Dr. Ralph F. Wilson - Practical Ecommerce

Articles by: Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

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Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Doctor Ebiz® (pronounced "Doctor EE-biz") identifies Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, one of the pioneers of Internet marketing and e-business. He is widely recognized as one of the top international authorities in web marketing and ecommerce. From 1995 to 2012 he served as editor of Web Marketing Today, which Practical Ecommerce acquired.

DoctorEbiz website. >

Social Media
The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing

May 5, 2018 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.
Design & Development
How to Generate Phone Calls from PPC Ads

May 10, 2012 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

In this interview, Internet marketing expert Joseph Kerschbaum explains how phone ads work, that display phone numbers -- and allow customers to click to call — in a PPC ad.
Conversion
Dr. Ralph Wilson Announces Sale of Web Marketing Today

April 23, 2012 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, creator and long-time editor of industry-leading e-zine Web Marketing Today, today announced the sale of this historical website and newsletter, effective May 1, 2012, to e-commerce publishers Kerry and Joy Murdock of Practical eCommerce.
Marketing & Advertising
8 Steps to Developing Ad Revenue from Your Website

November 1, 2011 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

There are three primary ways to monetize (that is, generate revenue from) a website. Ecommerce . Receive profits from direct sales of products or services.Affiliate marketing. Receive referral fees from merchants when a product or service you linked to results in a sale as a result of your link.
Design & Development
12 Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make

February 19, 2011 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

You may be on your first website. But more likely you're faced with redesigning a website that isn't functioning as well as it should. I see 12 vital decisions involved with developing a website, and I want to explain them with you in mind:
Conversion
Spam, Spam Bots, and Double Opt-in E-mail Lists

April 21, 2010 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

It's hard to grow an e-mail list these days. People, wary of getting tons of unwanted e-mail, just don't subscribe as freely as they did in days of yore. And then there are evil spam-bots.
Conversion
Using Banner Ads to Promote Your Website

March 31, 2009 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

We are in a period when banner advertising seems to be on the wane. You know, those rectangular boxes on commercial sites.
Conversion
How to Select a Great Domain Name for Your Company

February 17, 2009 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

A good domain name is relatively short. A short name -- if you can get it -- is important for several reasons. It is easy to fit into logos, makes a better brand, is more easily recognizable, and is harder to misspell.
Conversion
An Analytics Consulting Model for Small Businesses

May 28, 2007 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Nearly all small businesses have a measurement system in place for their website (though too many aren't aware of the analytics data available from their web hosting service for no additional cost).
Conversion
Top 25 Article Directories and Free Content Sites Ranked by Alexa and PageRank

May 7, 2007 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

If you're trying to publish a regular email newsletter for your customers, I have good news. There's a wealth of content out there that you can use for free — poor, average, good, and occasionally excellent. Why is this content offered free of charge?
Conversion
Why the Fishing Lure Won’t Reel in Much Online Profit

January 16, 2007 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

"I invented and patented a fishing lure (the "Bottom Banger") about five years ago. I have tried to sell it online, but every time I try I fail. I have a video showing the lure in action and I do sell them in the local bait shops for $1.99. Can you steer me in a direction that will make this take off?" -- Greg Amsler
Design & Development
Should you consider a .ws domain?

October 4, 2006 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

"Exploding" is marketer's hype, perhaps to press full advantage out of GDI's multi-tier affiliate marketing structure (5 levels), "with the potential to earn commissions on unlimited levels as a GDI Master Affiliate."
Platforms & Apps
How Does Shopping Cart Software Work?

January 15, 2004 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Just what is a shopping cart? It's a term that has come to mean either an online ordering system (separate from your regular website). Usually these supply HTML code for "order buttons" that you can paste into pages on your regular website.
Email Marketing
Words and Phrases that Trigger Some Spam Filters

December 3, 2002 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

I built this list of some 250 words and phrases from two spam filter lists. It is not complete. I have left out porn trigger words. Most spam filters work on a point system, so that the occurrence of just one "spam phrase" probably won't trigger rejection -- except some which the filter considers notorious.
Code
HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study

March 1, 2001 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

In February 2001 my Doctor Ebiz readers patiently answered survey after survey to help me determine what they considered the most readable fonts and sizes for HTML e-mail. While this may come as no surprise to you, it is causing me to change my standards.
Conversion
Crucial Differences between Retailing and E-Tailing

December 15, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

The retail business model that is practiced in thousands of shops and strip malls in cities all over the world is widely understood. However, many fail to understand that the Internet e-tail business model is substantially different. Some of these differences are obvious, while others only become clear later -- sometimes when it is difficult to respond to them.
Conversion
How to Purchase Banner Ad Space

July 1, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Just how do you go about purchasing banner advertising space? Here are your alternatives.
Conversion
The Eight Essential Types of Internet Promotion

June 12, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Sometimes your head can be so abuzz with all these Internet marketing details that you feel overwhelmed. You don't know where to start. You can't see the forest for the trees. While there is a lot of depth to be understood, I think that Internet promotion can be distilled down to eight essential types.
Conversion
Distribution Decisions: Drop-Shipping vs. Inventory vs. Fulfillment House

June 3, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

"Internet product sales are easy," said Bob Simple, when he first set up Bob Simple's Online Shoes. Now he's not so sure. He had found three quality shoe manufacturers who agreed to ship shoes to his customers as soon as he faxed them the order."
Conversion
How Retail Differs from Wholesale and B2C Differs from B2B

June 3, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

When it comes to e-commerce, sometimes our normal terms become inadequate. Here are some definitions: retail, wholesale, business-to-business, and business-to-consumer.
Conversion
P4: Pricing Strategy as Part of Your Internet Marketing Plan

May 9, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

When you go down to your local grocery store, you'll probably find Jif® peanut butter, and maybe Planter's®, and then perhaps a store brand, and possibly a generic brand (though generics are pretty well gone).
Conversion
The 4 Ps of Marketing as Part of your Internet Marketing Plan

May 2, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

If you've studied marketing in the 40+ years since E. Jerome McCarthy originally wrote his classic Basic Marketing, then you're familiar with the "4 Ps of Marketing."
Design & Development
Setting Newsletter Ad Rates

March 15, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

"How much should I charge for ads in my e-mail newsletter, especially a narrowly-targeted newsletter where it's pretty obvious who the interested advertisers would be." -- Charlie Darling
Conversion
Doing a SWOT Analysis for Your Internet Marketing Plan

March 14, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Restaurants ought to make bigger napkins since some of the most productive business ideas seem to come to mind over a meal. The SWOT analysis technique lends itself to napkin planning and snapshot insights.
Email Marketing
A Simple Way to Format HTML E-Mail Newsletters

January 1, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

I hesitate to provide a guide to formatting HTML e-mail for one reason: there's little else about this on the Web, and the article is likely to produce a torrent of phone calls and e-mail inquiring about further details.
Conversion
Dot.Com Countdown: 7 Steps to E-Business Launch

December 13, 1999 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Planning to start a new online business? I'm in the process myself, and thought it might be instructive to talk you through the seven steps necessary to launch an e-business. Since we're talking about a launch, we'll begin our countdown with step seven and end with the blast off.
Conversion
Review: Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping

November 15, 1999 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

The man is studying a narrow segment of modern anthropology, the science of shopping. The fieldwork methods are adapted from those of environmental psychology, Underhill's field when he began studying shopper behaviors 20 years ago for major retail chains.
Conversion
How Does an Affiliate Program Work?

October 1, 1999 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as ...
Analytics & Data
Collecting and Using Data from Your Website Visitors

July 1, 1998 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

To succeed, a small business website must be a carefully targeted, wisely designed, pay-its-own-way tool which adds to the bottom line. To achieve this you need to ask: What is the purpose of our Web site?
Conversion
What Is the Purpose of Your Web Site?

February 8, 1996 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

To succeed, a small business website must be a carefully targeted, wisely designed, pay-its-own-way tool which adds to the bottom line. To achieve this you need to ask: What is the purpose of our Web site?