Page 262 – Practical Ecommerce

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Code
Video Tutorial: JavaScript Tooltips

September 27, 2007 • Brian Getting

You've probably seen those useful "tooltips" text boxes that are displayed on some websites when you roll over a specific link or graphic. These typically serve several purposes. Most likely, your customers or visitors could benefit from additional information that doesn't warrant an ...
Conversion
Usability Report Card: Babyplanetboutique.com

September 26, 2007 • Richard Kerr

Canadian-based Babyplanetboutique.com strives to provide parents with unique, useful baby products at affordable prices. The site’s owner Danielle Burgi is a nominee for Savvymom Mompreneur of the Year. An impending upgrade to the site, coupled with a new shopping cart system, which wil...
Design & Dev Tools
Nine Simple Ways To Speed Up Tedious Tasks

September 24, 2007 • Pamela Hazelton

Because I’m all about automation of the tedious of tasks, this month I’m offering up some key, yet very simple ways, to speed up tasks you’ve probably never given much thought to. While it may take me time to figure it out, I always try to tackle the pesky mundane tasks first. Auto-l...
Business
Callahan Is Joined By Betterphoto.com’s Jim Miotke, Part 3

September 21, 2007 • PEC Staff

Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke continues his discussion of the intricacies of product photography.
Business
No Fear For Blinds.com

September 19, 2007 • Michael A. Cox

Jay Steinfeld can’t really tell you where his core values came from. Maybe it was instinctive. Maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, as the years went by, three core values in particular became more and more what drove him in life and in business. Steinfeld: I wanted to be a pioneer, a leade...
Business
Bloglist: Jakob Nielsen

September 17, 2007 • PEC Staff

In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked the Nielsen Norman Group’s Jakob Nielsen, whom The New York Times has called the guru of web page usability. Paidcontent.org Daily coverage of “the business of content,” as ...
Conversion
Google AdWords: Get ‘Em Where You Want ‘Em

September 17, 2007 • Mat Greenfield

In the good old days (when Overture was the only paid search vendor) it was easy. Just bid one cent higher than the other guy, and get into position one, or two, or six, or whatever you wanted. Then Google came along. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Google is an extraordinary adverti...
Business
Callahan Is Joined By Betterphoto.com’s Jim Miotke, Part 2

September 13, 2007 • PEC Staff

Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke discusses the intricacies of product photography.
Conversion
Quantifying Conversion Funnel Opportunities

September 12, 2007 • PEC Staff

In my last article, I discussed the practice of breaking the ecommerce conversion funnel down into four distinct transition points to help establish benchmarks and to locate and isolate the greatest opportunities for profitable improvement. Measuring these transition points is a valuabl...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Beachaudio.com

September 12, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Ranked 359 in the Internet Retailer 500, and boasting over 45,000 products in its catalog and 151,000 pages in Google, Beach Audio has a lot of grunt. According to Troy McKinnon, their director of ecommerce, Beach Audio did a complete search engine optimization overhaul using in-house s...
Design & Development
TechSupport: "What's A Relational Database?"

September 10, 2007 • Brian Getting

Q: Our web developer tells us that our ecommerce site uses a relational database, but I don't understand what this means. Could you please explain? At the foundation of nearly all web applications, including dynamically-generated websites, lies a relational database that stores and man...
Business
Quick Query: Avalara Founder Rory Rawlings

September 10, 2007 • PEC Staff

Rory Rawlings is the founder and chief tax automation officer of Avalara, Inc., a Washington-based firm that provides sales-tax-compliance applications for ecommerce merchants. PeC: Avalara helps ecommerce firms manage sales tax compliance. Could you explain? Rawlings: There are ove...
Business
Betterphoto.com’s Jim Miotke

September 7, 2007 • PEC Staff

Callahan is joined by Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke. The two discuss the latest in photography, including tips and tricks for product photography.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization And Web 2.0

September 6, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

That well-used buzzword "Web 2.0" encompasses a number of technologies, including blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, tagging/folksonomies, podcasts, widgets, AJAX and Flash. Some of these technologies are a net positive for your search engine visibility and some are a net negative.  Blogs and RSS...
Business
Sunfitters.com's Bill Mirabito

September 4, 2007 • PEC Staff

Launching a business takes a tremendous amount of planning and research, but launching a multichannel endeavor within a 12-month period can provide a unique set of challenges. Bill Mirabito, founder and president of Sunfitters, has done just that. In November 2006, the company launched...
Design & Development
Programming Notes: Transferring A Domain Name

September 3, 2007 • Brian Getting

The process of transferring a domain name from one registrar to another can be daunting, and the exact process can vary slightly depending on the registrars involved. The first thing to do is to log into the old registrar, where the domain is currently being managed, and make sure the...
Marketing & Advertising
Google AdWords: Structure For Success

September 3, 2007 • Mat Greenfield

As I work with many companies to improve and refine their conversion rate from paid search efforts such as Google AdWords, I have noticed a general misunderstanding about how the structural elements of Campaigns vs. Ad Groups should be used. Correctly structuring your Google account al...
SEO
SEO: Heads or (Long) Tails?

August 29, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Search engine optimizing for the "Long Tail" is fundamentally different from optimizing for the head. Therefore, it’s important to initially point out that the strategies and tactics for “Long Tail” SEO are more automated and extensible than for traditional SEO. What is "Long Tail?" ...
Conversion
Product Spotlight: Photo Editing, AudioFlash And More

August 28, 2007 • PEC Staff

Web-based Photo Editing Picnik is a web-based photo editing service that is accessed through your computer's browser. Users can quickly fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye or apply effects to photos. Minimum hardware requirements are Microsoft Windows XP or Mac OS X, with a 1GHz pr...
Platforms & Apps
Debate: Hosted Shopping Carts ‘Perfect For Most Entrepreneurs’

August 27, 2007 • PEC Staff

1ShoppingCart is a hosted shopping cart with thousands of small business customers. Michael Valiant, 1ShoppingCart's product management and marketing specialist, offers his views on hosted cart solutions. PeC: Why should an ecommerce business consider a hosted shopping cart, versus pu...
Platforms & Apps
Debate: Licensed Carts Offer Flexibility and Portability

August 27, 2007 • PEC Staff

ProductCart is a licensed shopping cart used by thousands of ecommerce merchants. We asked its CEO, Massimo Arrigoni, whether licensed shopping-cart software is better for smaller businesses than hosted cart solutions. PeC: Why should an ecommerce business consider a licensed shopping...
Conversion
Actively Promote The Nuances Of Your Website

August 27, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

Many Internet-generated prospects need to be told why they should take action on your website, and often times online businesses don’t spend enough time on this issue — essentially generating fewer sales for the same cost of traffic. Below are some tips on how to get more bang for your ...
Business
Insider Hosting’s CEO Steve Mizrahie

August 22, 2007 • PEC Staff

Callahan is joined by Insider Hosting’s CEO, Steve Mizrahie.
Business
GuardedID’s George Waller

August 22, 2007 • PEC Staff

There are so many ways for thieves to steal identities that it's hard to keep up with it all. Take, for example, keylogging. This occurs when thieves track the keystrokes of unsuspecting Internet users via surveillance software, called a keylogger recorder. If a thief can successfully i...
Design & Development
Web Hosting Companies: Sources To Help You Choose

August 22, 2007 • Pat Callahan

When it comes to selecting a web host, there’s a lot to choose from. It’s possible your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may have its own web hosting capabilities, and it’s not a bad place to start. However, more than likely you’ll need an independent host that can specifically address y...
Conversion
Five Ways To Prepare Your Website For Universal Search

August 20, 2007 • PEC Staff

The way Google handles search is changing. You may not have heard of universal search yet, but it is going to affect the way your website and your company show up in search engine results, at least for Google. You may have noticed that pictures, videos and even press releases are showin...
Business
The Law Of Data And Information Security

August 20, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

I don’t need to recite the many security breaches that have led to major financial losses for companies over the past twelve months. Every business should already know the risks of leaving credit card and account information exposed. Basically, the risk is total loss of your business, a...
Design & Development
Catalogs Can Complement An eCommerce Site

August 19, 2007 • Pat Callahan

As ecommerce businesses begin to grow, a dilemma some may face is the decision of whether a catalog is an appropriate multichannel tool. Latienda.com, which sells a variety of items not generally available outside of Spain, was faced with just such a predicament six years ago. And int...
Conversion
Google’s Personalized Search

August 18, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

With the launch of Google’s personalized search every user will now get search results tailored to his/her specific interests. More specifically, the algorithm will actually be taking into account what you've previously searched for on Google, as well as the sites you have visited i...
Conversion
Usability Report Card: Arenaflowers.com

August 17, 2007 • Richard Kerr

Arenaflowers.com is a United Kingdom based website that primarily sells fresh flowers. On the verge of its one year anniversary, the ebusiness wanted to get an external perspective on how its website was doing. Homepage Clarity Arena Flowers’ home page does a good job of stating its...