Patrick Oak

I'm an internet consultant. Over the past 10 years, I have built my own online businesses and helped companies build theirs. From strategy to development to marketing I am a jack of all trades and love sharing my experiences and advice.

10 VoIP applications for your mobile phone

Making calls on your mobile phone can get quite expensive, especially when calling internationally.

Fortunately, there are now a number of great mobile VoIP services that make international calling from mobile phones dirt cheap.

by Patrick Oak 20 November 2008 13:56pm 2 comments

Adding online chat to your website

Community features, while not right for everyone, can be a useful way for many online publishers to create more loyalty amongst users and keep them hanging around longer.

While social networks and blogs are all the rage, one shouldn't forget about message boards and chat when considering community.

by Patrick Oak 17 November 2008 09:15am 6 comments

An SMS primer

With the mobile internet attracting more and more attention and use, it's getting very difficult for online businesses to ignore the world of mobile.

SMS (Short Message Service) is the technology behind text messaging and even though it's far from being the most cutting-edge mobile technology, it's often the first one companies will experiment with because it's the most widely-used. Over 200 billion SMS messages were sent in 2007.

by Patrick Oak 19 November 2008 08:45am 1 comment

Six WordPress ad-related plugins

Monetizing a blog can be hard. If you're using WordPress, eliminate some of the time you're probably spending managing your ads so that you can focus on producing great content and finding ways to better monetize that content.

Here are 6 WordPress plugins to help you do just that.

by Patrick Oak 14 November 2008 09:00am 1 comment

Detecting click fraud

Earlier this week E-consultancy's own Drama 2.0 discussed current click fraud rates with PPC ad programs.

As an active user of PPC marketing, I wanted to chime in with my strategy for dealing with the issue.

by Patrick Oak 12 November 2008 08:40am 3 comments

Seven deadly consumer biases and how to deal with them

On Saturday, Scott Brave of The E-Commerce Times posted a great article about seven deadly consumer biases that impact customer ratings and reviews on etailer websites.

by Patrick Oak 11 November 2008 08:45am 1 comment

Social network advertising options

While it's widely accepted that advertising on social networks can be a mixed bag in terms of results; for certain types of campaigns, it may be worth giving a shot.

If you're interested in dipping your toes in social network advertising, here's a list of the ways you can reach users on social networks.

by Patrick Oak 05 November 2008 08:40am 2 comments

Google trying to comfort publishers in times of turmoil?

Last week I received an email from Google that was sent to AdSense publishers.

It addressed concerns they may have about the economic situation.

by Patrick Oak 03 November 2008 09:15am 1 comment

Recession advice for etailers

As the world gears up for a global recession, etailers are starting to feel the pinch.

Last week, E-consultancy's Editor in Chief Chris Lake suggested 20 ways etailers can delight their customers to remain successful in these tough times.

by Patrick Oak 07 November 2008 10:00am 0 comments

Amazon EC2 comes out of beta

Amazon's EC2 "cloud computing" offering, which enables users to access on-demand processing power using the firm's infrastructure, is "now ready for production", according to Amazon.

It officially left "beta" last week.

by Patrick Oak 27 October 2008 08:40am 0 comments