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HOME · Saturday, May 17, 2008
Article Archives (657 articles)
A Lender Or Borrower Be Is Prosper.com
The increased difficulty for people and small businesses to acquire decently priced loans, or loans at all, created a vacuum in the money business in recent years. Chris Larsen, the man who gave us...
Video Tutorial: Tabbed Content - Part 2
Tabbed content appears more and more frequently in web pages, and is an interesting way to simultaneously save page space and effectively present information. In part two of this two-part tutorial on...
PPC Report Card: POSSupply.com
POS Supply Solutions sells office and paper products at its website, Possupply.com. It spends $1,000 per month on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising with, exclusively, Google. POS says its PPC goal is...
Credit Card Chargebacks
It seems like only yesterday we were gearing up for a new holiday shopping season. Alas, a plethora of shoppers seeking competitive pricing, free shipping and prime customer service is here. We’ve...
Holiday Book Ideas For Etailers
As the holiday season draws near, it seems a fitting time to share some book ideas — ones for your own reading pleasure or as gifts for your favorite etailer.
While there wasn’t any...
Video Tutorial: Tabbed Content
Tabbed content appears more and more frequently in web pages, and is an interesting way to simultaneously save page space and effectively present information. In part one of this two-part tutorial on...
Caveat Vendor: PCI Is Here
Questions Regarding PCI Compliance?
Have a PCI/DSS question for SecurityMetrics’ Brad Caldwell? Email them to Pat Callahan at pcallahan@practicalecommerce.com, and we’ll run the answers in...
Local Pay-Per-Click Opportunities For Small Businesses
It’s been over a year and a half since I last covered the local pay-per-click market for Practical eCommerce. If there is one thing you can depend on, it is that this industry does not stand...
SEO Report Card: Link Building Could Improve Strong Site
Candlesandsuch.com is a website run quite frugally by its two main proprietors. For a site that hasn’t had a lot of professional help with regard to search engine optimization, it possesses some...
Baiting The Social Media Crowd
You may recall that Stephan Spencer (I am now taking over his two columns here at Practical Ecommerce) wrote about link baiting some months ago. To sum up his thoughts, inbound links are good. Search...
Video Tutorial: JavaScript Tooltips
You've probably seen those useful "tooltips" text boxes that are displayed on some websites when you roll over a specific link or graphic. These typically serve several purposes. Most likely, your...
Usability Report Card: Babyplanetboutique.com
Canadian-based Babyplanetboutique.com strives to provide parents with unique, useful baby products at affordable prices. The site’s owner Danielle Burgi is a nominee for Savvymom Mompreneur of the...
Keyword Research Tools
Every diligent search marketing specialist should be constantly researching new keywords for his customers. Over the years, I've come up with a list of “must-see” sources for new keywords. Some...
Nine Simple Ways To Speed Up Tedious Tasks
Because I’m all about automation of the tedious of tasks, this month I’m offering up some key, yet very simple ways, to speed up tasks you’ve probably never given much thought to. While it may...
Video Tutorial: Validating A Form With JavaScript
In form validation two common questions often arise. The first is how do you ensure once you've asked for an email address on an online form, you actually get one? The second is how do you make...
No Fear For Blinds.com
Jay Steinfeld can’t really tell you where his core values came from. Maybe it was instinctive. Maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, as the years went by, three core values in particular became more and...
Bloglist: Jakob Nielsen
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked the Nielsen Norman Group’s Jakob Nielsen, whom The New York Times has called the guru of...
Google AdWords: Get ‘Em Where You Want ‘Em
In the good old days (when Overture was the only paid search vendor) it was easy. Just bid one cent higher than the other guy, and get into position one, or two, or six, or whatever you wanted. ...
Quantifying Conversion Funnel Opportunities
In my last article, I discussed the practice of breaking the ecommerce conversion funnel down into four distinct transition points to help establish benchmarks and to locate and isolate the greatest...
SEO Report Card: Beachaudio.com
Ranked 359 in the Internet Retailer 500, and boasting over 45,000 products in its catalog and 151,000 pages in Google, Beach Audio has a lot of grunt. According to Troy McKinnon, their director of...
Practical eCommerce Launches Pay-Per-Click Report Card
Practical eCommerce is excited to announce the debut of "PPC Report Card," a monthly feature that critiques the pay-per-click advertising campaigns of selected ecommerce businesses. "PPC Report...
TechSupport: "What's A Relational Database?"
Q: Our web developer tells us that our ecommerce site uses a relational database, but I don't understand what this means. Could you please explain?
At the foundation of nearly all web...
Quick Query: Avalara Founder Rory Rawlings
Rory Rawlings is the founder and chief tax automation officer of Avalara, Inc., a Washington-based firm that provides sales-tax-compliance applications for ecommerce merchants.
PeC: Avalara helps...
Search Engine Optimization And Web 2.0
That well-used buzzword "Web 2.0" encompasses a number of technologies, including blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, tagging/folksonomies, podcasts, widgets, AJAX and Flash. Some of these technologies are a...
Sunfitters.com's Bill Mirabito
Profile:
Company Name: Sunfitters.com
Established: November 2006
Products: Niche beachwear and beach supplies
Shopping Cart: Yahoo!
Quote: We do get calls from customers from time to time just...
Programming Notes: Transferring A Domain Name
The process of transferring a domain name from one registrar to another can be daunting, and the exact process can vary slightly depending on the registrars involved.
The first thing to do is to...
Google AdWords: Structure For Success
As I work with many companies to improve and refine their conversion rate from paid search efforts such as Google AdWords, I have noticed a general misunderstanding about how the structural elements...
SEO: Heads or (Long) Tails?
Search engine optimizing for the "Long Tail" is fundamentally different from optimizing for the head. Therefore, it’s important to initially point out that the strategies and tactics for “Long...
Product Spotlight: Photo Editing, AudioFlash And More
Web-based Photo Editing
Picnik is a web-based photo editing service that is accessed through your computer's browser. Users can quickly fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye or apply effects to...
Debate: Hosted Shopping Carts "Perfect For Most Entrepreneurs"
1ShoppingCart is a hosted shopping cart with thousands of small business customers. Michael Valiant, 1ShoppingCart's product management and marketing specialist, offers his views on hosted cart...
Debate: Licensed Carts Offer Flexibility and Portability
ProductCart is a licensed shopping cart used by thousands of ecommerce merchants. We asked its CEO, Massimo Arrigoni, whether licensed shopping-cart software is better for smaller businesses than...
Actively Promote The Nuances Of Your Website
Many Internet-generated prospects need to be told why they should take action on your website, and often times online businesses don’t spend enough time on this issue — essentially generating...
GuardedID’s George Waller
There are so many ways for thieves to steal identities that it's hard to keep up with it all. Take, for example, keylogging. This occurs when thieves track the keystrokes of unsuspecting Internet...
Web Hosting Companies: Sources To Help You Choose
When it comes to selecting a web host, there’s a lot to choose from. It’s possible your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may have its own web hosting capabilities, and it’s not a bad place to...
The Law Of Data And Information Security
I don’t need to recite the many security breaches that have led to major financial losses for companies over the past twelve months. Every business should already know the risks of leaving credit...
Catalogs Can Complement An eCommerce Site
As ecommerce businesses begin to grow, a dilemma some may face is the decision of whether a catalog is an appropriate multichannel tool.
Latienda.com, which sells a variety of items not generally...
Google’s Personalized Search
With the launch of Google’s personalized search every user will now get search results tailored to his/her specific interests. More specifically, the algorithm will actually be taking into account...
Usability Report Card: Arenaflowers.com
Arenaflowers.com is a United Kingdom based website that primarily sells fresh flowers. On the verge of its one year anniversary, the ebusiness wanted to get an external perspective on how its website...
SEO Report Card: VeganStore.com
VeganStore.com, operated by Pangea Vegan Products, is a site after my own heart.
As a recently turned vegetarian (as of a year ago), I'm definitely in the target market. Too bad it's unlikely I...
Site Search: Increases Conversion Rates, Average Order Value And Loyalty
If your online store has hundreds of products, you may want to consider implementing a more sophisticated site search to help your customers find what they need quickly. For those of you running...
Advertising Online: A Variety Of Opportunities
You may find this hard to believe, but Internet marketing does not revolve solely around Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Whether you’re looking for fresh traffic, new business or just want to kick your...
Convention(al) Wisdom: The Best Pay-Per-Click Seminars
One fortunate thing about being in the pay-per-click industry today is that there is easy access to a lot of useful and high-quality information. Whether it is magazines (such as this one), blogs,...
Usability Report Card: Make These Tweaks Before Growth Occurs
Artistream.com was formed to expand the artistic markets and opportunities for Native Americans and has ambitious expansion plans for itself. Currently, Artistream.com is a fairly basic website...
Don’t Overlook The Essentials Of Business Startup
I receive calls daily from storeowners wondering what they can do to get ample returns on their investments in advertising and search engine optimization. Just when I think I’ve met my match, more...
SEO Report Card: RepublicaTrading.com
Founder Rafael Jimenez of NYC-based Latino and multi-ethnic men's streetwear brand Republica Trading Co. volunteered to have his site reviewed. That was a good call, because the site misses the...
Maintaining Sanity Amid Multiple PPC Campaigns
Pay-per-click search engine campaigns are becoming sophisticated to the point they frequently require a full-time resource to manage them. In the small-business world, that’s a problem considering...
SEO: Is Your Site Holiday-ready?
Those of you with school-age children may have been preoccupied with back-to-school, but now it’s time to start preparing your site for the holidays. The holiday shopping season is not that far...
Netshops.com Finds Its Niche
Company Name: NetShops
Established: 1999
Revenue: About $62 million
Products: Niche specialty stores
Shopping Cart: Custom
Quote: "We saw the opportunity to acquire and build sites...around a...
Sluggish Sales? Consider Adding Additional 800 Numbers
As much people love the web, there are always those who prefer to use the phone number on the site to inquire about company’s products and services. An important question to consider is how...
Bloglist: Marshall Sponder
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Marshall Sponder with Now.SEO.
Name: Marshall Sponder
Company: Now.Seo and...
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