After getting grief from a couple of designers, I agreed to post an iPhone version of a recent ‘Top 5 addiction signs’ post. Here we go…

The Top 5 Signs You’re Addicted to Your iPhone

5. The magazine rack in the bathroom has become obsolete.

4. You’ve developed the ability to read e-mails unbeknownst to the person talking to you.

3. Your friends get concerned if they don’t get an e-mail response from you within the minute.

2. You’ve experienced deeply religious “Thank God” moments after finding your iPhone in your other pocket.

1. Humans have become annoying things that disrupt quality time with your iPhone.

5. The magazine rack in the bathroom has become obsolete.

4. You’ve developed the ability to read e-mails unbeknownst to the person talking to you.

3. Your friends get concerned if they don’t get an e-mail response from you within the minute.

2. You’ve experienced deeply religious “Thank God” moments after finding your BlackBerry in your other pocket.

1. Humans have become annoying things that disrupt quality time with your BlackBerry.

The current economic landscape may be daunting, but there’s a silver lining for businesses in the web services industry.

As consumers continue to take their business online, businesses are doing the same to accomplish savings in the sales, marketing and even operations budgets.

Indeed, the web service providers allow businesses to reach farther, faster and for a fraction of the cost of traditional offline counterparts.

Case in point: Webcopyplus is looking into a promotional campaign targeting close to 5,000 organizations. Strategically leveraging e-mails costs just a fraction of old-school postcards and post.

Time Online’s Jonathan Weber shares signs of underlying resilience in the economy, and discusses how the rise of the Internet as the dominant information medium “will not be halted by even a steep recession.” Read A sliver of hope for the online economy.

Marketers typically cut interactive spending in a recession. But a Forrester survey of 333 interactive marketers revealed strong support for maintaining or increasing budgets, reported Forrester’s Josh Bernoff.

The categories of choice include search optimization, social networking, email and blogging. In fact, among 12 major categories only online displays ads looked soft.

According to Forrester, professional services, financial services and media marketers are most likely to plan increases in interactive marketing.

In a recession like this, Bernoff suggested marketers should focus on the measurability of their online and social applications and think in terms of building long-standing assets, not one-off campaigns to pump up quarterly sales.

Increasigly impatient online consumers are opting for fixed-price purchases over auctions, reports Catherine Holahan in the BusinessWeek article “Auctions on eBay: A Dying Breed.”

Sales at Amazon.com, the leader in online fixed-price goods sales, rose 37% in the first quarter of 2008. At eBay, where auctions make up 58 per cent of the site’s sales, revenue rose just 14%.

Hence, fixed-priced items appears key to eBay’s future growth. EBay’s “Buy It Now” business, where consumers can purchase auction items at a set price, makes up 42% of all goods sold on eBay and is growing at an annual 22% pace. That’s the fastest among eBay’s shopping businesses.

It shows just how impatient Web users are. The novelty of the Web is gone. Consumers just want to get to a site, complete a task and move on in as little time as possible.

It seems the term “browsing the Web” is quickly becoming obsolete.

The abilities of good web writers are often undervalued. That’s why so many websites — as good as they might look — don’t generate leads and sales. The web content doesn’t attract traffic nor does it convert.

This week, for example, a business owner wrote us:

“I spent on webcopy 3 times and not happy so looking for one more time before I give up. Your rate $500 is high though so if you are not flexible/negotiable, it is OK if you don’t respond.”

We did respond, suggesting he try Craig’s List. The referred to $500 is our minimum charge, which basically gets clients a keyword analysis. His project, which comprised up to 20 pages, would cost several times that.

Meanwhile, say he was looking at spending about $300 for the 20 pages of web writing. That’s $15 per page. And that’s supposed to include planning, interviews, research, copywriting, tags and revisions?

What does a good web writer cost? A lot more than $15 per page. No skilled writer would agree to — or be able to — deliver quality goods at that rate.

Chances are this business owner will find someone who lacks the skills to produce effective web writing for the fourth consecutive time. The small sum of money he’s spending each time is being wasted on empty marketing hype that will continue to thwart and damage his business.

The fact that so many people want to or love to write does not make writers a commodity. As is the case with designers, musicians and athletes, the good ones get results, and must be compensated accordingly.

With too many people living each day in a hectic world, Marketing guru Seth Godin includes this in his blog:

“Is cutting corners to make a buck appropriate when you consider what you could have done? What would someone with a bigger vision have done instead?”

We sometimes have to remind ourselves to dream harder, build a vision and strive to achieve grand goals.

During a recent meeting with Vancouver business consultant Mark Wardell, he spoke about the amazing results people get when they simply write goals and objectives down on a piece of paper.

I’ve seen it work, and have experienced it personally. I recall the story about comedian Jim Carrey replicating a cheque on a piece of file card for $10 million. It wasn’t long before he received it — and much more.

Next time you get the urge to cut a corner, stop and take a moment to dream bigger.

At a recent entrepreneurial event in Vancouver, business coach Mark Wardell spoke about the importance of a business’ market position.

He suggested: Ask yourself, do your customers clearly understand why your business is unique and why they need you?

“The answer to this question determines if they will continue to do business with you,” he said. “Conversely, if you are seen as part of a homogeneous category of business, your selling prices will be dictated by your competitors.”

And, he stressed, this is not a good thing — especially in our current economic times.

Wardell also makes interesting points in a market positioning video on his business consulting website.

Despite the pressure to become a profit center, most organizations’ customer service and contact centers continue to miss the mark on becoming a strategic business partner and are not considered part of the corporate revenue strategy, noted Forrester Research’s Natalie L. Petouhoff.

However, the research firm added new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations and data are making decisions about positioning customer service for success more relevant than ever before.

“This presents an opportunity for customer service professionals to accomplish goals they may have previously lacked the data to justify,” suggested Petouhoff, adding the transformation of customer service from a “cost center” model to a “profit center” paradigm entails a commitment to change from all levels within an organization — from C-level executives to call center agents.

Customer service leaders can serve their companies well by helping executives decide if customer service is a financial priority, advancing their own leadership and business case development skills, and demonstrating to agents why and how customer service is key to a company’s brand and bottom line.

Webcopyplus is involved with a Yale study and would appreciate your participation in a survey that takes less than 10 minutes to complete. There are 20 questions, and you could win a $20 Amazon gift certificate.

Just click on Soe City Survey.

— Thanks!