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	<title>Paul Wallbank &#187; consumer</title>
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	<link>http://paulwallbank.com</link>
	<description>Decoding the new economy</description>
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		<title>Too good to be true</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/11/too-good-to-be-true/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/11/too-good-to-be-true/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:48:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[olympics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tickets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3245</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The same old scams catch us all]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As regular as the Olympic Games are, so too are the ticket scams. Every four years we see a &#8216;scandal&#8217; of vendors, these days online, offering cheap or difficult to get tickets. This year&#8217;s <a title="Google profit from online ticket scam" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16468846" target="_blank">London Olympics are no different</a>.</p>
<p>The bait used by these scammers is the almost impossible to get tickets, the frenzy to get along to the opening ceremony or top days sucks dozens, sometimes hundreds, of enthusiastic punters into losing money.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not just Olympic tickets, with the ease of setting up websites scammers can be online quickly with a credible, professional looking site and new services, like group buying and &#8216;penny auctions&#8217; also offer great opportunities for the enthusiastic spammer.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s sometimes difficult to spot the scams, there are some signs that can reduce the risk of your being caught out.</p>
<h2>Check the site</h2>
<p>How long has the domain been registered? You can quickly check the details by running a <strong><em>whois</em></strong> search, a kind of online registration check.</p>
<p>For <strong><em>.com</em></strong> sites, the authoritative Whois site is <a title="network solutions whois" href="http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp" target="_blank">Network Solutions</a> while for <strong><em>.co.uk</em></strong> sites (a likely candidate for London Olympic ticketing sites) it is <a title="Nominet WhoIs service" href="http://www.nic.uk/other/whois/" target="_blank">Nominet</a>. Each country has its own registration list and in Australia, for <strong><em>.com.au </em></strong>it is AuDA who run the <a title="My Web Name AuDA whois service" href="http://www.mywebname.com.au/whois.php" target="_blank">My Web Name site</a>.</p>
<p>A recently registered, or long standing, name doesn&#8217;t in itself indicate whether a site is a scam or not, but it is a good start.</p>
<h2>What are the contact details?</h2>
<p>A reputable site that wants your money should have a phone number and street address. A site that doesn&#8217;t have these is a warning sign.</p>
<h2>Do a web search</h2>
<p>The web is your friend. Use your favourite search engine to search the business&#8217; name, for most people this is Google. This can show if there&#8217;s been complaints about the site.</p>
<p>Make sure you do a full name search, for instance if you are searching for <strong><em>Joe&#8217;s cutprice tickets</em></strong> put the name inside inverted commas such as &#8220;Joe&#8217;s cutprice tickets&#8221;.</p>
<p>Also do a search on the business address, if a company operates from the same location as dozens of others then it&#8217;s almost certainly operating from a service office.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s nothing wrong with a business operating from a serviced office, if a company is claiming to be a large reputable multinational then it&#8217;s probably telling porkies.</p>
<h2>Use a disposable password</h2>
<p>If the site asks you to create an account or a password, use something different to your regular banking or other important passwords.</p>
<p>Some of these scammers are actually harvesting login details for online scams so don&#8217;t use the same password as your email or social media account as you may find your account hijacked.</p>
<h2>Don&#8217;t use social media logins</h2>
<p>Account hijacking is becoming prevalent on social media sites. The scammers get access to a victim&#8217;s Facebook or Twitter account and then contact all the victim&#8217;s friends posing as the victim. This is particularly effective for getting more people trapped in the scam.</p>
<p>Increasingly we&#8217;re seeing sites using social media logins, that is offering to use your Facebook account rather than a user name or password as a convenient way of signing up. These almost always give the site permission to post on your behalf and you should not do this unless you are totally confident in the site.</p>
<h2>Pay by credit card</h2>
<p>Even the best of us can get caught out by scammers, so paying by credit card means you have some protection from dodgy deals as you can dispute and reverse the transaction.</p>
<p>Note the words <strong><em>credit card</em></strong>, if you use a <strong><em>debit</em></strong> card many banks won&#8217;t give you the same consumer protections.</p>
<p>Avoid direct wire payments or online services like PayPal as you&#8217;ll probably do your cash or, at best, be bogged down in the dispute procedure.</p>
<h2>Use common sense</h2>
<p>The most important part of avoiding scams is common sense; if something is too good to be true then it almost certainly isn&#8217;t true.</p>
<p>An offer for hard to get Olympic tickets, fifty dollar iPads or a million dollars from a long lost cousin in Africa always come with a catch that leaves you out of pocket and possibly with your identity stolen.</p>
<p>Many of these scams aren&#8217;t new, they&#8217;ve just evolved to take advantage the online world.</p>
<p>During the golden era of the snake oil merchant in the 19th Century, the phrase <a title="origins of there's a sucker born every minute" href="http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html" target="_blank">there&#8217;s a sucker born every minute</a> was coined. Don&#8217;t be that sucker.</p>
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		<title>The pay day</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/10/the-pay-day/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/10/the-pay-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:13:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exit strategies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retirement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3239</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How does a local news agent exit their business?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last Sunday Mark Fletcher celebrated his <a title="Australian newsagency blog 10,000 post" href="http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2012/01/08/10000th-blog-post/" target="_blank">10,000th post at the Australian Newsagency Blog</a>. In seven years of posting that&#8217;s an impressive achievement for someone running both a retail store and a software company.</p>
<p>In his landmark post, Mark looked at the major issues he&#8217;s covered on his blog over the last few year and one stands out as the biggest – the payoff for newsagency owners when they sell their businesses.</p>
<p><em>The failure of many newsagents to manage their businesses for day to day profit. Too many newsagents expect their pay day when they sell and do not realise that their pay day is today, tomorrow and next week … and that this determines what they will receive when they sell.</em></p>
<p>For Australian newsagencies the news is bad; their established industry is struggling in the face of technological change and regulatory changes – both of which are other points Mark raises – but more importantly the buying and selling businesses in all sectors is undergoing a fundamental economic shift.</p>
<p>The underlying idea is that these businesses are what <a title="steve blank on the six types of startups" href="http://steveblank.com/2011/09/01/why-governments-don%E2%80%99t-get-startups/" target="_blank">Steve Blank calls &#8220;lifestyle businesses&#8221;</a>; proprietors buy them to provide an income for their families.</p>
<p>For these &#8220;lifestyle businesses&#8221; to have a resale value another family is has to raise the funds to purchase the enterprise.</p>
<p>Therein lies the problem, most purchases of businesses are financed by bank loans secured against property.</p>
<p>Late baby boomers and Generation Xers – those born between 1955 and 1970 – are the obvious buyers of these businesses and they don&#8217;t have access to the same equity as their parents.</p>
<p>The situation is even worse for those generations following whose high education debts mean an even later entry into the property market and even less equity available should they want to buy these businesses.</p>
<p>For sellers, this means is buyers can&#8217;t pay the prices retiring business owners need as their nest egg to support them through twenty or thirty years of bowling or travelling in their later years.</p>
<p>This inter generational mismatch isn&#8217;t just restricted to Australian newsagents; it&#8217;s a problem around the Western world for business owners whose exit strategy involves selling the business as a going concern for a substantial amount.</p>
<p>As we reach the end of the late 20th Century credit boom, the money isn&#8217;t there for people to pay the sort of sums required by existing local business owners to retire in comfort. Even if the banks were prepared to lend the sum required, the buyer&#8217;s underlying assets can&#8217;t secure the loans and, most importantly, the cashflows aren&#8217;t there.</p>
<p>In an Australian newsagent context much of the cashflow has changed because of deregulation and new competition but on the bigger scale changing consumption patterns at the end of the 20th Century debt binge coupled with aging populations and restricted credit are changing the economics of family owned, small local businesses.</p>
<p>For the current owners of these small businesses, it means the pay day has to be today as it won&#8217;t be there tomorrow.</p>
<p>The danger is how many will follow the example of the large corporations who find themselves in a similar situation and respond by excessively cutting costs or chronically under-investing which is what has crippled big store retailing across the US, Australia and the UK.</p>
<p>Mark&#8217;s constantly pointed out that Australian newsagents have to reinvent themselves, as he celebrates seven years of blogging and 10,000th blog post it&#8217;s probably worthwhile considering how many, like the rest of us, will be working in our businesses far longer than we originally expected.</p>
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		<title>The irrelevant operating system</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/08/the-irrelevant-operating-system/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/08/the-irrelevant-operating-system/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:36:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[computers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[computing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market share]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PCs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No-one cares about operating systems anymore]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last decade, people queued around the block to buy the latest version of Windows, today no-one cares. What next for a market that has become commoditised?</p>
<p>When you visit a website your browser reports, among other things, what type of system you&#8217;re using. Net Applications – <a title="net application online monitoring service" href="http://www.netapplications.com/Default.aspx" target="_blank">a US based web monitoring company</a> who analyse online browsing statistics – keep a regularly updated list of what people are using when surfing the net.</p>
<p>On their latest statistics, Windows XP finally fell below 50% in September 2011, just on <a title="ten years since Windows XP was released, microsoft is lost" href="http://paulwallbank.com/2011/09/02/microsofts-lost-decade/" target="_blank">ten years after it was released</a>. Windows 7 is taking over from XP while Apple steadily gain market share.</p>
<p>These statistics show how the operating system has become irrelevant, only really dedicated geeks really care anymore about their version of Windows or whether a computer is running an Apple Mac or Microsoft product.</p>
<p>As most computer users are drifting to cloud computing services and consumers are increasingly using their PCs to access online games and social media sites, it doesn&#8217;t really matter anymore what systems are used as long as they work.</p>
<p>For many in the computer industry, this is a problem as they desperately want to sell a product in a market that has become commoditised. It&#8217;s another example of the PC industry&#8217;s broken business model.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not just the computer industry with this problem, the 3D TV hype of 2010 was a desperate attempt to sell new television sets in a market that had stalled; recession hit consumers had no desire to replace their perfectly good TVs that were less than a decade old, just like Windows XP users.</p>
<p>This year&#8217;s Consumer Electronics Show that launches in Las Vegas this week will see similar desperation as the various PC and mobile phone manufacturers trying to generate excitement about their new products.</p>
<p>For the journalists and PR folk at the CES the problem is customers largely don&#8217;t care anymore. As the failure of 3D TV illustrates, consumers aren&#8217;t buying the hype.</p>
<p>Just as with operating systems, most customers want something that works, if you&#8217;re going to get them to replace older proven technology you&#8217;ll have to show where the new product adds value.</p>
<p>The era of products flying off the shelves because they are new and shiny is over – just ask Microsoft about it&#8217;s operating systems.</p>
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		<title>The business of baffling choices</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/07/baffling-choices-too-many-android-models-versus-a-few-apple-models/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/07/baffling-choices-too-many-android-models-versus-a-few-apple-models/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:44:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telcos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[android]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3216</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why do computer and phone companies offer so many plans and models?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In his Daring Fireball blog, John Gruber&#8217;s takes to task the view that <a title="Does apple suffer from not having a wide range of phone models" href="http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/spaghetti_against_the_wall" target="_blank">Apple suffers through not having a wide product range</a>.</p>
<p>John makes the valid point that Samsung seems to stealing market share from HTC rather than Apple but the whole theory of offering too many choices strikes to the heart of two industry&#8217;s business models.</p>
<p>Those two industries are the mobile telco business and the Windows personal computer sector.</p>
<p>In the PC world, the wide range of models has been both an advantage and a weakness; it&#8217;s allowed Dell and others to create custom machines to meet customer needs but also leaves consumers – both corporate and home buyers – confused and suspicious they many have been taken advantage of.</p>
<p>All too often customer were being had; frequently buyers found they&#8217;d bought an underpowered system stuffed with software that either was irrelevant to their needs or an upgrade was necessary to get the features they hoped for.</p>
<p>The entire PC industry was guilty of this and Microsoft were the most obvious – the confusing range of operating systems and associated software like the dozen version of Microsoft Office was deliberately designed to confuse customers and increase revenue.</p>
<p>For the PC industry, the &#8220;baffle the customer&#8221; model reached its zenith, or nadir, with Windows Vista where Microsoft deliberately put out an underspecced &#8216;Home&#8217; edition designed to push sales up the value chain.</p>
<p>Compounding the problem, most of the manufacturers followed Microsoft&#8217;s lead and put out horribly underpowered systems in the hope that customers would upgrade with more memory, better graphics card and bigger, faster hard drives.</p>
<p>Most customers didn&#8217;t upgrade and as a result the Vista operating system – which was horrible anyway – enhanced its well deserved reputation for poor performance.</p>
<p>In the telco sector, consumer confusion lies at the heart of their profitable business model; a bewildering range of phones and plans often leaves the customer spending too much, either through an overpriced plan or paying punative charges for &#8216;excess&#8217; use.</p>
<p>Having a hundred different types of Android phone adds to the confusion and, by restricting updates, they can cajole customers into &#8216;upgrading&#8217; to a new phone and another restrictive plan every year or so. This is why you get phone calls from your mobile phone company offering a new handset deal 18 months into a two year plan.</p>
<p>Apple&#8217;s model has been different; in their computer range there has never been a wide choice, just a few configurations that meet certain price points. The same model has used for their phones and iPads.</p>
<p>For Apple, this means a predictable business model and a loyal customer base. They don&#8217;t have to compete on price and they don&#8217;t have to fight resellers and telcos who want to &#8216;own&#8217; the customer. It&#8217;s one of the reasons mobile phone companies desperately want an alternative to the iPhone.</p>
<p>Companies using the baffling choices business model – Microsoft, HP, Dell and your local mobile telco – may well continue to do okay, but that business model is coming under challenge as new entrants are finding new niches.</p>
<p>For all of us as consumers all we can do is make the choices that are simple are reject complexity. Warren Buffett has always maintained he doesn&#8217;t invest in businesses he doesn&#8217;t understand, perhaps we should have the same philosophy with the purchases we make.</p>
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		<title>The importance of transparency</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/04/the-importanc-of-transparency/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2012/01/04/the-importanc-of-transparency/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:58:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[federal reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3202</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The US Federal Reserve has announced they will release more details from the information they use on determining official interest rates. On the same day the social networking site Twitter...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The US Federal Reserve has announced <a title="washington post us federal reserve announces more details on policy information" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/federal-reserve-will-start-disclosing-officials-quarterly-projections/2012/01/03/gIQAiIVDZP_story.html" target="_blank">they will release more details from the information</a> they use on determining official interest rates. On the same day the social networking site Twitter is embarrassed when its <a title="why twitter's verified account failure matters gigaom" href="http://gigaom.com/2012/01/03/why-twitters-verified-account-failure-matters/" target="_blank">opaque verified account policy fails</a>.</p>
<p>Being open and honest is the key component in trust and in turn trust is the bedrock of society. If you can&#8217;t trust your neighbour, the local cop or the grocer at the shops then society quickly starts breaking down.</p>
<p>Many big businesses, particularly those in markets where they are one of a small group of incumbents get away with abusing your trust; they tell an illegal surcharge can&#8217;t be waived because &#8220;that&#8217;s their policy, you can&#8217;t change an account because of the &#8220;terms and conditions&#8221; and that the call centre&#8217;s operators name is Janet even though it&#8217;s Rajiv and you know that when you call back asking for &#8220;Janet&#8221; you&#8217;ll be told&#8221;there&#8217;s 35 Janets working in the department right now&#8221;.</p>
<p>All of this we&#8217;ve come to expect from big bureaucratic organisations like the phone company, the bank and the tax office. The interesting thing is how many new businesses that are adopting this anti-customer model of operating.</p>
<p>Rules and policies are fine – as long as everyone knows them, they aren&#8217;t too onerous and they are applied fairly and consistently.</p>
<p>The challenge for all businesses – particularly those taking on incumbents – is they have to show they are more trustworthy than the existing operators. If you can&#8217;t show that, then maybe it&#8217;s time to think about how you operate.</p>
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		<title>ABC Christmas Computers</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/26/abc-christmas-computers/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/26/abc-christmas-computers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:57:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radio shows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ABC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gifts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radio spots]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What are the festive technology questions?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For Christmas 2011 Paul joined Nikolai Beilharz to discuss dealing with problems with your <a title="ten ways to set up a christmas computer tech gift properly" href="http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/25/10-ways-to-setting-up-a-tech-gift-properly/" target="_blank">Christmas tech gifts</a>.</p>
<p>We had a number of callers with problems including setting up a wireless network, what to do if a drink is spilled on your keyboard and how older people can get useful computer training.</p>
<h2>Seniors Computer Assistance</h2>
<p>John from Hobart asked about where he could get instructions on using his computer.</p>
<p>The Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association is a volunteer group bringing together local computer clubs that cater for older folk.</p>
<p><a title="Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association national directory" href="http://www.ascca.org.au/index.php?option=com_mtree&amp;Itemid=102" target="_blank">ASCCA&#8217;s national members directory</a> lists local clubs by state and contacting the nearest group should help you find the right assistance from your peers.</p>
<h2>Oh no! I&#8217;ve spilled a drink on my computer?!?</h2>
<p>Watching a freshly spilled cup of coffee, glass of wine or can of softdrink pour into your keyboard makes for one half panic and the other half despair.</p>
<p>If you move quickly and you turn the keyboard upside down then you have a chance of rescuing a laptop computer before too much damage is done. The important thing is to stop liquid getting onto important circuits.</p>
<p>Having turned the keyboard or laptop upside down, leave it for a day for the liquid to dry out. Then its a good idea to take it to the local computer store to see if it the residue can be cleaned up as usually the keyboard becomes sticky and some keys may not work.</p>
<p>Should the liquid damage a desktop computer&#8217;s keyboard that&#8217;s usually easily fixed by buying a new keyboard but if you&#8217;re using a laptop, then the motherboard – the key part of a computer&#8217;s circuits – may be affected and that&#8217;s usually time to start shopping for a new system.</p>
<h2>Setting up a wireless network</h2>
<p>Most of the tech devices we&#8217;re getting for our households require some sort of wireless connection.</p>
<p>If you have a wireless network, it&#8217;s important you get the security right as you don&#8217;t want neighbours and passers-by using your connection. The IT Queries site has instructions on <a title="securing wireless networks" href="http://itqueries.com/2007/12/29/securing-a-wireless-network/" target="_blank">securing these networks</a>.</p>
<p>Once have a secured network, preferably using the <strong><em>WPA2</em></strong> encryption standard and <a title="creating a strong password" href="http://www.netsmarts.com.au/creating-strong-passwords" target="_blank">a strong password</a>, you can then connect each device. You&#8217;ll need the name of the network and the WPA2 password to make it work.</p>
<p>Sometimes some devices want older, inferior security settings and occasionally they just won&#8217;t work at all. It may take several attempts to get them to work and it&#8217;s worthwhile re-reading our <a title="ten ways to set up a technology device" href="http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/25/10-ways-to-setting-up-a-tech-gift-properly/" target="_blank">ten tips for setting up technology</a>.</p>
<p>Our next national ABC spot will be on February 9 next year. We will probably have some more spots over the summer break and <a title="Subscribe to the digital times newsletter" href="../newsletter/">we’ll let newsletter subscribers</a> know about them as soon as we do. We also post them to <a title="Upcoming presentations, speeches, keynotes and ABC radio segments" href="http://paulwallbank.com/upcoming-events/" target="_blank">the events page</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Comparing local review and search sites</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/01/comparing-local-review-and-search-sites/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/12/01/comparing-local-review-and-search-sites/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:31:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foursquarre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google places]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[local serch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MSN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news limited]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NineMSN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sensis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telstra]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[true local]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yahoo!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yelp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=3004</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How do the local search services compare?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the Australian launch of local search and recommendation site Yelp, it&#8217;s worthwhile comparing the different sites to see how well they worked.</p>
<p>The sites work in different ways, some – like Sensis Yellow Pages and True Local – are online directories that search just the title and description of business.</p>
<p>Yelp, Foursquare and Word Of Mouth Online, are socially based and derive their searches on the content and number of community reviews. Their algorithms, the formulas to figure out what customers are looking for, are more complex than the basic online directories.</p>
<p>Most complex of all are the hybrid searches, notably Google Places and Facebook Places, that build local upon their search and social media data.</p>
<p>Each model has it&#8217;s own strengths and weaknesses which shows when we do a search. Due to time restrictions we only did two.</p>
<h2>Looking for brunch in Neutral Bay, NSW</h2>
<p>The first search was using what somebody might be expected to search for on a casual weekend or holiday morning. Neutral Bay and surrounding suburbs have plenty of cafes catering to the brunch crowd so it should be expected to return plenty of hits.</p>
<h3>Yelp</h3>
<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-3005 aligncenter" title="yelp neutral bay brunch results" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/yelp_neutral_bay_lunch-150x105.jpg" alt="search results for neutral bay brunch on yelp" width="150" height="105" /></p>
<p>The new contender only found one local result and the rest being on the other side of the Harbour Bridge, including one at Bondi Beach which may as well be in the Upper Amazon to the average Sydney North Shore dweller.</p>
<p>Interestingly, entering neighbouring suburbs changes the first two or three results to that suburb but the subsequent listings are the same remote locations as for the Neutral Bay query. This might indicate popularity with the current Yelp users or may be part of the package merchants get when they pay for a listing.</p>
<h3>True Local</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3006" title="true local neutral bay lunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/true_local_neutral_bay_lunch-150x81.jpg" alt="a search on true local for brunch in neutral bay" width="150" height="81" /></p>
<p>News Limited&#8217;s True Local disappointed one cafe in the district was identified and the number one result was in the city.</p>
<p>This poor results are probably due to the word &#8220;brunch&#8221; not appearing in the local cafes&#8217; descriptions or titles, but this is a serious weakness for True Local, particularly in a district where they dominate the local news media.</p>
<h3>Google Places</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3007" title="google places neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/google_places_neutral_bay_lunch-150x77.jpg" alt="brunch local search results for google places" width="150" height="77" /></p>
<p>Surprisingly, Google Places returned an extremely poor result with no local businesses found.</p>
<p>Again, this is probably due to the failure of business owners to ensure keywords are entered in their business description and it illustrates how Google is allowing an opportunity to pass them by.</p>
<h3>Facebook Places</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3008" title="facebook neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/facebook_neutral_bay_lunch-150x85.jpg" alt="Facebook Places results from Neutral Bay brunch search" width="150" height="85" />Nothing. Nyet. Zip. No brunch for you.</p>
<h3>Yahoo!7</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3009" title="yahoo neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/yahoo_neutral_bay_brunch-150x107.jpg" alt="yahoo local search results" width="150" height="107" /></p>
<p>Another poor result that has just scraped information off the web. It shows the weakness of the Yahoo! and Channel Seven joint venture which, like News Limited, is letting opportunities pass.</p>
<h3>Bing/NineMSN</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3010 aligncenter" title="NineMSN neutral bay brunch local search" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/NineMSN_neutral_bay_brunch-150x60.jpg" alt="Local search results on NineMSN for Neutral Bay Lunch" width="150" height="60" /></p>
<p>Probably the most disgraceful of the results, NineMSN returned two cafes for the whole of Sydney, a city of four million people.</p>
<p>The second result entailed, according to Bing&#8217;s directions, a 38km drive timed at an optimistic 23 minutes involving $9 in tolls and an illegal u-turn.</p>
<p>NineMSN&#8217;s performance shows just how irrelevant Microsoft has become in the online space and their Australian joint venture partner is more interested in selling big integrated campaigns to advertising agencies.</p>
<p>Given NineMSN and Bing are the default browser and search engine on nearly two million computers sold in Australia each year, not having a local business strategy is squandering a massive opportunity.</p>
<h3>Citysearch/Sensis</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3011" title="citysearch neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/citysearch_neutral_bay_brunch-150x112.jpg" alt="brunch local search on Citysearch for Neutral Bay" width="150" height="112" /></p>
<p>Founded by Fairfax, Citysearch could have been a great success combining the assets and readership of Fairfax&#8217;s metropolitan and local newspapers coupled with their experienced sales teams selling advertising space and subscriptions. Good management could have done this.</p>
<p>Sadly Fairfax was being run by Professor Fred Hilmer and his army of power suited McKinsey consultants and Citysearch was eventually sold for a pittance to Sensis, who have allowed it to shrivel away as the zero result for our search shows.</p>
<h3>Eatability</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3012" title="eatability neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/eatability_neutral_bay_brunch-150x68.jpg" alt="local search on eatability for neutral bay brunch" width="150" height="68" /></p>
<p>Eatability was a genuine surprise, returning no brunch establishments in the area. The only thought is that no cafe in the neighbourhood has the word &#8220;brunch&#8221; in their keywords. Still a very poor result.</p>
<h3>Urbanspoon</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3013" title="urbanspoon neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/urbanspoon_neutral_bay_brunch-150x107.jpg" alt="local search for brunch at neutral bay on urbanspoon" width="150" height="107" /></p>
<p>The web version of Urbanspoon returned the most bizarre result, correctly finding one local cafe but misinterpreting the address as being in Bankstown on the other side of Sydney.</p>
<p>Urbanspoon&#8217;s iPhone app returned a far better range of results in surrounding suburbs although it only found one cafe actually in Neutral Bay which wasn&#8217;t the one incorrectly found on their web app, which didn&#8217;t appear at all.</p>
<h3>Word of Mouth Online</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3014" title="womo neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/womo_neutral_bay_brunch-150x122.jpg" alt="word of mouth online local search for brunch in neutral bay" width="150" height="122" /></p>
<p>Word Of Mouth Online delivered the best result of the web pages with two of the first three results being relevant. Of the other seven, they met the criteria of being within a 5km radius of the location which in Sydney can be a 12km drive.</p>
<p>The results would have been better with more local establishments but it appears the keyword &#8220;brunch&#8221; hasn&#8217;t been used by many of the WOMO reviewers.</p>
<p><strong><em>Note: After the review I was contacted by the founder of WOMO, Fiona Adler, it appears some of the reviews have have been updated in the meantime. I&#8217;ve changed the results below, but the left the one above as it was correct at the time of the review.</em></strong></p>
<h3>Foursquare</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3015" title="foursquare neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/foursquare_neutral_bay_brunch-150x130.jpg" alt="neutral bay local brunch search on four square " width="150" height="130" /></p>
<p>Like Yelp, Foursquare relies heavily on users&#8217; contributions and this shows in the flaky, almost useless results for our search terms on a web based search.</p>
<p>Foursquare&#8217;s iPhone app was far more efficient, identifying a range of good venues in the area which were ranked according to friends&#8217; recommendations.</p>
<h3>Sensis/Yellow Pages</h3>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3016" title="yellow pages neutral bay brunch" src="http://paulwallbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/yellow_pages_neutral_bay_brunch-150x84.jpg" alt="search for brunch on yellow pages for local brunch in neutral bay" width="150" height="84" /></p>
<p>Again, &#8220;no brunch for you.&#8221; It&#8217;s almost scandalous that Yellow Pages has no entries at all for &#8220;brunch&#8221; for an inner Sydney suburb.</p>
<h3>Redoing the search</h3>
<p style="text-align: left;">Clearly the term &#8220;brunch&#8221; is problematic in all the services, so as a check here&#8217;s the relevant first page results for other search terms on each of the services;</p>
<div align="centre">
<table width="302" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<colgroup>
<col width="79" />
<col width="78" />
<col width="70" />
<col width="75" /> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="79" height="26">Service</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="78">Café Neutral Bay</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="70">Breakfast Neutral Bay</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">Lunch Neutral Bay</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Yelp</td>
<td>7/10</td>
<td>2/10</td>
<td>7/10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">True Local</td>
<td>9/30</td>
<td>0/30</td>
<td>0/30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Google Place</td>
<td>10/10</td>
<td>0/10</td>
<td>10/10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Yahoo!7</td>
<td></td>
<td>not relevant</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Bing/MSN</td>
<td>3/10</td>
<td>0/10</td>
<td>0/10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Citysearch</td>
<td>6/10</td>
<td>3/6</td>
<td>4/4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Eatability</td>
<td>40/50</td>
<td>8/8</td>
<td>23/31</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Urban spoon</td>
<td>3/3</td>
<td>0/0</td>
<td>0/0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">foursquare</td>
<td>3/20</td>
<td>1/20</td>
<td>1/20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">WOMO</td>
<td>8/10</td>
<td>2/10</td>
<td>5/10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="13">Sensis</td>
<td>7/10</td>
<td>0/10</td>
<td>0/10</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>As we found with the earlier search, Yelp was somewhat inconsistent and no doubt the social aspects will see it improve as more users come on board, the results are highly dependent on the terms used by reviewers and this will affect the search results.</p>
<p>True Local&#8217;s score was surprisingly bad, the search for &#8220;cafe&#8221; found 12 places but three are long closed. &#8220;Breakfast&#8221; listed B&amp;B accomodation and &#8220;lunch&#8221; found outlets in the city and Eastern Suburbs.</p>
<p>Google Places also disappointed on &#8220;breakfast&#8221;, picking up some B&amp;B establishments along with some city cafes. This is almost certainly due to keywords missing in descriptions.</p>
<p>Yahoo!7 doesn&#8217;t get a rating as all it does is scrape other sites and often refers you to other search services. They are just going through the motions.</p>
<p>Microsoft and NineMSN&#8217;s service again failed dismally; the &#8220;cafe&#8221; result was poor, &#8220;breakfast&#8221; looked for B&amp;Bs and &#8220;lunch&#8221; amazingly didn&#8217;t find a thing in Neutral Bay.</p>
<p>Citysearch&#8217;s results for &#8220;cafe&#8221; found nine places, three of which are long closed which indicates the lack of maintenance their database receives. Encouragingly, Citysearch was one of the best performers for lunch and dinner, albeit only on four and six places found.</p>
<p>Eatability had by far the most impressive number of results, however a large proportion of the places have closed and are not flagged as such. This probably indicates a lack of maintenance by the owners.</p>
<p>WOMO was good and like Yelp their results are highly dependent on the words used by reviewers, so key words could be missed simply because reviewers didn&#8217;t use them.</p>
<p>Sensis performed well on &#8220;cafes&#8221; except that three of the ten listed were closed. The lack of results on &#8220;breakfast&#8221; and &#8220;lunch&#8221; is due to no places having those words in their name.</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>This comparison is not scientific, being based on a narrow search and small sample size, but there&#8217;s a few things we can take away from the experiment.</p>
<h3>Search is still young</h3>
<p>Right now, search is still a crude tool.</p>
<p>From the results, we can see that the keywords used by reviewers and businesses matter. If the public are looking for &#8220;brunch&#8221; and that isn&#8217;t on your cafe&#8217;s website and online listings, then you won&#8217;t appear.</p>
<p>Over time that will change as the web and search engines get smarter but right now search is still at a basic stage in its development.</p>
<h3>You have to be there</h3>
<p>Customers are using these tools to find what they need and if a business isn&#8217;t listed, then they can&#8217;t be found. Setting up a profile and getting some favourable reviews is important.</p>
<p>The business who are being pro-active are the ones who are succeeding.</p>
<h3>There&#8217;s a lot of opportunity</h3>
<p>It&#8217;s no surprise that older organisations like Fairfax, Sensis and Microsoft are failing to understand local search. What is suprising is how poorly the newer players like Google and Facebook are doing.</p>
<p>This opens up a lot of opportunity for services like Yelp and Foursquare in adding value to the data already available through services like Google, Facebook and Sensis.</p>
<p>Yelp&#8217;s tie up with Sensis makes a lot of sense from the US company&#8217;s point of view; they get to ride on Sensis&#8217; sales team, maybe some licensing fees and – most importantly – they can access the richest, albeit not always accurate, database of Australian businesses.</p>
<p>For small, local business there&#8217;s a lot of opportunity as well. By getting online and registered on these services, it&#8217;s possible to become more visible and improve your competitive position.</p>
<p>The market&#8217;s young and there&#8217;s a lot of potential for disruptive players. It will be interesting to see how incumbents deal with the threat.</p>
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		<title>Mad, bad or dangerous: The One Percenters we need to avoid</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/11/07/mad-bad-or-dangerous-the-one-percenters-we-need-to-avoid/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/11/07/mad-bad-or-dangerous-the-one-percenters-we-need-to-avoid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:13:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deadbeats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[invoices]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=2899</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is a certain type of customer business need to be careful of.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going pay you, your technician was constantly looking at his watch,&#8221; growled the customer when asked why she&#8217;d stopped a cheque for some work we&#8217;d done for her.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s many excuses for not paying your bills but a tradesman trying to keep the client&#8217;s bill to a minimum is an excellent dodge.</p>
<p>Over the phone call&#8217;s ten minutes, it was clear this lady was going to be a tough customer.</p>
<p>First the job wasn&#8217;t done properly, then the charges were too high, she accused us of taking advantage of vulnerable women and finally she was going to complain about us to her union.</p>
<p>It was clear we were in for a fight to get a hundred dollars from her, so I let it go. She went away believing she was right.</p>
<p>The saying &#8220;the customer is always right&#8221; was coined by US retail pioneer Marshall Field and exported around the world by Harry Selfridge, one of his employees who also founded a business empire.</p>
<p>We can be sure neither of them actually meant that customers are always correct in what they do, just that the key to successful service is the client walking away believing they are right.</p>
<p>Regardless of how well we deliver on our promises, there are always going to be some that aren&#8217;t happy. In most cases this is due to misunderstanding, or just a bad day on our part, but sometimes there&#8217;s the one percent of customers who are mad, bad or dangerous.</p>
<h2>The Mad</h2>
<p>Some customers just aren&#8217;t quite with us. These people, some of whom have genuine psychological problems, simply aren&#8217;t going to be reasonable.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no point in fighting them as that&#8217;s only going to make their issues worse and maybe even transfer some of their problems to you.</p>
<p>Fortunately as you become more experienced in business you get better at detecting and avoiding these type of customers although there&#8217;s always the odd one who sneaks through.</p>
<h2>The Bad</h2>
<p>There&#8217;s a certain breed of people – and businesses – who don&#8217;t pay their bills, seeing their suppliers as banks and an invoice as an interest free loan.</p>
<p>Often these customers are charming and the perfect client before the bill is presented then they string you out for months of years before paying your invoices.</p>
<p>For these people and organisations, who are genuine deadbeats, there&#8217;s the <strong><em>fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me</em></strong> philosophy. It&#8217;s usually better to write them off rather than sink hours of management time.</p>
<h2>The Dangerous</h2>
<p>Of all the bad payers, the most dangerous is the game player. To these people, not paying debts is an intellectual challenge which they enjoy and play for fun.</p>
<p>These folk will just as happily mess around the phone company or the tax office as much as the local plumber or newsagent, it&#8217;s just a game which they&#8217;ll play to their maximum enjoyment and your frustration.</p>
<p>For the big companies, these people can be a benefit as they justify the existing of entire bureaucracies dedicated in getting them to pay; small business though don&#8217;t have the time and resources to spend the hours of work over years to extract payment from them.</p>
<p>Thankfully these folk usually stonewall as the first invoice so there&#8217;s early warnings you&#8217;re dealing with trouble. Resist the urge to play the game with them as they are usually better at it than you.</p>
<p>Regardless of which category these bad debtors fall into, in each case it&#8217;s better for your valuable time and sanity to let them believe they are right, write the debt off and move on to helping customers who really matter.</p>
<p>Fortunately these people really are the One Percenters and only representative of a tiny proportion of our customers.</p>
<p>The taste of copping a loss is always painful, but at least we get good stories from the excuses they give. What&#8217;s the best reason you&#8217;ve heard for a customer trying to dodge a debt?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>What business can learn from Groupon</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/11/04/what-business-can-learn-from-groupon/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/11/04/what-business-can-learn-from-groupon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:07:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud computing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entrepreneurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[group buying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[groupon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pivot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=2901</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How can businesses use the web to grow like the group buying companies?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Groupon, pioneer of group buying and one the fastest growing companies in history, will have its launch on the stock markets today with an initial public offering (IPO) that&#8217;s <a title="reuters on groupon final IPO pricing" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/us-groupon-finalpricing-idUSTRE7A27TG20111103" target="_blank">values the business at thirteen billion dollars</a>, more double the $6bn that Google offered for the three year old company last year.</p>
<p>A recent <a title="business insider profile of group buying company groupon" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-groupon-the-truth-about-the-worlds-most-controversial-company-2011-10?op=1" target="_blank">Business Insider profile of Groupon</a> had some fascinating insights on this unique company and its growth, there&#8217;s a number of lessons that most business owners, entrepreneurs and managers can take from this company&#8217;s dramatic growth and market leadership regardless of the sector they operate in.</p>
<h2>Apply tech to your business</h2>
<p>Many people make the mistake that Groupon is tech startup when it&#8217;s actually a sales operation.</p>
<p>Groupon&#8217;s business model isn&#8217;t really new, what they have done is applied various web technologies to the directory and voucher shopping industries and come up with a 21st Century way of doing things.</p>
<p>Bringing together different modern tools like social media, cloud computing, local search and the mobile web makes businesses more flexible and quick to develop new market opportunities.</p>
<h2>Prepare for quick changes</h2>
<p>Groupon was born out of another business – The Point. As The Point steadily died, Andrew Mason and his mentor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/eric-lefkofsky">Eric Lefkofsky</a> decided to try something different and Groupon was born.</p>
<p>This ability to change focus quickly – often called &#8220;pivoting&#8221; – is essential in changing markets. In volatile times like today where today&#8217;s business conditions can&#8217;t be taken for granted we have to be prepared for rapid changes.</p>
<p>Fortunately the cost and time to changes your business focus has dropped dramatically with digital and online tools, which is another reason to embrace tech.</p>
<h2>Get a good business mentor</h2>
<p>Eric Lefkofsky bought maturity and a perspective to Groupon&#8217;s young leadership, having a different and more experienced view of the business helped it develop and grab the opportunity.</p>
<p>An experienced business mentor can be worth their weight in gold.</p>
<h2>Back a good idea</h2>
<p>In Nicholas Carson&#8217;s Business Insider profile he describes Andrew Mason role at Eric Lefkofski&#8217;s business before The Point as &#8220;an intern, &#8216;kind of squatting in their offices&#8217;&#8221;. Lefkofski was prepared to back the geeky kid camping on his premises.</p>
<p>Putting your prejudices and judgements on the shelf to back good ideas, particularly those that don&#8217;t cost much to execute, is one way to find where the opportunities lie.</p>
<h2>Tell your business story</h2>
<p>Regardless of <a title="Is groupon the small business saviour?" href="http://paulwallbank.com/2010/12/20/is-groupon-the-small-business-saviour/" target="_blank">what you think of Groupon&#8217;s claims</a>, they tell a very good story which has lead to their amazing growth and the development of the group buying industry.</p>
<p>Being able to tell your story, in your terms, is one of the great advantages the web, local search and social media deliver. There&#8217;s no reason why your business shouldn&#8217;t be dominating the local market in whatever field you work in.</p>
<p>Regardless of what your business does, it can benefit from applying the online tools that are available to all of us.</p>
<p>We may not be the next Groupon but the web gives us the opportunity to build our business to take advantage of the 21st Century. It&#8217;s worthwhile understanding the new tools at our fingertips.</p>
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		<title>ABC Nightlife: The next wave of smartphones</title>
		<link>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/10/24/abc-nightlife-the-next-wave-of-smartphones/</link>
		<comments>http://paulwallbank.com/2011/10/24/abc-nightlife-the-next-wave-of-smartphones/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:32:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Wallbank</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[business advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radio shows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radio spots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smartphones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://paulwallbank.com/?p=2861</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Paul Wallbank joined Rod Quinn to look at where mobile phones are going.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The world of mobile phones is getting busy again as a whole new range of smartphones appear. Paul Wallbank joined Rod Quinn for <a title="ABC Local Radio Nightlife with Tony Delroy" href="http://abc.net.au/nightlife" target="_blank">ABC Nightlife</a> on October 20 to discuss what the new smartphone wars mean for home and business users.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll be going to air from 10pm, Eastern Australian time across Australia on <a title="tony delroy's ABC Radio nightlife discussing technology and social media" href="http://abc.net.au/nightlife" target="_blank">ABC Local Radio&#8217;s Nightlife</a> to look at the following questions;</p>
<ul>
<li>Why were people disappointed with Apple&#8217;s iPhone 4S that was released a few weeks ago?</li>
<li>The big competition are the Google Android phones, what are they doing?</li>
<li>What&#8217;s happened to Nokia? They seemed to have lost their domination.</li>
<li>Microsoft were the other big player, what are they doing?</li>
<li>How are the smartphones changing business?</li>
<li>Shopping centres seem to be jumping on board with various social media checkins. What are those?</li>
<li>There&#8217;s been a push to online payments, how are the smartphones affecting this?</li>
<li>Are smartphones going to be the big buy for Christmas?</li>
<li>What are the best plans for consumers and business?</li>
<li>How do people deal with telco disputes?</li>
</ul>
<p>The <a title="Paul Wallbank and Rod Quinn discuss the new wave of smartphones" href="http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/nightlife/nightlife_m2041471.mp3" target="_blank">podcast from the program</a> is available from at Nightlife website, and some of the information we mentioned can be found here;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a title="Dealing with a telephone company dispute" href="http://paulwallbank.com/2010/09/20/dealing-with-a-telco-dispute/">Dealing with Telco complaints</a></p>
<p>We&#8217;ll be adding more resources in the next few days, the next ABC Nightlife spot is on 23 November and our <a title="Paul wallbank upcoming speaking events and workshops" href="http://paulwallbank.com/upcoming-events/" target="_blank">events page</a> will have more details. If you have any suggestions for future programs or comments on the last show, <a title="Paul Wallbank contact on social media and cloud computing and business productivity" href="http://paulwallbank.com/contact/" target="_blank">please let us know</a> as we love your feedback.</p>
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