Also, they sent me an email telling me about my “insurance” which I have bought to cover me in-case I don’t see the show for £5 odd - now what the hell is that all about? I didn’t want any insurance and I certainly didn’t knowingly ask for any, so why have the billed me for it or was it included? More investigation required here.

I hope your weekend was good my dear readers

Here is a picture from the screenshot I took as it happened, It’s the game at the bottom. If you;’re wondering why I have more than one game on at a time it’s because Poker can be really slow so if you multi-table there is usually always action and you can make money faster that way.

Occasionally, I’ll speak to someone in security who will go through ten transactions of the last six months and I’ll have to verify each company. Sometimes, they will ask me about transactions that haven’t hit my account yet for really random amounts for example £31.57 - I mean, how on earth I am supposed to know who that was for? I can’t see it on my bank statement and the business has dozens of automated transactions a day. If you can’t verify, you can’t unlock your account. Nice.

Other problems have included:

1. “Forgetting” to send a CHAPS payment
2. Sending amounts of money abroad in the wrong currency - this was a huge error and the difference was massive - Then taking four weeks to claw it back.
3. Not setting up Direct Debits
4. Duplicating Payments
5. Not cancelling Duplicate payments.
6. Terrible customer Service.
7. Questions go unanswered and no less than five follow-ups are usually required.

The list goes on, I’ve only been with them for a year and it’s been rather exciting. I guess I should thank them for keeping me on my toes each time I need to pay for something as it’s a bit of a game as to whether I’m actually going to be-able to complete the transaction or not.

If you are considering a move to Santander because of the free banking or some other reason, I suggest you re-think the move as it probably isn’t worth the hassle and heartache you’ll go through.

These people are called fantasy shoppers and the ruin your conversion data. They have no intention of buying, rather just to experience the thrill of shopping without actually following through with the entire transaction. These people actually enjoy the thrill of “shopping” rather than the actual ownership of the goods, if they can afford to buy and they do, the goods lose their perceived value to them and probably won’t even get used. You can classify these people in the same category as alcoholics or drug addicts, it’s associated with OCD and needs therapy to break the repetitive, compulsive behaviour.

If you have an amount of abandoned shopping baskets and you have tried every angle possible, consider putting a percentage down to people that never actually intended to buy anything in the first place.

So thanks to you Romeoman and your nasty little website, you’ve spammed me so hard that I’ve given up something which I really used to enjoy. I can’t believe some twit constantly filling the same peoples in-boxes over and over thinks that it might actually change peoples perspective to encourage them to eagerly rush and logon to the website and with anxious fingers book their tours to India.

If you read this Romeoman from www.amustic.com, please go and fuck yourself for ruining StumbleUpon for me.

I think the fact of the matter is that DMOZ is like a third world country with the editors like corrupt policemen, protecting their own interests and the Meta Editors are akin to bent politicians ensuring their own interests are taken care of and are not interested in anyone else.

It’s common knowledge that people who run serious categories will not allow their competitors in and will automatically delete any submissions that threaten their little section.

DMOZ, take control of the corruption problem and sort it out so it’s free and fair for everyone. Shame on you!

Cheers Invesp

I think EasyJet has been ill advised on this occasion and I predict that the route will be withdrawn within 6 - 12 months as there will not be enough people wanting to use the EasyJet service for a number of reasons which I will highlight below.

1. The price saving isn’t big enough to make a switch between Israel’s local airline El Al (which is state sponsored) and give up all the “luxuries” that you get on board compared to what you would get on an EasyJet flight, going to the toilet for free is one of the last luxuries on the budget carriers…for now. When you take the cost of buying some food on an EasyJet flight, the price difference will be almost negligible.

2. Israelis are a patriotic bunch and would rather support their local airline than a foreign one with no frills.

3. Security is highly important to people that live and travel to Israel. El Al’s security is second to none, and if a terrorist was planning to end his life on a flight destined for Israel, he wouldn’t make El Al his first choice as the security is ultra tight. I often get a “special search” when travelling to Tel Aviv. The point being, EasyJet’s security will not be of the same standard as El Al’s.

4. The seats are uncomfortable on EasyJet and you can’t recline them, this isn’t so much of an issue when going to Amsterdam from London (1 Hour) - but try sitting like that for five hours. No thanks.

All in all, with the sacrifices you have to make to security and comfort as well as not supporting Israel’s national airline I don’t think that saving £10 - £20 is going to tempt many people out of changing their preferred airline on this occasion. Nice try EasyJet, but I’d be very surprised if you succeed.

Bon Voyage for now.

I hope to post soon about a couple of things that are floating around my head, they are rather detailed and will take a substantial amount of time to research and write, so please be patient.

As one chapter closes another opens.

If you do decide to push on with your new business venture,I would suggest the first place you start is with a business plan so you can get funding. Even if you can’t get funding, you’ll need to plan your new venture so you have some direction, this will stand you in very good stead for the future. Many companies just muddle through with little direction and will fail eventually as they fall into a “comfortable” routine of being unproductive. I believe a business plan and a solid set of goals will help you keep focused so you find the success you so desperately crave.

Another problem is how to get your name out there, do you advertise? Make cold calls? try and SEO your own site (good luck) or maybe try some PR? I’m a fan of PR and for the record, I’ve tried almost every avenue to marketing my business. There is a fine line between keeping credibility and aggressively marketing your new company, I don’t believe in Direct Marketing , I think it’s skuzzy and smacks of desperation. Advertising on the other hand is okay, however, we have not had much success for the amount of full page adverts we’ve placed in leading business magazines. We’ve had some success with the PR we’ve done in house, the advantage is that the quality of the enquiries is very, very high and the type of companies calling are exactly the type of companies I want to work with.

Unfortunately, PR is a bit of a “dark art” even more so that SEO these days, and requires that you are very creative in order to catch publishers attention, which is a bit like effective SEO

I believe you need to offer a wide range of services both offline and online whilst still maintaining a niche,I would suggest staying local to your area, state, county or whatever. - this is a great example of a local SEO company that is offering a good service in the Dallas area. This will give you an edge as you will only be competing with “local-ish” companies which means competitive levels would be somewhat lower than if you were going nationally or internationally. Also, local business want to support local companies, so you’ll have a better chance of winning some SEO work.