http://www.practicalecommerce.com/authors/19/Mitch-Bettis/ Mitch Bettis is the contributing editor for the magazine. He can be reached at mbettis@practicalecommerce.com en-us Copyright 2007 Confluence Publishing Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:52:44 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/rss/ Practical Ecommerce v2.0.1 Ecommerce kmurdock@practicalecommerce.com bgetting@practicalecommerce.com 60 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/530/Netshopscom-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 specific need ." NetShops launched its first site in 2001 and in the past six years has amassed a collection of more than 150 niche sites, each specializing in distinctive areas such as hammocks, dartboards, toddler beds and jewelry boxes. Its 2,630.8 percent growth over a three-year period landed it No. 13 on Inc. magazine's fastest growing companies in America in 2006, with gross sales around $62 million. The company is based in Omaha, Neb., and CEO and co-founder Doug Nielsen said NetShops will continue to use its Midwestern sensibilities of “honesty and hard work” to fuel its ongoing growth plans around targeted niches. The company employs more than 300 people, and all signs are that it's a pretty decent place to work — it was named one of the top five places to work in... Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:52:44 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/530/Netshopscom-Finds-Its-Niche/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/526/Earn-An-Ecommerce-Degree/ Many online entrepreneurs may feel like they have earned an ecommerce degree from the school of hard knocks. However, for those interested in a more traditional education experience, there are degree programs specializing in ebusiness. Bachelor and master's degrees in ecommerce are available at a select group of institutions, but there aren't as many universities offering ecommerce degree programs as there once were. The Internet business frenzy of the late 1990s also swept through various colleges and universities by prompting educational institutions to develop programs that focused on ebusiness. After the dot com bust in 2000, many ecommerce degree programs lost their luster and were quietly dropped from course catalogs. The degree program at Champlain College in Vermont is one that survived, and it offers a bachelor of science degree in ebusiness management. It offers online courses for students throughout the United States, and it also offers a more traditional college... Sun, 22 Jul 2007 11:02:46 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/526/Earn-An-Ecommerce-Degree/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/515/Learning-Bookkeeping-Basics/ Poor financial management is one key contributor to why more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years of existence, according to the Small Business Administration. Because ecommerce has such low barriers to entry — a few bucks for a hosted shopping cart and a few products are all one needs — entrepreneur-minded people frequently leap to launch a web-based businesses with little thought given to the financial backbone needed to operate a business. Merchants often think they are going to be “free and independent” when self-employed, said John Day, owner of Real Life Accounting. “They may figure, ‘Since I have the knowledge and skill, I might as well set up my own business and keep all the profits.’ What they don't realize is that if not planned out properly, their dream can turn into their worst nightmare.” Though marketing, inventory management and sales are all important factors to online success, if a merchant doesn't sufficiently... Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:48:13 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/515/Learning-Bookkeeping-Basics/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/514/Boosting-Your-Programming-Skills/ If you're tired of calling your web design firm every time you want to make a minor tweak to your site, there are online courses you can take to boost your knowledge in HTML, JavaScript, cascading style sheets and more. In fact, there are so many online options to improve programming skills — for beginners and skilled pros — that it may be difficult to wade through the options and choose just one resource. There are courses that provide an instructor-led environment, while others feature a do-it-on-your-own-schedule, self-paced structure. eClasses.org offers more than 50 online instructor-led courses in web design, web programming and ecommerce. Richard Brinegar, executive director at eClasses.org, says the site has around 10,000 students each year. Instructors for each class, at a minimum, are required to have a bachelor's degree in information technology or a related field and a minimum of three years recent work experience in IT or a related field. Free HTML... Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:35:17 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/514/Boosting-Your-Programming-Skills/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/490/Daddiesboardshopcom-Wins-Site-Review/ Melanie Loveland and her son Dan built a business together around a mutual passion — snowboarding. What started as a small, brick-and-mortar store in Portland, Ore., has evolved into a full-fledged multichannel merchant. It was a process the owners didn't foresee when the business started in 1995. Their business has seen dynamic change in the seven years since it launched a website. Daddies Board Shop now generates 80 percent of its sales through online channels and only 20 percent at the Portland store. Dan was the driving force to get the business online. However, as is the case with most small operations, the endeavor required the owner to roll up his sleeves and do it himself. "I bought [web design software] FrontPage and took a shot at it," Dan said. The original incarnation of the site was thin — about 25 pages of HTML that displayed snowboarding and skateboarding content. Once Dan put products online, however, orders began to roll in. "About two years later... Wed, 30 May 2007 14:23:19 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/490/Daddiesboardshopcom-Wins-Site-Review/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/487/Online-Payment-Alternative-Bill-Me-Later/ Vince Talbert is the vice president of marketing for I4 Commerce (pronounced "eye four commerce"), a company offering the online payment alternative Bill Me Later at I4commerce.com. What does Bill Me Later provide to customers? It is a payment option designed so customers can make purchases online without having to use credit cards. A customer simply checks the Bill Me Later option, and he will be sent a bill in the mail. If the billing comes later, how does the merchant know he/she will be paid for the product purchased? When the consumer is approved by Bill Me Later, the merchant knows that he is covered for that transaction. The merchant will get paid by Bill Me Later for that transaction, so he will go ahead and ship those goods to the consumer. That night, when the merchant settles his transactions through his existing payment processor — much as he would do with Visa and Mastercard transactions — he will get full payment for that purchase, minus the transaction fees... Thu, 24 May 2007 08:18:28 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/487/Online-Payment-Alternative-Bill-Me-Later/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/485/Comparison-Sites-Can-Help-Boost-Sales/ Shopping comparison sites enable merchants to market to the masses, but stepping into a competitive environment like BizRate, PriceGrabber or Shopping.com can seem pretty daunting to the owner of a small ecommerce business. However, three entrepreneurs say getting out of the comfort zone and into the game is worth the effort. Top Three Mistakes: Shopping Comparison Sites Trying to compete primarily in terms of price. "Do not start by trying to be that 'low-priced guy,'" Saldana said. "That is just the absolutely wrong way to do it." Instead, he said merchants are better off when they provide a fair price, a great product description and great service. "It is not always about price," Saldana said. Customers will respond "if they have the information and are armed with [an understanding of] exactly how this product is going to fill their need." Expecting too much. Ordonez advises merchants to maintain realistic goals as to how many sales will be converted from the new... Mon, 21 May 2007 14:01:15 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/485/Comparison-Sites-Can-Help-Boost-Sales/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/483/The-Entrepreneur-The-Optimist/ Patrick Coughlin is experiencing firsthand the same challenges many online entrepreneurs face: It's hard to build a successful online business. Coughlin has owned a successful brick-and-mortar jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., for 15 years. That business had grown to fill a 3,000-square-foot showroom in an idyllic community of about 6,000 people north of Detroit. Due to the increased demand for manufacturing and custom designs, American Diamond Importers is now developing plans for its next store, a 6,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility. In short, Coughlin is no rookie when it comes to operating a successful business. That doesn't mean he hasn't encountered hurdles with the establishment of his new online operation. In 2006, Coughlin won an eBay contest to launch a ProStore. By mid-August, his online store was open for business. Practical eCommerce has followed Coughlin's progress for the past seven months to chronicle the triumphs and struggles that accompany the... Wed, 16 May 2007 10:27:09 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/483/The-Entrepreneur-The-Optimist/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/482/Ebiz-Start-up-Selling-Online-Is-Hard-Work/ Seven months into the operation of his new ecommerce store, Pat Coughlin's goal of reaching $1 million in sales is nowhere in sight — but that hasn't curbed his enthusiasm for the online venture. Coughlin, longtime owner of a successful jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., won an eBay contest to launch a ProStore in 2006, and he made significant investments in the project: Hired six people, purchased new computers and equipment and planned a $100,000 advertising campaign. Coughlin's goal was to generate $1 million in new sales at Americandiamondimporters.com within 12 months. Personnel and operating costs have chewed up more of Coughlin's budget than he anticipated, and those additional expenses have cut into the monies earmarked for online advertising. The company has generated about $200,000 in sales from the website since its launch, and Coughlin feels that by the business' one-year anniversary, the online endeavor will be breaking even. In hindsight, Coughlin said, he... Wed, 16 May 2007 10:17:29 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/482/Ebiz-Start-up-Selling-Online-Is-Hard-Work/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/477/Tools-To-Boost-Conversion/ Most ebusiness owners can find ways to increase traffic to their site, but turning a visitor into a buyer remains an ongoing challenge. To get a visitor at your site to do what you want him/her to do - whether it is signing up for a newsletter, buying a product online or some other desired outcome - is a blend of art and science, and it's not easy. An ecommerce site with 6 to 9 percent of its visitors making purchases can be considered a success, according to conversion experts, but, unfortunately, the industry standard hovers around 1 to 2 percent. A retail site is frequently considered a success when its purchase conversion is in the high single digits, but for lead generation sites, numbers in the high teens are considered good. An average retail site is converting about 1 to 2 percent of visitors, and an average lead generation site is doing 5 to 6 percent. Top Three Mistakes: Conversion There are many things that can negatively impact the experience a visitor has at... Wed, 09 May 2007 10:09:25 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/477/Tools-To-Boost-Conversion/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/457/PPC-Copywriting-Product-Images/ When jeweler Pat Coughlin decided to expand his brick-and-mortar business to include an ecommerce store, he set an ambitious goal to generate $1 million in online sales in the first 12 months. To pull off that feat, he hired six staff members to lead critical parts of the new endeavor. The launch of the new sales channel hasn't been without its challenges. Three members of Coughlin's web team agreed to share what they have learned during the past six months and provide some tips on areas that often plague ecommerce sites: Pay-per-click advertising, copywriting and product images. Paula LindingerDuties: Pay-per-click, shopping comparison sites, customer service Previous Web Experience: None What do you enjoy most? I think one of the most exciting things is the feedback from the customers. When we get a great report from a customer, it gives me goosebumps, and that type of report sends cheers up through the whole store. What has been most challenging? I had no idea what... Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:23:45 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/457/PPC-Copywriting-Product-Images/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/451/Selling-Your-Ecommerce-Business/ To web entrepreneurs who contemplate selling their online businesses, experts issue a single warning: Get your financial house in order. Online endeavors are frequently launched by people who have a great idea, a great passion or a distinctive skill set, but who often lack traditional business acumen. Partially-completed financial statements and an incomplete balance sheet might not impede day-to-day operations, but when it comes to selling the business, such disorganization can be a liability; a prospective buyer wants to see much more than a shoe box full of receipts. When you commit to selling your business, "you have to start running it like you are going to sell it today," said Mike Gravel, co-founder and managing director of eBizBrokers, Inc., a mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in Internet businesses. By doing so, you ensure that "when it comes time to sell, there will be no headaches. It will be an easy thing, from a due diligence standpoint." That means, as... Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:06:32 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/451/Selling-Your-Ecommerce-Business/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/452/Bloglist-From-SEO-to-Self-Development/ In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we’ve asked Yaro Starak, with Entrepreneur’s Journey. Name: Yaro Starak, web entrepreneur Company: Entrepreneur's Journey Blog: Entrepreneurs-journey.com JohnChow.com This is a relatively new and prolific blogger. John is from Vancouver and talks a lot about how he monetizes his blog — an area that always interests me. Problogger.net Darren Rowse is a friend from Melbourne and the most famous professional blogger. His blog is THE blog for news about blogging. StevePavlina.com/blog/ Whenever I get too caught up with making money on the Internet and need a reality check, I read Steve Pavlina, who teaches self development. It's a dose of "calm" when you are overstimulated. SEOMoz.com I study search engine optimization and this blog is the number one resource for updated info on the SEO world. Entrepreneurs-Journey.com and SmallBusinessBranding.com Since I... Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:00:25 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/452/Bloglist-From-SEO-to-Self-Development/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/446/Seven-Insurance-Issues-For-Merchants/ When an ecommerce business begins to grow, new risks mount and site owners should examine insurance options. Finding an insurance agent who understands the challenges of online business has been tough for many e-business owners. Only recently have insurance options become available. Online businesses differ from their brick-and-mortar counterparts in ways that present unique challenges for insurance companies. "An ecommerce business owner has the challenge of facing all the traditional risks that any business faces, plus those unique to ecommerce," said Nancy Callahan, a vice president with AIG Insurance, which offers ecommerce coverage. Callahan says the traditional risks include protection for your property, your employees and those who do business with you. Generally speaking, those risks fall into property and casualty insurance — the property coverage protects the physical assets and the casualty coverage protects the company if someone gets hurt or suffers financial... Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:58:26 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/446/Seven-Insurance-Issues-For-Merchants/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/440/Quick-Query-Selling-Digital-Content-Via-Major-Retailers/ Karl Hirsch is the CEO of Protexis (Protexis.com), a company that links retail outlets with companies wanting to sell digital content such as software, music, video, e-books and other digital products. What does Protexis do? We help publishers of digital content sell and fulfill content through established online channels, typically online retailers. Is this technology something new? The technology is not new, but the electronic distribution model and opportunity for retailers and publishers is new. Electronic software distribution has been around for nearly a decade now, but it has largely been used as a way to sell direct to consumers — not through established online retailers. So what Protexis does is connect publishers with merchants and then help those publishers reach more consumers in a more efficient and open way. How does the system work? A publisher of digital content would come to our hosted service through a web interface. He would upload his content, and... Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:02:04 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/440/Quick-Query-Selling-Digital-Content-Via-Major-Retailers/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/439/Setting-A-Value-For-An-Ecommerce-Business/ How much is my business worth? It’s a question most entrepreneurs eventually ask, and online merchants are no different. They want to know the enterprise they’ve invested in and continually work to build will have real value if they ever choose to sell. The good news is that profitable online companies do have value. The bad news is that there is no easy, industry-defined way to calculate what an ecommerce business is really worth. Mike Gravel, co-founder and managing director of eBizBrokers, Inc., a mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in Internet businesses, said that, as a very broad guide, a business could expect to sell for two to five times its earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Profit and profit margins remain primary factors in getting maximum value from a website’s sale. Having a high gross sales number doesn’t always equal a large sale price — profit is generally king. “We had a [potential] client who was doing... Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:44:01 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/439/Setting-A-Value-For-An-Ecommerce-Business/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/435/Online-Start-up-Faces-SEO-Challenge/ MOTIF Modern Living operates a unique contemporary furniture outlet just 10 minutes south of downtown Austin, Texas. The loft-like brick-and-mortar store features beautifully designed contemporary home furnishings. To expand its reach beyond Texas' borders, MOTIF has launched a website that tries to replicate the distinctive feel you get when walking into its Texas-sized showroom. The brick-and-mortar store is strategically located along I-35 near the community of Kyle. Automobile traffic isn't a problem — more than 80,000 vehicles pass by the store every day. However, getting quality web traffic and sales at the ecommerce store takes some marketing moxie. The brick-and-mortar store had a successful first year of operation by more than doubling the projections President Steven Lora made. Lora's focus in 2007: Capturing the momentum from the local store's success to help propel the company's website into a force online. When was the website launched, and how have its... Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:07:50 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/435/Online-Start-up-Faces-SEO-Challenge/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/434/Marketing-Tips-From-Marketings-Sherpa/ Anne Holland launched MarketingSherpa from a bedroom in her home in 2000. Seven years and 700 case studies later, MarketingSherpa is regarded as a leading source for marketing research. The company researches and publishes real-life case studies, practical marketing tips and benchmark data on what works in marketing today and boasts 237,000 weekly newsletter readers. The company's goal is simple — to give the marketers of the world the stats, inspiration and instructions they need to improve their results. During her 20 years as a direct-response marketer, Holland realized few companies provided quality marketing research and information to help practitioners put that raw data into action. "When I started Sherpa, the concept was to talk to the best marketers in the world and ask them what they test, what works, what doesn't and then share it with everybody else," Holland said. The term "Sherpa" refers to the Sherpas of Nepal who lead climbers up Mount Everest. In this... Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:56:46 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/434/Marketing-Tips-From-Marketings-Sherpa/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/429/Bloglist-From-Merchant-Accounts-to-Help-With-Usability/ For each edition of Practical eCommerce, the magazine asks an online professional to identify his/her favorite blogs. This feature highlights some of the most interesting resources in the blogosphere. Jamie Estep, online operations director Company: Merchantequip.com Blogs: Merchantaccountblog.com and Ecommerce-blog.org http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ Several successful authors collaborate to bring one of the most insightful and interesting blogs on the internet. This blog is great for website and business owners alike, and focuses on making an organization very unique and customer centered. http://www.seomoz.org/blog.php Seomoz was created by Rand Fishkin, of Seattle Washington. This blog's main topic is search engine optimization, but it offers great, unique information relating to online marketing, web development and website usability. http://www.merchant-account-services.org/blog/ This blog is payment processing related, and is run by... Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:45:24 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/429/Bloglist-From-Merchant-Accounts-to-Help-With-Usability/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/427/Errors-Made-By-Ecommerce-Site-Owners/ Ecommerce owners do a lot of trial-and-error work on their way to building a successful operation. Along the way to success, it often becomes clear that the road could have been less rocky if a few things were done differently. Hindsight is often painfully clear. Several ecommerce owners outlined what they would do differently, if they had the chance to start over. SHANE MCKENZIE, PRESIDENT/OWNER WEBSITE: Thesunglassmanonline.com SELLS: Sunglasses & accessories ANSWER: I would spend more time learning how a site's design can impact conversion and search engine rankings. I would take more care with product images; improvements in this area really improve sales. DEBRA KILLEN, OWNER WEBSITE: Myembroideredgifts.com SELLS: Personalized gifts for all occasions ANSWER: My answer is really two-fold, but both ideas work together. To build my site, I would choose a well-rounded platform — one that would grow with my store. The second and more important thing would be to hire... Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:01:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/427/Errors-Made-By-Ecommerce-Site-Owners/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/422/Does-Your-Site-Need-A-Makover-From-Ecommerce-Pros/ Sign up today! Practical eCommerce is assembling a team of ecommerce professionals to review one website's key elements. A group of experts will evaluate one site on design, SEO, merchandising, fraud protection, conversion and more. If you want your site "adopted" by the professionals for a comprehensive review, just click here and submit a 50-75 word explanation as to why you should be chosen for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. All of the professionals will review your site, and we'll publish their comments in our May/June edition. Your request to be evaluated provides your consent to participate in this endeavor and have the comments from the professionals published in our magazine and on our website. Though we publish our regular SEO and Usability report cards, this special project is far more comprehensive as it evaluates many additional areas that demand the attention of an ecommerce merchant. There is no cost to you if you are chosen for this project — you can... Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:58:34 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/422/Does-Your-Site-Need-A-Makover-From-Ecommerce-Pros/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/407/Three-Basic-Steps-Can-Curb-Credit-Card-Fraud/ A loss of $15,000 in diamonds during the height of the Christmas-buying frenzy would be enough to make most people sing the holiday blues. Not Pat Coughlin. Coughlin has owned and operated American Diamond Importers, an independent brick-and-mortar jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., for 15 years. Until the fall of 2006, Coughlin had a static, information-only website; he didn't do any online business. Following the Progress of an Ecommerce Start-up Practical eCommerce is following American Diamond Importers (Americandiamondimporters.com) of St. Clair, Mich., throughout the year to chronicle the triumphs and struggles that accompany the launch of an ecommerce site. Owner Pat Coughlin won a contest from eBay to launch a ProStore and he's made a significant investment into the project: Hired six people, purchased new computers and equipment and has planned a $100,000 advertising campaign. Coughlin's goal: Generate $1 million in new sales from his online business within 12... Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:48:34 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/407/Three-Basic-Steps-Can-Curb-Credit-Card-Fraud/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/390/Switching-Shopping-Carts-Is-Part-of-A-Growing-Ebusiness/ Organize.com began in 1998 in Riverside, Calif., as Organize Everything — one convenient place to shop for storage and organization solutions. For those who have a garage or closet in need of some serious organizational help, Organize.com features a full slate of organizational products, shelving, boxes, bins, hangers and storage systems. About a year after its beginning, the company launched a website. That channel propelled sales to about $10 million annually, 92.5 percent of which is generated through online channels. Kevin Watts is director of ecommerce for the company. What challenges did you experience as you launched your first site? We launched about 200 products to begin with. When we first started putting products on there, we weren't sure how we were going to create a story for somebody who couldn't touch and feel the product. They couldn't fully see how it looked or understand how it was going to work for them. So, what we did was offer really good... Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:37:26 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/390/Switching-Shopping-Carts-Is-Part-of-A-Growing-Ebusiness/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/389/Site-Search-Multiple-Options-Help-Customers/ Five sites have built dynamic businesses in unique niches What is a high performer? Some people may define that purely based on gross revenue numbers or by having a 30 percent pretax profit margin. Others might say a high performer is a company that dominates its market sector or boasts a double-digit conversion rate. We are all familiar with the success of Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon and other sentinels of online commerce. However, rather than focus on the handful of ebusinesses you might read about in The Wall Street Journal on a regular basis, we felt it was important to showcase online businesses we see doing a terrific job in highly-targeted niche markets. The five businesses we are showcasing will not be considered among the 10 highest-grossing revenue sites on the web. However, each of these has built a successful business. What one thing do they each have in common? The owners built their businesses around a passion. As you'll see, those passions run the spectrum... Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:35:15 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/389/Site-Search-Multiple-Options-Help-Customers/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/401/Site-Owners-Describe-Changes-for-2007/ Dan Wickwares, Buyer/Webmaster WEBSITE: Wickswares.com SELLS: Candle, bath, body and soap-making supplies ANSWER: Our growth for the last four years has been by word-of-mouth. We will be implementing a monthly newsletter using oemPro software and following up on all web hits with a personal note using the same software. Also, we'll also be migrating to the MIVA shopping cart system. Last but not least, we will be placing new emphasis on search engine optimization. Rhonda B. King, Owner/Operator WEBSITE: Barefacedminerals.com SELLS: Mineral makeup and essential oils ANSWER: We plan three changes for 2007. First, we are developing new categories of sets for first-time shoppers who may be overwhelmed with making choices. Sets based on skin tone will ease that burden for clients. Secondly, our new affiliate program will offer solutions for clients who want to promote our product without carrying inventory. Thirdly, we're enhancing our wholesale categories to include PDFs of... Mon, 29 Jan 2007 11:30:58 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/401/Site-Owners-Describe-Changes-for-2007/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/388/High-Performer-Series-Beautiesltdcom/ It was supposed to be a quiet, part-time business to give a couple of prospective retirees something to do. Fifteen years later, Bill Kenerson and Deb Venman have created a beehive of activity creating bow ties, ascots, cummerbunds, scarves and pocket squares. What started as a mailing of 3,500 catalogs (actually a single-sheet flyer) in 1993 has grown into a dynamic multichannel sales operation. Kenerson and Venman now mail about 500,000 catalogs annually. and they manage a company generating about $2 million annually — about 40 percent of those sales at the company's website, Beautiesltd.com Bow tie wearers are certainly a niche market. There are about 175 million ties sold annually in the U.S., and only 4 percent are bow ties. Although the business started in virtual mode with sewing and fulfillment outsourced, it grew quickly to a home-based endeavor. When the bedrooms and garage couldn't hold one more scrap of fabric or one more bow tie, the couple built a... Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:31:54 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/388/High-Performer-Series-Beautiesltdcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/399/SEO-and-Email-Launch-New-Product/ As with many great products in the marketplace, the diaper caddy was conceived out of necessity. Melissa Bramlage, a mother of two, needed a product that could hold all the essential baby care items in one convenient location. It seemed that every time she needed to change her child's diaper, the new diaper was on the opposite end of the house from the place she left the ointment. If necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention, then Bramlage is living proof. She has conceived, created, arranged for manufacturing and now sells her invention of necessity. Rather than simply develop an online business around selling other people's products, Bramlage nursed her product from designs on scraps of paper to actual items manufactured overseas that she's now launched on her site. Though sales have just begun to rev up and Bramlage feels she's still in start-up mode, she believes there are big things in store for the diaper caddy and Sarabearbaskets.com. Bramlage's daily life... Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:31:23 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/399/SEO-and-Email-Launch-New-Product/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/386/High-Performer-Series-Appliancepartsproscom/ Roman Kagan has built a successful niche business selling hard-to-find appliance parts to do-it-yourself types around the country. The site was launched in 1999 featuring about 300 products and in seven years has grown to showcase more than 1 million parts for 170,000 appliance models. Along the way, the business has grown to about $5 million in annual sales with the site having about 150,000 unique visitors per month. Why sell appliance parts? I first had the idea of selling appliance parts online in 1997 while working for a local parts distributor and right after I placed my first order with Amazon. It was not until the end of 1999 that our first order was shipped. It took me about a month to make the first version of our site. There was no shopping cart. Orders were placed through a contact form. It's funny and maybe a little embarrassing looking back now, but I was very proud of it at the time. What was it like for you in the early days with the business? I was also... Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:18:21 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/386/High-Performer-Series-Appliancepartsproscom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/391/High-Performer-Series-Drsfosterandsmithcom/ A Foster & Smith catalog is a familiar sight at the home of a pet owner. Whether a household includes dogs, cats, birds, reptiles or other animals as pets, Foster & Smith has been a resource for more than two decades for pet owners to purchase supplies and products. Three veterinarians launched the company in 1983 — Dr. Marty Smith and brothers Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Rory Foster. When the veterinarians realized it was difficult for their customers to easily locate products in their Northern Wisconsin area, the men launched a small catalog. The catalog became so successful, the doctors transitioned from running the clinic to developing the catalog. Millions of catalogs are now printed each year by Foster & Smith. In the late 1990s, the company launched a website that has become a significant online business. The site boasts 1 million unique visitors per month and generates about $125 million annually, accounting for 57 percent of the company's total revenue.... Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:39:08 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/391/High-Performer-Series-Drsfosterandsmithcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/385/Quick-Query-Restaurants--Email-Marketing/ Abby Weaver is the marketing director for Fajita Grill (Fajitagrill.com), a small restaurant with locations in Oswego and Fulton, New York, that successfully uses email marketing and its website to boost sales. When did Fajita Grill launch its website? Even before we opened the first restaurant, we had a website. It was just the basics with contact info, and was primarily used for online job applications. We were overwhelmed with responses and didn't need to run any newspaper advertising. How do you promote the restaurant's website? The website address is included in our email marketing. It is on our menus, fax order forms, table tents -- everything. Does your email marketing work? I know it's successful based on the response rate. We have about 300 coupons redeemed each month, a very high response rate for our list size. Compared to direct mail where I had less than half a percent response rate, this is a no-brainer. How frequently do you email your... Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:06:51 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/385/Quick-Query-Restaurants--Email-Marketing/