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Website audits: “You do wrong …” vs. “If you do this, then that will happen …”

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There are two options of saying things in an audit:

  • A: “You do X, and this is wrong! You should do Y!” (alternative: “You do X, X does this huge problem – A, and this is wrong!”)
  • B: “You do X, and this has the following consequences: A, B, C. If you do Y, this has the following consequences. P, Q, R. For this reason, my personal advice would do to pick Y.”

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Tip: provide extra services online.

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You’re an online store. You sell furniture. Should you do something else? At Leaders in marketing 2012 conference, one opinion came: Don’t just be like – we want to sell online products about X. Be more like – we will help you to use products about X, we will help you in your environment, and it’s more likely you’ll buy those products from us. So, if you sell furniture, you may also want to care: How to help customers pick furniture. Possible use for furniture in a home. How to repair furniture. How to reuse old furniture. What are the latest trends. Also see: Follow-up: Leaders in marketing 2012 (2012.10.18, Willbrook Platinum Convention Center): Olivian BREDA

Branding: The name doesn’t matter all that much

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Follow-up: Leaders in marketing 2012 (2012.10.18, Willbrook Platinum Convention Center)

I know one guy who wants to start an online project. He delayed the project for quite in order to find the perfect name. At Leaders in marketing 2012 conference, one opinion came: “The name doesn’t matter all that much”. Sure, to some point, it matters, it leaves an impression. But there’s so much more in a business than its name, that you can live happily with a not-that-great name. It’s much more important to deliver quality, or other good service, than having a catchy name. Also see: Follow-up: Leaders in marketing 2012 (2012.10.18, Willbrook Platinum Convention Center): Olivian BREDA

Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G AF-S DX – About not buying camera lens and, also, about my new camera lens

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Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G AF-S DX - About not buying camera lens and, also, about my new camera lens

I told you countless times that I don’t intend to buy camera lens, and I actually gave some reasons for this.

Well, the day before yesterday, in the evening, I went to F64 to talk to some consultants. One guy told me some basic :) stuff, like:

  • “18-55?” (kit lens) – “Do you take photos for just playing? Are you just having fun?”.
  • “You know, as a photographer you need to use your elbow” (referring to the fact that I intended to shoot from a far distance and get a quality photo. It just doesn’t work this way, it seems.) :)
  • “For what you need, zoom + light, you need to invest quite a lot in a flash + zoom lens”.
  • “The cheapest alternative is to buy this thing:

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Interactive logos

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Cristian Kit PAUL (Founding Partner, Creative Director – Brandient) talked at Internet & Mobile World 2012 about corporate logo identity. I will soon post the video, but until then, some thoughts on this: Google does it, in my opinion, best. They attract media attention (when they change their logos, Romanian newspapers write articles specifically on this, to get some views). See their whole history of doodles. Google also has a brand philosophy on “fun”. Easter eggs, error messages which are funny, translation of Google search interface in Klingon and so on. They try to be funny. Google also has totally interactive logos (JavaScript games, YouTube videos). MailChimp built their brand on interactive & funny & cute. I like them a lot for this. WordPress also has a take on this, with their mandatory-to-have-but-free-not-to-install Hello, Dolly! plugin. Flickr is OK (they say “hello” in some languages). In Romania, eMAG and Domo do it also. I’m not a huge fan, but they do OK. Looking at the local competation, they do very OK. It’s not enough to have a “cute brand”. MailChimp is also very good at what they do. WordPress rocks. Flickr used to be very good, and, for a paid service (storing photos online for money? In 2012?). eMAG are top sellers. Domo does a pretty decent job (I bought a fridge from them online, they had, at that point, competitive prices).

Two mistakes about the video camera & photo camera

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I own these two: Camera video Sony CX130, Red + Card 8 GB CX130R8GXXDI.EU – eMAG.ro Aparat foto DSLR Nikon D3100, obiectiv 18-55 VR, Black The two mistakes I made while buying them? I paid (around) 1,600 + 2,000 = 3,600 for the two and some extra 3-500 for extra stuff (cards, tripod). I would have been better off with a single device, which could do both movies & photos. I’m not sure how would that device look like, but this would be my bet on. So a photo + videos device would have proved better for me. While in May 2012 (end of it) the price for my photo camera made it a best buy, right now I wouldn’t pick it. There are better alternatives than my camera right now (D3200, D5100, others yet). There are degrees of mistakes, and I estimate I get 80% of what I could have gotten with other extra research. Still, it’s troubling me a bit. Update: I thought about the above and … it doesn’t matter. At that specific time (5 months ago for the photo camera and 10 months ago for the video camera), the decision was top notch. Now it isn’t. Well, it’s rather irrelevant. I doesn’t matter that in 1997 I programmed in Pascal, rather than C++. For that time, it was a good choice. Also, about photo lens – it still puzzles me why I would even bother to read about them. There is no free lunch, a starting good lens is worth, new, more …

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