I get the funniest emails through from my blog:
Hello ,
Am XXXXXXXXX and would like to make an Order of Hand Dryers from you and would like to know the types and sizes you have as well as the prices and the types of payment method that you accept.Thank you and Waiting to hear from you very soon,
Regards
XXXXX
How do you respond to that!?
Was just pinged about this by Gavin from TSW!
Nice little viral with frighteningly good impersonations of Ricky Gervais and others from The Office!
Check out all of them here: http://www.k3scs.com/the-factory/
Nice idea from the Office 2010 guys!
http://www.office2010themovie.com
33 seconds of fun which give a hint as to what’s to come in the new program.
To be honest I can’t imagine “No Return” “No Undo” and “No Control. Alt. Delete.” So goodness knows what they got in store.
Just been given the heads up on a new tool to make it easy to add a map and directions to a meeting request in Outlook 2007!
The guys at Multimap have built a mapping Add-In to Outlook which, with a few clicks, embeds a map into a calendar meetings, contacts and emails which saves time adding links and generates an “easy to access“ map you can view or print plus find directions and transport links. 
It also let’s you click on the Bird’s Eye view – my favourite feature so you can see exactly where I work!
If you have Office 2007 check it out and let us know what you think!
Oh….and before you ask it works in the US too! 🙂
I’ve just designed a site for the Budleigh Salterton Art Club in Devon!
Me….a web designer?! Who’d have thought?!
I used Office Live to do it and it took about an hour to set up and launch!
You get to register a domain for free for the first year and you get free web hosting, free design tools and templates to create and edit your site and, to cap it all off, you get free support by phone and email – not that I needed it because it was so easy to set up the site!
You can pretty much add in anything you want at a click of a button:
Seeing as it’s an art club I added a photo gallery but you can have a multitude of modules including contact forms, event calendars, stock lists and even a quick fire map & direction section!
The navigation look and feel is very much like Microsoft Office, as you’d expect being called Office Live! But my point is it’s so easy for the web novice to find their way around and get a new half-way decent website up and receiving traffic in just a couple of hours.
Check out the 3 Step Guide on how to get started and see how other companies have got on with the system at their customer gallery!
It may not be as super-pretty as something a professional designer could whack out, but in these cash-strapped times there is a bunch of retired budding Van Gogh’s in deepest, darkest Devon who are very happy with the result!
Spotted this ad for John West Tuna near my flat at the weekend. I’m not sure what the bloke with the fiddle is all about but my eye was drawn to the USP – “No Drain Tuna”
Now they’ve obviously done some market research and found that some consumers are reluctant to buy their product because it’s too “fiddly”.
(I think I’ve just got the fiddle reference while writing that last sentence…………groan!)
But is our time so precious that we’re now looking to save a few seconds while opening a can of fish?
Maybe it’s because we’re too busy blogging and tweeting?
I’ll be “trawling” your comments for an answer soon I expect!
I’ve not written about this awesome little program on my blog until now.
No reason other than I suppose I forget sometimes that although I write a lot on the adCenter Blog, there are other channels I can talk about the great work our teams at Microsoft do.
In a nutshell the Microsoft adCenter Excel Add In Keyword Research Tool lets you plug in a keyword and assess how many people search using that word in a given time period.
It will also tell you what other searches contained that term.
So not just “camera” but also “digital camera” “SLR Camera” “Camera Stores in Cardiff” or “my camera oh oh, my camera never lies anymore” (assuming people are looking for Bucks Fizz lyrics!)
The killer app for me is the demographic tool which lets you see which demographic – age and gender – is typing in that keyword more than any other?
Why is it important?
Well never before have you had so much rich data to use when marketing online…..or offline for that matter.
Knowing the different keywords that are associated with your products, services and brand and your competitors brands is important when you’re building out web or PPC keywords, content and ad copy.
But if you know what the audience that is most interested in learning more you can tailor your marketing accordingly.
Women aged between 18 and 25 are going to require a very different message than the kind you’d use to target a guy aged 50-65 so having a better understanding of who your customers are helps you come up with marketing that will resonate.
So download the Keyword Research Tool now and give it a whirl – you will NOT be disappointed!
We’re piloting the new version which has UK data at the mo so watch out for that on the adCenter Blog!
5 flights, 4 countries, 3 hotels, 2 hangovers and only 1 life!
The last couple of weeks have been madder than Mad Jack McMad!
1st there was Iceland and www.rimc.com – check out mine and Rand Fishkin’s post and my Facebook Photos for some insight into that incredible few days!
Then there was SES New York – check out our wild and whacky videos here, here & here!
After a pit stop in Boston to visit my mate Dom Doyle who teaches Theology at Harvard, it was onto Toronto where I spent time with the Canada team and participated in a round table with some of Canada’s finest press folk and managed an amusing dinner out with Vanessa, Danny and Andrew & Mona from www.PageZero.com
Now I’m in Seattle meeting with my team, planning the next year’s worth of excitement and doing lots of work during downtime on the wedding!
After two weeks it’s a bit odd being away from Englandshire, but travelling sure makes sure you’re busy.
It amuses me how some people seem to think it’s all glitz and glam, but believe me you yearn for your own bed and a daily dose of Radio 5 Live!
The key is to make long trips comfortable and I have some tips on how to get the most from your mileage…….but I’ll save them for another day!
BTW – If anyone can name the BBC comedy and character who says the words in the title of this post, I’ll send them a surprise!
More photos from day 2 of Search Engine Strategies in New York
I’m tweeting like a mad man at http://Twitter.com/adCenterBlog and we’ll have a recap video at www.adCenterCommunity.com soon!!!
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