leaves you feeling a little bemused if you hover as a lurker. It certainly puts you off becoming a participating member.

Interesting the above article picked up that the majority of trolling seemed to be done by women. That may be community specific, but from techie and business type communities, I'd say most of the aggression comes from blokes, mainly from inflated egos, or sheep mentality following perceived community heros.

But not all communities are like that, hopefully this one is troll free! But there are some great online communities out there that are very well moderated and policed, normally inhabited by people you would look up to and respect.

I've yet to meet a troll at an offline networking group, but then again it would liven up some of the more tedious meetings  

So why do so many people feel the need to troll? Insecurity, lack of confidence in the real world? Little man syndrome? Or is it just natural pack behaviour that social media encourages?

A safe office is a happy office! 28th March 2015 2:04 PM
...whadya' mean that office is far too tidy to be you guys! 
Jans usual attention to detail, our window blinds really do look that bad, are all uneven, made of paper and hung up with blue tac  

 

PPC a waste of time? 27th March 2015 2:00 PM
Re too busy etc.. so you think I have too much on a landing page and should maybe make these easier on the eye?

...to be honest its getting to a time when I think all of this including dabbling with websites etc and directories and search enginesand SEO etc (and I have done it all) is a waste of time for me.. that's how I feel at the min anyway”

 

No worries David, and don't just take my word for it. Always react to your own data and analysis. No one knows your business or what you have done marketing wise as well as you do.

Ref your landing page, it's not so much easier on the eye, it's less is more. If you are paying for a lead via PPC to land on that page, then you want a specific outcome or action. If you have to decipher and interpret lots of competing calls to action, you invite confusion or user lethargy. That paid click then goes cold.

Instead you want every paid click funnelled to a specific targeted action, presumably 100% related to whatever they clicked. Once they are in the funnel, then they will start to drop off. Measuring how many drop off where will lead you to improve any relevant pages.

Time is always an age old problem. That's why you need a strategy, not a dabble. A bit of SEO here and the odd directory over there could actually do more harm than good. Plan all marketing activities. Select ones that work for you and ditch what doesn't.

Marketing is a key part of business, so allocate some time. But remember to leave time to run your business! If you can outsource elements, then consider it. But do it on research and results not on cost.

An Indian SEO company who sends you a sales spam email may be cheap as chips, but there's a reason why 

You can do most things yourself and there is plenty of help out there, just needs planning and scheduling. Dabbling is for hobbies. Keep the faith 

A safe office is a happy office! 27th March 2015 12:42 PM

So no cartoon all year, then you pick on us

Shall learn how to draw at nightschool and get my own back 

and on that bombshell, I'm sacked! 27th March 2015 12:35 PM

Well now he's officially sacked, no doubt we will have an announcement in the near future of a new car program on a different channel with a very similar format and no doubt 3 familiar presenters 

Never an avid fan, it was good to watch once in a while, and their escapades around the world did make good telly, no matter how much of it was staged...

Maybe it's time for a fresh format, and all of this was a PR stunt...

Ja well no fine (definition )
 

Are you South African Andy?

Dreamraven our resident South African moderator seems to have gone walkabout again

So has the PM dropped a clanger? 25th March 2015 11:13 AM

Can you imagine Boris as PM? Gawd help us, we'd be a laughing stock on the world stage.

The bumbling idiot persona may be great for Have I Got News for you, but it's an odd branding style if you want to be taken seriously

At least it makes a change not be talking about UKIP