Internet Marketing Toolbox

For the past week or two I’ve been experimenting with my Internet connection because I moved house. It has served as an excellent reminder of the vital importance of making allowances for people with slow internet connections, and/or low data limits!

First was a 7 day trial run of 3G mobile wireless broadband. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, spending far too much time at the slower GSM speeds (14-20k) instead of the promised speeds possible of up to 3000k speeds.

Now, I’m currently back on dialup at 52k, and not so patiently waiting for my 1500k ADSL service to be relocated (and in following up with AAPT after a week, have only just discovered they have NOT yet submitted my application to Telstra! Sheesh! But that’s another story about poor customer service.)

So what have I missed out on in that time?

Probably lots of stuff… Stuff I couldn’t see… stuff I didn’t want to download (which I wouldn’t think twice about getting if I was on my normal ADSL connection)… and stuff I was not prepared to twiddle my fingers waiting for!

While it’s been happening for a while, I’ve only just really noticed that a large number of marketers seem to have a “thing” for video information - and nothing else!

Come on people…

If you really have a useful message to say, then offer it in OTHER formats as well!

• Those of us on slow connections will greatly appreciate the ability to READ your stuff in text or PDF format!
  
• Those on faster broadband connections will see the time savings to be gained by reading/scanning rather than being forced to sit through a 15+ minute presentation!
  
• Not forgetting those who are on faster wireless Internet connections with obscenely low data limits who have to carefully watch their downloads!

Another example… slow loading of “normal”, very poorly optimized web pages.

I had cause to login to my mobile account with Virgin Mobile. 155 seconds just to bring up their home page. Then I got my password wrong several times… and tried to bring up their contact page. After 15 minutes and several browser time-outs, I gave up and took my laptop to a friend’s place with broadband.

Do you REALLY need to have a login error page load over 84 items from a (much slower) secure server???

PLEASE… optimise all of your pages! Look at how many graphic elements you might be forcing people to download, when TEXT is so much easier and faster!

E-Mail.

It took over 6 minutes to get my email on dialup first thing this morning. And don’t try to do anything else while you are retrieving your mail… It’s just not gonna happen!

This one’s over to you. It’s probably time to cut down on the number of services you use to eliminate some of the stuff you don’t really need!

A few minutes of trimming here will save you hours every month whether you are on dialup or broadband!

And think of me on dialup for another 5-10 days while my broadband is getting re-connected

Cheers
Stephen Spry

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