Review: Online Marketing Show 2009, Olympia

Blink and you'll miss it. Sorry, that might be a little bit harsh, but this was probably one of the smallest industry shows that I've ever been to. The show was part of Marketing Week Live! (you gotta love adding exclamation marks to things) held at highly impractical location of London's Olympia. Why/how is this still a venue? Going to Earls' Court and then waiting up to 15 minutes for the special Kensington Olympia tube is a really annoying waste of time.

Anyway, having skipped the chaotic looking registration hall I strode up the steps and in to the show - or was it a music video? Immediately through the doors are your presented with a black corridor with brightly coloured lines painted on it and equally bright fabric 'waves' hanging from the roof. All very grand indeed! There were actually 3 other shows in the Grand Hall in addition to the OMS, each taking up a corner or so of space.

The OMS area was very small and full of the increasing number of bland companies that claim to be experts in virtually everything and anything, using lots of buzz words like "integrated campaign management","multi-channel", "SEO specialists", etc. I guess that these one-stop-shop companies are the only ones that can afford stands at the moment? It's a shame though not to see some slightly smaller, more focused, companies there.

Anyway, didn't stay long. I saw Keith Budden wearing some amazing yellow Hawaiian shirt but not too many other familar faces today. Perhaps they're busy in sheltering from this heat in their homes / offices waiting for the A4UExpo instead!

Other reviews:
http://blog.tamar.com/2009/06/online-marketing-show-09-oms09/

Negative experience with Rackspace UK

Today I thought I'd find out about returning my business to Rackspace UK. I'd previously been a customer for about 6-7 years, since the "good old days", but left a while ago due to their high pricing on bandwidth, which they've since improved.

I went to their www.rackspace.co.uk site to get an email address for their sales department. I wanted to email them a prepared proposal on what I'm looking for, without having to either explain it all over the phone again and/or fill in a quote form which would invole re-typing everything again.

I couldn't find a simple email address for their UK sales, so I fired up the Live Chat and that's where it started to go downhill...

The first sales guy (or 'sales lead' guy as he explained) basically ignored my direct question for an email address for someone in UK sales and instead tried taking me through his scripted (I assume?) routine. I tried to stop him on several occasions as I had this email ready and waiting which would explain everything to the recipient, but he ignored my request over and over.

He insisted that I told him what I was after, when I wanted it, etc. etc. - so he could then pass this on to the sales people - great, what a useful 'service' that is when I've already got it all written in front of me - he's basically creating duplication for the sake of filling in some kind of lead form.

Eventually I got a bit frustrated and asked if he could just either get someone to email me a blank email so I could reply or give me an email address of someone in UK sales. He stopped replying! I waited, and tried asking if he was there, but no reply. Arghh...

Fired up a new chat window with a different agent. I asked if he can put me back through the first guy to avoid yet more repetition. 'No sorry' he couldn't, but he could email the first agent with a chat log - err, not very useful to me as it adds a delay to my original (and very simple) request for either an email from UK sales or an email address for UK sales!

At one point, when I ask this 2nd agent yet again for an email, he starts telling me my own company name and telephone number - despite the fact I've explained that the telephone number is no good today and all I want from him is, again, an email address for / or an email from sales. Very odd and yet more time wasting for my simple request!

Eventually, after asking 3 times to speak to a supervisor, he gives me an email address for someone. This is after 2 chats and about 25 minutes of my time. And don't forget, this is me trying to give them money - not the other way around.

I'm going to email their feedback/supervisor team to let them know, but writing this here too as I'd be interested (as I'm sure Rackspace would be) in knowing whether anyone else is frustrated by their highly inflexible way of dealing with new sales - I know they've got a good reputation as a hosting company, but you shouldn't have to fight to give them business and if someone wants to get a *sales* email address or email from someone in sales, then don't waste 25 minutes trying to put them off!

Add author's photo & biography to Wordpress

Just making a note of this for my future reference and for anyone else interested. This is based on Wordpress 2.8 but may possibly work with both older and newer versions.

To start with I wanted a way for an author to upload a profile photo directly to a Wordpress installation without having to sign up to a 3rd party site (Gravatar, etc.). I then wanted to display their picture on the author.php page. The fix for this was simple thanks to the 'Author Image' plugin (developer's site).

Next I wanted to put the author's description/biography on the page too. This is achieved by adding the following line in the appropriate place in the author.php file: (sorry it's an image as Blogger didn't like me trying to put it in to my posting :( )



I'm not sure who to credit for that as it's something I put in an older version of my modified templates, but thanks to whoever provided it originally and I hope this is useful for anyone.

Emails stuck in Outlook Outbox? Solution

Using Outlook 2003 I often get in to the situation where my browsing is working fine, but for some reason Outlook refuses to send emails. They just sit there in my Outbox and it informs me that it's trying to send them. The cause of this is when you accidentally have Outlook.exe running twice, normally because you forgot that you minimized it so you start it again. Anyway, to solve the problem simply close down Outlook (and ticking yes to the you still have items to send pop-up). Then do Ctrl-Alt-Del together and closed down Outlook.exe that will still be running (i.e. the 2nd instance). Then re-start Outlook and it should now send those emails :)

Solution for Vista USB stick not recognised

I've been pulling my hair out this morning as Vista was refusing to recognise my USB stick. I tried everything from installing updates to reinstalling the storage device drivers. At one point I could see the device in File Explorer but it reported that it was blank (mild panic!). Anyway, after the usual Googling for 'USB device not recognized' I came across a solution and had a sudden flash back to having done all of this before.

The solution is:

To shut down (not hibernate/sleep) your laptop
Unplug it from the mains power
Remove the battery
Wait a few minutes
Put it all back together and plug it back in again
Boot up Vista and plug in your USB stick

So there you go, a slight twist on the old "turn off and on again" trick. But it really does work. Obviously this advice is provided in good faith and should be used at your own risk, etc. etc. Also a quick thanks to this blog for reminding me of the solution and for sharing it, as I've now done, with the world :)

Review of Internet World 2009 by a 'VIP'!

Just returned from visiting Internet World 2009 at Earl's Court in London and though I'd post a review, to go alongside my A4U Expo review from last October. For some reason I was made a VIP ticket holder this year, which was far less exciting than it might sound - but more on that later! As with my previous reviews, I'll stick to some easy-to-read bullet points on the good and bad features of the show.

Good things...

• No queues and quick entry. Unlike Ad:Tech London last year (which somehow I forgot to blog about) there was no queuing in the rain at Internet World. In fact they did a good job with clearly signed entry points for badge holders, returning visitors, etc.

• Usual mixture of companies, including a few new names (but not many small/start up types - more on that later!)
  

• A couple of good seminars (i.e. ones that weren't pitches in disguise!). One that stood out was the Webcredible presentation on usability which consisted of slide after slide of practical and real life examples of good and bad pratice. One example they gave which made me chuckle was about a lady who entered 'yes' in the Confirm your Email box on a sign-up form - makes you realise the importance of wording on such things.

• Chatting to the guys at the Branded 3 who came dressed as if they were going to the beach (at least I hope that was the intention!). Patrick wasn't around when I got to the stand, but I passed on the thanks for his excellent work on the BlogStorm blog and I'm seriously thinking of hiring these guys to help promote a TV related project which I mentioned to them on the day.

• Talking to the guys at Rackspace and learning more about their Mosso cloud hosting service, although I'm still a little concerned that it's going to be good enough to host a busy forum which can have some pretty high CPU usage. Hmm...
  

Bad things and/or room for improvement!

• Seminar rooms (or 'theatres' !!) were way too small, hot and stuffy. The queues for virtually all the presentations were massive and a lot of people ended up having to stand. Considering they would have known how many tickets they normally issue (this is hardly their first year!) they should have predicted the need for bigger venues.
  

• I was given a VIP ticket this year which, according to the Internet World web site, would get me access to the "VIP Lounge" for complimentary refreshments in an 'oasis of calm'. This area was sponsored by the guys at WebOptimiser and I'm not sure it will have given them any good PR. The 'lounge' was a small square area with a waist height fence surrounding it, so you had people and stands on all sides - hardly an oasis of calm! Furthermore they couldn't get the refreshments sorted out and the coffee/tea stand was often completely empty. I heard a few people grumbling about this, but to be fair it did seem a bit better stocked on the last day.

• The layout of the show was shockingly bad. I'm sure they previously had much clearer 'zones' for the various sectors (CMS providers, hosting, sales, etc.) but this year I found myself going around and around trying to find certain stands. Furthermore, the guy from Webcredible even made a joke that giving out his stand number wouldn't help us find him, so he pointed in the rough direction and wished us luck (I might have embellished that last part, but you get the idea!).

Might not be IW's fault, but...

• I guess this is more a reflection of the industry maturing and the worldwide recession, but I felt that this year's show lacked any kind of 'buzz'. Beyond the guys at the Peer1 stand, there was very little in the way of razzmatazz of previous years. The whole show felt a bit dull and it seemed to be reflected in the mood of some of the exhibitors and guests.

• There weren't many startups or upcoming companies. They had a French Pavilion (again think artistic license in terms of it being a 'pavilion') - but this just seemed a bit random. Also there weren't any affiliate companies or many of the larger ad networks (no Ad.com, Value Click, etc.).

Closing thoughts

Given the absence of the large ad networks, the affiliate companies and a general "here's Internet World 2009, take it or leave it" atmosphere, I wonder whether this show will continue without a radical shake-up of either their pricing for exhibitors, or without a clearer focus on the types of companies that are meant to be there.

Shows such as Ad:Tech (despite the queues last year!) and A4U Expo appear to be stealing not only the limelight but also the lion's share of exhibitors.

Other reviews of Internet World 2009...

"Once I had finished my £6.95 Jacket potato and beans I rushed back to the theatre as I most certainly did not want to miss the talk from Mark Watts-Jones of Orange. I arrived (30mins early) to a queue reminiscent of the toilet queues for the London marathon." - Social Media Mashup

Error 2739 when installing Google Adwords Editor

If you're getting the Error 2739 message when installing Adwords Editor from Google, then don't panic - here is the solution and it's pretty straight forward. This is based on my experience using Windows Vista and I see that other bloggers have also shared the solution, so thanks to them and I've written my own version of the instructions here for future reference and because we've these ones you don't get any errors :)

Solution

• Start button > (All) Programs > Accessories
• In that list *right* click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator"
• When the black box (command screen) loads first type in:
• regsvr32 vbscript.dll
• then press the enter/return key on your keyboard ... wait... then type in:
• regsvr32 jscript.dll
• press enter and wait again.

That's it! Now try installing Adwords Editor and there should be no more 2739 error!

PS. For some reason I didn't get a shortcut on my desktop for the editor, this can be fixed pretty easily, click the Start button > Run then in the box that appears type in:

explorer.exe C:\Program Files\Google\Google Adwords Editor\

Click "Ok". A window should then load showing you the contents of that folder. Right-click on 'adwords_editor.exe' and select "Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)'. Hey presto! :)

Wordpress htaccess clashes with sub-directory

The situation:

Wordpress installed in root / with its default .htaccess file
I had another script installed in /otherscript sub-directory with .htaccess/.htpasswd protection.

The problem:

Trying to access the /otherscript sub-directory creates a Wordpress 404 error, rather than the pop-up login box you'd expect to see.

The solution:

Simply edit the Wordpress .htaccess and at the very top of the file add:

ErrorDocument 401 default

All thanks for this solution go to Andrew Rollins who blogged about this back in 2008 - I have merely made my own record of it here just in case anything ever happened to Andrew's page. Also if you check his blog posting you'll find some alternatives to the line above, such as specifying a custom 401 page.