Went to Business North West on Wednesday at what used to be called GMEX and has been renamed Manchester Central. There were a large number of businesses exhibiting but very few that fitted in with what I was looking for.

What was interesting though was that there were a range of free lectures that anyone could attend. I chose to go to "Google University" and attended a very interesting hour long talk about Google Analytics. I know that many people use Google Analytics and they say how useful a tool it is but I have never managed to get my head round it. I was amazed at how much detail you can find out and the number of tasks it carries out.

It sounded so simple and as soon as I got back to my computer I fired it up and was fired up myself to register with Google Analytics. I was really looking forward to finding out what it could tell me about my website, how I can improve traffic and most of all improve sales.

First step - register, well that bit went fine, not a problem. Then it said that I had to put a specific bit of code on every page of my website so that it could start to read it and then I presume do the analysing bit. Right, now this is where the problem starts because I have not the foggiest how to do that.
I did not create the site from code. It started life as an off the shelf website from EKM Powershop and has just had a redesign by one of the other "EKM ers". EKM are a great little community on the web. If you want a shop and do not know how to write a website from scratch then just visit EKM and take it from there - brilliant.

Now I am going to study the Google Analytics help pages to find out what to do and how to do it and I am also going to post a question on the EKM forum and hopefully someone can explain what I need to do.
If you are reading this and can explain will you please get in touch or write a comment.

The biggest question is why are some people so good at computer technology and others are not. I know that we all have different skills but some seem to have more than their fair share.

Frustrating

It is so frustrating! We are trying to run an ecommerce shop, bought loads of new stuff for Christmas, paying money to have a brand new design on the website and Royal Mail decide to strike.

Well, for the bigger companies they can negotiate deals with a variety of couriers so that their customers will still be able to shop with them and get delivery of their goods.
For ecommerce shops that do not have a stock and just use drop shippers then they can pass the problem on to the drop shipper.
For those people that have a shop as well as a website they can try to ride the storm and hope that customers will temporarily turn their backs on websites and buy from a bricks and mortar shop.

For small companies that do not have the buying clout to get good deals with a courier, that is IF the courier will even consider them - then we have a big problem! We might not be able to get a courier to do our deliveries and if we do then we will have to pay high prices and probably be pushed aside if a bigger order comes through. As a small company, just developing, we are going to be hit hard. Our sales will take a nosedive because I believe that people will be unsure when they will receive their goods and do less shopping online.Also what sales we do make will make less profit as carriage will be more expensive.

Not an easy time at the moment, rant is now over, thanks for reading - going for a glass of wine!

Taking the plunge.

Well - finally taken the plunge and having a site makeover. Getting quite excited about it really - doesn't take much! We have been using a template for the last few months and we wanted the site to look more professional. We have taken advice from a few people and hopefully we have taken the right decision.



We are using a new company - a young person (well most people are young compared to me) just starting off in Web Design. We have seen a few examples of work that he has already done and think that he will do a great job on our site. http://www.stuff4blokes.com/ Maybe bookmark the site and keep popping back to see the changes and if you have any thoughts then please send a comment.



We have just received several new Baby Axe Guitars and have added them all to the site. The quality of each guitar is absolutely amazing. They are a perfect idea as a gift for someone - if they are a fan of a particular group or band then they can own a mini replica of teh guitars used. We know of one person that has quite a collection. They look fantastic. There are other brands on the market but Baby Axe are quality.

ITV

Brilliant - ITV have been in touch - they are filming 60 Minute Makeover on Tuesday and wanted 2 items from us. They will give us publicity on the programme, they just don't give us money for the items. So, we had to think, do we say "no" and miss out on some publicity or say "yes" and miss out on some money? We decided to give it a try, it could be a mistake and they have taken advantage of our generosity, on the other hand 1.5 million people watch the programme. Time will tell I suppose.



We have only had one of the items in for a few days - they have only just arrived in this country - so someone at ITV is on the ball. It is a RockQube stereo speaker - looks great. The sound from it is absolutely amazing, could not believe that such a good sound could come out of such a small box.
The other item is a Deluxe Table Football We have had those for a while and they are quite popular. They are really solid and give (us) hours of fun. One day I will beat my other half - trouble is he is always cheating! Typical male!

My very first experience.

I have just signed up and this is my very first blog.

Stuff4blokes is an online shop selling a range of gifts for men. After reading lots of advice about whether to blog or not to blog - my answer to the question is to give it a try.

Don't have any idea what to say - have even less idea of whether anyone will read it or how people will find it. Maybe over the next few weeks I will learn. Anyway need to go now and wrap some miniature guitars for posting tomorrow - so if you ordered from www.stuff4blokes after 5.00pm today your items will be in tomorrow's post.