Should I shop online or offline? A shoppers’ guide.Written by Steve Hawker
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* Don’t mind being buffeted by other hungry shoppers, also trying to secure tables at eating outlets. * Shrug-off astronomic prices in shopping centres, for snacks and drinks of indifferent quality. * Enjoy dodging cars, vans and lorries, and feel they belong in city centres during shopping hours. * Think that second-hand cigarette smoke and vehicle fumes add a ‘certain something’ to shopping. * Relish sharing other people’s viruses, bacteria, body odours, exotic language, odd habits etc. * Are tolerant of shop assistants’ bad manners, surly behaviour and occasional incompetence. * Like queuing, smelly toilets and litter, and/or removing dog mess and chewing gum from shoes. * Enjoy finding quiet spots in otherwise confined, crowded and claustrophobic public spaces. * Think graffiti really is an art form, and smile when shop maintenance goes unattended for weeks. * Shrug their shoulders if shops open only when it’s convenient for owners, staff (and politicians). * Remove carefully flyers left furtively under their windscreen wipers and read them avidly later.I could go on but, if you identify yourself with most of these phenomena, then you probably should shop offline. If, like me though, you find many of them irksome, you might consider shopping online instead next time!
Steve Hawker is a partner at http://www.ehawker.co.uk E-mail him at: info@ehawker.co.uk © Steve Hawker 2005. All rights reserved. This article must be reproduced in its entirity.
| | Why Using an Ad Blocker Can be a Bad IdeaWritten by Joe Duchesne
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Would everything be a disaster on Internet without ads? Having email being spam free would be nice but blocking spam is a lot less precise than using an ad blocker to eliminate all kinds of ads. If we had no pop ups to worry about Internet would be nicer, but most people already get this with latest browsers. I am all in favor of eliminating intrusive advertising methods like pop ups and spyware but I think whole idea of blocking all ads is short sighted. Tools certainly exist to block almost all forms of advertising online. I would urge you though to think twice before you activate ad blocking on all forms of advertising. Non intrusive, in-context advertising can actually help you I can't count number of times I've been on a web page that didn't have exactly what I was looking for but an ad on that site did. Same thing when searching Google. Sometimes listings are not relevant to kind of information I'm after but ads on side or top are. Is all advertising evil? Of course not. Many forms of advertising can actually be helpful. Next time you're thinking about blocking that text or banner ad, think twice. You may need access to an advertiser in future. What's harm in that?
Joe Duchesne is the owner of Yowling.com. Yowling is a web hosting company that offers a web site builder that allows you to create a professional website in no time flat. Reprint freely as long as you keep the live keyword rich link found in this resource box.
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