Modern Insider

I recently got involved in a couple of discussions on the Site Point Forums about how useful Paid Search (PPC) is in advertising a web business and if it should be trusted at all given click fraud and some of the other concerns that continue to come up. Having worked with search for years and seeing tremendous returns, the answer for me was obvious - of course you should use search. However, in discussing the issue more, I've realized it's really not that simple of a question - search marketing can have great results but it also has requirements to work. So if you aren't running a fortune 500 company with a search agency or web team, should you even bother trying? And if you do decide to get into the mix, what do you need to do?

There's no two ways about it, with the value of the dollar and the cost of fuel (even after its recent 20% fall) the airline industry is not having an easy time staying out of the red but maybe if one of them tried listening to their customers and responding they'd be able to make some actual money and gain an edge over the competition. When it comes to advocates, airlines have spent decades building relationships and have some of the loyal customers almost any business many of whom are clamoring to give input and share their concerns. Yet instead of listening and growing relationships, the airlines turn their backs and continue to invest in acquisition as if there's an endless number of customers - and unfortunately it's not just airlines doing this.

These days just about everyone is aware of the importance of making friendly and highly visible error messages, and even if not every site takes this to heart, most have it on their to do list. However, this trend can't stop with error messages or conversion buttons. Getting visible messages out there at all stages of the user experience is essential to a positive customer experience and sometimes that means setting aside design preferences to get deliver message in a way people actually see.

With millions of niche focused blogs, forums, social networks, review sites and other social communities, it not hard to find places willing to take your money and bring you into the fold. But just because they'll let you show your name doesn't mean you want to... whether the too negative, too off topic, just too anti-business, or just too small, with limited resources and budget, finding the right community to invest in is crucial to making an impact and hitting your goals. So, just what should you look for in a community?

Since you're reading this blog I'd imagine that you feel similarly about Blockbuster's business model - that's to say retail movies are going the way of dialup internet but that's not what I'm writing about. Nope, tonight's post is about how blockbuster just doesn't want to get my money and has enacted policies to insure my customer experience is simply horrible and then gone the extra step and denied their team, even their managers, the ability to make things work.