Search engine optimisation (SEO) is evolving (or is that mutating?) once more as generative AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity eat someone’s lunch.
How Hiding Your Phone Number and Using a Booking System Repels Time Wasters and Frees Up Time 🗓️
If you’re a business with limited time/resources, rather than react to random phone calls, have prospects arrange to talk using a website calendar system.
“Fucking Good Content” – Dan Kelsall (Book Review) 📘
This short, funny book is a reality check, pattern interrupt and life-saving antidote to all the ineffective, eye-rollingly bad marketing vomited into our minds.
Scam Poetry: The Time I Was Recruited to the Cult of Amway ⚠️
Listen to me discuss my experience having once been recruited as a distributor in the classic business cult that is Amway, on the Life After MLM podcast.
A Story of Seductive Social Media Success and Neglected Email Strategy 🏚️
As much as you love social channels, be smart by strategically optimising business operations, sales processes and leads with website email forms.
The Classic Social Media Trend Destined to Ruin Your Business 😭
Diversify your business marketing strategy beyond the social media “rug pull” to safeguard yourself from those predictably uncertain Big Tech changes.
Looking for Online Work? Don’t Fall for this Fake Hays Recruitment WhatsApp Scam ⚠️
As the cost of living crisis takes hold, determined WhatsApp job scammers impersonating Hays recruitment consultants are advertising fake jobs.
Cream of the Crap: How Fake Reviews, Bad Businesses and Dangerous Products Rise to the Top 💣
The UK and USA consumer market regulators plan to take action against the dangers of bogus ratings, but how did fake online reviews gain such a foothold?
Exposed: The Hong Kong Investment “Fraud Recovery” Scammer Deceiving Victims 🤑
Last year I used Tinder to investigate romance scammers tugging at the purse strings of besotted would-be partners. After publishing the findings, a Hong Kong woman offered to help victims reclaim lost monies. What happened next was sad and exhausting.
Computer Says No: Does Your Website Work for People with Disabilities? ♿
The 2020 surge in internet use has led to record levels of online activity. It’s high time for businesses to check that their apps and websites are fully accessible to all.
Chinese Tinder Profiles Are Using Photos of Pretty Girls to Scam “Investors” 💋
Fed up in lock down? Looking to make friends online? Need money? Beware. Ruthless individuals use Tinder to lay honey traps with the intent of committing financial fraud, mostly upon Westerners.
Small Biz Owners “Trapped” Using Email Addresses Belonging to Internet Service Providers 🪤
Don’t build your personal and professional life around the complimentary “free” email addresses supplied by your broadband provider. It shouldn’t need to be said, but apparently it does.
In the Pandemic, QR Codes are Finally Proving Worthy in the West 😷
In western society QR codes have been mostly regarded as an ugly marketing gimmick, but they’re now proving valuable as a logistical solution to the virus problem.
Small Businesses Finally Start Marketing… and All It Took Was a Global Pandemic 🏁
During COVID lockdowns, many small businesses stumbled across effective marketing strategies as a direct result of trying to stay altruistically relevant.
UK Contractors Operating Ltd Companies Should Be Mad as Hell with HMRC and IR35 🧾
HMRC are to squeeze private sector contractors in what has been described as “carpet bombing” taxation measures. The targets are individuals providing their services via a type of Limited Company called a PSC. Are you in or out of the IR35 legislation?
20 Years On and Website Hit Counters are Still a Waste of Pixels 🧮
Website hit counters clutter up the computer screen and run the risk of looking like an unsophisticated attempt to impress visitors. Counters should be extinct, with the exception being for humour, parody and pastiche.
Competitors Can Easily Edit Your Google and Facebook Business Listings 🤨
It’s possible for competitors to maliciously edit your public Google and Facebook business information listings. These attempts by rivals to mislead your customers could be happening right under your nose and you might not even notice.
Waiting on Final Images for a WordPress Website? Use this Handy Thumbnail Placeholder Trick 🪟
A handy WordPress media uploader hack for dummy image placeholders in your website build, with a quick swap when the final versions are ready.
Stop GoDaddy Spamming Branded Footer Links to WordPress Installatron Sites 🪧
GoDaddy’s love of advertising on customers’ websites is annoying. Fortunately, the branded GoDaddy backlinks inserted into WordPress sites generated by quick-install apps can be removed.
Dealing with Negative Comments on Your Paid Social Media Posts 👺
If you’re thinking of running paid social media ad campaigns, be prepared for trolls. Although their intent is to derail and undermine, the spotlight will be on you more so than usual.