Gnarls Barkley – Ecommerce is not boring – It’s becoming everything
Ecommerce is a rather boring word. Maybe it’s the preponderance of the “commerce,” rather than the “e,” but it in no way represents the truly amazing hold that Internet sales have taken on the world.
In the UK this week, history has been made with the first single getting to number one by ecommerce alone. Available to download since March 13th, but only having gone on sale today, the Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy” hit the number one spot yesterday after being downloaded more than 31,000 times.
Before downloads became part of the way the charts are gauged last year, the singles chart in the UK was bottoming out. Most people no longer wanted to pay between$2.00 ($3.50) and £4.00 pounds for a single. They would rather wait for the album to come out. By using ecommerce, and making singles available for only 79p each ($1.37), the singles chart has been revitalized again.
Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy is a great song, but it is also the sign of things to come. Ecommerce is everywhere these days, and whether you are planning to study business, computer science, or any other online degree, you can guarantee you wiil be part of it.
Online Gambling – Can’t the Internet be put to better use?
I recently wrote and researched an article on bingo and online bingo. I enjoyed the research because, like many people, I enjoy the thrill of gambling. But it was also some of the quickest $40 I have ever spent – thirty dollars going to play bingo with friends, and ten dollars playing online bingo. Now I’ve written my article, I won’t be going back to the site.
Internet gambling is big big business. Poker, which was has always been popular with young students in the US, is now getting a fierce grip on the Internet gambling market. The immediacy of communication on the Internet, the ease of use – the things that make online degrees such a great idea, seem to be making gambling too easy for those with an addictive nature. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/4806660.stm
Any pass-time can become a potential addiction. Online poker is no different. At least we can see the counterbalance of this on the Internet, where more and more people are using online study to forge a psychology career. Those who are interested in counseling or have some background in psychology can specialize in areas such as addictions. Psychology careers and voluntary working in counseling can make a big difference in addressing the growing problem of gambling addiction.
Those who choose to work in school psychology can use this forum to alert kids to the dangers of gambling – just one more issue that needs to be taught alongside the perils of drugs. I would hope that online degrees in counseling and psychology will continue to grow in popularity, alongside psychology careers, because Internet gambling certainly shows no signs of slowing down.
The Arctic Monkeys and MySpace – The rise of the social networking site and Internet Marketing
The UK band the Arctic Monkeys are like a breath of fresh air. They are interested in the music – not the celebrity status that goes with it, which is why the Arctic Monkeys have announced that they will not be making any more TV promotional appearances.
Arrogance? For some bands maybe, but with their debut album became the fastest-selling album of all time last year, the Arctic Monkeys have more right than most. What’s more, it was all due to the buzz they had gained through Internet marketing. This was largely due to the social networking site MySpace.
With 57 million registered users, MySpace is very much part of the social networking site phenomenon. Members can build their own websites, list their interests and meet people in a safe environment.
The social networking website has also, as we know, become an excellent platform for Internet marketing. MySpace showcases musical talent and allows bands like the Arctic Monkeys to build up a following without going down channels which many younger people now find uncool and even distasteful. This shift in attitudes about Internet marketing is all great news for the online degree.
Happy International Women’s Day! But Are Women Happy in the Workplace?
The news in the UK and US at the moment is full of editorial about the continued inequalities for women in the workplace. In the US, the number of women working outside the home has slipped in the last five years. In the UK, women continue to lag behind men in the salary stakes.
The truth is, for most of us there just aren’t enough hours in the day to have it all. Most of the working mothers I know who successfully fit their career around their children have the full support of their partner, who shares at least half the work with them.
To rise to the very top of the tree often means working rigid hours. But many women and men these days don’t actually want to get to the top; they just want a career that pays decent wages, gives them job satisfaction and fits in with all their other commitments, be they children, hobbies or just wanting to relax now and then!
A good education is essential to give women and men more choice in the workplace. Online study can play a role in this. Accounting is a perfect example. A man or woman working in finance can earn accounting qualifications over a period of time, perhaps allowing them to take on either full-time, or more lucrative accounting jobs when the time is right.
Accounting is a career that affords great flexibility, so mothers or fathers who want to work from home or to flexible hours could do a lot worse than online study in accounting.
In my view, flexibility is the key to working and education in the future. If getting to the top means no flexibility, then I don’t want to go there.
Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit Make Me Wish I Could Do Animation
The Oscar success of Wallace and Gromit and Corpse Bride’s Animation Award yesterday have shared the honours nicely between these triumphs of animation. Watching Wallace and Gromit with my children last week, I marvelled at the sheer depth and detail. Freeze any frame of animation and you’ll see a visual joke. Listen to any line of the script and you’ll find the audio equipment. Even if I were ever to work in this kind of animation it would be on the script. I am in awe of the artistic talent of these people.
I am very proud of Wallace and Gromit as a very British work. The truth is, the creators have been given the scope by their connection with Dreamworks. I have written before of the number of animation jobs that will be coming up with Dreamworks, and if I had the talent to undertake an animation degree and go for animation jobs, that’s what I would be doing. I can think of few things in the film world that are as exciting as animation right now.
Working Out, Online Degrees and Networking – Students and Degrees Have Certainly Changed
Here in the UK college students do not have quite the same reputation as those in the US. There is no doubting the quality of our universities – and I don’t just mean Oxford and Cambridge, but students have traditionally been seen as beer-swilling, junk-food eating slobs.
Apparently, these days this is no longer true. You are as likely to see a student in the gym as in the pub, and with rising fees, most students spend more time serving behind bars than drinking at them.
The point is, it got me thinking about how much further education has changed in the 13 years since I finished my degree. Educational institutions are having to become fitter and leaner – just like their students.
Moreover, students who would struggle to pay for a full-time degree now have the chance to work and study in equal measure. Flexible options such as online degrees are helping to change the face of the modern student.
Another big difference is the range of degrees available today. Paralegal studies, homeland security and networking are relatively new online degrees, but all of them have proved successful among both high school graduates and working professionals.
Online degrees such as networking reflect a world of business almost unrecognisable from the one I entered in 1993. We can expect many more changes in the future.
Public Health Can Be A Confusing Business
Doing my usual trawl through online press yesterday, I came across two very conflicting pieces of data in the world of public health from two different sides of the Atlantic. The first, from my UK newspaper of choice, The Guardian, talked about how certain natural chemicals can boost the body’s ability to repair damaged DNA and may prevent cells turning cancerous. The research was undertaken by scientists from Georgetown University in Washington DC.
The second piece of public health news came from The New York Times. It talks of research undertaken by Women’s Health Initiative of the National Institutes of Health that suggests that a low fat diet will not reduce the risks of getting cancer or heart disease.
This second piece of news will strike fear into the heart of many public health professionals. It also goes against what has been established thinking for many people in the world of public health, especially in terms of heart disease. The first piece of news, advising the increased consumption of foods such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and soya beans, is much more in common with modern public health professionals.
I’m no scientist, but I am concerned at the mixed messages here. Surely anyone with any sense would believe that a low fat diet is better for public health. There are also many qualifications to these findings which may get lost in the wake of this publicity. It’s time for some clearer messages in the world of public health. Are there any budding public health professionals who think they can do anything about it?
Grammys, Emmys, Oscars: Are We in Danger of Celebrity Marketing Overload?
I have been writing a column on fashion design and fashion marketing for a year now on a sister site, so I have been watching the seemingly never-ending awards show train that started a few months ago and will end with the Oscars in March.
Celebrity – and celebrity marketing seem to have become the most important thing on the planet, so it is hardly surprising how much exposure these events get. Am I the only person, however, who gets a little tired of them?
Gwyneth Paltrow has attacked recent reports of her being viewed as “boring,” simply because her and her megastar husband Chris Martin shun the red carpet as much as possible and prefer to be at home together with their child. True to the world of celebrity marketing, even these comments have been used as tools for marketing the stars.
I’m fascinated by marketing – I used to work in marketing, I am fully aware that now it makes the world go round. MBAs and marketing degrees continue to be some of the most successful subjects to be transferred to online degrees. Just sometimes, however, when I’m surrounded by marketing and celebrity success and excess, I remember the late, great Bill Hicks, who asked, “Is there anyone in the audience who works in marketing? Go home and kill yourselves right now.”
He was only barely joking. I of course recognize how vital marketing is. I just wish we could see less marketing of celebrities and more marketing of real issues: the continued plight of the New Orleans residents; the continued aftermath of the tsunami and the recent earthquakes in India. Now they are the type of successful marketing campaigns I’d like to see.
President Bush’s State of the Union Address Could Be Good News For Online Teaching and Learning
Bush’s State of the Union address will have given plenty of us food for thought, especially in his references to isolationism. In the midst of this speech, however, was the declaration that more needed to be spent on training Americans in the sciences, computers and nanotechnology, and this could spell good news for online teaching and learning and greatly increase the number of teachers opting for online teaching degrees.
According to Bush, “if we ensure that America’s children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world,” An online teaching degree could be one way of training the 70,000 high school teachers that he wants to learn to teach advanced courses in maths and science.
Online teaching and learning could also benefit from what Bush has said will be a doubling of federal spending on research in the physical sciences though 2016. Tax credits may be offered to industry, and they could offer funding to employees interested in nanotechnology and supercomputing could. The US needs to look forward and outward. Online teaching and learning could be a perfect way to train the Americans needed to realize that dream.
Marketing Movies Seems Like an Easy Job at the Moment
I have written a lot on marketing and the movies since I’ve started my blog, but it’s just fantastic to see how many good movies are being made right now and the interested ways that methods such as Internet marketing are playing their part in their promotion. Only a couple of years back, people in the movie marketing business seemed to have a tough job on their hands. Only a few years into the age of truly awesome special effects and animation, all we seemed to be getting were formulaic blockbusters or tired comedies called Mom I think I Murdered the Milkman, or something like that.
Last year, there was a surge in quality movies that almost seemed capable of marketing themselves. Behind the scenes, however, just as more subtle techniques (such as using good writers) are being used to produce quality movies, techniques such as Internet marketing (which worked so well with TV series like Lost and movies like Donnie Darko) have seen a constant buzz being created where movies are concerned.
Movie marketing is everywhere right now, without actually being in your face. Visit any media website and you’ll see movies being marketed by Internet marketing. Yet the traditional marketing methods go hand in hand. Walk down any street, and you’ll see movie marketing on billboards or posters. TV and movie theaters themselves still have their role too.
Movie marketing is a great area to get into at the moment. I just hope that that the movies stay good and the marketing stays clever. I hope no one ever rings my home about a movie. Now that’s one type of marketing I really hate!
- Gnarls Barkley – Ecommerce is not boring – It’s becoming everything
- Online Gambling – Can’t the Internet be put to better use?
- The Arctic Monkeys and MySpace – The rise of the social networking site and Internet Marketing
- Happy International Women’s Day! But Are Women Happy in the Workplace?
- Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit Make Me Wish I Could Do Animation