The Real King of Rock ‘n Roll turns 85 (or 86)
October 27th, 2011I know it’s a week late Charles, but Happy Birthday! May you have many more even though you may be any age from 84 to 86.
A Final Word before the Final
October 19th, 2011This RWC will be known as the Bryce Lawrence WC which is a pity because the All Blacks will probably win it purely on merit. However Springbok supporters - and some in other countries - will maintain that unlike the NZRFU, they didn’t need the help of a bent referee to remove the main opposition to the local team. Paddy O’Brien and his pals must go and the IRB should change the rules.
Sign the Petition
October 13th, 2011Quote from the Mail & Guardian by rugby great David Campese:
“With New Zealand’s Bryce Lawrence facing an online petition calling for him never to referee again after his controversial handling of Australia’s 11-9 quarterfinal win over defending champions South Africa last weekend, Campese said teams at the tournament were being forced to “play the referee”.”
From Sport 24:
Lawrence has been accused by Springboks fans of egregious oversights in his handling of the quarter-final, particularly at the breakdown where flank David Pocock provided a deluge of turnovers for the Wallabies.
New Zealand newspapers have picked up comments attributed to Andre Watson, a referee in two World Cup finals and a referee manager in South Africa, as saying Lawrence will “be punished.”
From the Telegraph (Andrs Watson):
Despite the IRB saying that no public action would be taken against Lawrence, Watson believes the Kiwi will be hauled over the coals in some way.
“He will be punished, but that’s up to the IRB. I do not believe we will see him in any Rugby World Cup again,” Watson said.
Sign!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-To-Stop-Bryce-Lawrence-Ever-Reffing-A-Rugby-Game-Again/286992594653732
And on a Final Note - the 16 Man Wallaby Team
October 12th, 2011I hope he gets booed off the pitch if he ever arrives here. I also learnt that his uncle is the head of referee training (you mean they train these calamities?) and that he stuffed up a Sharks Super 14 game over here.
This Appeared in the ‘Australian’ of all Places …
October 11th, 2011LIMITING THE POWER OF THE WHISTLE
The Australian
There are no doubt a lot of Australian rugby supporters celebrating our victory over the Springboks yesterday. There are also a number of us that are wondering how on earth we managed to pull it off against a side that dominated possession and territory and lineouts. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from the Australian victory – our boys did perform superbly but on the day the Springboks were, we have to admit, the better side. The boks, as always were magnanimous in defeat with a somewhat pragmatic approach to the result. I wonder what our boys would have said faced with the same situation of blatant incompetence by Mr Bryce Lawrence.
I support Australia and always will but for those of us that believe in fair play this was a hollow victory. This was very much like fighting a worthy opponent with one arm strapped behind his back – it leaves a bad taste. There were rumours about Mr Lawrence’s impartiality before kick-off from a lot of ex pat South Africans now living in Australia but we tend to dismiss these conspiracy theories with a grin. Certainly, Mr Lawrence’s performance on the field did nothing to dispel those theories. His performance was nothing short of abysmal. He did not award the bok try because of a dubious forward pass. I have looked and looked and to me, anyway, it did not look forward. Minutes later when the boks once again breached our defences and were well on the way to scoring another try, he called them back for a forward pass. If the first call was contentious, there certainly was nothing wrong with the second one. Here, I must ask – why not use the “eye in the sky”? An impressive expensive piece of equipment that should be used for such decisions.
He failed to penalise Pocock for slowing the ball down. If we had played like that against the All Blacks, they would not have been so quiet about it. – and rightly so. In the dying minutes of the game he was in full view of at least 2 high tackles by our boys that went unpunished. Any of these transgressions, if properly acted on, would have surely given the game to the Boks with their advantage over territory. To rub salt in the South African wounds, he awarded a high tackle to the Wallabies for a chest high tackle.
We won, but did we really? Our sport has always been regarded as a “hooligans game played by gentlemen” – If we do not want rugby union to degenerate into a farce that soccer can become we need to make sure that our refs are of suitable calibre. They need to be trustworthy gentlemen.
Mr Lawrence, I would advise against any planned holidays to South Africa for a couple of years.
Chris Davis
The Australian
So, South Africans are not alone in believing that this Kiwi twerp with a whistle should never again be allowed to referee a match at this level. South Africans have noted for years that it is doubly difficult to beat any opponent if there is a Kiwi referee. There was also the debacle of the Kiwi geriatric who abstained from voting to give SA the 2010 football World Cup. Paddy O’Brien is a good case of the 16th man every time South Africa hit the field. The touch judges also deserve criticism for ignoring blatant indiscretions.
One of the dirtiest teams remains the All Blacks themselves.
Lawrence admitted after the match that he has has ‘a shocker of a game’.
So that’s alright then.
What is it about Kiwi Referees??
October 9th, 2011No sour grapes here - the Boks made too many mistakes. However it is difficult to remember a more unprofessional and generally shoddy performance from a referee. It is bad enough that the Boks have to play the Ozzies but to have to play the officials too?
Lawrence should be taken off the role at this level.
That Bloody Word
October 8th, 2011I was gratified to see that I am not the only one who cannot stand the overuse of the word ‘iconic’. If there was a word that exemplified the complete absence of cerebral metabolism and surrender to the herd it’s that one. Fortunately, a whole slew of bloggers and newspapers have listed it as one of their most hated words.
Along with ‘leverage’, ’solutions’, ‘ big picture’ etc.etc.
From Ben Hunt: Secret #50 - “What could this be a solution to?”
October 7th, 2011Think about a paperclip.
Now take a piece of paper, and in 2 minutes write down as many possible uses for a paperclip that come to mind. They can be absolutely anything.
Don’t hold back, write anything that comes into your mind, any possible use for that piece of bent metal, and get it onto the sheet of paper. Don’t criticise your ideas, just let them flow.
Great. Now throw the piece of paper away, and get another one.
Now, take a look at where your income comes from. This is likely to be services or products that you sell.
First, write your products/services on the paper. Group them if you need to.
Now I want you to look those services or products differently. Instead of thinking “What is it?”, think, “What could it be a solution to?” Or alternatively, “What problem/need/opportunity could it solve?”
You should be thinking using more of your brain right now. And these questions will give you the access to more money, quite simply.
When you identify problems, needs or opportunities that what you sell can solve, you’re on your way to defining new “offerings” that you can sell.
(Because, the truth is, you don’t sell those products or services… You sell something else… What those things make possible in people’s lives!)
Now go out and market those offerings. They’re the bait on the hook.
And please let me know how you get on.
Thanks for following. I wish you every success!
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK
From Ben Hunt: Secret #49 - “Plug the Biggest Leaks”
October 7th, 2011Your website is a complex entity.
People can enter on almost every page - and they do!
They have all kinds of different needs and expectations. How do you keep track as they move from page to page, doing all kinds of different things?
I’d invite you to step back, and imagine your whole website as a complex system of pipes - if you know the Dr. Seuss books, that may help 
Water comes into the system at many points. And water comes out of the system at many points!
Some of the water comes out through taps at the bottom, which represents your successful goal completions.
But most of the water leaks out at other points. (Even the best websites lose up to 90% of their visitors before they can persuade them to take action.)
If you stand and look at this complex system, with water spurting out at different points, it’s impossible to model it all and understand it in your head. So do this..
Just look for the biggest leak you can see.
Then try to figure out what is causing that leak.
And come up with an idea to fix it. (I would suggest you test to see if your idea works using A/B testing.)
How do you do this on your website? The easiest way is to look in your analytics package, and find the pages with the highest exit rates.
(Ignore bounce rate, that’s different, and ignore the minor leaks. Just look for the pages that are leaking the most visitors.)
What are they not getting? What do they need? What could be turning them off? What is too difficult?
Fix that leak as best you can. It may take a few attempts. The pressure in the rest of the system will increase slightly, and you’ll spot the next biggest leak more easily.
Follow this simple process and you’ll see big results.
Cheers,
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK
From Ben Hunt: Secret #48 - “Prototype Your Web Design”
October 7th, 2011No significant product, whether it’s a car, a perfume, or a child’s toy, makes it to market without first being prototyped and tested.
The reason we do this is to figure out whether something is going to work - functionally and commercially - before investing a lot of money finalising its development and launching it.
Yet most websites are still launched blind.
Most websites go live with a complete, polished design, based on a combination of the designer’s and the client’s personal taste and their best guess of what will work.
This is the way it’s always been done, and it’s extremely wasteful.
We need a new approach to web design, where we actually test whether a site or page will “work” before spending thousands on fancy design.
Here’s the general approach:
- Guess what the market wants. This involves thinking about problems or opportunities your website can solve, and crafting appropriate propositions.
- Create a “lo-fi” website or landing pages. Invest in content, not design. Use a conventional design theme that follows standard practice.
- Drive traffic to these prototype pages using AdWords.
- Test the various appeals, from AdWords and Analytics data. What appeals make more people click? What pages do they stay to read? What content persuades them to click through?
- Keep going. Retire appeals that don’t work. Try to come up with better messages, and test using the lo-fi approach.
- When you are confident you have a good appeal, start to refine your messaging and calls to action using split-testing.
- Finally, apply graphic design in multiple rounds, but split-test each change to make sure your design actually improves conversion.
Using this approach, you’ll spend more time crafting content and less time crafting graphics, until you know your “prototype” content works.
You’ll invest in buying traffic, which gives you vital market research intelligence based on the way people actually behave. This could be the best money you ever spend on your website.
Because you’re working with quick prototype pages, you can test different words and pictures easily, without having to spend time unpicking complex page designs.
You can be confident that if a page works with a rough design, it won’t perform any worse as you refine the design. You only need to keep design changes that work.
Our design team is developing this process with a handful of clients. Email me back if you would like us to help you with your website prototyping.
All the best
Ben
Ben Hunt Limited
50 Penrhyn Road
Sheffield, UK