Manage Subscriptions · Subscribe Now · F.A.Q.'s
HOME · Monday, May 12, 2008
Article Archives (653 articles)
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 2 of 3
In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking.
The...
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 1 of 3
In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking.
The...
High Performer: Pasty.com Sells Meal In A Crust
On Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula are two old copper mining communities — Kearsarge and Calumet. Calumet is home to Pasty Central, which operates a pasty kitchen in Kearsarge, the Pasty Central...
Bikewagon.com: From Classifieds To eBay To Its Own Website
Dale Majors is passionate about cycling. So much so that in 1999, at age 16, he decided to take a chance with selling bicycle gear online. His original goal was simple: He was looking to upgrade his...
Email Blacklists “Kind Of A Crazy Thing”
What is an email blacklist?
Email blacklists are compiled by industry watchers who track down the originating servers for emails that have the earmarks of spam. The resulting lists of web hosts,...
Quick Query: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was
Debbie Levitt is the CEO of eBay’s first Certified Service Provider, As Was (Aswas.com), which offers services for online sellers including branding, design, and personalized sales and marketing...
Mobile-optimized Websites Extend Customer Service
When Apple reached out to Travelocity.com to develop an iPhone-optimized website, Travelocity jumped at the chance. “It was a great opportunity for us,” said Paul Briggs, Travelocity’s Director...
Email Marketing Report Card: Delight.com
Delight.com sells gifts, fashion accessories and home decor items. It claims to make the online shopping experience quick, fun and simple. But what about its email marketing? Delight.com requested a...
eCreamery.com: Ice Cream Made To Order
In Omaha, Neb. is a historic neighborhood called Dundee. If it sounds vaguely familiar it may be because it is home to Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world. It is also home to a unique...
SEO Report Card: Agoodyarn.net
I don’t knit, but around the holidays I was given a fantastic sweater knitted by the gift-giver. It’s warm and unique, and just to be in the spirit, I’m wearing it as I write this. Uniqueness,...
Time Is Money
It never ceases to amaze me how much time people waste trying to save money. Having grown up in a small town (fewer than 2,000 people), I recognized that paying a little more for staple items locally...
Conversion: Metrics Maximize Decision Making
One of the most appealing aspects of web marketing is that it is so measurable; you can actually quantify what works. Because I spend a considerable portion of my work time studying web analytics...
Choose A Platform And Blog, Blog, Blog
Because search engines tend to reward blogs in several ways, corporate and ecommerce sites ought to look at the possibility of adding one or more blogs. As Stephan Spencer underscores "SEO: Blogging...
Tech Support: Passwords And Avatars
Can ecommerce merchants help their customers manage multiple user names and passwords?
Many websites require users to create an account to participate. This applies to social networking sites,...
Quick Query: Wholesale Index's Justin Prescott
Justin Prescott is the marketing manager for JP Communications, Inc, an Internet marketing and advertising company that publishes vertical search engines and directories, and it recently...
Online Merchant Caters To Serious Musicians
Andy Rothstein has been playing electric guitars for more than 30 years. However, he had a problem that lead to an idea. The problem was that guitars did not sound as well as they should. The idea...
Usability Report Card: Ceriellofinefoods.com
Joseph Malewicki, the owner of Ceriello Fine Foods, has been an avid reader of Practical eCommerce since its inception. He sells specialty Italian foods at Ceriellofinefoods.com and, when requesting...
Programming Notes: Linking To Payment Gateways
Payment gateways can be intimidating for many web developers. I have always found a certain amount of anxiety associated with them, particularly because of security requirements and presumed...
Booklist: Brulant CEO Len Pagon
In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books. For this list, we asked Len Pagon, CEO and president of Brulant, a company that combines technology, interactive...
Advertising On The Google Content Network
The most common mistake Google AdWords advertisers make is assuming that Google’s search network and Google’s content network are the same. In reality, the two are very different. Below is a...
Quick Query: Miva Merchant EVP Rick Wilson
Miva Merchant is a pioneering shopping cart. First launched in 1995, it rose, and then fell, with the dot-com boom and bust. Findwhat.com, a publicly traded company, purchased Miva Merchant in 2004....
Get Organized With Advanced Searchbar
If you are like me, you enjoy organization. Everything needs to be in order so you can work efficiently and get to things you need quickly. Most likely you spend time on the Internet doing research...
Determine Analytics Questions In Advance
Once a web analytics solution is installed, the most common initial use is to validate some past event. User testing shows that 80 percent of marketers focus on charts that go up and to the...
Booklist: Juice Media CEO Rick Enrico
In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name a few of their favorite books. For this list, we asked Rick Enrico, President and CEO of Juice Media Worldwide, a media and marketing technology...
Widgets: Moving Your Web Store Into The Community
Social media has grown to become a serious tool in a merchant’s marketing arsenal. Sites like Shopwiki.com, Thisnext.com and others provide excellent opportunities for merchants to gain favorable...
Testing Site Accessibility
Here's how to perform a standard test to see if your website and store are accessible to the vision impaired.
First, for PC users, open the Narrator program. For Mac users, use the APPLE+F5...
Quick Query: Certona CEO Meyar Sheik
Certona Corporation helps ecommerce merchants deliver product recommendations and customized content to their visitors. The technology, called Resonance, automates visitor traffic patterns, among...
PPC Report Card: Homeexchange.com
Homeexchange.com helps people exchange homes while on vacation. The site has two conversion events: A $99.95 registration for one year and a $50 house-listing fee. The site’s owner recently asked...
Getting Started In Exporting
Exporting can be a lucrative component of an online business. But many small business owners shy away from it simply because they have limited knowledge of the process. For these owners, there are...
Booklist: Mercado CEO Corey Leibow
In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name books they are currently reading. For this list, we asked Corey Leibow, CEO and President of Mercado, an ecommerce search and merchandising...
What Makes A Site Effective?
A client recently asked me to do a quick-and-dirty analysis of a half dozen competitor websites. I decided to look at each competitor site and then give it a good/fair/poor rating for certain...
Google AdWords: More Than Text Ads
Google AdWords offers a number of different ad formats and options in addition to the standard text-based ads. I’ve summarized these formats and options below.
Standard Text Ads
These are the...
Negative Keywords For Your PPC Campaign
Keywords are an integral part of any online advertising campaign. However, what is sometimes overlooked is the equal importance of negative keywords, which are word filters that disqualify ads from...
Ten More (Great) Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten of them had to say.
BRYAN EISENBERG...
On Vacation? Pointers To Stay Connected
I often find myself traveling with little notice. These trips include last minute family gatherings or clients purchasing new systems and wanting me by their side as they transfer data and confirm...
Bloglist: Roy Rubin
Name: Roy Rubin, President
Company: Varien
Blog: Varien.com/blog
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Roy Rubin,...
SEO Report Card: Juvieshop.com
Juvie is a kid’s clothing store in Los Angeles, and it is balancing the hipness of Flash-based features (not particularly SEO-friendly) with the common sense of good textual content (always...
Pay-Per-Click Account Tools
A daily pay-per-click management routine can sometimes be a source of frustration. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there to streamline the process. What follows is a list of software that every...
Google Knol Looks To Take On Wikipedia
Online reputation is an important part of any SEO campaign. It can drive traffic and promote links, and when a new opportunity arises for such reputation management, it should be explored sooner...
Social Media As A Marketing Strategy in 2008
2007 was a good year for holiday shopping. comScore reported that online shopping totaled nearly $28 billion, up 19 percent from 2006. Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all had record...
Bloglist: Michelle Greer
Name: Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
Company: Volusion, Inc.
Blog: Onlinebusiness.volusion.com
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this...
More Great Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten more of them had to say.
SUSAN...
New-year Ideas For eBay Powersellers
I hope you had a great holiday selling season online, and with the new year right around the corner, what follows are some tips for increasing your eBay presence even more in 2008.
1. Use...
Five Tips For Improved Sales, In Good Times or Bad
Increase Focus On Existing Customers
For many companies, the primary focus is on selling to new customers, and little attention is given to the tremendous potential in the existing customer list....
Usability Report Card: Accepted.com
Accepted.com is an admissions consulting and application editing service website. It has requested this usability site grade.
Home Page Clarity
To ensure credibility and trust, sites that...
Programming Notes: Importance of Hand Coding
Let's be honest. Most people do not go into website design because they enjoy writing code, or because they want to root through hundreds of lines of seemingly non-sensical expressions. That comes...
Numbers Should Not Dictate
They say the true measure of success for an online store is based on visitor and shopping statistics and analysis of investments for driving traffic to the site. The most common reporting method is...
Websites For The Visually Impaired
You put a lot of effort into making your website successful. You implement a strong design, you add features such as wish lists, coupon modules, gift certificates and perhaps even Flash and...
Great Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten of them had to say.
AL PASCALE
DIRECTOR...
Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Alternative PPC Venues
In the world of pay-per-click advertising, there are three well-known players: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. However, there are several other interesting...
Most Popular Searches
View results from the most popular article searches performed by our visitors below:
RSS 2.0 Feed
Atom 1.0 Feed
Technorati Tags
Ecommerce Articles
- Browse All Articles
- Browse our complete archive of ecommerce articles.
- Accounting, Management & Legal
- Ecommerce articles related to managing a small business including ecommerce accounting, business strategy and legal considerations.
- Conversion & Usability
- Online business articles about converting web site visitors into customers and how to gauge and improve your business website's usability.
- Development & Programming
- Articles to help designers, developers and programmers create successful, search engine friendly ecommerce websites and improve existing ones.
- Hosting, Infrastructure & Software
- Articles for ecommerce businesses about ecommerce web hosting, business infrastructure, business strategy and helpful ecommerce & small business software.
- Interviews & Profiles
- Interviews with prominent ecommerce business personalities and profiles of successful online businesses.
- Inventory & Shipping
- Ecommerce articles about inventory management, ecommerce order fulfillment and product shipping considerations.
- Marketing & Revenue Growth
- Articles relating to online marketing, email marketing and using the Internet to growing your business.
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search engine optimization articles for ecommerce business owners, strategists, marketers and developers.
- Shopping Carts & Online Payments
- Articles covering ecommerce shopping cart platforms and options for choosing an online payment gateway.
- Training & Education
- Tutorials and articles providing training and education for ecommerce business owners and developers of ecommerce websites.
Search Articles
Ecommerce Community
- Ecommerce Blogs
- Read our blogs about ecommerce topics written by industry professionals.
- Community Forum
- Connect with other ecommerce professionals to trade advice and answers in our community forum.
- Podcasts
- Check out our ecommerce podcasts covering topics ranging from interviews to tutorials.
- RSS Content Feeds
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds and have fresh ecommerce content delivered to you.
Ecommerce Resources
- Free Email Newsletter
- Sign up for Ecommerce Notes, our free email newsletter for ecommerce business owners and developers.
- Ecommerce Directory
- Browse our directory of ecommerce products and services, or submit your own listing in our directory.
- Ecommerce Glossary
- Familiarize yourself with terminology or submit terms to help others with our Ecommerce Glossary.
- Events Calendar
- Find out about upcoming ecommerce events or invite other ecommerce professionals by posting your own event.
- Press Releases
- Browse ecommerce related press releases and post your own press release for distribution.
- Ecommerce Store & Back Issues
- Pick up back issues of Practical eCommerce magazine along with other merchandise from Practical Ecommerce
About Practical eCommerce
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Look at frequently asked questions regarded using our website, subscribing to our magazine and more.
- Advertising Information
- Information about advertising in Practical eCommerce magazine, on our website, or in our email newsletters.
- Editorial Sharing
- Learn about options for sharing our content with your visitors, customers or employees.
- About Us
- Learn more about Practical Ecommerce magazine and meet our staff.
- Contact Us
- Contact Practical Ecommerce at any time for more information. We'd love to hear from you.
Copyright 2007 Confluence Distribution, Inc. and Practical eCommerce.
All Rights Reserved.