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'.

Websites made easy follows on from the previous musing in that its basis is the IT vs marketing argument.

I talk about this in all of my sessions and it is in two of my books, so now it is online as well ... what is the website development dream team?

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
* Gerry McGovern (2010) The Stranger's Long Neck
* Chris Anderson (2007) The long Tail
* Aaron Goldman (2010) Everything I know about marketing I learned from Google

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?.

Still on Twitter, I wonder what's the return on investment on tweeting?

Having raised the issue with regard to Twitter - I've taken a look at what's the ROI on using Facebook as a medium for marketing.

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 ... and one that gets it right.

Following on from 'what is wrong with e-marketing 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.

More than a musing - this is a paper I have written - free publicity - you can't give it away.