These are some of my views on this digital marketing malarkey ... there's more on: AlanCharlesworth.com

Over the years – as you can see – I’ve added to this blog only sporadically. I decided to leave all the old posts ‘live’ as I think they can still be useful in helping folk understand digital marketing.

Oh ... and I write all of these entries myself. There's no AI used on this blog.

Enjoy 😊

Thursday, May 21, 2026

the same in Europe?

This research is from the USA where Amazon dominates e-commerce and so I would expect that figure to be lower over here. If they're honest [are there any who are? 😏] I think those folk selling AI would be  disappointed at these results.



Wednesday, May 20, 2026

what do you think?

The headline of this article says "Influencers Are Still Making Their Mark with Gen Z" ... but is that the case when none of the numbers are over 50%? And what about the research methodology ... what is a 'celebrity or influencer'? eg if you follow one sports person do you appear in this survey's results.



Tuesday, May 19, 2026

how long?

Six weeks seems a long time to enter something on to a computer?





Sunday, May 17, 2026

where's that then?

This map - is it a map? - is the result in the search featured in the previous post. It's a town-centre shopping precinct which could be in just about any town or city in the UK. Ho hum.



there's no such place

Sunderland is in the county of Tyne and Wear ... Durham is a city about 20 miles from Sunderland. No excuse. None. 




not right write?

Saw this 'tip' from a source I normally value. But: it's for writing website content - so not thousands of words - so wouldn't it be quicker, and more effective, to just write it off the top of your head and not use ai? 




Saturday, May 16, 2026

now you see it ...

 ... now you don't. A lack of testing, methinks [and poor design in the first place].



Thursday, May 14, 2026

nice sign

A few weeks ago I posted a story of a business where the opening hours were hard to find. Well, here's an example of good practice. This is from the google listing for a business, with the search being outside it's hours of business. Note that after you've set it up, Google does the work for you.



Tuesday, May 12, 2026

in the great scheme of things ...

 ... five minutes isn't that long. But it is.



Monday, May 11, 2026

Ad spend well spent?

Five million impressions for an ad that seems to be for a podcast 🤔 

Whatever it's about, why did the advertiser/X think I would be interested?



Sunday, May 10, 2026

Ad spend well spent?

 I have no idea what either of these are advertising ... 



Friday, May 8, 2026

ai shopping assistants ...

 ... these numbers seem a little generous to me, I'd like to see the research methodology 🤔