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Internet Businesses: Pioneers Still Get Arrows in Their Backs
When I started my first ecommerce company in February 1994 all of my friends thought I was crazy to leave a successful law practice and pursue my vision of the future…the ability to conduct financial transactions in “cyberspace”....
Google AdWords: 3 Ways to Improve Your ROI
We manage a number of Google AdWord accounts for our clients, and I almost always find the same problems when we take over a new account. So “from the trenches”, here are 3 key principles that will help you have a prosperous new year...
A Master Over Disaster
Amid the rubble and the heartache caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita were the lost dreams of many a business owner. More than likely, those people affected worst along the Gulf Coast were too concerned for and with their families to...
Hiring a Sales Tax Technology Provider
SINGLE SOLUTION. Sales tax compliance software must perform multiple operations. It must first determine the relevant jurisdiction and rules, and then calculate taxes in real time. It must then compile the data, complete and file...
Blogs Are One Way to Get Consumers
Are you “stuck on style?” If so, you may already be a fan of online retailer Bluefly.com’s blog, Flypaper. Those three words describe the audience Bluefly, a discount women’s apparel e-tailer, is attempting to attract via the blog:...
Keyword Sleuthing: Locate the Right Word
Effective search engine optimization (“SEO”) starts with keyword research. Chasing after the wrong keywords is a waste, costing you the time and effort you have put into search engine...
The Best 'Net Secrets - November 2005
Trick-or-treaters come and go, but a sweet tooth demands satisfaction year round. These sites handily prove that the Internet can satisfy a sugar craving in ways never dreamt of by your local candy store.
HomeTownFavorites.com
Big...
Stephanie Leffler, CEO of MonsterCommerce
Stephanie Leffler says anybody who thinks a successful ecommerce business is about putting up a website in five minutes and counting the money in their pajamas is in for a rude awakening. To her,...
Creating Your First Banner Ad in Photoshop
As an ecommerce entrepreneur there is no particular reason that you would know what a GIF or a JPEG file is. In fact, it may be that the only tech smarts you have is that you hired someone to build and manage your website for you. However,...
Understanding Online Advertising Terms
In a meeting with a national online advertising vendor the other day, I was amused when I noticed one of our top salesmen sleeping at our conference table. And, by sleeping, I don’t mean that this gentleman nodded off and required a...
Displaying Special Characters Using HTML
As a business owner, being able to publish your content to the web represents an incredible distribution opportunity. The evolution of web publishing has allowed for nearly any printed materials to be distributed online, often times for a...
An Introduction to CSS
Overview
Building HTML pages that are both search engine friendly and appealing to your users is crucial to the success of an online business. In the past, there was a give-and-take relationship between the structure and the formatting...
An Introduction to XML
Overview
Something about XML is inherently intimidating, and although we all probably hear it referred to a lot. or are aware that it exists, most people do not have any idea what it is. There is a good reason for this, since XML is a...
The FruitCompany.com: From Farmers to eCommerce Entrepreneurs
You can, too, go home again. Scott and Addison Webster are living proof.
The brothers grew up on a fruit farm in the beautiful Hood River Valley of Oregon. The farm was a family operation started by their Grandfather Roy and his partner...
Customer Service Focus - November 2005
You probably can’t make every customer happy, so here are some tips on customer-dispute resolution and making a bad situation a little bit better.
Communication is King.
The most frustrating aspect of dealing with online...
Nastygrams: Don't Let a Legal Letter Ruin Your Day
It is a beautiful fall day as the early morning sun and fresh breeze cascade through your office window, an open invitation to an afternoon of golf. Then, the morning mail arrives, bringing with it a...
Calls-to-Action
If you’ve ever taken a marketing class, or read a marketing book that deals with any level of ‘direct response’ marketing, then you’ve come across the phrase ‘call to action’. It’s the idea that in order to make marketing or...
Your Policies Are Only as Good as What's Posted
Since the holiday shopping season is upon us, now’s the time to double-check store policies. Besides privacy, security and shipping, policies are what decide what happens when there is a problem with an order. So many stores neglect...
GoDaddy's Bob Parsons: We're Only Seeing the Tip of the Iceberg
Bob Parsons takes risks, not something your average CPA tends to do easily. But then Parsons isn’t your average CPA, although he has a degree in accounting and worked as one for several...
Blog Platforms: Choose One that Fits Your Need
You have bitten the bullet and decided to add a blog to your ecommerce site and make it a part of your marketing mix. You made the strategic decision of why you want to blog, determined what your core message will be and the audience you...
Email Marketing: Cultivating a Successful List
Many old-school marketers built mailing lists like your favorite aunt would make spaghetti: Cook a ton of it, and throw it against the wall to see what sticks. If any does, you know the pasta’s done.
In much the same way, before email...
Search Engine Indexing with Sitemaps
One of the most common problems ecommerce websites have with rankings is that portions of their websites are not included in the search engines. The cause can be any of a variety of reasons that range from complicated URL strings to slow...
Understanding Common Web Error Messages
Over the years in the interactive marketing business, any consultant worth his or her salt has faced the dilemma of assisting a company whose primary issue is that its “Web site broke.”
No...
Securing an SSL Certificate
Overview
How do you know that I am who I say I am? Likewise, how do I know you are who you say you are?
And, if we can’t catapult past this initial, basic level of trust – how will we ever be able to conduct business...
Alternative Medicine Network Flourishes
A lot of the great products we know and love today were born out of personal need of the inventor.
Karsten Solheim, the father of PING golf clubs had troubles putting so he invented a putter (and then some golf clubs) that revolutionized...
Hosting Companies: Top 10 Questions to Ask
I field many phone calls in any given day. And never does a day pass where I don’t get a call about someone having trouble with their host. Sometimes I have to bite my tongue, and many would be...
Web Marketing: Hitting the Target
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to try my hand at archery during a Boy Scout camp. It’s actually quite hard to hit the target, (and for me virtually impossible to hit the bulls-eye). However, it occurred to me that some of the...
Customer Service Focus - October 2005
Your goal as an e-tailer should be to amaze customers with an unusually high level of service. Consider these customer service tips to improve your ecommerce business.
More Than One Method of Communication.
Make sure your site...
Ten Things to Consider Before You Blog
You’ve heard a lot about web logs or blogs. That’s because during the past six years blogs have evolved from a highly personal form of communication on the Internet to a powerful new medium for...
Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Understanding how can you get a substantial increase in "free" website traffic through basic search engine optimization begins with the fundamentals. These recommendations assume a site does not possess any technical issues that may cause...
How To Choose A Shopping Cart
Good business is about good decisions. Good decisions are ones made after serious research and data gathering. One of the decisions that must be made by ecommerce people is choosing the right shopping cart for their business. The problem...
Web Graphics: Why Are We So Limited?
As a Web designer and developer, I have worked with graphics in a variety of formats. Anybody who uses Adobe Photoshop – the standard for design production in the interactive business – has learned his or her way around JPG, GIF, TIF,...
HTML Primer for the Tech-Challenged
Considering it’s the 10-year anniversary of ecommerce, we should probably pay homage to the technology that has played the biggest role in allowing online businesspeople to thrive: the HyperText Markup Language (HTML).
Actually, HTML...
Star Crossed Productions Finds Niche
Kathy Smith is 46 years old. She started out as a high school teacher.
“Some days it was like walking into a battle zone.” Then she was in the printing business. “Pressure cooker every day.” Then, in November 2002, she launched...
Autoresponders: Follow-up for Success
Something that I often suggest is that companies give something away on their website. I believe that this is essential even for websites that are primarily ecommerce in nature. The reason is to provide a low-commitment next step, for...
Navigation is Key
Online shoppers need guidance about finding what they need, and information about the pages they are viewing. We get so used to all our friends and family being online, we take for granted that each and every day, thousands of people use...
Blogging: Your Kids Do It, and Your Business Should Too
Doubtless, you have heard the term, ‘blog.’ Bloggers, as they are called, have been credited with bringing down key political and media figures like former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and CBS news anchor Dan Rather.
Your...
Back-to-School Season Provides Lesson for eCommerce Sites
If you thought the back-to-school season meant little more than pencils and paper, backpacks and new school clothes, you'd be highly mistaken. In the ecommerce community, it provides us a subtle reminder as to the power of teaching our...
Attracting Hispanic Customers Online Not As Easy As Uno, Dos, Tres
As online business owners and marketers, you've heard the staggering statistics regarding Internet usage among Hispanics in the United States. Almost 16 million Hispanics will be online by 2007, and their collective buying power is already...
No Click To Pick
You’ve got nothing to show for it - your online advertising campaign that is. Hundreds if not thousands of dollars out the window after those creative, catchy ads didn’t reel in the customers you hoped they would.
Could be that the...
SignSupplyStore.com Keeps It Simple
During the course of building an online business, many eommerce Webmasters find that they morph into proverbial interactive jacks of all trades.
In the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass region, 34 year-old Lance Coffman is one such...
Parting the Fog of Visitors
Imagine this. You're the publisher of a metropolitan newspaper, tasked with gathering statistics on how many people read your publication on a weekly basis. Of course you count your subscriber base and your newsstand copies sold, but do...
The Online Business Cyber-Attack: Defamation
It is said that the worst lies are told behind your back. That may be true. Until recently, rumors about businesses have generally been oral, fleeting in nature, and (hopefully) not given much credence. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the...
A Tangled Web We Weave
The choice between having nothing nice to say and saying nothing at all, at least on the web, is becoming increasingly easier by the day. Say nothing at all.
When the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) was struck down to allow...
Know Your Enemy (err, Target)
An oft-repeated military slogan is “know your enemy.” I’m not too sure if it was first espoused by Sun Tzu, Clausewitz or Machiavelli, but I’m on board with the theory. If Sun Tzu (or whoever) were alive today, he’d probably be a...
A Primer in Shipping Calculations
Set aside all the cool features you’d love your MIVA Merchant store to have, and those you aren’t sure how to accomplish. The most difficult yet necessary task is tackling the proper means of calculating shipping.
It sounds so...
Scope, Don't Hope
Among the many perks of running your own business is the freedom to work on your own schedule, at your own pace, where you want and how you choose. However, ask any online entrepreneur, and he or she will likely never get back to...
Overseas Customers: Just Clicks Away
Your web store is a few clicks away, regardless of where those clicks geographically occur. Clearly, international sales can help you increase your online sales, and many internet merchants are taking advantage of them. But there are...
Customer Conversion: Overcome Buyer Resistance
The web has been spoiled by scams, fraud, identity theft, phishing, email address harvesting, and spam-mail. At this point, we are all very wary of disclosing our (somewhat disposable) email address,...
SPAM: Your Affiliates Can Put You Out of Business
A funny thing happened on the way to enactment of the new federal spam law known as “CAN-SPAM.” While for the first time it established nationwide rules to follow in using commercial email, it actually did much more. Somewhere along...
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