I bought a new computer on Tuesday. I'd quite forgotten how much work it takes to shift everything across, and I still haven't finished.

One of the main benefits this time round was using Windows XP instead of my present Windows 98SE. I had tried XP a year or two back, but my earlier PC was so slow that it didn't work that well and I went back to Win98. XP needs plenty of memory... so I've got about 1GB of RAM this time, and it sings along.

Now, I use Opera as my main browser. This is very fast--up to 10 times faster than Explorer. I know because I use Explorer for the ranking utility Alexa (www.alexa.com) and the speed difference is huge.

I had previously bought the full feature, ad-free version of Opera for my other machine, and now I was going to have to decide whether to buy another licence for the new PC.

Well, I didn't. And here's the reason.

I'm in the internet advertising and marketing business. It seems obvious that I need to know what everyone else is doing in this field.

Buying ad-free versions of anything just wouldn't keep me in the play. I'd be like many other members of the viewing public - ignorant and not knowing it.

So I'm now using the 'ad' version of Opera, and loving it!

I also allow pop-ups, pop-unders, and even look at spam mail. In fact, I'll go for anything except viruses, so I can keep abreast of the latest trends.

If you're constantly moaning about how the net is full of ads and annoying pop-ups, just do a 180 degree turn on your thinking. Look at everything that appears on your screen... you'll be amazed at how that much that information makes you become more marketing-savvy.

It's just a case of remembering here that we're not "the public" ... we're the marketers and innovators.

And ads are our free market research.

Ken Silver.

Hi Ken,

I totally agree with you Ken! I don't use Opera, but I am very pasionnate about marketing, so I often watch carefully the ads on tv (instead of zapping between channels) and in magazines, as well as techniques online.

It is one of the best way to spot trend AND new techniques.



Stéphanie Hétu
Internet Coach
----------------------------
Ezine resource centre...and a free ezine builder course for you.
----------------------------

Ken,

Should I download the Java or non-Java version?

Ernie Sibberson
BlueJay Publications
www.bluejaypub.com

PS Still waiting to hear from you

Hi Ernst,

I have the Java version for no other reason than 'the more the merrier'... I have 140GB of hard drive to fill! As long as you have good virus protection and a high security level you should have no problems with anything the net bats at you these days.

Ken Silver.

Do you really look at every ad? My guess
is no. There's so much truly lousy
stuff passing for marketing that there's
gotta be a law of diminishing returns.

My take is this: if someone is willing to
pay to put out their ad, it has a reasonable
chance of being done well enough for me
to learn something from it.

If the advertiser is doing spam, then
s/he is going at it as a pure numbers
game, and I think it hardly matters to most
spammers what their ad says.

Besides, all those ads about enlarging
this body part or shrinking that body
part or getting a low mortgage out of some
Hondouran-Irish Bank in Borneo hardly
seems relevant to anything I'll ever do.

With so much GOOD information avaiable,
I simply have to pick and choose what
I will attend to.

I'm not saying anyone else is wrong -
just indicating my view.

Regards,
Bal

"Strike it rich through persuasion!"