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John

7 months ago

in Leisure Time From Barclaycard - Fail on Jonathan MacDonald.com
You'd think companies like Barclaycard would be able to get it right by now wouldn't you!

Shocking!
1 reply
John Lowke I am trying to find out how they are getting away using the Barclaycard logo thereby making it look as if its part of Barclaycard.

1 year ago

in Microsoft Gives Up Earning Your Loyalty; Launches “Cashback” to Bribe You Instead on Marketing Pilgrim
I was going to take a look but I'd already forgotten the brand name by the time I reached the end of the post...

John's last blog post..Swapping Stuff

1 year ago

in Icahn Haz Yahoo! Board on Marketing Pilgrim
If he's driven to Microsoft's deal Ballmer could be in a position to lower the offer... I think he might stick to the $33 however.

John's last blog post..Gordon Brown To Have His Own ‘Apprentice’ Show?

1 year ago

in Google Falling Apart at the Seams; Doesn’t Appear to Care on Marketing Pilgrim
@Nicole, no Microsoft is not quite as bad as Google on that count, but then again it's core has long been Office and Windows.

@PS3, we don't see anyone (yet), but the obvious source of a challenge is an ex Google employee taking the millions and self funding their own SE.

John's last blog post..Be Brave, Be A Specialist

1 year ago

in Google Falling Apart at the Seams; Doesn’t Appear to Care on Marketing Pilgrim
But putting the staff turnover into perspective Google is at that age where lots of their long term (and senior) staff have vested. It's only natural therefore that many of them will take their new found wealth and pursue their own interests/challenges. The same happened to Microsoft 10 to 15 years ago but they didn't fall apart.

Equally new hires will now have Google on their CV and probably never stood to get anywhere near the same level of options of the earlier staff.

John's last blog post..Business Nightmares - Rachel Elnaugh

1 year ago

in My Head Is In The Cloud This Morning on A VC
Wayne,

Yes he makes a good point - which is why I agreed.

However when "outsourcing the rest" it's not just a question of if their technology is good (it probably is otherwise you wouldn't be outsourcing to them), you also need to factor in the additional risks you are now exposed to; for example, if your supplier has a problem are you important enough to them that they'll care about it, what if your supplier goes out of business, what if your supplier decides to stop offering the service, what if your supplier is taken over by a competitor of yours. What if your supplier suddenly increases their price.

None may be likely, but you'd be a fool not to consider the risks.

Regards, John

1 year ago

in My Head Is In The Cloud This Morning on A VC
While I'd agree that Alex is right. The counter argument is that when it does break no one else is as motivated to fix it as you are, so the question "How can I possibly rely on these guys?" should really be "How can I make sure these guys are reliable" and you should then ask "What if these guys let me down".
1 reply
WayneMulligan's picture
WayneMulligan Hey John,

I think the way to look at this is: "What's the difference between Amazon going down and RackSapce going down?". They were both down for a few hours over the last 4 months, nobody seemed to go, "OMG, how can I rely on RackSpace, I'm ditching this solution for Cloud Computing!", but yet, when Amazon went down last week I can't begin to tell you how many people msg'd me going, "See, Amazon's solution sucks".

Alex makes a very good point - what makes you, me or any other entrepreneur think they can write a better solution than Amazon or Joyent?

I'm a big believer in specialization of labor - perform the tasks that you have a comparative advantage at and outsource the rest (assuming it's a commoditized process - and I truly feel that LAMP stack hosting is).

Just my two pennies.

-Wayne

1 year ago

in Mashups on A VC
That shes claims to be planning to "donate the proceeds to charity" sounds like she knows she is being unreasonable and is trying to justify her actions.

Personally if it were me I'd be only too keen to help fans promote the brand.

1 year ago

in Pet Peeve: Blog Snobs on The Savvy Entrepreneur
I agree, I find it disappointing when I can't begin a conversation with the blogger. However I think some of the bloggers in question just suffered from too much spam.

1 year ago

in Frequency matters on Duct Tape Marketing
Absolutely, it's very easy as a small business owner, in particular when starting out to cast the net too wide.

Once you can define your ideal customer, it's also easier to identify where they are and then to target your marketing to them.

1 year ago

in The Bug Store Is Open For Business on A VC
That's a cool idea. Especially if the expand into robotics further down the line...

1 year ago

in How Important Is Intellectual Property For Startups? on Instigator Blog
Even if the average startup can afford get a patent it's unlikely to be able to afford to defend it. Execution must always come first.

1 year ago

in Resource: Top 100 Business Blogs Listed on The Savvy Entrepreneur
Thanks Cristina you have a great blog.

1 year ago

in 14 Tips for Moving From Full-Time to Freelance Work on Instigator Blog
I'd add, get networking. Ideally within the groups that your customers will attend. Equally there's value in networking with your 'competitors' too.

1 year ago

in Could you pull a Radiohead? on Duct Tape Marketing
Unfortunately they seem to have managed to make it backfire and upset some of their best customers i.e. dedicated fans.

1 year ago

in Is Your Ego The Perfect Size To Be a Great Leader? on Instigator Blog
And it takes a lot of self confidence to be able to show you humility in public...

1 year ago

in Guest Writing at Pronet Advertising on Instigator Blog
You'd be welcome to send me a guest post on entrepreneurship / business ideas.

1 year ago

in Twitter Nofollow on Andy Beard - Internet Business Systems Discussion
Once everyone nofollow's what are Google going to be left with for their PageRank algorithm to work on? It's getting out of hand.

1 year ago

in Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers on Instigator Blog
Finding new _relevant_ blogs is always a challenge, even with Google blog search, anyone got any tips?

1 year ago

in It Turns Out Brainstorming Has NEVER Worked on LifeDev
I agree with Sam brainstorming is a valuable tool and does work, however to get the most out of it you need the right people all focused on the right goal.

My experience has always been that a team brainstorming an idea can radically improve on what one person alone would have created.

2 years ago

in Times releases list of best business blogs on Scobleizer
I'm not even sure I'd count some of them as business blogs. Tescopoly is more a rant against Tesco's than anything else.

2 years ago

in Comics, is there any way to make a business here? on Scobleizer
There's also userfriendly.org - he's making a living from it.

2 years ago

in 8 from the ProBlogger Group Writing Contest on A New Marketing
Thanks for the complement! I've enjoyed reading your blog today too.
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