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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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Customer Service
13 Customer Service Mobile Apps
February 11, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Supporting your ecommerce site does not mean you have to be chained to your desktop computer. There are a number of mobile solutions for offering customer support on the go. Here is a list of applications for providing customer support from a mobile device. There are full customer serv...
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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 ...
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Social Media
Top 20 Viral Marketing Videos
September 18, 2012 • Sig Ueland
If you want to find brand videos having an impact, follow what's being shared. Here is a list of the top 20 shared marketing videos over the last thirty days. Included in this list are non-profit organizations, political campaign videos, and an education documentary. This information...
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Platforms & Apps
18 Gmail Productivity Plugins
September 11, 2012 • Sig Ueland
The right plugin can transform Gmail from a standard email program into a productivity powerhouse, capable of managing your communications and professional networks. Here is a list of productivity plugins for Gmail. There are plugins to schedule emails, track correspondence, manage so...
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Social Media
10 Brand Campaigns on Twitter
September 5, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Twitter is about what’s happening right now. For companies, Twitter can be an effective platform to reach and to interact with an audience. Here is a list of brand campaigns on Twitter. Some of these campaigns use Twitter to deliver rewards to customers. Other campaigns use Twitter to ...
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Platforms & Apps
17 Ecommerce Themes for OpenCart
August 20, 2012 • Sig Ueland
OpenCart is an open-source shopping cart system that is feature-rich and user-friendly, with a large variety of payment gateways and shipping method integrations. OpenCart features many high-quality ecommerce themes to ...
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Social Media
34 People to Follow on Google+
August 14, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Google+ is one year old. While the social network has not achieved the critical mass of Facebook or Twitter, Google+ hosts a large and engaged community that includes entrepreneurial giants, tech visionaries and social media super-stars. Here is a list of people to follow on Google+. E...
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Platforms & Apps
16 Responsive Ecommerce Themes on WordPress
August 6, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Responsive design allows a business to reach computers, tablets and smartphones from a single website. Here is a list of responsive themes on WordPress for ecommerce sites. Many of these themes are designed to be used with specific ecommerce plugins. All are premium themes, though r...
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Schools & Resources
16 New QR Code Campaigns in 2012
July 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Quick Response (QR) codes continue to appear in creative and inspired marketing promotions. Companies are finding new uses for the codes, as well as new ways to display them. Here is a list of new QR code campaigns in 2012. Some of the QR examples are remarkably inventive, such as Ema...
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Schools & Resources
16 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2012
July 16, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Working on your summer reading list? Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2012. There are new titles on social media, handcrafted Pinterest businesses, search engine optimization, and even a title on creating short product videos. This list was compil...
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Social Media
20 Top Brands on Socialcam
July 9, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Socialcam is a free video-sharing platform for iOS and Android. Socialcam creates fast and easy clip sharing in the same way that Instagram makes mobile photos instantly sharable. Brands are using the platform to share their stories, as well as deliver engaging entertainment. Here are ...
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Social Media
12 Resources for Custom Facebook Pages
July 3, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Facebook has a whole lot of people to introduce your brand to. It also has a variety of third-party resources to create custom tabs and pages to present your brand. Here is a list of resources to create custom tabs and pages for your brand. Many of these resources offer social apps to...
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SEO Tools
12 Free Google SEO Tools
June 13, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Before you spend any money on a search-engine-optimization campaign for your website, take advantage of Google’s free tools to optimize your site and increase its PageRank. And if you are just starting out with SEO, check out Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide PDF. Here ...
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Link Building
17 Tools to Analyze Your Links
June 6, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Monitoring your inbound links is a great way to gauge the progress of your website. Inbound links, or backlinks, give you a picture of who is taking an interest in your site. Compare your inbound links to those of your competing websites, and discover new relationships to build. Here ...
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Social Media
18 Tools to Develop Your Brand on Facebook
May 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland
If you’re look for a place to develop your brand, Facebook is the spot. With over 500 million daily active users, it’s a great platform on which to engage followers and promote yourself. It’s also an ideal environment to monitor how successful you are at engaging and promoting. Here is...
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Marketing & Advertising
23 Tools to Research Your Competition
May 16, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Sometimes the best way to improve your own business is by taking a hard look at your competitors. By understanding their most and least effective strategies, you can fine-tune your own marketing efforts. Here is a list of competitive research tools. There are tools to research your com...
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Social Media
20 Most-Shared Marketing Videos
May 7, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Online viewers share compelling content. A marketing video that makes an impact can go viral, whether the video is funny, sad, inspiring, or cheaply produced. Here is a list of the most-shared marketing videos, based on the amount of times content is shared on Facebook, Twitter and in ...
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Social Media
23 Twitter Chats for Small Businesses
April 16, 2012 • Sig Ueland
One of the best ways to harness Twitter is by participating in chats, scheduled hashtag discussions that focus on specific topics. Small businesses can utilize chats to develop a social media plan, discuss brand strategy, and take advantage of free legal advice. Here is a list of chats...