Anyone who has read any of my books or attended any of my talks, seminars or lectures will know I take a very firm - and opinionated - stance on the role of the IT department in website design. Read about it in what is it about me and 'IT'.

It's in a book - so it must be true. In the same vein - who do you believe academic or practitioner?

Those who know me already appreciate that I hold many academic papers in low regard, this is why - some academic papers are simply worthless in the real world.

What's in a name? - is it Internet, online, digital or 'e' marketing. And do you favour e-business or e-commerce - or are they just the same thing? See what I have to say - e-commerce, e-business, e-marketing, Internet marketing - what are they?

Continuing the 'what is?' theme - here's a few thoughts on what is ... online retail.

I say that there is nothing new in marketing on the web - read what I mean by the statement.

In web site development, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. My view on marketing vs techies permeates the soul of this site - and here's another example. In this case, technology vs good old-fashioned words.

Some book reviewS:
* John Battelle (2005) The Search
* Andrew Keen (2008) The Cult of the Amateur
* Tapscott & Williams (2006) Wikinomics
* Chris Anderson (2007) The long Tail.

Still on the long tail, nice idea - but new?

Personalization of online ads can work, if you do it properly.

Navigational search - why bother?

Technology versus the human touch - what [Internet] technology can do continues to amaze me, but in e-marketing some human input is still essential.

s-commerce - the latest retail experience?

Can a web site be a product - if it isn't, what is it?

Can there be a 'standard' for a web site? - I doubt it.

Googling customers - could you check-out your customers on a search engine in order to offer a better service - a kind of 'personalization by search'?

The issue of bad customers is common in both B2B and B2C - how can digital technology help out the put-upon vendor?

My comments on some bad practice in the subject of targeting, personalization,privacy and advertising.

A new[ish] kid on the block is VRM. Read what I think about the concept.

My mum always told me that first impressions are lasting impressions – and in general she is right. Online, however, the first impression a visitor has of your website might last less than a second - see website first impressions.

I've never been convinced by the whole 'twitter' thing - and even less convinced by it as a marketing tool. See what I've got to say in 'what tweeting use is twitter?': Part I are you a 'twitter-follower' whore?, and Part II would you want these tweets?.

It's a phrase I use all the time with regard to marketing, and it is particularly relevant to website design - but what do I mean when I say when you're inside the bottle, you can't read the label?

I say that not all products are suitable for online transactions - live with it, e-marketing is not for every organization.

It is a significant element of 'social media' - but what's in consumer generated media for the marketer? Also on the same subject - some ad-hoc research, but an intereting story - citizen journalism : the good, the bad and the subjective of online car reviews.

A job ad which typifies what is wrong with e-marketing / e-commerce.

Following on from the previous comment is my technology [science] versus the human touch [art] argument.

The future of marketing has no web in it - it's in a book, so it must be true.

Keywords, key phrases and search terms - the most important aspect of search engine optimization?

Helping the buyer to buy - where did I get this notion from?

Web presence development is not a project - so why do so many organizations treat it as such?

Behavioural marketing - new? I don't think so.

We hold these truths to be self-evident - the Declaration of Independence meets Internet marketing.

Is e-commerce really global - or are online sales mainly local?

I find that students new to SEO often struggle with what it is actually all about - so here is an analogy that I think helps: search engine optimization - it's about the relationship.

Because web site development is like making a movie, maybe the person in charge is the director?

Even established offline newspapers - that have high quality content - cannot generate income by charging people to visit their web sites - so why is it that we expect things to be free online?

I had been heavily involved in e-commerce for a number of years before the 'dot com' boom, and - like many others - I looked on in amazement as venture capitalists poured money into half-baked business ideas simply because they were 'online'. And yes, I wished I had made some applications back in the day. In this article - the cause of the dot bomb lives on - I muse on how folk with money still seem to lose all business sense when a proposed venture includes the magic word 'website'.

This is a review of an article I came across recently - in it I describe the paper as seminal - and it is! See Strategic Planning for the Real World - a review.

Based on some research into Americans' opinions on the 'noughties', I am suggesting that the Internet has caused dissatisfaction, see - the impact of the Internet?.

It is one of those urban myths that it is easy to register a domain name for £10 and sell it later for millions [it is possible, but the odds are about the same as winning the lottery] or that you can have websites on domains that are similar to 'real' names and make a fortune from the advertising. Well, you can - but take a look at what is domaining? before you decide on it as your career path.