Fascinating survey about what some insiders think are the top tactics to go for in 2009. There's probably some 'in fashion' bias to the whole thing but it's a great indicator.

OK so it applies to large companies rather than SMEs - and let's face it they should have the resources to get things right, although there are so many that just don't - but Internet Retailing reports that "The first UK version of the respected American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has put ecommerce at the top of the retail tree for overall customer satisfaction". (See NCSI-UK and you have to sign up to see the reports).

But what does this mean for smaller companies?

Well, arguably they are even better - or can be even better - at customer satisfaction, so if they put their mind to it they should be able to deliver even more in their ECommerce offering. Those we know certainly do.

The issue is that so many are "frightened" by ECommerce thining that it is technology (which is true to a certain extent). But what it really is is marketing (including service) and so I am constantly surprised at how few SMEs get in to it.

I know it's a question of education, but given the relatively tiny costs and risks associated with ECommerce - compared with shop rents and leases and etc. - what's to lose?

There again maybe people have to "put their ***** on the line" to get committed?

I am constantly amazed by the different results achieved by different campaigns on AdWords and sometimes at an absolute loss to explain why something happens - it seems that sometimes it just does.

For example here are the results from two completely different clients for the last month.

Campaign..........Clicks..........Impr..........CTR ..........Avg. CPC

Company A ........4,690...........60,498........7.75%.........£0.23
Google.................4,274...........25,422.......16.81%........£0.24
Search partners....416............35,076........1.19%.........£0.20

Company B.........174..............6,864...........2.53%.........£0.40
Google.................120..............5,150...........2.33%.........£0.44
Search partners....54..............1,714..........3.15%..........£0.31

What completely amazes me is that although both campaigns are doing well for the clients is the vast difference between the Google and Search partners results.

We normally see results where Google produces a higher CTR so why, I wondered do we not see this on Company B?

No idea as yet.

Living in Bath I suppose we should all be rather blasé about people filming. But I usually expect it to take place by the Crescent or Assembly rooms and not on my doorstep in Larkhall providing me with an entertaining spectator sport twice a day when walking the kids to school.

I didn’t think the array of tents and cameras that have taken over the park looked all that exciting at first, its probably something boring I thought to myself, can’t see anyone famous and they don’t look like they’re doing much. Probably a corporate video or students. “What are they filming?” I asked a man in dayglo orange who had asked me to stop walking. “Bone Kickers” he gruffed “its an archaeological drama”. And clearly that was all I was going to get.

Which is why the internet is brilliant, because by the time I’d got home all I could remember was Bonesomething and archaeological drama, useless facts really to pass on to anyone and hardly major gossip.
But a quick search on google revealed that they were in fact the BBC filming an archaeological drama called “Bone Kickers” starring Hugh Bonneville (who was apparently in Notting hill) and written by the people who wrote Life in Mars. Which made is so much more exciting because Life on Mars is the best thing to hit terrestrial tv in years.

That’s it really, sometimes I just like to marvel at the little miracle that the internet is.

I regularly receive emails from Motley Fool, online money experts and I got this one which I had to share. It is great listing of the worst rip offs and scams including ones such as:

2. BACS transfers

I haven't used a cheque book for at least four years. Instead, if I need to transfer money to someone else's bank account, then I send it directly via the BACS system for inter-bank payments. The annoying thing about BACS is that it takes three working days for a payment to clear, but the money is debited from my account on day one.

In other words, the banks benefit from a three-day ‘float' of cash, which boosts their annual profits by hundreds of millions of pounds. Alas, an improved BACS system due to be introduced next month has been pushed back into 2008. Now who would have predicted that would happen, right?

See the full list here