For an example of a “really great” year, check out Pollenizer. We at Lingopal started working with Phil Morle and then Mick Liubiskas as individuals early in 2008, and by the end of the calendar year they had formed a company, hired staff, found premises and helped 32+ companies on their path to and beyond launch. It’s all …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
What happened in 2008 (for Lance)
(Apologies for the “all about me” post. This sort of thing helps to motivate me for the year.) Early last year I posted a plan for 2008 – daring to call it a manifesto. I’d just turned down some very good corporate career options and dared to invest more time into smaller opportunities. How did …
The top one thing to change at eBay
A while back I posted a list of the top 10 things eBay could do to improve: Top 10 things to change at eBay I now believe I missed the most important one: 0: Introduce auto-extend on auctions. Auto-extend makes the auction last for, say, 30 seconds longer each time a new bid is received. Trade Me …
eBay’s horror year
It’s not farewell yet, but eBay’s descent in 2008 has been staggeringly complete. I was intending to write about it, but Dinah Balk has done that already. Here it is – 2008 – the year eBay lost its mojo. I’d also call it “How not to run an auction site” or “Compulsory reading if work …
Internet now ahead of newspapers for US news
From Pew Research comes the unsurprising, err, news, that the internet is preferred over newspapers as a US source of national and international news. It’s amazing to me how high TV is on that question – especially after the appalling US network and cable news reporting over the last 10 years. I’ve essentially switched TV …
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Can we say goodbye to AdultFriendfinder?
Adult Friendfinder’s ads habituate the seamy side of the web. They are the dating site for the adult internet, offering sex instead of love, and delivering (probably) neither. They take dodgy dating sites to an entirely new level, with ads that promise a naked beauty in your postcode is just waiting for you to turn …
A video introduction to Lingopal
Richard put up a pretty funny video for Lingopal the other day. I’m pretty sure that the girl didn’t look quite as good as he recalls.
How to do great web usability – iinet example
iinet have a fantastic new website for new customers. Try it – go through the process to sign up for a service (use 6160 for Fremantle’s postcode). The front page is simplicity itself. Then it’s straight into questions that you can relate to: The guy’s statements change with each screen – and they are actually helpful. …
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The death of cricket
After seeing the empty shops in Fremantle yesterday I wondered whether it was just that everyone was at the cricket. So here I am today at the WACA, on, the final day of a poised South Africa vs Australia test. All in the interests of research of course. But this place is also strangely quiet, …
Outback Jacks fails to appeal
Spot the reason why US style Outback Jacks fails to attract anyone I know. Moreover the service is slow, the ambience sterile and the portions are American giant sized.
What is happening to Christmas?
This is Fremantle’s great market, on the weekend before Christmas. Like the rest of Fremantle the market is almost empty versus normal weekends. It was similar in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney, but I didn’t have much time in Sydney. Either everyone is coming to shop tomorrow, everyone is unusually organized or there are going to …
The mainsteam starts to hear about web 2.0
Bugger – now they are letting the CEO’s know about the Web 2.0 marketing techniques. The WSJ has published The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, which has the not so SEO friendly url of http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122884677205091919.html, but contains plenty of Web 2.0 buzzwords in it’s text. The article is from MT Sloan review, …
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Organic Torpedo7 beats inept inorganic Ferrit
A mentioned, we’ve covered Torpedo7 before on this blog. That was the surprising finding after Ferrit had been beaten by Torpedo7 in domestic unique browsers for the week to July 20, 2008. Organic versus Inorganic growth It turns out that comparing Ferrit and Torpedo7 is an excellent way to compare organic (Torpedo7) and inorganic (Ferrit) growth. Organic …
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Torpedo7 NZ’s fastest tech grower
Congratulations to eCommerce sensation Torpedo7, the 87th fastest growing tech company in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific this year. We’ve covered Torpedo7 before on this blog, and it’s great to see their traffic numbers are being converted into dollars -at a growth rate of 571% over 3 years. It’s even better that they …
No Black backgrounds please
Its always food to see new blogs. However if you are going to launch a new blog, like aotearoarenamemovement and newmasses did this week, then please make it easy to read. I don’t mean the content, but the design. White words on black background simply isn’t that easy to read. And for the Aotearoa Movement people, if …
Lance Wiggs 