Chris Lake

The 12 fundamentals of e-commerce

We are often asked about the fundamentals of e-commerce: how do you build an online retail store, what do customers need to see, what does Google look for, how can you increase conversion rates?

I have compiled a list of the 12 fundamentals that you can put in place to enhance an existing online store or plan a new one...

by Chris Lake 18 July 2006 14:14pm 1 comment

Sky launches broadband, triple play services

BSkyB has announced plans to roll out a broadband service, to be bundled alongside its pay-TV and newly relaunched ‘Sky Talk’ telephone service. Triple play, baby!

by Chris Lake 18 July 2006 11:53am 0 comments

BetonSports charged by US Justice Department

Trouble ahead for the online gaming industry after reports that the US Justice Department has charged BetonSports and three other companies with racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.

AIM-listed BetonSports suspended shares just before 8am this morning, pending an announcement, while AFX is reporting that "the indictment seeks forfeiture of 4.5 bln usd from Kaplan and the co-defendents, as well as various properties", which would spell more trouble for BetonSports investors (shares fell by almost 20% yesterday).

by Chris Lake 18 July 2006 09:07am 0 comments

BetonSports' CEO detained by US Feds

The online gaming sector is reeling this morning after BetonSports CEO David Carruthers was seized by The Feds in the US, while waiting to transfer onto an aircraft destined for Costa Rica, where the company’s customer services centre is based.

by Chris Lake 17 July 2006 12:45pm 0 comments

A 10-point checklist for landing page design

The fallout from Google's new 'Quality Score' is growing, with talk of "mass defections" to MSN and Yahoo, but if you want to stick with Google Adwords then you need to know how to create some quality landing pages.

A quality landing page is one that reinforces ‘conversion intent’. To do this, you need to consider the mindset of your visitor and provide just enough information to persuade them to convert. And no unnecessary distractions… ok?

So what are the 10 things you need to know about designing landing pages? Read on to find out...

by Chris Lake 28 November 2008 17:26pm 26 comments

Will the geeks really rule the world?

Paul Graham, one of the founders of web incubator Y Combinator, says we’re not in a bubble, and he’s right. There’s way too much talk about this mythical bubble. It ain’t a bubble, folks.

However, I think Paul is wide of the mark on a number of his assertions made when interviewed by Ian Delaney, who is currently writing a book on Web 2.0. Paul says he has spotted “a social trend that will last”, namely: “the startup world will increasingly be ruled by technical people rather than business people”.

God forbid!

I’m amazed that a savvy investor would think that way. Paul is a hacker himself of course, and a successful entrepreneur to boot, so I could be wildly out on this one. It just seems… wrong… on… so… many… levels…

by Chris Lake 13 July 2006 20:50pm 2 comments

PPC hyperinflation reported on Google Adwords

Wow, Google’s Quality Score is really starting to bite hard on some PPC budgets. I’ve just taken a call from Auctioning4U, a UK-based firm that helps people sell goods on eBay, and they are reporting that average click costs have risen by almost 2,000% in just one week.

Trevor Ginn, Head of Consulting at Auctioning4U, told me that one keyphrase has jumped in price from 12p to £2.75 in the last week.

In another example, the price went up from his default of 30p (which paid for an average Adwords position of 1.3) to £5.50. “Feel my pain,” he says, not without reason.

Naturally, Trevor is wounded and reeling, and puzzled as to what he’s done wrong. He’s not really done anything wrong. It is simply a case of Google shifting the goalposts.

Yup, this PPC hyperinflation is linked to Google’s newly-enhanced focus on ad quality. It could be a case of too much, too soon.

by Chris Lake 13 July 2006 13:34pm 2 comments

Rand's lovely new Page Strength Tool

Rand Fishkin’s SEOmoz.org is a great website for anybody interested in SEO as it contains search marketing news, research and analysis. It also hosts a number of tools that can help marketers, including a new ‘Page Strength’ tool.

by Chris Lake 12 July 2006 17:56pm 3 comments

BT denies Bebo approach, Web 2.0 shark not yet jumped

TechCrunch reports that Bebo has spurned the advances of UK telecoms behemoth BT, which is rumoured to have offered more than £300m ($552m) for the social networking site.

However, a senior BT executive told E-consultancy that this is nonsense.

Our BT source said: “We can state categorically that BT has not had any discussions with, or made any approach to, Bebo. We're not sure where this rumour came from.”

UPDATE: Bebo's Xochi Birch also emailed me to say: "BT has not approached us and we currently have no contact with anyone at BT." She also has no clue about where the rumour came from.

by Chris Lake 11 July 2006 18:19pm 1 comment

eBay sells Adsense click fraud, plays with fire

Last week we reported that eBay has banned Google Checkout, something that is likely to backfire on the auction giant, which owns rival payment processor PayPal.

Silicon has today published a timely analysis of why eBay is more likely to suffer than Big G.

Meanwhile, I have been looking for the smoking gun that might force Google to retaliate, leading to the possible banning of eBay from its search results. Hard to imagine it could come to that, but who knows?

by Chris Lake 11 July 2006 13:04pm 5 comments