Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Stephen Davies (aka PRBLOGGER) recently set up his own PR company and actively uses Twitter to interact and influence with the great and good in his sector, and beyond.

I asked him a few questions about his Twitter habits...

It looks like the woes that had already befalled brick-and-mortar retail may have finally befallen online retailers. According to comScore, e-commerce sales in the first 23 days of November declined 4% from the same period last year.

Usually my articles are directed at the search engine optimisation (SEO) customer, the entrepreneur or marketer looking to boost their online business through search.

Today though, I want to explore how we sector professionals interact with these customers, how we deal with them and how we can get the best out of our working relationships.

It seems that for the past decade, we've all been told that the mobile internet is going to be "big" and will eventually eclipse the "desktop-oriented" internet that most of us are still most familiar with.
 

In a week that that saw a rally in global stock markets and is seeing some of the best Black Friday deals in recent memory, it seems like the world has been able to recapture some sense of normalcy.

Here's the news that caught my attention this week.

Today sees the start of the BBC's online live streaming of BBC1 and BBC2, though this is something ITV has been doing for a while with its four channels.

I've been watching BBC2 through the iPlayer to see how well it works online, and whether the BBC does it better than ITV...

Celeb2nds auctions items donated by celebrities, from David Beckham's boots, to Cliff Richard's jacket, all in aid of its eight founder charities, which include the Rainbow Trust and Dial a Dream.

The site is pretty well designed too, though there are a couple of slight issues; the 'auctions ending soon' display could be promoted better, as on eBay, and the fairly hefty delivery charges, £10 for a signed Harry Hill joke book for example, may deter some bidders.

Last week in my SMS primer, I discussed the role of the SMS gateways that provide connectivity to the mobile infrastructure that makes SMS messaging possible. If you've developed a mobile application and need connectivity to the carriers, you'll need an SMS gateway.

Woolworths, having become the latest victim of the credit crunch yesterday, seems to have taken its website offline this afternoon.

Visitors to the website will find this message: 'Our site is currently undergoing essential maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please check back later. ' 

Online shoestore Zappos was founded in 1999 and has in less than a decade grown to be one of the leading lights of e-commerce.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is a firm believer in the value of a delightful customer experience and is an early adopter of Twitter. I asked him a few questions to find out how this focus on satisfaction (and the Twitter factor) is helping the company progress.