Hugh Durkin, Irish Internet Guy

‘The Script’ have their Wikipedia page defaced

Never a nation to ever pat anyone on the back and say ‘well done’, i’m not surprised to see that some Irish begrudgers have defaced the Wikipedia page of Dublin band ‘The Script’.  This is pretty representative of the general Irish attitude to anyone who has some level of success, be it in business, music, or sport.  No wonder the boys have pissed off to London to further their careers.

Anyway, fair play to them.  Their music wouldn’t be at the very top of the pile for me, but they’re excellent songwriters and producers, and deserve every bit of success they get.  The Wikipedia page is here, and in before someone changes it back to normality, below is a screenshot of the handiwork of a begrudgering Irish scrote.

Affiliate Networks - Sell Your Wares!

I thought it might be interesting to invite UK and Internationally based affiliate networks to ’sell your wares’.  Affiliate marketing is still in its infancy in Ireland - for no good reason - so perhaps if you could respond below with your details, it might be a handy point of reference for Irish ecommerce retailers to give affiliate marketing a closer look.

For those of you who don’t know the Irish market, we ARE in fact huge spenders online - people outside of Ireland seem to think we’re in the dark ages and are scared of buying online.  We’re not, so don’t let that be a reason for you to ignore us!

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More Irish online advertising sales agencies can only be good for the market

I’ve been watching with interest the ‘under the radar’ launches of some new Irish online advertising sales houses.  For as long as i’d care to remember, the Irish market consisted of just two main players, Sales Online and Generator.  Ad2-One launched an Irish office here in Dublin in 2005, but they seemed to lose their way after the loss of a key member of staff.  Sales Online and Generator have been squabbling for the same clients for quite some time now, Generator losing Eircom to Sales Online earlier this year, and some other ‘musical chairs’ type deals.  But now we have some serious competitors in the marketplace, with the arrival if i-Believe, Tradedoubler Ireland, and Electric Media.

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Google Apps + Salesforce.com - me likey

Back in the day when I was starting out with my first business, keeping costs down was a bit of a priority, and for that reason we relied heavily on open source and free software to get us going.  We used OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, used Modernbill for our billing (it was rubbish, and didn’t suit us at all!), and used SugarCRM to accommodate our CRM requirements.  However, with SugarCRM in particular, the cost vs reliability factor was throwing up all sorts of problems, and between Thunderbird clearing my inbox and the newest version of SugarCRM being a dog, something had to be done.  Along came Google Apps and Salesforce.com.

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Preparing for Christmas - in August!

It feels slightly crazy, but i’m actually already doing work on various bits and bobs in preparation for Christmas 2008!  I’ve just put the finishing (nearly) touches to eToys.ie, so any feedback would be appreciated

Delayed commission approvals - an easy way to piss off publishers

Across all my sites, I work with various merchants in several verticals, and the majority of the time things run reasonably smoothly.  Invoices get paid promptly, merchants and affiliate networks keep the lines of communication open with great offers, and the odd ‘thank you’ present arrives through the door.  But one problem still looms large day after day - delayed transaction and commission approvals.

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iRobot Roomba - coolest gadget ever made!

A few months ago my flatmate arrived home with one of these, the iRobot Roomba 560.  It’s basically a hoover for lazy people, and you can either turn it on by pressing a button whenever you want your gaff cleaned, or you can set a timer on it.  Using the timer method the lil fella (that’s what I call the Roomba!) will switch himself on, drive out of his little base station, and bash around the place till it’s nice and clean.

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Social Networks for mums - the new ‘idea du jour’

Reading the latest issue of NMA today, there’s a little piece about Mothercare owned social network Gurgle signing a deal with MSN to provide content for MSNs Life and Style channels.  With over 250,000 unique visitors per month and 500,000 registered users, Gurgle does seem to have gained quite a lot of traction in this space and i’ve noticed quite quite a few competitors cropping up.   Here’s a few…

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Tradedoubler in Ireland - gathering steam

Since about February this year i’ve been increasingly dealing with Eoin and the other guys (and gals) over at Tradedoubler Ireland.  I first got in touch with them and had a fairly decent meeting as I was planning the development of Compare.ie, a price comparison site focussed mainly on retail with the main criteria for prospective merchants being that they ship to Ireland and have Euro pricing plain and clear to see for all on their websites.

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Carrie Dizzee Rascal

I’m in London reasonably frequently for various reasons these days (8 times so far this year), and every time I go over i’m blown away by the quality of BBC Radio 1.  In comparison to anything available on Irish radio… well, there is none - especially when it comes to the Chris Moyles show.

They have a habit of doing some really funny spoof song segments on the show, one of my favourites being the wonderfully posh sports news reader Carrie doing her own version of ‘Dance Wiv Me’ by Dizzee Rascal.  She’s not a bad lookin lady either!