Each day, Groupon features an unbeatable deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in your city. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, they get discounts you won't find anywhere else. They call the concept "collective buying power!" 

Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been introduced to Groupon in my city. All you need do is go to their site and sign up – you only need an e-mail address to browse but will have to fill out more detailed profile information to get the latest discount/coupon. You will have to provide a credit card to participate on a deal but will only be billed should the Groupon garner enough participants. 

How It Works

1. Each day Groupon features something cool to do at an unbeatable price.
2. You only get it if enough people join that day… so invite your friends! (Suffice how I found it virally via my Facebook friends)
3. Check back the next day for another awesome Groupon or have e-mail alerts sent to you.

Lastly, if you refer a friend – you get $10. That’s it! If you want to learn more, check out the YouTube video above.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Online holiday retail sales will grow 8% this year to $44.7 billion, predicts Forrester Research Inc. That would represent a continued shift of shopping to the web, as the National Retail Federation has forecast total retail sales will decline 1% this holiday season.

So, before you go online to shop, check out these great 'coupon' websites that provide discounts and promo codes for top retailers like Old Navy, Target, Kohls and as well as computer giants such as Dell.   

RetailMeNot: Coupon Codes [Above]

FatWallet: Online Coupons 

DealCatcher: Free Online Coupons

MyCoupons.com: Grocery Coupons and Online Coupons

Deal of Day: Coupon Codes

The Bargainist: Coupons & Coupon Codes

Dealnews: Online Coupons 

Now - get out there and start shopping!

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

TinyURL is a web service created by Kevin Gilbertson that provides short aliases to redirect long URLs. Basically, TinyURL turns a long URL into a much shorter one.

For example, I took my URL and made a TinyURL:

http://www.macdonaldconsultingservices.com/ has a length of 42 characters and resulted in the following TinyURL which has a length of 25 characters: http://tinyurl.com/dn373h

Or, I can give my recipients confidence with a preview TinyURL: http://preview.tinyurl.com/dn373h

The preview feature allows recipients to preview the link at the TinyURL site so that they can see that the link directs to my web site and not a phishing site or a site with potential viruses.

How can you use TinyURL?

• If you want to 'cloak' a URL and give some mystery to a link within a 'known' campaign.
• You want to shorten, drastically, a URL such as a MapQuest link within e-mails.
• You want to shorten a lengthy product link, video or podcast link so that it doesn't break within a critical e-newsletter.
• Within Twitter, to minimize the use of characters.

Basically, the use of TinyURL is endless. For more learning, click on the following YouTube video.

Best

Denice MacDonald

There is always good discussion with my colleagues relating to development methodologies. None could be more invigorating than discussions related to Agile development. 

Waterfall is linear and predictable

Waterfall is a sequential process of development that historically includes four distinct stages: analysis, design, implementation, evaluation/metrics and maintenance. Critical downside for this approach is that if there is a major change far along in implementation, code typically needs to be redeveloped from scratch. Instead of predictable, we now have a lot of scope creep.

Agile methods adapt to change

Agile, on the other hand, emphasizes values and principles rather than processes. Moreover, there is less documentation and more collaboration allowing for ongoing refinement of the project. Of critical importance is that this method is adaptable -- a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability.

Can’t we just all get along

If you can’t decide which may work for you, I’ve found an excellent slideshare presentation by Maria Giudice, CEO and Founder, Hot Studio Inc. entitled “Can’t we just all get along?” that discusses the pros and cons of both methodologies and provides an interesting take on a Waterfall hybrid.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Bottom-line, web personalization is more than a web tool, it is a web strategy. If properly implemented, web personalization can make or break the success of many web sites - especially sites vying for conversion and repeat business. 

Web personalization begins with understanding business requirements and visitor definition. Who is the customer and then, what is the segmented content, applications or other resources that will resonate with their needs? By providing personalization, we not only cater to the demands of our customers, but we have an edge in engaging them to the brand and to an actionable step. All web sites can benefit from personalization – it is just a matter of determining which one is best. 

Explicit Personalization 

Explicit personalization is the "myPage Portal" model whereby users can chose functionality and lay it out on a personal home page. The 'myPage' method provides an intuitive, browser-based interface for end users to customize content and other resources of a site within a roles-based framework. Users can subscribe to information and applications and chose content that is important to them. They can at any time, add additional applications, content or content categories or default back to the site’s original (generic) categories or content. Moreover, in more sophisticated situations, visitors can setup a detailed profile for e-mail marketing and/other methods of ongoing dialogue or permission-based communications – including social networking. Great examples of explicit personalization: BBC in the UK and iGoogle. 

Implicit Personalization  

Implicit personalization involves actively presenting different content and services to different users based on identity, volunteered information, navigation and click stream behavior. Basically, implicit personalization detects browser capabilities as well as the operating system environment and language of the incoming browser. These characteristics coupled with ‘clicking’ automatically drives the display of the appropriate content and functionality for each visitor. Implicit personalization can readily be seen in any type of retail site that remembers last-viewed items or web sites with relational interaction that is database driven. Great examples of implicit personalization: Target, Yahoo or any weather sites. 

Create Satisfied Customers, Partners, Stakeholders and Employees

Given the right tools, web developers and e-business strategies can create personalization with rules that will intelligently respond to a user's identity and habits -- presenting information, functionality, and products aligned with the user's interests resulting in ongoing engagement. Such a high level of service results in satisfied customers, partners, stakeholders and even employees. But it doesn’t end here – any web strategy requires ongoing measurement and refinement. Web personalization will provide the ultimate metrics for refining or re-defining an ongoing web strategy. 

Sources:

Implicit and Explicit Personalization in Search by Exalead

Personalization Framework by Sitefinity

A Standard Framework for Web Personalization by Laura Thomson, School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University

Best,

Denice MacDonald

There has been a lot of conversation recently on the question of web and software project agility – that is, movement from traditional plan-driven methods in favor of iteration. 

Web strategists and developers are moving to agile processes because the technology marketplace demands higher response to change. Specifically, no sooner do you develop a plan document when the scope changes  – causing loss of time, productivity and bottom-line ROI.

A colleague of mine, Brian Molstad of Molstad Consulting summed it up nicely: 

"As much as I am a major proponent of documenting requirements and asking the right questions early on, I recognize that documents and prototypes have a shelf life. When it's time to move on to the next iteration, it's time to move on. 

Unfortunately, some development teams I've worked with get a little documentation, and they ask for more and more.  I've much preferred working with those teams who take the high-level structure I provide and innovate within (and outside of) the box. When other developers/clients have asked for more specs, I prefer to respond with, "can't we move into HTML to get this going?"

Perhaps I have no problem giving up "control" of a project since I don't come from a formal project management background and more that of information architecture, usability, user-centered design, etc., which has always favored designing in iterations. I look at project management as whatever it takes to get the project done and provide the most value quickly. Here's to agile development!"

If you feel you’re  ready to take the ‘agility’ plunge – here are some great resources to get started.

Discussion groups:

Agile Project Management

Scrum Development

Extreme Programmer

Best

Denice MacDonald

As we begin to be measured by our clients and prospects, it’s becoming increasingly important to have ‘just the right facts’. 

Besides my all time favorite Forrester, Gartner and Pew Institute research web sites, here’s a new fav for Internet metrics and ROI - comScore. Like the others, you require some subscription to access but for the most part, I can get what I need as a passive visitor.

Lastly, don’t forget this site for incredible marketing charts and stats.

Stay safe today with the impending snow storm.