Web Hints - Why and How to use Google's Keyword Tool.......

Firstly apologies for the lack of Web Hints posts over the past few weeks, with developer delays on http://www.thesiteguide.com/ (yes they happen to me too) meaning that I haven't been working as hard on my site as I should, I have to confess my mind slipped elsewhere.

However, back to reality with a vengeance, and a tool that it always astounds me not everyone is using as I consider it essential for anyone who writes content for the web - Google's Keyword Tool is a relevation and there are several great reasons for using it.

1. It's free. Totally, absolutely free - so there's really no excuse not to make use of it.

2. It's ridiculously simple to use, and once you've started you'll want to use it for everywhere on your website, from title tags to images.

3. It will show you what people are actually searching for, rather than what you think they are. For example - you may think that you should be calling one of your categories 'Fashion Footwear'. It has a good ring to it with a bit of illiteration thrown in for good measure, but take a look at the results in the keyword tool and you'll discover that, last month, there were 3,600 searches for 'Fashion Footwear', and a whopping 74000 for 'Fashion Shoes'. Which term should you use, several times over from your title tag to your meta description to your header to your content? Well obviously - Fashion Shoes.

Try it for yourself, use words you might not immediately think of, such as 'vanity case' vs 'cosmetics case' and you'll see what I mean.

4. It will save you money - cosy up to the keyword tool before you start spending money on Adwords or any other type of paid marketing. You will be throwing money away if you don't get your SEO right first, and this is one of the most important ways. Once you've established what people are searching for, and how to use the tool, you'll never look back.

To use the Google keyword tool you need to sign up for a Google Account which, because I'm sure you're all already using analytics (!), you probably already have. Then just go to the keyword tool and start using it before you write anything.

Don't get carried away with the thought that you can find all your key words and phrases at once, you can't. Pick just one at a time and drill down using different options to find the most searched for phrases, and ones that aren't what I call 'saturated', meaning that everyone is competing for them them. Example again; use the keyword tool and put in 'jewellery case', you will see that there were 18000 searches last month, and there is white space in the bar on the left. If you put in 'jewellery box', there were 368,000 searches, but the bar is fully green, and you are unlikely to get anywhere near the top on search if you use that phrase.

You have two options for using the keyword tool, and I suggest that initially you familiarise yourself with how it works by clicking on the 'Descriptive words or phrases' option and test different categories on your website.

Then you can select 'Website content' and input the URL of any page on your site you would like analysed. Hey presto! within less than a minute Google will have analysed your page and all the phrases you are currently using, giving you the search volumes and alternatives. This can be an enormous amount of information so as what you're really looking for are the most relevant key phrases try this and see if it works for you.

In essence what you are looking for is a high search volume which tells you that a particular phrase (of two or three words) may well work for you, but low competition, where you are more likely to get results.

If you aren't already using the keyword tool have a play with it as soon as possible, everyone who writes content for the web needs it.

My diamond merchant lunch has been put forward by two weeks, so I'll come back about that one later. Someone asked me yesterday if I liked diamonds. Really! Are there any other stones? To my mind everything else risks a clash - although I'm not adverse to the odd piece of semi-precious, however for real time jewellery, diamonds get my vote every time. What do you think?

NEWSFLASH: My problems are sorted at http://www.thesiteguide.com and newsletters will be commencing again next week, with a Gift Voucher offer from Vente-Privee. If you're not already signed up please do on the home page and I'll be in touch.

Maison de Famille Paris and Laduree Macaroons...........

I have to confess I've had a love affair with this gorgeous home accessories and furniture (and now clothing) store for a very long time and visit when ever I'm lucky enough to be in Paris, usually coming out with something tiny and beautiful such as a set of butter knives, or candles. This time I actually didn't shop, although with an endless wallet I definitely would have done, as the delightful lady who didn't speak any English but who managed to understand my French said they could ship anything, anywhere.


Everything here is beautiful and modern/classic, so that it really wouldn't matter what style your home was you could find something to suit, from a talking point picture to an amazing lamp to a butter-soft fur throw. The clothes and accessories are minimal but eminently wearable and yes, I would have shopped there too. A lot. Pay them a visit the next time you're in Paris, it will be worth it.


On to Laduree, patissier exceptionelle and purveyor of tiny macaroons in a host of colours and flavours (among other things). On Twitter, Laduree and their macaroons are worthy of an inordinate amount of attention, try using the words 'Laduree macaroons' in a tweet and you'll be amazed and gratified by the response, mostly from people wanting you to buy them some. Which I tried to, until I opened my case and found them unrescuably squished. I'll have to try again in London tomorrow.

For those of you who are opera lovers, one of the highlights of my trip was Wagner's Das Rheingold at the Paris Opera Bastille. The Bastille and the performance were wonderful. I won't be forgetting Rheingold in a hurry.........

Oh well, back in London now, and isn't the weather wonderful? Surely we deserve more? Take me back to Paris someone soon, please.........

Beauty Shopping in Paris..............................

Just in case my bank manager is reading this (and I sincererely hope he doesn't for all sorts of reasons) I know I said that I wouldn't be going shopping in Paris, and I meant it gov, but frankly Paris, the Euro notwithstanding, is not Paris for me without one quick trip to Sephora in the Champs Elysee.

For those of you who don't know it, it's the beauty emporium to end all beauty emporiums, and has managed to get itself pretty well all over the world apart from the UK, where it made a daft attempt a few years ago in Watford of all places (compare for me, someone, Watford and the Champs Elysee, one of the most beautiful streets in the world). So Sephora left our shores but I have no doubt will return quite soon, and somewhere a bit more sensible, such as Regent Street.

You enter through a red carpeted, black marble hallway throbbing with loud music and lined with shelves containing every fragrance you could think of, with black dressed, miked up men and women waiting to attend to your every beauty need. This may sound a bit offputting, and if you're tired, don't like loud music or are looking for a bit of tranquility then this is not the place for you, but for me, every trip to Paris, Nice or anywhere else deserves a visit.

I wasn't looking for anything specific, and even the proximity of Nars, Bobbi Brown, Smashbox, YSL, Chanel et al couldn't tempt me to the cosmetic counters (where you can help yourself of be helped as you wish) but as always on the hunt for something new and having tested two very good exfoliators recently I thought I'd make it a hat-trick and so bought Lancome's Exfoliance Clarte to compare with Clarins and Molton Brown's body polishes (and my Trish McEvoy Blackberry and Vanilla of course, which is superb).

The Clarins and the Molton Brown do their job well, and the Trish Mac is fragranced beautifully, but this I think is about to become a favourite, as it's lightly fragranced, a lovely product to use, and does everything it says it will. Expensive, and probably more expensive in Paris (of course), but well worth investing in if you want a smooth polished skin for summer.

And that was it, and I won't be doing any more shopping here, promise.


Incidentally I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the de Vigny, which is situated marvellously centrally on the Rue Balzac. It's a small, elegant, very comfortable hotel to which I've been coming for years, the staff are lovely, it's not ridiculously priced and if you're very lucky, like me, you may even be sent up the gift of a pretty fruit plate in the evening (they may have been worrying I wasn't eating, or something, which I wasn't yesterday evening as I have to squeeze myself into my Karen Millen LBD this evening which is a nervewracking thought).

Thankfully I brought my dongle with me (!) because the only downside of staying here is that internet is 17 Euros per day via Swisscom, whereas with my Vodaphone USB stick it's a tenner. No big decision to make there then.

I'm waiting forthe panicked phoncalls from No 2 son who is about to go off skiing and is, poor thing, having to pack all on his own. At 21 you will say boy did you train him badly, and I'll have to agree. But you can learn new tricks at any age I understand so Calum I'm switching my phone off and you'll just have to manage for yourself - (fat chance).

After a meeting this afternoon, and provided I manage to zip up my dress, I'm being taken to one of Paris's most famous restaurants, Arpege, where chef Alain Passard waves his magic wooden spoon. The only real problem with this is that in this dress I doubt I'm going to be able to sit down, let alone eat, but I'll make a game attempt at both, as well as getting into a taxi, which will cause other significant problems. Why do we create these problems for ourselves girls? I suppose life wouldn't be half as much fun, otherwise!

Does it Matter what you Wear to the Gym?............

Having made my return as a serious gym attendee (well quasi serious and only ten weeks so far, she says, before anyone asks me what weights I lift, and no, I'm not telling anyone), and as a result of a conversation, I thought I would conduct a definitely not serious poll about whether or not it matters what you wear to the gym.


Incidentally, said conversation, although it sparked this off, was with, as it turned out, an extremely chauvenistic (sorry but true, in case you're reading) man who was happy to admit that he went to the gym in t-shirt and shorts but cared a great deal more about what the ladies wore! Girls we all know what we think about that one!

So, on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere I asked my question which just goes to show you shouldn't pre-judge, because I thought the world would fall into two camps, men and women, and actually it doesn't, it's those who take it seriously, and those who don't.

Just a few examples, you can guess which type said what:

'I always wear a matching outfit to the gym'

'I don't care what I wear to the gym, just comfortable clothes'

'I haven't been to the gym in weeks because I don't have anything to wear........if I don't feel good about my looks/clothing, I'd rather not go to the gym'.

'When I go go the gym I usually wear shorts and a black tank top. I don't really care what I look like when I go to the gym because I know I'm going to sweat a lot and I don't go there to look pretty'.

'That whole dilemma is reason enough for me not to go to the gym. I will work out on my own treadmill wearing whatever'

'If you worry about what you are wearing, you're not working hard enough!!!'

and my favourites:

'I have a lap dancer who comes to my spinning class always clothed in Sweaty Betty. It's cute to watch all the men peddling faster and faster to impress her. They all end up looking knackered by the end'.

'I'd like to say no, but it just takes that 1 hot girl to come in in her gorgeous gym stuff on and you look and feel cr.p instantly'.

So obviously the 'don't carers' are the serious gym rats, and those who care too much are most likely into the first month or so of their New Year's Resolution gym membership/full gym kit new wardrobe and will very probably be giving up by the end of this month. It is March, after all, three months is a long, long time.

Personally? I want to be comfortable and wear things that I like, but that are just for the gym. No one gets to see me thank goodness as I have my gym at home but I do think putting on the right (comfortable if you work up a sweat and really good trainers) gear makes a big difference to motivation. Once I have my gym kit on I know that I have to go there.

We'll see how long this effort lasts - you can be sure that when I stop talking about this subject completely, I've probably fallen off the wagon and will be looking to you to give me a shove back on.

The best way to make sure you do keep going, I have worked out, is to start off by going every day and doing a bit more each time, because you can become addicted to exercise which I'm told takes about three months. Who knows. I may nearly be there.

And as for my said chauvenist gym bunny watching friend; take your eyes off us, concentrate on your music, your speedometer, the news or whatever else you have to entertain you - honey, that's not what we're there for!

Will be blogging hopefully from Paris tomorrow (if I make it to the train) and using a hotel gym. Oh dear! What should Iwear???...................

ps. Just for info: Two of the best places I've found for gym kit, particularly for girls, are Sweaty Betty, and Simply Sweat - take a look.

Website Review - By Elise Statement Jewellery

Elise Compson specialises in pearl jewellery and statement pieces created from semi-precious stones such as turquoise, citrine, amethyst and amber (to name but a few). Most of the jewellery is just that little bit larger than life, and perfectly in tune with this and recent seasons' 'statement jewellery' vibe.

Her pearls are quite spectacular, and range from fantastical 'Keshi' pearls to gorgeous baroque, peacock blue and palest pink freshwater pearls. Prices, when you compare them with some of the major pearl galleries, are reasonable and almost all the necklaces have pendants you can clip on, making them extremely versatile.

There is a collection of bracelets and classic earrings, however the necklaces are what really stand out here and if you want to make a statement this is definitely a place to have a browse.


I was going to write about 'what to wear to the gym' today, but I'm still waiting for more replies to my Twitter poll, so the jury's out on that one - hopefully tomorrow. And the daughter, having finally got her luggage back from South Africa and safely to Australie, has now decided that she wants to go back to SA. Kids! What can you do with them?

A large box has just arrived from My Pure full of natural beauty goodies for me to try and then tell you about, so more about that one later too.

Product Reviews - Samsung Mini-Notebook N150

Although I'm totally fixated on fashion, beauty, accessories and the like, and anyone who knows me will back me up, today, because this has been such a strange week, I thought I'd talk about my precious (yes precious) Samsung Netbook.

Anyone who knows me will also tell you that I am totally addicted to my Blackberry for keeping in touch on the move (despite No 1 son having condescendingly said that if I carried my email about with me I'd have nothing to do when I got back home (!), yes really) and I have proved him totally wrong, as networking and communicating are probably what I enjoy doing the most. Plus writing, of course.

So when, in an almost synchronised moment, the trackball failed on my Bold 9000 and my daughter sent me an email to say that her bag was lost in South Africa on route to Australia, I felt as if life as I knew it had come to an end. Ridiculous, I know, but there it was.

A day, or two at the most, was what I would have to wait for my new phone to arrive, however, with meetings in London and emails to keep up with I dug out my Netbook (which I keep for longer distance travel), and it solved all my problems. My Blackberry could still make calls, you see. Anyone lugging a full sized laptop around in this day and age, unless they need it for presentation purposes, is making a mistake. The netbook is ridiculously light, ridiculously small, and what it lacks in speed (and it does) it makes up for in value for money.

I'll freely admit to lusting after Sony's X Series Vaio - being faster, lighter and prettier, but at well over four times the price of the Samsung it wasn't even in the frame.

For anyone who travels, wants to take everything with them, from all their business needs to Hootsuite and Facebook and stay online just about anywhere, this has to be a really excellent solution. Mine will be making it to Paris with me next week, I blogged on it this week about customer service, and I'll be doing so next week about the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Champes Elysee, or other, inspiring, choses Parisienne, if I have the time, of course.

You will, just in case you don't know, need a 'dongle' to go with your netbook for it to work pretty well everywhere, but you can often get extremely good deals on these with your netbook, particularly at PC World. I know. It's a dreadful word. I have to say I thought that about 'blog' at first, although 'weblog' makes sense, but 'dongle'? Not sure at all, or very sure, whichever way you like to look at it.

Web Hints - Five Easy Ways to Alienate Your Customers........

In the days when I used to work in fashion mail order (designer level, you understand), and when I used to tell people what I did, a never ending comment that came back to me would be 'but I hate sending things back'. Inevitably I used to retaliate with the arguments that if you wanted something badly enough, couldn't get to it easily enough and didn't have enough time to search for something special then the choice and convenience of being able to buy without having to pay a visit to the shops far outweighed the irritation of having to pack it up if it didn't fit/suit/look as amazing as you'd hoped it would and send it back to where it came from.

It seems to me with the emergence of online that the complaint hasn't changed, although with the free returns that so many retailers are offering it has quietened down, and many retailers make it easier and easier to send things back all in the name of getting you to buy from them again. What some still amazingly don't realise is that it only takes one bad experience for you to decide never to buy from them again and, far worse, to be telling your friends who they were, what went wrong and putting them off as well.

A recent experience of mine, with a major online retailer and actually within the last 48 hours, has filled me with wonderment that I needed to write all of this in some way shape or form yet again, but it does need shouting about, over and over, until every single retailer who wants customers to buy from them again pays attention, so here it is.

1. Good customer service for any level of product, and in particular for expensive, premium products demands that you are there to answer your customer's telephone calls. On this occasion not only did I get voicemail during working hours, but said voicemail suggested that, if I was calling during working hours and no one picked up the phone, I should go away and call again. This happened five times over three days.

2. If you say you're going to do something, for a customer, do it. Finally having managed to get through this morning I was promised a call-back from someone who apparently would be able to help sort my problem out within the next few minutes. I received no call back and ended up sending a terse email asking for an immediate call. Which I then got (I can be quite stroppy on occasion, both in writing and in person, in case you hadn't guessed).

3. Don't argue with an angry customer. When I finally got my call back, the person who called me, when I suggested that, for a company of their size and stature there really should have been someone there to answer the phone, argued with me. They were very busy, she had only just got in etc etc. The only, and I mean the only thing to do if you get a frustrated and disillusioned customer on the end of the phone who has a real reason for a gripe is to apologise, placate, be charming, ask what can be done to sort the matter out. Never, never argue. It doesn't go down well.

4. At this stage youve already half lost your customer for ever, if you have any saving grace left at all it is to put matters right in a way that they will always remember, go the extra mile, go and collect the faulty jacket for goodness sake. Do not, whatever you do, make it harder for the customer by overloading them with extra things they need to do, such as fill in a form, call a courier, write down three separate tracking and invoice numbers when they're already fed up with you. Do it all for them and then send them a scented candle as a bonus. Otherwise they will, I promise you, go somewhere else next time.

5. Make returning anything to you as easy as possible. One of the reasons your customer buys from you online, apart from the fact you may have wonderful products, is because they believe that the whole process will be simple, quick and not unenjoyable. Many online retailers do now make it simple, and this is easier to do for less expensive products. I quite understand that something expensive needs to come back via courier, and that you may want to know that it's coming back, but I think to expect your customer to wait at home all day for the courier to arrive so that a return can be made is a mistake - there must be a better system.

I hope that no one has read through all of this in the hope that I'm going to name names, because I'm not and it wouldn't serve any purpose, other than probably make me feel better in the short term. In the long run it never pays - I may want to buy from them again one day, after all.

I've been bleating quite a lot on Twitter today about the folly of letting your daughter go off on travels to distant lands, not just because it's extremely expensive, but because, for some reason unlike sons (at least my sons) they can manage to miss four flights in an afternoon, lose their phone, sprain an ankle, need more cash, have their rucksack left behind by the airline, have their email go down, their new phone not work - oh I could go on, but I won't. Suffice it to say that my faithful Blackberry giving up the ghost today made life much more frustrating for her, and much quieter for me. I haven't heard a cheep all afternoon. As she's in Oz, and ten hours ahead, I guess I'll be back to the bag chasing/phone company calling/cash sending tomorrow. But it's wonderfully peaceful right now...................

Website Review - Aspinal of London - Luxury Leather Goods

I first met Iain Burton, Chairman of Aspinal of London, several years ago and what struck me, apart from the great products (it was quite a small range back then), the insistance on high quality and his extremely friendly and obviously capable workforce at all levels, was his sheer determination and drive to make Aspinal a household name for luxury.

And, why am I not surprised, he has succeeded in spades in what, in my opinion, is no easy feat in any market, let alone the one we're in at the moment, when other major luxury brands appear to be hitting the buffers.

Working with luxury brands is always interesting because there's the eternal battle going on where fashion and edginess tries to combat commerciality.

You only have to look at the catwalk shows of the major stars to wonder, in many cases, what they're on, which is ususally linked to the amount of column inches they can inspire from the assembled press, inevitably, in itself, linked to how newsworthy the collection is, which has very little to do with direct commerciality.

That may sound jaundiced, but having once been a judge on a panel at one of the major Fashion Colleges looking for a 'new star', and representing an entirely commercial fashion mail order catalogue alongside the Telegraph's then Fashion Editor, and having made the mistake of voting for something commercial (which lost my company it's page in the newspaper), I think you can say that I've learnt the hard way. Edginess and avant garde is interesting to the press, commercial is not, hence the eternal battle.

Unwearability = column inches = brand in the press = perfume and handbag sales. And so it goes on. Ok that's taking it a bit far - the distillation of what appears on the catwalks is generally eminently wearable and covetable, and you can include skincare, cosmetics, shoes and jewellery in with the perfume and handbags.

Anyway, back to Aspinal - not content with an excellent collection of very high quality leather accessories and gifts for everyone, Aspinal branched out into the far riskier area of handbags and modern luggage, and has done that brilliantly too. The prices are cleverly well below what your average Fendi, Balenciaga and Miu Miu would be (as they should be, as those brands carry so much long established prestige) but there are many designs any arm-candy conscious girl would be happy to tote, and the column inches in the glossies are there, ready to prove it.

I made the mistake yesterday of going to see Matt Damon in The Green Zone, which, if you're not seriously into war films, will probably not be for you as it turned out not to be for me. Unfortunately it was between Alice in Wonderland (which I wasn't in the mood for), The Hurt Locker (which I suspect will be too gory for me) and the one I ended up at. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Tomorrow morning I will be spending three hours at a Search Engine Optimisation workshop with IMRG, so you can have no doubts about what this week's Web Hints for Retailers will be about - I hope and expect to have important pearls of wisdom to tell you about.

How to wear Ruffles.............................

Ruffles are, as you no doubt already know, very much 'of the moment', and whichever store you go into or are browsing online, ruffles are there in abundance, verging into the downright frilly.

Now I have nothing against the odd ruffle on occasion. I think they can add a bit of extra sex appeal to a fitted skirt or dress, a snip of 'edge' to a simple black top, or a glorious bit of extra nonsense to a jewel coloured body-con cocktail or evening dress. I do also think they can (and are surely going to be) worn totally out of context, and that ruffles, frills and furbelows are going to be over-worn and over-done throughout this season and probably into the next, frequently in an eye-poppingly dreadful way.

If you're very keen on ruffles and want to be covered in them (!) I think you have to be very slim indeed and extremely careful - they don't look out of place on all those catwalk models because they balance their very slimness, they would definitely look daft on me and, here I go again, I love them in moderation on black or dark navy, or on a crisp white shirt, or as the trim on a wrap dress.

And if they're not sexy, subtle or gorgeous, and preferably all three, then they should be firmly left at home.



Two designers who seem to manage ruffles superbly well are Donna Karan, and, of course at a much lower price level, Karen Millen, both of whos handwriting is undeniably wearable and always in touch with the mood of the moment.

I would say please, keep your ruffles in check, keep them simple, never, ever wear more than one ruffled piece at a time, and if the ruffled item you are wearing is very detailed, balance it with something else that is totally plain. This is definitely one where the fashion victims will be caught out, as they were the last time ruffles were around.

Bonding over Handbags

Still on the subject of handbags, for which I apologise, but this morning, on my extremely crowded train from Bucks to Marylebone I found myself sitting next to this handbag (if you know what I mean). Now any reasonably well versed handbag lover will ascertain quite a few things instantly from the proximity to such a bag and its owner.

That the person holding it is more than likely someone you are going to be able to empathise with;
That they have excellent taste.
They spend their money wisely on beautiful items.
That being friends with such a handbag owner will be instantaneous, with the knowing comment (from me) 'I love your bag'.

Which of course I said and we bonded instantly, girls together in the knowledge of what is an icon, great and good in the handbag world, as opposed to the huge amount of tat also in evidence on trains going everywhere. If you ever thought you couldn't make friends over a handbag, forget it, you can. I just wished I'd been carrying my Fendi - pathetic, isn't it?

Today was very interesting for me for two reasons, the first, and undoubtedly the most important, was a meeting with IMRG within Google's hallowed portals in central London - they even gave us lunch, I felt extremely special. There is an amazing atmosphere there.

Secondly my box arrived with the goodies I had won from Matches Fashion, a really beautiful box containing two exceptional dresses. So I'm feeling very lucky indeed, even though one of them was designed for someone at least four inches taller than I am (which most people are, let's face it). At least that's one problem easily solved. And may you notice, neither of these is black in any way shape or form, which is extremely unlike me. The blue is a really pretty shade of cornflower, and the brown and white.......I'll say no more.

Babylon, Punks and Blue Handbags

Saturday evening I went to a 'Trendy Punk' party, given by an Irish very old friend of mine, for his son's 21st, at the extraordinary Gilgamesh Bar and Restaurant in Camden Market. Not having been there before all I can say is go if you have the chance and if you can stand the noise. The food is 'pan-Asian' from head chef Ian Pengelly and seriously good, the decor Eastern opulence with the ambiance of a (their words) 'Babylonian style palace'. Not to be missed, I promise you.

Anyway, back to the punk theme. I'm one of those extremely boring people who doesn't do 'fancy dress' of any kind with any enthusiasm. So when I got the invite I have to confess I cringed slightly. I knew I'd go, but 'Trendy Punk'? What would you do? I decided that I would have to wear black (when don't I?) some slightly startling jewellery in the form of a cascading pearl 'statement' necklace I'd invested in recently, put on the studded gladiators, black jeans, a leather jacket, black nail varnish and lots of glitter. So I was a kind of 'glamour punk', although hopefully more glamour than punk.

Had I known I could have worn one of my favourite LBD's with the leather jacket etc, but I didn't really think about it. Now, looking at the pics, I confess I wish I had. Oh well!

Incidentally these are not my sandals, but these would have fitted the bill exceptionally well, don't you think? Punk shoes? Forget it, I'll have Camilla Skovgaard's amazing cut out heels any day.

The amusing thing was that although all the women kept it quite toned down, the men - and the kids of course - really went for it. The spiked hair, the leather jackets, the jeans and the safety pins in abundance. Now I have to be very careful what I say here. This is not a good look for a grown up man. There, that was quite polite, wasn't it? Hah! I wish I could show you a pic, but I can't, then I would really get into trouble.

On to the subject of blue handbags and wondering what you think? I have red (which I never use because it doesn't feel right) metallic (ditto) leopard (which I love) and purple (which I do use occasionally particularly when I'm really too black elsewhere). Then of course there are all the neutrals and, living in London with all the rain, Longchamp's wonderful black patent Legende handbag which goes from downpour to sunshine and always looks amazing.

Although I am not in the market for a new handbag (!) I was just channelling a blue vibe, and wondering what would make me decide that this should be the next colour. I think this is very tricky, because buy cheap and I wouldn't use it and buy mucho expensivo and I'd feel guilty that there were so few occasions when it was right. Having said this I do think this Miu Miu quilted bag is darling, but would my bank manager ever speak to me again? I suspect not. Blue will have to wait for another day, then.............

The Jewellery Issue - choosing for others

Every girl likes a bit of bling (sweeping statement I know but I think you know what I mean) and pretty well all of us have a collection of jewellery we love to wear, from the aforesaid daft bling to a precious grandmother's hand down to something we spotted in Fenwicks, or at Astley Clarke, probably on the way to buy a dress or pair of shoes.

The problem with jewellery is not what we choose for ourselves because, of course, we know what we like, but arises in an extremely difficult way when someone has chosen something for us that doesn't hit the spot.

It may have been expensive, but if it's not our style, our 'colour', our genre then what do you do? Wear it when you don't like it - which won't make you happy? Put it away and hope that whoever gave it to you doesn't notice? - and he and most certainly they probably will (at least with me it's usually the daughter asking 'didn't you like those purple Swarovski earrings I gave you for your birthday? - actually I do, I just haven't worn them much) or, and I think worst of all, ask if you can take it back and change it for something you love?

I think that giving jewellery, like giving clothes, or a handbag, or fragrance, is exceptionally difficult, and jewellery, with its romantic connotations, probably the most difficult of all. Ok if it's a 5ct diamond from Tiffany's or a Chanel J12/Cartier Tank/Rolex you're unlikely to complain but something small and beautiful to him/them (friends, your kids) may well be something small and fairly ghastly to you and put you in an impossible position.

So to me the answers are these: Make sure he knows what you like if you think he's going to splash out. Make it clear you like to choose for yourself on the whole and obvious that you're incredibly difficult to buy for. And with your kids, when they do, as they probably will, give you something you don't love, make them the exception. I do, in any case, although I'm not wearing the purple earrings right now, as the daughter's in South Africa!

Reading this it probably sounds a bit cold hearted - but having done some writing recently on gift buying for American Express, who produced a piece of research which said that people had actually split up over being given the wrong gift (which is extreme, to say the least) I think that forewarned is forearmed and if you can stave off disaster then you should.

I've had a couple of comments recently, particularly on Twitter, about my seemingly ridiculous resource of energy, because I've taken up, er, fitness in a big way (swimming/gym/training etc). All I can say is that the more you do the more energy you have and I've proved something to myself I will now never be able to escape from, which is that you can go from being a total couch potato to a hyper-active vertically challenged mother of three older kids (and no I'm not going to mention my age here) in a ridiculously short space of time if you really want to. As I said, there's probably no going back now. Oh dear.

ps apologies for illustrating this post with some extremly expensive pieces - they just happened to catch my eye.....

Web Hints - How to turn Customers into your Friends

There's no doubt that the most important thing you can achieve, if you're in online retail (or pretty well any other business), is turning customers into friends, as friendship brings loyalty and goodwill along with it, both of which are invaluable.

Amazingly this isn't difficult to do but it is astounding how many businesses and service providers make negatives worse by slow or total lack of response; not using the opportunity to turn problems into positives and, quite simply, not listening to their customers.

Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker said 'Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business'.

But how often is a complaining customer looked on in that way? Rarely, it seems to me.

I don't believe, and I've said this before, that the customer is necessarily always right, however making the customer feel good about their dealings with you is about the most important thing you can do.

Last year I was approached by the CEO of eKomi, a company I had never heard of before, with a view to working with them to help launch their business in the UK. Customer review software? What the heck is that, I thought. Then, taking a good hard look at Amazon, eBay and other large companies, and talking to the guys in the know at IMRG/ISIS, I began to get the message that where online business is concerned, a) establishing trust with visitors and customers was going to become more and more difficult as opportunities for online fraud and the unscrupulous opened up along with the global Web, and b) here was a solution.

There's no doubt that customers want to be listened to, at least most of them do. They want to be able to tell you what they think about your service, good or bad. They want to be able to have a good moan if they're not happy and see you do that little bit extra to put matters right (always do more, by the way, it will always pay off). They want to be able to tell other prospective customers what they think about you, and believe you me you want them to be doing that on your timeline, and not on the viral spaces of Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere.

eKomi offers an excellent solution for e-commerce, from allowing small retailers the simplest of customer feedback solutions to the complete picture with product reviews for the larger ones.

It's almost certain that within a short space of time every reputable online retailer will be offering customer feedback - not only because it establishes trust (as long as it's obvious the feedback can't be manipulated) but also because that confidence increases sales and helps to streamline in-house procedures by highlighting areas that work well, and others that don't.

If I sound like a complete convert to this method of establishing trust it's because I am, and you'll be seeing more feedback on the websites you visit all the time.

For a Special Offer from eKomi to trial any of their products for free - click here

Website Review - Fifi Wilson - Online Boutique

One part of what I do that I really enjoy is reviewing websites I haven't had a proper look at before. Not just for http://www.thesiteguide.com/, but in order to drill down and see what's great, what's not, and what I might be able to help with in terms of what's not going on that should be, and what might make a difference from a conversion perspective, which, let's face it, is what really matters.

What appears at thesiteguide.com is the commentary review, but what interests me far more is what is going on on each retailer's website in terms of usability, functionality, layout, photography, basic SEO etc.

So Saturday morning I sat down to review http://www.fifiwilson.com/ I had a really nice surprise, as this online boutique is a really attractive and interesting place to browse. The products (designer-but-different clothes and accessories) are handpicked so that the offer is far away from the norm, the site design has a pretty, idiosyncratic feel about it, and there are lots of reasons to make you want to stay a while and, if the look is for you, to buy.

Everything here give a nod to fashion but incorporates an element of fun, and there's a lots of well written and well thought out commentary about each piece plus back and front shots (essential now if anyone wants to compete with the major online fashion stores).

My comments, in short (and I asked Fi's permission before I wrote this), were that a 'Just In' category would work well, the sign-up box wasn't clear and that she needed to take a good run at her Title Tags. Plus a few other small items.

One of the comments I got back was that she had been let down and frustrated by her web developers and needed a good one, so I'm hoping to talk to IMRG/ISIS in the near future about creating a list of the good, the honest and the reliable (watch this space). I think it's badly needed. Let me know if you agree.

Back to Fifi, her comment in her reply to my review was one of the nicest I've received. Very few people bother to say thank you or pay compliments (don't you agree), what a difference when they do.

You can find Fifi Wilson's site review for http://www.thesiteguide.com/ here.