by Hugh on December 29, 2008
In the run up to Christmas 2008, the news was full of doom and gloom about Irish retailing. The Brits changed their VAT rate which went down, ours went up, and we were fed stories of hard done by consumers rushing up to Newry in droves to do their Christmas shopping. Irish retailers shouted loud, some blaming the Irish Government for the crisis in the retail sector, and reporting a 5% drop in the retail sector in 2008. But is it as simple as that? Has the retail downturn really come as a shock, or shouldn’t the retail sector have been predicting this anyway?
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by Hugh on December 25, 2008
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and an excellent 2009! 2008 has been a great year for me, and hopefully you too. 2009 is set to be even better.
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by Hugh on December 20, 2008
I meant to blog about this before, but almost a month ago I had the pleasure of having laser eye surgery to correct the vision in my eyes. I’d been a speccy since the age of around ten and in some ways did really enjoy wearing glasses (they make me look more intelligent than I really am), but I had a rather wierd contact lens subscription. Not only were my contact lenses more than double the normal price than ‘regular’ prescriptions, I had to order them in advance from the opticians, meaning that on some occasions I had to go without contact lenses when delays occured. Add to that the nasty habit of falling asleep with them in after a few drinks on a night out, and you’ll soon realise I was a recipe for disaster when it came to being a contact lens wearer.
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by Hugh on December 18, 2008
Unless you’ve been hiding under a tree or have been in a coma, you’ll have noticed a lot of airplay for Leonard Cohens‘ Hallelujah. Or is that Jeff Buckley? X Factor winner Alexandra Burke used the song to help her win the talent competition last weekend, and the mp3 download charts have gone crazy with people looking for her version, the original Cohen version, and Buckley version. Are people confused and buying the wrong version (no doubt the younger generation would be looking for the Burke version), or are younger listeners learning about old musical gems due to a cover version by a new artist?
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by Hugh on December 18, 2008
Whilst doing some rather boring work I spent a few minutes browsing the Sky News website, and stumbled across this little gem. I love the way Richard Branson operates, and his down to earth and relaxed attitude is a joy to experience in a world of dreary CEOs. When asked about his opinion on the current economic climate, he remarked:
“I was going to say, it’s f****d, but I think I had better not have said that.”
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by Hugh on December 13, 2008
There have been many exchanges in the past on the topic of Google and SEO. Topics range from the best ways to build meta on each page, how to position header elements and how to create nice, static looking urls. One topic that is usually forgotten about, is server speed and the effect it can have on rankings and site traffic. However, investment in server memory can be one of the most beneficial spends you can make to increase traffic from search engines.
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by Hugh on December 8, 2008
I love Google Trends. Before I throw myself into anything web-based I usually use it for keyword research, and then go about planning whichever site it is i’m thinking of working on. In case you’ve never taken a peek before, Google Trends lets you search for keywords or keystrings, side by side, then compare search volumes. At certain times of the year it’s always interesting to look for spikes or dips in certain keyterms, and we were discussing the merits of New Year diets.
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by Hugh on December 2, 2008
I previously had a bit of a rant about traders and how they can sometimes lose faith in great shares when the going gets bad. One that I particularly had issue with was the half price drop in the Google share price from within on year. Now, thankfully, the price seems to be recovering – again. It still amazes me though, for the last three years Google have been increasing annual revenues and profits by around 30%+ but, in the last year at least, their share price has tumbled. It’d be interesting to see the combined values that have been knocked off pension funds and government investments because of this. Hmmm.
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by Hugh on December 2, 2008
I just got off the phone from a very, very interesting and entertaining customer satisfaction survey phone call – not. It was initiated on behalf of a service I use most days (I won’t get into specifics), and i’ve had a few problems with them in the past, so I said i’d oblige. My god was it boring. It was based on the multiple-choice, 1 for bad 7 for good formula, and I feel very sorry for the poor woman whose job it is to make those calls every day. My head would be wrecked, and my friends would notice a change in my behaviour over time from human to robot. So, do these surveys work or not, and if not, why?
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by Hugh on December 2, 2008
The Apprentice has been going on for what seems like ages, but at this stage who will win? In fairness, the standard has been fairly poor throughout – in terms of overall entertainment value, the quality of the tasks, and the execution of tasks by the contestants. No offence to Bill Cullen (sure I even have his ‘Golden Apples’ book which is great), but what relevance does selling Garmin satnavs on Grafton Street have to do with the overall scheme of things. I know he’s trying to get each competitor to prove they can sell, but i’m sure neither Jackie Lavin (who used to be a model) or Brian Purcell (PR legend) had to flog stuff on Grafton Street on their way to the top. All that aside, one candidate is showing better traits than most of them, the very easy on the eyes Nicky O’Callaghan.
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