Blog entries

Tomorrows Internet

Jeff Pittelkow — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I've heard a lot of people, news sites, trade shows, and even blog/news comments talk about the future of the internet. For the most part, what I've heard usually takes the form apps, mobile, or social media. After all, those are the hottest three buzzwords in the internet community today.

Because of this, many organizations are hiring in these specific categories. I see many jobs for "App Developer" or "Mobile Developer" or "Social Media Manager". Truthfully, this is Read More...

Fad-Chasing

Jeff Pittelkow — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The internet is full of niche markets. I'm not talking about all the different things being sold, i'm talking about all the b2b people and services who power everything being sold. Many sites hire 'experts' and 'strategists' who are as specialized as an F-16 pilot. In reality, most of these guys are making a boat load of money by being out-going and knowing just a little bit about something you know nothing about. To tell the truth, chances are your 12 year old daughter probably knows more abRead More...

What is a Usability Expert

Jeff Pittelkow — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I am!

Well, besides from that, a usability expert fills a very important role. In simple terms, a usability expert is an architect of web sites. Let's start with some background....

History
A little over 10 years ago, back in the age of the internetRead More...

Cyber Monday

Jeff Pittelkow — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Americans partake in a ritual that involves death and destruction in the name of cheap specials. It's Black Friday, and it's the time of year to get gifts at cheap for you and yours.

The following Monday, online retailers gear up for the follow up to Black Friday; Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday is billed as the busiest online shopping day of the year. However, as many of others in the industry know, it's far from it. The actual busiest day of the year coRead More...

Foot Shot

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Everyone is familiar with the old phrase "shot yourself in the foot." This is all too common in business today whether we are talking about a web site or an airline.

The foot shot, as I like to Read More...

Convience

Jeff Pittelkow — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Today, I left work early to go see the doctor. I had a really bad pain in my stomach but i won't bore you with the gorey details.

I went to convient care. It's like an ER except without the ER part. A good place to go for head colds, muscle aches, or sports physicals. All those things you would normally go to see your family doctor for, but don't want to wait to get in. Anyway, they told me to get some pills from the pharmacy conviently located in the building.

So, after feeling sick, wRead More...

Trust

Jeff Pittelkow — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Trust is a funny thing. It's somewhat easy to gain the first time, but really hard (if not impossible) to get back if you lose it.

On the internet, trust is what makes someone purchase with you the first time. If you do everything correctly that first time, it's really hard to lose that trust. Simply put, they place an order, you communicate a lot through eRead More...

DIY E-Commerce

Jeff Pittelkow — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As many top 500 e-comm site operators know, a web site is only as good as it's features. Last time, I talked about the small things that make e-comm sites popular. Today, I want to talk about those who help you get there and what to do when the budget isn't there.

Most e-comm sites don't go it alone. You have a cart solution provider, a payment transaction provider, analytics provider, hosting provider, a search provider, a channel provider, an affiliate provider, SEO / SEM campaign, usRead More...

All the Small Things

Jeff Pittelkow — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

No, not the Blink 182 song (though I do own that CD), I'm talking all the little things on your web site that make a difference. These all make up the user experience. Individually, they won't help your sales but together, they collectively move the needle.

In e-commerce, there are three basic things to focus on:

ContentPriceUser Experience

While content makes for 30% of most e-comm sites and price about 20%, the user experience is about half the battle. This is because the user wRead More...

Bubble 2.0

Jeff Pittelkow — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I tend to not jump on bandwagons. I see opportunities, evaluate them, then decide whether they are worth the web space they are printed on. Others however are not so keen to this way of thinking.

10 years ago, there was an internet bubble, it burst, and the economy tanked. Today, we are at the exact same point we were then, except with web 2.0. Everybody who thought that web 1.0 would allow sites as milktherabbit.com to succeed are now of the thought that another social network or videRead More...

It's not what you want, It's the consumer.

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:49:22 +0100

Quick, name the movie that title came out of! Wallstreet? The Firm? How about Boiler Room? Maybe Glengarry Glenn Ross? Nope, all wrong. It came from Joe Dirt. That may be the only thing I got out of that movie. Well, that, the fact that mullets will now and forever be funny, and a waste of 3 hours. (it was on tv)

As sad as it is, it;s true. There are a lot of things internally you want to do. Segment the market, harvest emails, sell more to your consumers who bought like products,Read More...

5 things big business doesnt know

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:06:11 +0100

Every once and a while, a trend comes along that changes the rules. There are two responses to these trends 1) ignore it 2) fight it and 3) realize it's potential and jump on it. The internet is one of these trends. In fact, the internet even has it's own trends associated with it. However big business still doesn't seem to realize a lot of things about the net. These things are obvious to the consumer, but they defy all that big business knows, and they don't seem too willingRead More...

Marketing Marketers don't get it

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:26:46 +0100

Recently I have had the opportunity to look at a few analytics packages for web sites I work with. In my journey to spend a boat-load of someone else's money on analytics, I find myself getting very irritated at what I am seeing. While this may be my first time having to do a shop and compare on these programs, I do know they cost tens of thousands of dollars. So, I have to ask myself one question; Why on earth would you try to market a product to marketers and not tell them about the prRead More...

Back to the Basics

Jeff Pittelkow — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:11:21 +0100

In an age where marketing schools teach more math than creativity, analysis is everything, and you've got to be able to tell the age of every person buying your product from your office miles away from the nearest store, it's a wonder people get stuff done. Sure, segmenting the market is good, it can even help sell a few units. But what happened to the most basic principle of marketing: just make it good. The product, the ad, anything.

You can sit all day and wait for theRead More...

You mean all that money was wasted?

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:05:41 +0100

Refrencing: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/08/21/if-it-looks-like-an-ad-theyre-not-looking-at-it

Yup! Well, only kind of. See, the thing that these ads bring is brand awareness. It's realitvely hard to slap a price on brand awareness, but what do I mean?

Simple, according to the article, internet users fail to click ads on web sites. This includes banner ads, google ads, etc... Well, all I can say is DUH! This isn't exactly new information for those who pay aRead More...

Business Buddies

Jeff Pittelkow — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:48:17 +0100

The internet is a cruel place. It won't forgive a mistake to easily and it won't soon forget that mistake either. The one thing that can help you is a good friend. Friends are those who are there for you when you need them the most. In the internet, a friend is a little different. In fact, an internet friend may cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Therefore, we must all develop strong internet friends who will stay there through out.

How is this possible? Simple! PartnRead More...

Bad Web Software Marketing

Jeff Pittelkow — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:45:38 +0100

In my quest to find web software (CRM's, CMS's, Analytics packages), I have seen a lot of things vendors do that are not only bad marketing practice, but could very eaisly be costing vendors millions in sales each year. These practices are normally not done from lapse of judgement or unqualified marketers, but for other reasons, such as security and privacy. This is a perfect example of where good intentions create actions that work in adverse ways. For that reason, i've comprisedRead More...

Unionized Bloggers

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:38:29 +0100

This is a post in direct response to this article: http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2007/08/06/do-bloggers-need-to-unionize

Ok, this i don't understand. Why would bloggers need to unionize? Let me say this, from one blogger to another, if you feel you need to be in a union because your blog doesn't support you..... then GET A LIFE! Blogging is NOT a profession. I don't really care who you are. If you blog for your profession, you just lost a LOT of crediblity in myRead More...

Getting Started in Ecommerce

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:00:47 +0100

Everyday millions of people try their hand at online business. Everyday millions of people fail at it. So how do you not become one of the failures? The internet is a tough racket, but with a few pointers, you can be well on your way to success.

1) Treat a web business like opening a brick and mortat store. Some of you may already own a store somewhere, great! But that only means you have the stock sitting around. What would you do if you opened a second location across town? You Read More...

Why your web site isn't special.

Jeff Pittelkow — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:40:01 +0100

I thought it important to kick off my new blog with a topic that has been on my mind for a long time. Many companies fail on the internet, more than those that fail at starting a new business. In fact, the internet gold rush is over so if you want a place on the net, you have to fight your way to the top.

So, let me tell you why your web site isn't special. Let me guess, you are a business man. You either majored in business in school, have an MBA, maybe even have started a few veryRead More...