A few years ago it was interesting and different to use the word.

Not any more. Surely we can do better?

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A search for speed up my PC on Google (predictably) produces a lot of ads featuring surprisingly happy women. In fact five out of the first ten ads I clicked:

Clearly this segment of the industry believe that deliriously happy (usually blonde) women sell software, but why?

Could it be that they’re trying to sell to women? Unlikely. A Squidoo lens on Sellling and Marketing to Women estimates that around 75% of all buying decisions today are made by women, but I find it difficult to believe that women are the main user group for this type of software.

So why use pictures of women in ads aimed at men?

Is the idea that the man’s partner is delighted that her laptop (it’s always a laptop) is finally optimised for performance? That her hard drive is defragmented, her boot time is 15% faster, and that her cookie and temp files are finally cleared? Unlikely.

So what is being communicated here.

Woman + optimised laptop = ?

I know there are still an incredible number of shows and exhibitions that use young, attractive women to help sell their goods, but isn’t the software industry a little more progressive?

Surely such an imaginative and creative industry are better than Mad Men?

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2011 will be the year of…

Facebook advertising. Right now it doesn’t work for many companies because people going to Facebook are going to see what their friends are doing while they should be working. Not to buy things.

I believe that Facebook can and will change this. It’s their only realistic source of revenue, so they have a good incentive.

Here in the UK we have a variety of junk newspapers and magazines that publish horoscopes for the gullible. They make entertaining reading for their attempts to make one size fits all predictions sound accurate.

So here are my predictions for the gullible – see how many of them you come across elsewhere:

Google AdWords will become more complex and more expensive.

SEO will become harder to achieve, harder to measure and more competitive.

Social Media will be more important than ever before.

More predictions for 2011:

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I just received an interesting email from our (second) broadband provider, with the following information:

“100Mbps Internet connections We’ve just connected our first 100Mbps customer to our new Ethernet Direct Leased Line service.

This is dedicated fibre delivered direct to the premises. It is aimed primarily at business customers and is the new very cost-effective 21CN alternative to legacy 20CN leased line services.”

Obviously I clicked, and was delighted to see that I could get an immediate quotation. The results, however, were less reasonable than hoped for:

£16,524 a year ($25,700) for the cheapest package. Not including the incredible connection charge.

I’m all for speed, but that makes hotel internet access look cheap.

Why do I feel that the UK may not be ready for the broadband revolution?

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True story – almost live.

I just went to buy a useful product – I didn’t need it, but I wanted it.

Here’s what happened.

I clicked on the buy button, and was told that I had to set up an account. (Hurdle 1)

Clicked on the link to do so, and was asked for my name and email address. Clicked save, and was told to check my email for a verification email. (Hurdle 2)

Waited for almost 5 minutes for the email to arrive. (Hurdle 3)

Clicked on the link and was then presented with a depressingly large form. (Hurdle 4)

Filled out the form, clicked save and was told that my user name was taken. (Hurdle 5)

Changed the user name, clicked save and was told that my password had to contain at least one upper-case letter and one digit. (Hurdle 6)

Changed the password, clicked save and was told that I hadn’t entered a user name. (Hurdle 7)

Gave up. I saved my money, the company lost a sale.

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Nico Westerdale of Software Marketing Resource, BitsDuJour, Iconico and more has published his interview with yours truly:

The SoftwarePromotions Interview

Thank-you Nico!

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Thought 1: Bodybuilding has always struck me as an odd activity.

At a very basic level, it’s about people wanting to look good and feel good about themselves.

taken from wikipedia

Most young (and not so young) men would be happy to look like that. But if the aspiring bodybuilder decides to take it to a more competitive level, odd poses, fake tans and oils come into play.

taken from wikipedia

Most men wouldn’t want to look like that.

And the fascinating thing about bodybuilders is that they generally only look good to other bodybuilders.

Thought 2: Google offer a range of certification programs, one of which is the Google AdWords Certification Partner scheme.

In a nutshell, our company is certified because one or more people have taken and passed a couple of exams, and we handle more than $10,000 a month in total budgets.

The issue that niggles me is that the exam is little more than a memory test, and doesn’t actually measure a person’s competence in Google AdWords. In fact we’ve received a couple of job applications from qualified individuals who clearly didn’t know one end of an AdWords stick from another.

So the certification is more or less meaningless. More people are becoming qualified, and less of them know what they’re doing.

So a part of me is tempted to abandon the whole thing, and not jump through Google’s hoops any more. But then doing so may imply that we’re not capable of becoming qualified, which might put some people off working with us.

Thought 3: I recently tried a local networking organisation and attended two of their breakfast events. Aside from the awfulness of explaining who you are and what you do to complete strangers at 7:00 in the morning while trying to eat, everyone wears a suit. I hate wearing a suit.

In hindsight I feel that I sold out. I should have gone in jeans and a t-shirt, and explained to the other suits that my type of work doesn’t require a suit, and that if they didn’t like that, they shouldn’t work with me. But I didn’t. I went in a suit because “that was how these things work“.

True, my jeans would have put some people off. And many of them would have dismissed me as amateur and clueless. But I don’t want to work with that sort of people anyway.

And now I have to take two more Google exams to get a qualification that I no longer believe in because this is how these things work.

But at least I don’t have to tan myself and rub myself in oil.

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I came to this conference with high expectations. I haven’t been disappointed.

My notebook (Moleskine – no power or internet required) is full of scribbled notes, names, website URLs and more. And my head has been filled with interesting thoughts and ideas  that now need to settle and grow.

It’s been a long day, and I’m still jet-lagged and sleep deprived. I also suspect that I’ll have problems falling asleep tonight, with some of the ideas, imagery and opinions that I’ve been exposed to. Seth Godin’s view of sales people as human spam, Jason Cohen’s ‘planning is silly’ idea, or my favourite of the day, Jason Cohen’s comparison of enterprise sales to a Jedi Mind trick…

Sleep may be difficult to come by tonight.

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Not a sentence I thought I would ever utter.

Two of the people who have inspired, impressed and dazzled me most over the last few years.

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I’m writing this from my hotel room at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, and the Business of Software conference begins in a little over two hours.

Needless to say I woke up just before 5:00 in the morning – one of the many perks of jet lag. But it’s rare that my days begin with a little work, breakfast and an hour of Seth Godin…

Please be sure to say hello if you’re attending the conference.

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