the goose

I used to have a job shaping the future of telecommunications in Europe and yet I can’t even transfer an incoming call without cutting someone off.

The dirty little secret of telecoms is – that bugger all people actually do know how to transfer someone without cutting them off, or configure an IVR or pretty much do anything else useful.  The reason for this is that real telecoms expertise is far more nerdier that your run of the mill computer science grad.  We’re not just talking pocket-protectors, we’re talking Ronny Drew beards and open tow sandals. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a fatal flaw in Google analytics for anyone running an online business today.  The flaw is it only allows you to measure the amount of traffic on your site, perhaps your income, and your ad spend.  This is no big suprise, Google makes their money from your ad spend.  However, Adwords is likely to be only part or none of your marketing spend.  We actually don’t use it at all.

What Analytics does show however is that there is a lot of power in visualising your statistics.  As many bloggers will tell you, the coloured graphs help to keep the motivation up on those long cold lonely nights when you think no-one really cares.

Much the same goes for building your online cash-flow.  Sometimes it is hard to see the wood for the trees and having up to date accurate info helps to keep going through the dark times.

That is why I’ve mocked up what I think are the key metrics I’d like to see in my own dream analytics account.

At the top I’ve put outbound and inbound emails and calls.  I’ve got a hunch that these two metrics most closely predict our income in any given month.  In fact I know that getting on the phone is the single most effective thing I can do to drum up income.  On the other hand, it is an aversive task.  Clearly being able to see how calling impacts on revenue helps to get stuck in and start chatting to people. Read the rest of this entry »

I am i n blood, steeped so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er

It has been just over a month since I started offering a way for people to pay for @replies on agtweet.  I went for a 3 tiered pricing plan of €3, €9 and €16.  Within a couple of days I had 3 €3 subscription and a week later there was my first €16 subscription.  Things were looking reasonable.  Full sure of its passive rise to stardom I pretty much headed off into the wilds of Argentina for month.

When I came back, there was some good news and some bad news. Read the rest of this entry »