ecommerce: September 2007 Archives
I've just been looking over the list of nominees for this year's Net Visionary Awards and I've been trying to work out who I should vote for...
Best Blogger - It would have to be a toss up between Keith and Grandad. I know a couple of the others on the list, but I don't read them regularly so I can't really vote for them.
While it's hard choosing between Keith and Grandad I'd probably err towards Grandad as he's made me laugh so much over the last year. It's also great to see someone of a slightly older generation not only starting their own blog but also getting other people blogging.
Best Online Banking Service - I've no idea. I don't use any of the banks listed. I really don't understand why they even have this category. If it was broader ie. "financial services" you could get a lot more interesting stuff in there, but how many banks are there?
Best Podcaster - Conn O Muineachain. He deserves it
Education Contribution - Bernie Goldbach. (congrats on the new arrival by the way!)
Paul Whelan from Biology.ie would be another choice
E-Government - No idea. Sorry!
Innovation - This is a really tough one, as I know quite a few of the nominees personally. David Curtin and his team successfully launched Enum in Ireland and that is true innovation. Newaddress.ie is a really cool service, so Kevin deserves credit (they were nominated previously, but I don't think they won). Martin Langedijk's work with Teamwork has made life a lot easier for a lot of businesses including my own! Alan's someone I respect and who has been doing quite a few interesting things over the last year or so - keep an eye on him!
Internet Entrepreneur - Obviously I'd have to vote for myself - though I never actually win!. If you don't want to you could do worse than looking at the likes of Derek Quinn, who was also involved with NewAddress and is probably plotting something new already ... Pigsback is a cool idea, CentralR is useful and all the other ones listed are either already cool and useful or have lots of potential. There's just so many of them to choose from! (Maybe you can just pick me and keep it simple! :) )
Internet Marketer - Dave Davis. I've no experience of the others. RaboDirect has been very successful with their online marketing, though they were nominated for this last year as well when someone else was involved (I think!) . Mark Tarbatt's Generator is an interesting business and unlike some of his competitors he actually does provide quotes when you ask for them!
Mobile Internet Damien Farren from DotMobi
I've mentioned them several times on here and over on both my domain blog and the company one. They're doing cool stuff with the mobile web!
Online Trader - Even though I / we are nominated the list is impressive and I really don't think I should be there. Someone like Geoff Boyle from 123 is much more deserving
Social Contribution - This is always a tough category. Trying to narrow it down is not easy! A lot of the time the nominees are the unsung heroes. The guys and girls that have helped the rest of us in some way (and by "us" I mean people in general)
Damien Mulley has given generously of his time over the last few years in so many ways that it would be hard to know where to start.
Andy Osborn has been slaving away on taking BodyWhys to the next level and it seems to have been paying off.
Paul Clerkin's work with Irish architecture site Archiseek is amazing. You don't have to be into architecture to appreciate that it is a labour of love.
Politics.ie is a fantastic resource, so David Cochrane deserves to be on that list.
Technology Journalist - I'd go with Mulley on this one again, though Eamon McGrane makes that decision difficult.
Web Designer - Oh how I hate this category! Take your pick! Alan, Peter and Darren have all done work for me in either a personal capacity or for the company over the last year, so how I'm going to vote in that category.... God only knows!
Web Developer - I know several people on that list (quelle surprise!) but I am at a loss as to who I'd vote for. I know who I won't vote for, but that doesn't reduce the list enough!
If anyone has any suggestions on how best to vote please let me know!
NB: Anyone can vote. You DO NOT need to be a member of the IIA
Best Blogger - It would have to be a toss up between Keith and Grandad. I know a couple of the others on the list, but I don't read them regularly so I can't really vote for them.
While it's hard choosing between Keith and Grandad I'd probably err towards Grandad as he's made me laugh so much over the last year. It's also great to see someone of a slightly older generation not only starting their own blog but also getting other people blogging.
Best Online Banking Service - I've no idea. I don't use any of the banks listed. I really don't understand why they even have this category. If it was broader ie. "financial services" you could get a lot more interesting stuff in there, but how many banks are there?
Best Podcaster - Conn O Muineachain. He deserves it
Education Contribution - Bernie Goldbach. (congrats on the new arrival by the way!)
Paul Whelan from Biology.ie would be another choice
E-Government - No idea. Sorry!
Innovation - This is a really tough one, as I know quite a few of the nominees personally. David Curtin and his team successfully launched Enum in Ireland and that is true innovation. Newaddress.ie is a really cool service, so Kevin deserves credit (they were nominated previously, but I don't think they won). Martin Langedijk's work with Teamwork has made life a lot easier for a lot of businesses including my own! Alan's someone I respect and who has been doing quite a few interesting things over the last year or so - keep an eye on him!
Internet Entrepreneur - Obviously I'd have to vote for myself - though I never actually win!. If you don't want to you could do worse than looking at the likes of Derek Quinn, who was also involved with NewAddress and is probably plotting something new already ... Pigsback is a cool idea, CentralR is useful and all the other ones listed are either already cool and useful or have lots of potential. There's just so many of them to choose from! (Maybe you can just pick me and keep it simple! :) )
Internet Marketer - Dave Davis. I've no experience of the others. RaboDirect has been very successful with their online marketing, though they were nominated for this last year as well when someone else was involved (I think!) . Mark Tarbatt's Generator is an interesting business and unlike some of his competitors he actually does provide quotes when you ask for them!
Mobile Internet Damien Farren from DotMobi
I've mentioned them several times on here and over on both my domain blog and the company one. They're doing cool stuff with the mobile web!
Online Trader - Even though I / we are nominated the list is impressive and I really don't think I should be there. Someone like Geoff Boyle from 123 is much more deserving
Social Contribution - This is always a tough category. Trying to narrow it down is not easy! A lot of the time the nominees are the unsung heroes. The guys and girls that have helped the rest of us in some way (and by "us" I mean people in general)
Damien Mulley has given generously of his time over the last few years in so many ways that it would be hard to know where to start.
Andy Osborn has been slaving away on taking BodyWhys to the next level and it seems to have been paying off.
Paul Clerkin's work with Irish architecture site Archiseek is amazing. You don't have to be into architecture to appreciate that it is a labour of love.
Politics.ie is a fantastic resource, so David Cochrane deserves to be on that list.
Technology Journalist - I'd go with Mulley on this one again, though Eamon McGrane makes that decision difficult.
Web Designer - Oh how I hate this category! Take your pick! Alan, Peter and Darren have all done work for me in either a personal capacity or for the company over the last year, so how I'm going to vote in that category.... God only knows!
Web Developer - I know several people on that list (quelle surprise!) but I am at a loss as to who I'd vote for. I know who I won't vote for, but that doesn't reduce the list enough!
If anyone has any suggestions on how best to vote please let me know!
NB: Anyone can vote. You DO NOT need to be a member of the IIA
Over the past couple of years I've deal with Vito from DemoDemo quite a bit. He's a cool guy and their demos have saved us a fortune!
Earlier this evening he sent a lot of his clients an email which really caught my attention.
They're celebrating 5 years in business this month so he's offering a "set your own price" deal! Basically you hop over to their hosting tutorials page. Choose what you want to order and then send them an offer.
Interesting marketing tactic to say the least! I hope it doesn't backfire on him :)
Earlier this evening he sent a lot of his clients an email which really caught my attention.
They're celebrating 5 years in business this month so he's offering a "set your own price" deal! Basically you hop over to their hosting tutorials page. Choose what you want to order and then send them an offer.
Interesting marketing tactic to say the least! I hope it doesn't backfire on him :)
A number of people had raised concerns about CD Wow's service being less than stellar of late.
It now transpires that the company was bought by Australian company Stomp International.
I haven't had any reason to purchase anything from them in quite some time, so I've no idea how good or bad service was during their "bad patch", but they used to be excellent.
It now transpires that the company was bought by Australian company Stomp International.
I haven't had any reason to purchase anything from them in quite some time, so I've no idea how good or bad service was during their "bad patch", but they used to be excellent.
One of the things about popular films is that they are guaranteed to create a sort of pricing war in the online shops.
The latest Harry Potter film is no different. The more popular online shops are listing the pre-release pricing and the deals are quite interesting, though Play.com seems to be slightly ahead of the crowd.
Now what on earth would I do with a Harry Potter doll?
The latest Harry Potter film is no different. The more popular online shops are listing the pre-release pricing and the deals are quite interesting, though Play.com seems to be slightly ahead of the crowd.
Now what on earth would I do with a Harry Potter doll?
Getting bloggers to talk about your products isn't a bad idea, as long as you are willing to accept both positive and negative comments.
Damien has sorted out a nice deal with Sublime Wines. If you contact him you can get wine as long as you promise to review it.
I hadn't heard of Sublime Wines until Damien mentioned them, so I popped over to their site to see what they had on offer. They've an interesting selection of both European and New World wines with prices from below 10 euro. From what I was able to work out you have to order a minimum of 3 bottles at a time.
The site is quite nicely laid out, but isn't particularly search engine friendly, which is a real pity, so they may end up spending quite a bit of their marketing budget on pay per click instead of getting a nice stream of organic traffic.
Damien has sorted out a nice deal with Sublime Wines. If you contact him you can get wine as long as you promise to review it.
I hadn't heard of Sublime Wines until Damien mentioned them, so I popped over to their site to see what they had on offer. They've an interesting selection of both European and New World wines with prices from below 10 euro. From what I was able to work out you have to order a minimum of 3 bottles at a time.
The site is quite nicely laid out, but isn't particularly search engine friendly, which is a real pity, so they may end up spending quite a bit of their marketing budget on pay per click instead of getting a nice stream of organic traffic.
I got another delivery from Amazon today. It came in its usual stiff cardboard which contained some advertising from their partner companies. As it was Amazon US the partner offers were a bit American biased, which is only to be expected, however one of them really got my eye: The Noble Collection.
Wow!
If you are a film buff, or know one, then this is one of those sites you might want to take a look at.
Its focus is on the big production films such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia, but some of the stuff they're selling is truly impressive, though the pricing is too!
The only thing that I could afford without feeling guilty is one of these pens:
It is nice, but wholly impractical!
Of course you could always go closer to home orget yourself a nice little dragon to brighten up your mantelpiece:
They come in a nice presentation box and can be ordered online from the Edman Collection site.
Pity the US shop won't ship to Ireland, but I guess I'll live...
Wow!
If you are a film buff, or know one, then this is one of those sites you might want to take a look at.
Its focus is on the big production films such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia, but some of the stuff they're selling is truly impressive, though the pricing is too!
The only thing that I could afford without feeling guilty is one of these pens:
It is nice, but wholly impractical!Of course you could always go closer to home orget yourself a nice little dragon to brighten up your mantelpiece:
They come in a nice presentation box and can be ordered online from the Edman Collection site.Pity the US shop won't ship to Ireland, but I guess I'll live...
