I helped growing business online! Today I read a terrific article by Kara Swisher in The Wall Street Journal (print) dealing with coffee makers. Kara convinced me to buy the Flavia machine. I checked out the Web site and ordered a machine and several coffees.

The processing went well and the order was shipped.

This got me to thinking about a variety of things including how shopping is changed forever. Also we have always known that reviews in a national paper are sure to grow business, but think now how rapid a purchasing decision is made. Within 20 minutes of having read the article in a taxi, I had made the order online. It would be great to know from Flavia or the other companies mentioned how much their business increased today (and for the next few days)?

And of course this ties in with our new trade show called Internet Planet. We have two days of seminars planned in June at the Hillton in New York City covering the whole idea of "growing business online."

Back to Flavia. I was a bit put off by the number of questions the company made me answer if I wanted to receive the Flavia email newsletter. Nonetheless I answered them dutifully and will see if I will continue with the subscription once it begins to arrive.

Interesting aside. Kara Swisher is a longtime tech writer for WSJ out of Silicon Valley. She has written a few books about AOL over the years. If she tires of covering Silicon Valley, she can always give Walter Mossberg a run for his money!