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Google Ads
24 Pay-per-click Advertising Tools
September 16, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Managing a pay-per-click advertising campaign can be time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately, there is a wide range of tools available to create efficient ad copy and to optimize your budget. Here is ...
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Photography & Video
15 Video Tutorials for Product Photography
August 26, 2013 • Sig Ueland
You can produce professional-looking product photos without having to hire a professional photographer. By following simple instructions from online video tutorials, you can create rich product images for very little ...
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Social Media
10 Brands on Vine
August 20, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Vine is Twitter’s video sharing app that allows users to record six-second looping videos on their iOS or Android smartphones. Many brands have embraced Vine as a fun tool to ...
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Conversion
10 A/B Testing Tools for Small Businesses
August 5, 2013 • Sig Ueland
A/B testing is a simple process to test versions of your page and determine which produce positive results. It is a great way to remove the guesswork from your development and focus on what’s working. Here is a list of affordable A/B testing solutions for small businesses. There are ea...
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Schools & Resources
18 Resources to Make a Logo
July 8, 2013 • Sig Ueland
A logo is a way for a business to convey its identity and purpose. But hiring a designer to create a logo can be an expensive and intimidating process. There are a wide variety of online tools available to create a unique logo without spending a huge amount of money. Here is a list of ...
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Schools & Resources
14 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2013
June 17, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2013. There are new titles on digital marketing, A/B testing, search engine optimization, inbound content marketing, mobile commerce, email strategies, social influence, and drop shipping. I compiled the list usin...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
13 Curated Shopping Sites
June 10, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Sometimes shoppers need a little help. Rather than searching through an endless supply of products, they may prefer a selection from the experts or tastemakers they follow. Here is a list of curated shopping sites. Some of the sites offer personalized product recommendations by expert ...
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Design & Dev Tools
19 Free Design Tools for Your Website
May 29, 2013 • Sig Ueland
If you have a small business website, chances are you can use all the free design help you can get. Here is a list of tools and resources to help you with website design. There are font, icon and image tools, as well as audio and video applications. Also there are resources to give you ideas and generate your design inspiration. All of these tools are free.
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Design & Dev Tools
21 Free Tools to Open a WordPress Shop
May 27, 2013 • Sig Ueland
WordPress is a free content management system with an abundance of free plugins and themes to launch and manage an ecommerce shop. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and flexible solution to test the ecommerce waters, WordPress might be right for you. Here is a list of free tools to...
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Schools & Resources
11 Sites with Great Search
May 20, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Search is a big opportunity to provide a positive shopping experience. Helping customers find what they’re looking for is a proven way to generate sales. Here is a list of sites that offer compelling search. Some of these sites provide traditional site search with advanced search opti...
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Technical SEO
10 Free Website Speed Tests
May 13, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Before your customers enter your ecommerce store, they’re waiting for it to load. Page load time is the lapsed time between the moment a user requests a new page and when that page is fully rendered by the browser. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion...
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Design & Dev Tools
15 Easy Mobile App Solutions
May 6, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Mobile apps can be easy to make. With the variety of mobile app builders to choose from, even non-coders can build their own mobile apps with ease — from basic catalogs to complex utilities. Here is a list of solutions to build your own mobile app. These tools are primarily for users w...
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Social Media
13 Inspiring Brands on Pinterest
April 22, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Pinterest is a place for inspiration. Successful brands use it not only to show off a product, but also to inspire people with the ideas, moods, and images behind the brand. Here is a list of brands that inspire on Pinterest. Their boards are filled with beautiful images and amazing d...
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Photography & Video
12 How-to and DIY Video Sites
April 16, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Adding videos to your website can be a terrific way to inform consumers on your product expertise, add value to their shopping experience, and set your site apart from your competitors. A video can be produced with little or no expense. And there are plenty of how-to videos available on...
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Platforms & Apps
25 Apps for Dropbox
April 15, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Dropbox is a cloud-storage service. Similar to Google Drive and SkyDrive, Dropbox lets you access and sync files across all your devices. While Dropbox only offers 2GB of initial free storage — Google Drive offers 5GB, SkyDrive offers 7GB — it expands free storage for completing a few s...
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Schools & Resources
17 Education Sites for Web Merchants
April 8, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Web merchants wear many hats, such as entrepreneur, marketer, accountant, and technologist. If you need help developing some of your ecommerce skills, there are plenty of free resources available online. Here is a list of education sites for ecommerce entrepreneurs. These sites provid...
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Schools & Resources
15 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2013
March 25, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Spring is here and so are new ecommerce books. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for spring 2013. There are new titles on creating viral content, delivering customer support, emulating the success of business mavericks and top brands, and several books on soci...
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Platforms & Apps
22 New Ecommerce Themes for WordPress
March 11, 2013 • Sig Ueland
WordPress is a content management system that’s popular for blogging. But with an ecommerce theme, you can use WordPress to launch a storefront. Here is a list of new ecommerce themes for WordPress. There are free and premium themes, loaded with features to customize your site. Many o...
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Schools & Resources
8 Ecommerce Galleries
February 25, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Looking for ecommerce design ideas? Browse through website galleries that showcase ecommerce sites. Find examples of beautiful websites and site elements from both new and established ecommerce stores. Here is a list of inspirational galleries that showcase ecommerce sites. There are ...
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Schools & Resources
15 Helpful Guides for Ecommerce Merchants
February 18, 2013 • Sig Ueland
An ecommerce merchant frequently wears many hats -- entrepreneur, marketer, and content creator, to name a few. Fortunately there are free online guides to help with every task. Here is a list of online guides to assist merchants with their many needs. There are style guides to help wi...
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Design & Dev Tools
19 Tools to Test your Site for Mobile Devices
January 21, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Is your ecommerce site ready for mobile commerce? Preparing your site for mobile customers can be daunting, considering the huge range of mobile devices and browsers. Fortunately, there are some great tools available to make sure your site is mobile compatible. Here is a list of tools ...
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Design & Dev Tools
8 Tools for Managing Multiple WordPess Sites
January 7, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Managing multiple WordPress sites is getting easier. With the release of WordPress 3.0 and its multisite feature, you can run multiple sites from a single WordPress installation and create a network of sites. However, if you run several websites with a variety of requirements, your need...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
10 Drop Shipping Resources
December 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Drop shipping is an order fulfillment technique in which merchandise is shipped to the customer directly from the warehouse or supplier, rather than from the retailer. The merchant can offer a greater selection of products and test new markets, without the cost and risk of excessive inv...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
30 Shipping Resources for Small Businesses
December 17, 2012 • Sig Ueland
The major shipping organizations in the U.S. — UPS, DHL, FedEx and U.S. Postal Service — provide many easy-to-use online tools and resources to help small businesses meet their shipping needs. In addition to shipping-management tools, the carriers also provide educational resources, and...
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Schools & Resources
16 New Ecommerce Books for the 2012 Holidays
December 3, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Here are new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for winter 2012. There are new titles on social media, conversion optimization, entrepreneurship, email marketing, and content creation. I compiled this record using Amazon’s "Books" category. I selected “Browse Subjects” and chose th...
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Content Marketing
23 Tools to Help Manage Content
November 12, 2012 • Sig Ueland
To ensure your customers have a rich experience with great content, you'll need more than just a content management system. You'll need a basket of tools to research, generate, market, and track your content. Here is a list of tools to help you with content. There are content search-...
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Photography & Video
17 Websites with Video Backgrounds
November 5, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Video is an excellent tool to present a product or a brand, as well as engage an audience with a rich visual experience. And when a website uses video in its background, the effect can be stunning. Here is a list of websites that utilize background videos. There are clothing sites, bev...
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Social Media
17 Social Media Cheat Sheets
October 15, 2012 • Sig Ueland
These days, small businesses use a variety of social media sites in their marketing efforts. Cheat sheets are a helpful way to keep the functionality of each site straight. Here is a list of cheat sheets for the major social media sites. There are infographic tools to identify keyboard...
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Design & Dev Tools
29 New Tools to Develop Your Site
October 9, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Website owners interested in developing their sites can always find a variety of new resources online. Here is a collection of recent tools to develop your site. There are resources to monitor activity, such as backlinks, downtime, and customer behavior. There are wireframe and mockup...
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Typography & Fonts
17 Typography Resources
October 1, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Your customers spend time looking at your site's text, so you'd better make sure your fonts look the way you want. Here is a list of typography resources and tools. There are sites to purchase fonts and access free fonts, typography resources to inspire your design, CSS tools to style ...