I have a close friend who owns a small company which produces and sells several speciality men’s clothing items.  For the past year, with a little help from yours truly, my friend has managed a successful AdWords account advertising his products.

I was recently talking with this friend and he was bemoaning the fact that his total number of sales last month were the same as they were six months ago, and he felt like AdWords was failing him.

My first thought was, “Are you crazy?”

In the economic climate of the past six months, his ability to maintain a consistent level of sales and income should be seen as just short of a miracle. I suggested that he takes a closer look at his web logs, as he would very likely find that without his AdWords efforts, many of his sales would never have occurred.

In the current economic environment, AdWords performance should be measured a little differently. These days it is simply not reasonable to expect tremendous gains in conversions and sales.

If over the past 6-12 months your sales resulting from AdWords have stayed the same, or even dropped off just a little, you could view that as a success. It’s tough out there.

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Ah the joys of living in a recession!

I got fed up with all the doom and gloom on Radio 4, so switched to Radio 5. This proved to be a slightly faster and more dynamic form of the same misery.

Switching off the Radio, I headed for the BBC’s Business pages:

“Unemployment passes two million”

“Uk recession ‘will last longest’” (Does that mean we win?)

“Economic woes hit Dubai ratings”

“Downturn ‘risks Africa conflict‘

I know there’s a lot of hardship and suffering going on out there, but is it all doom and gloom?

How’s the downturn affecting your business? Please share your thoughts and views in our comments below.

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A biannual job fair in New York City entitled “Women For Hire Career Expo” attracted a segment of the population which it had never before interested- men.

One attendee, Kevin Greene, 37, was reluctant to attend an employment event geared specifically towards women, but that his desperation to find work  forced him to put aside his reservations.

“It’s so hard to get to talk to people face-to-face when you’re looking for work, but it’s so important,” Greene said. “Anything to avoid the black hole of e-mailing a resume.”

A former software company employee, Greene unexpectedly lost his job shortly before Christmas.

Like many at the job fair, Greene was willing to consider almost any job opportunity, “I’ve never been laid off for this long, I always found someplace to go before my time was up,” he said. “I think the economy is the worst it’s ever been — at least in my lifetime.”

Organizers of the 10-year-old employment event said that the expo usually attracts approximately 1,500 attendees, a number which which was surpassed within the first hour of this event.

The unemployment rate in New York City is 7.2%, compared with 7.6% for the US as a whole.

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Microsoft has announced that due to decreased earnings, it will cut up to 5,000 jobs, 5.5% of its total workforce, over the next 18 months. This round of job cuts will be the largest and most sweeping in Microsoft’s history.

The software giant’s net profit fell by 11 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year when compared with the same quarter from a year ago.

Regarding the job cuts, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated, “While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach. We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”

Most of the job cuts are expected to come in Microsoft’s research & development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT departments.

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“Turbulent times” is an understatement.

A quick browse of the BBC’s business pages reveal the following:

Apple posts best quarterly profit

eBay sees profit and revenue drop

IBM bucks gloom with rosy outlook

Sony sees first loss in 14 years

Predictions anyone?

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Based on a story from the Associated Press, it appears that Google have fired a large number of temporary workers.

Is this just a cost cutting measure or are there other issues at hand?

I can’t help but wonder how many companies have lowered, slashed or even terminated budgets in their AdWords accounts. The good news is that there are rewards for those brave/wise enough to keep spending on advertising, as there are some great opportunities within AdWords right now.

But wouldn’t it be great to be to be a fly on their Accountant’s wall?

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“An often overlooked fact is that there is no such thing as a “standard” recession; each have demonstrated individual characteristics and patterns. One thing, however, is certain. The recession will be bad for most businesses.

Yet some will not only maintain their existing levels of growth and sales, but will actually prosper despite the economic climate.

So what sets these firms apart from their less-fortunate siblings? One factor is their marketing strategies, capabilities and budgets.”

Marketing during a recession

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Like many professionals during these difficult economic times, software developers are being asked to continue producing the same quality end product but with significantly reduced budgets.

What is a software developer to do?

One of the best ways for struggling developers to get more out of their diminished funds is to take full advantage of all the open source software resources available.

Luckily, Palamida, a leading provider of security for open source applications, has just announced their top 25 open source projects, all of which will help developers do more with less.

The projects are divided into five different categories-

1. Development Tools
2. Database & Mapping Tools
3. Core Utility Classes
4. Reporting & Charts
5. Web 2.0

By utilizing these open source projects and others like them, software developers will help themselves weather these challenging economic conditions.

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I was talking to a friend recently, and he mentioned the Christmas bonus he’d given the woman who cleans their offices. It was very generous. Perhaps even a little too generous, I thought to myself, because surely even a third of the amount would have made her very happy? But then this particular friend has always been generous, almost to the point of extravagance. And perhaps that is precisely why he’s also an extremely successful businessman.

A recent post over on Copyblogger discusses the Secret Trait of Millionaires - and it reads like a description of my friend.

“Despite stereotypes about greedy, ruthless businesspeople, the truth is successful entrepreneurs always find ways to give. They give away generous samples of their products. They share their time, energy and success with partners. They give back to their communities. They generously support charities. They reward great employees.”

I couldn’t agree more. I know times are tough right now, and everybody is feeling the squeeze, particularly at this time of the year. But unless you’re living in a cardboard box, this is not the time to cut your spending completely. There are people out there who are much more desperate than you.

Google’s Matt Cutts is also thinking along these lines. The charity recommendations post on his blog is an excellent place to start if you’re in a giving mood.

At SoftwarePromotions, we will continue our holiday tradition of donating money to the World Wildlife Fund on behalf of our clients. It makes a far more positive impact than a Christmas card, and our clients seem to appreciate it, too.

If you’re still holding on to those dollars/euros/yuans, make sure you read the Copyblogger post. Generosity pays. And the warm and fuzzy feeling is actually just a bonus.

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Our company uses MessageLabs for spam filtering, and as a result, I get a lot less “special offers” by email than in the past.

That being said, I’m currently being bombarded by discounts and offers; yet these are legitimate offers from companies I have purchased from in the past.

This is the first recession where the internet has played a significant part, and many online retailers and services are taking advantage of the “new media” to send targeted offers and discounts to their customers.

Are they working? Not so much for me personally, as I’m not an easy sell – though some may describe me as cheap and cynical.

If I don’t want something, I won’t be tempted by a lower price. But if your offer is something that has already interested me, or your offer convinces me that your product or service is something that I really need, a mailing with a significant discount will tempt me.

‘Tis the economic season to be seen and be sold.

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