Blog | Official Samuel (by Samuel Chan)

Google Reader replacement: Best free alternatives to Google Reader?

Mar

2013

Alternatives when Google Reader is retired. Google will retire its Google Reader service in July, and cites two reasons that led to such business decision: focus and declining usage. You can imagine how, when I tried to access Reader this morning, this small and subtle notice has left me totally. Well, at least it helps ...

Reply to: A Defense of the Thesis 2 WordPress Theme ( +What is Good Criticism) 2

Feb

2013

A defense of Thesis 2 Doug, as he would like to be known, blogs at ThriftyZizel.com. He is working on a series of step-by-step Thesis 2 tutorial. If, despite my objective criticism of Thesis 2, you’d like to learn about the Thesis 2 theme I recommend you start from his tutorial series. But first, I’d ...

Thesis 2 Review: Frustrating user experience, commercial exploitation and more. 13

Feb

2013

i. Thesis Theme used to be good A little more than a year ago, Zach Holman wrote an article criticizing the practice of introducing unnecessary features that derail your core product offerings and, in doing so, undermine user experience. As Zach simply puts it, “Don’t give your users shit work“. In his comment to a ...

10 Social SEO steps you can implement right NOW. 4

Jan

2013

i. Social Search: The Why and What When it comes to website optimization, search and social do share a complementary relationship. While the two facets of digital marketing are often independently managed, the lines are increasingly blurred as both disciplines work together in delivering a common goal: information discovery. While SEO and social media calls ...

13 Professional Skills For The Digital Marketers of 2013 2

Jan

2013

The baby boomer factor and a shrinking workforce. Singapore’s population has reached a significant turning point in 2012: the first cohort of baby-boomers – those born between 1947 and 1965 – will turn 65 and start retiring, leaving the workforce to shrink. The Singapore government projected the ratio of citizen in the working ages to ...

Predicting e-commerce in 2013 (+Lessons from Cyber Monday Report 2012) 5

Dec

2012

Cyber Monday: Record shopping day in online sales Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Black Friday, and the term “Cyber Monday” was coined by marketing folks trying to persuade people to shop online. In fact, these folks (hate or love ‘em) were so successful they have turned Cyber Monday into the ...

How to use Google Trends to complement your keyword research (examples + screenshots) 4

Dec

2012

i. What is Google Trends? Google Trends is one of the more underrated Google products, which in my opinion, doesn’t do justice to its ease of practicality. Since Google first launched its Google Insights for Search in 2008 (which the search engine giant later merged with Google Trends), savvy marketers have use the service in ...

Ingress: The embodiment of Google’s business philosophy 109

Dec

2012

i. Ingress debuts Nothing spells excitement more clearly than a closed, invite-only beta that comes out straight from the Google Lab. Yes, we’re talking about Ingress, the Augmented Reality Game (ARG) that isn’t the first of its kind, but arguably one of the most immersive and anticipated. Now, with the abundance of apps and games ...

Challenger Brand strategy (Part III – Beware of cheaper coffee) 1

Nov

2012

Howard Schultz didn’t mind a little provocation — the same way he didn’t mind a little controversy in his interview with CNBC that took place in February 2009 — in his rebuttal to competitors’ crossing line into his territory. Led by CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks launched a series of advertisements targeted at their rivaling competitor ...