Page 257 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Design & Development
Interview: Ex-hacker Mitnick On Avoiding Fraudsters

March 31, 2008 • Michael A. Cox

You know that hidden bomb shtick in the movies? There's a bomb that's going to go off and kill a gazillion people. First, the good guys have to find it. Then they have to figure how to get into to it to disarm it. Then they almost have it disarmed when they discover a booby trap they ...
Business
Interview: ICANN Official On The Domain Name Infrastructure

March 26, 2008 • PEC Staff

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, or ICANN, coordinates the domain name system globally. ICANN was created in 1998 to perform various Internet administrative tasks previously done by a range of bodies including universities, private companies and the U.S. governme...
Code
Frameworks For Web Designers

March 26, 2008 • Brian Getting

I've written previously about frameworks and how they help developers build web applications. For the most part, my praise of frameworks has been directed at those of us who develop web applications, such as coding up the Ruby, Perl, PHP or .Net scripts that make applications work. Howe...
Business
Vertus President and CEO James Carr-Jones

March 26, 2008 • PEC Staff

Carr-Jones and Kerry Murdock talk about Bling! It, Vertus’ new photo-editing software designed to improve product photos.
Business
Bloglist: Eric Leuenberger

March 24, 2008 • PEC Staff

Name: Eric Leuenberger, Owner Company: Enhanced Concepts, Inc. In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Eric Leuenberger, ecommerce conversion expert and owner of Enhanced Concepts, Inc. Entrepreneurs-journey.com T...
Fraud Prevention
Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 2 of 3

March 24, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Chris Stump, Only Hamm...
Design & Development
Tech Support: Application Programming Interfaces

March 19, 2008 • Brian Getting

One of the most exciting trends on the Internet today is interconnectedness. Application programming interfaces (APIs) help make this possible. For example, if I have created a blog at WordPress, I can get a free key to use the API at Akismet, a comment-spam-prevention service. Addition...
Fraud Prevention
Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 1 of 3

March 19, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, MuttMart...
Marketing & Advertising
Interview: ‘Ask.com Search Results Are Different’

March 17, 2008 • PEC Staff

Interactive Corp., or IAC, owns many large Internet-based companies. These companies include Lendingtree.com, Realestate.com, Match.com and Ticketmaster.com. IAC also owns Ask.com, the search engine that competes with Google, Yahoo! and MSN. IAC's chairman, Barry Diller, is attempting ...
Social Media
Social Networking: Build Your Own Community

March 17, 2008 • Paul Chaney

There is not a day that goes by that I don't reflect on how to leverage social media, including social networks, for marketing purposes. I have tried a number of approaches, some of which have been successful and some of which have not. This month, I want to share an idea that I think h...
Conversion
Promotional Offers Can Create Prospects

March 12, 2008 • Mat Greenfield

For ecommerce websites, a sale is a desired outcome. However, in some cases, building a mailing list of interested prospects can also be very valuable. In this article, we'll discuss some of the principles for developing a compelling offer to get visitors to convert in a non-financial...
Conversion
Pay-per-click Report Card: Vxb.com

March 12, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

Vxb.com sells ball bearings of various types and sizes. The company is based in California and requested a review of its pay-per-click campaigns on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Vxb.com's monthly ad spend is around $9,000 in Google, $2,000 in Yahoo! and $150 in MSN. Average conversion rate (...
Business
Exporting Your Products: First Learn The Terminology

March 10, 2008 • Hal Selim

To sell products overseas, you will need to learn the international buying and selling terminology, also referred to as "Incoterms 2000" (or, International Commercial Terms). These were first developed in 1936 by the International Chamber of Commerce , which adopted 13 Incoterms to make...
Marketing & Advertising
SEO Report Card: Seenon.com

March 10, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

This month's report card website is Seenon.com, an ecommerce site that tracks the fashion tendencies of the famous and sells those garments and accoutrements to interested consumers. The site is pleasant to the eye and has an exciting, almost urgent feel to it, but how does it do in ter...
Conversion
Pay-per-click Ads Impact Google Checkout and PayPal

March 5, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

If you're running an ecommerce store, you've probably heard of PayPal and Google Checkout. The following is a quick rundown of things you might not have known about the two. Google Checkout You can process 10 times your ad spend in Google AdWords for free. For example, if you're spend...
Conversion
Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When

March 5, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

Last month I talked about blogging platforms and the value blogging can bring to ecommerce sites. When a website makes the decision to begin a blog and decides upon a blogging platform, it will then have to decide who will blog and how often. Time allotted to blogging is also a relative...
Design & Development
Pay-per-click Spyware and Other Scams

March 3, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

If you thought click fraud was bad, consider this: your Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing ads and Microsoft adCenter accounts are new targets for spyware applications, hackers and scam artists. If thieves obtain access to your pay-per-click account, they are in complete control o...
Conversion
Exporting Your Products: Do It Yourself or Hire an Exporting Firm?

March 3, 2008 • Hal Selim

Once you have conducted your market research and made the decision to export your products to foreign markets, you must devise an international sales and marketing strategy. Your initial obstacle will be determining which overseas markets have the most potential for selling your product...
Business
ADA And State Disability Laws

February 27, 2008 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

We are often asked about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is a reasonably strong argument, supported by court decisions, that a stand-alone business operating as a website with no physical presence may not be covered by the ADA. But without prolonged litigation...
Business
High Performer: Garyweeks.com, Handcrafted Furniture and Impressive Guarantee

February 27, 2008 • PEC Staff

Thirty miles southwest of Austin along the Blanco River is Wimberley, Texas. Population 3,797. Among those who call Wimberley home is one Gary Weeks. And if you make your way to West Spoke Hill Drive, you’ll come to a wooden sign that simply reads, “Gary Weeks & Company — Furniture ...
Business
Visual Bookshelf Taps Into Social Networking

February 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

For those who are regular visitors to Facebook, you may have come across an application called Visual Bookshelf. It allows Facebook users to show on their pages the books they are reading or have read, and each of the book’s titles link back to Amazon.com. Users can also create book rev...
Marketing & Advertising
Field Test: Social Networking, 3 of 3

February 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, Mut...
Business
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 3 of 3

February 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, Mut...
Business
AIG Insurance Vice President, Nancy Callahan

February 21, 2008 • PEC Staff

Join Mitch Bettis as he discusses ecommerce insurance with Nancy Callahan, Vice President of AIG Insurance.
Business
High Performer: Powerbookmedic.com Parts and Repairs For Mac Laptops

February 20, 2008 • PEC Staff

If you have laptop, and it’s a Mac, you may feel like Apple is the only place to turn for parts and repairs. But since 2002, Powerbookmedic.com has been offering an alternative. The site specializes in installations, repairs, parts, and service for many portable Apple devices. What star...
Marketing & Advertising
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 2 of 3

February 20, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, Mut...
Marketing & Advertising
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 1 of 3

February 18, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, Mut...
Business
High Performer: Pasty.com Sells Meal In A Crust

February 18, 2008 • PEC Staff

On Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula are two old copper mining communities — Kearsarge and Calumet. Calumet is home to Pasty Central, which operates a pasty kitchen in Kearsarge, the Pasty Central Express. Pasty Central is an employee-owned company, and its website, Pasty.com, has been onli...
Business
Bikewagon.com: From Classifieds To eBay To Its Own Website

February 13, 2008 • Pat Callahan

Dale Majors is passionate about cycling. So much so that in 1999, at age 16, he decided to take a chance with selling bicycle gear online. His original goal was simple: He was looking to upgrade his own cycling equipment and needed the money to do so. Like other young aspiring entrepren...
Business
Email Blacklists “Kind Of A Crazy Thing”

February 13, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Bob Frady is making his mark as vice president of direct marketing for LiveNation.com, a concert ticket mega-site based in Beverly Hills, Calif. With 26 million members, LiveNation’s emailed notices and newsletters bring in millions in ticket, CD and T-shirt sales. It’s Frady’s job to e...