Page 274 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Design & Development
Control Panels Simplify Tasks

July 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Every website needs to be hosted somewhere, and every web developer will need access to the hosting server in order to perform tasks such as setting up email accounts, managing databases and creating FTP (file transfer protocol) accounts. Since most websites are hosted with a third-part...
Business
Givens Books Partners with AbeBooks.com

July 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

When most of us think about an ecommerce website, we think of a place with pictures and descriptions of inventory, which a shopper can toss into a virtual shopping cart and buy with a mouse click. With the advent of portals such as Abebooks.com, there are esellers who don’t have carts. ...
Design & Development
Tech Support – July 2006

July 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Question: I’m contemplating either DSL, cable or a T-1 line for my business. How can I determine which Internet connection is best for my company? Brian Getting: While DSL, cable and T-1 lines all provide a high-speed, "always on" connection to the Internet, they differ in both the co...
Design & Development
Tech Support: June 2006

July 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Question: What’s the difference between a web server and an email server? Brian Getting: In this case, both the web server and the email server are software packages that provide services, rather than referring to a hardware server that is running these applications. Web server sof...
SEO
SEO: Blogging Your Way To The Top

July 1, 2006 • Stephan Spencer

Search engines, Google in particular, seem to love blogs. This is in part due to the fact that search engines rely heavily on links for their ranking algorithms, and the blogosphere is rich with interlinkages. Bloggers constantly link to each other - through "hat tips," "blogrolls," "tr...
Conversion
Attracting The Right Traffic

July 1, 2006 • Kevin Gold

Gaining just one percent more sales or leads from your visitors can significantly impact your bottom line, yet the common practice of improving website conversion often focuses exclusively on redesigning and optimizing your website. Website conversion — the process of turning website v...
Conversion
Personalization Lures Customers

June 11, 2006 • PEC Staff

Everyone likes the personal touch, and these sites offer their customers the ability to personalize unique gifts for friends and loved ones. Creative, personalized gifts and speedy service will lure their customers back. PhotoWow.com Ordinary snaps can be turned into treasures with th...
Business
What’s Selling, What’s Hot and How to Find It

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Are you searching for the next trendy gadget to sell at your online store? Many people are looking to catch lightning in a bottle, but locating trends in the marketplace requires thought, research and analysis. Find Clues to New Trends There are resources for online entrepreneurs who ...
Conversion
Itching to Expand Your Product Niche?

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

After years of tinkering in his woodshop making bird houses, Bob said to himself, “I ought to be selling these bird houses on the web.” After construting a quick website, Bob is open for business, and, before long, Bob could be itching to expand his online inventory. It’s no secret tha...
Business
Product Sourcing: What Not to Do

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

One thing an entrepreneur shouldn’t do is search online for “wholesale supplier” or “drop ship” when trying to locate a wholesale partner. This is according to Chris Malta, founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. “You can look online all you want to,” said Malta, “but you won’t find ...
Business
Drop Shipping: Pros and Cons

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Drop shipping remains a hot topic among etailers but, even though it has many benefits, it isn’t the best option for every business. A drop shipper is a product supplier who is willing to ship individual orders. Usually when products are purchased for resale, you have to buy them in bu...
Design & Development
RSS Can Help Your eCommerce Business

June 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Last month we introduced the technology commonly called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and explained how it is being used to distribute online content. This month we will look at how ecommerce business owners can use RSS to improve their online presence. Announcements RSS is a syndic...
Product Pages
Show Off Your Products

June 1, 2006 • Pamela Hazelton

I just got my email alert on the latest kitchen styles from IKEA. The site’s not the easiest to shop – mostly because you really have to know what you’re looking for – but it boasts a vast amount of interactive tools. People like me (I do an enormous amount of shopping online) love seei...
Business
Privacy Policies

June 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Even at the turn of the 17th century, Francis Bacon had it right: knowledge is power. Today, we are in the midst of the information age and, in relation to customer management and relationships, in the beginning stages of an age of invention. The challenges of managing your business inc...
Conversion
Are You an Ego Marketer?

June 1, 2006 • Mat Greenfield

Ego or Effective? Good marketing communicates your unique value to your target market. It builds recognition and credibility for your products and services and creates a steady flow of interested prospects and new customers. Ego marketing makes you feel good at the expense of effective...
Design & Dev Tools
Tools of the Trade

June 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

Welcome to our first installment of “Programming Notes,” a column designed to help novice web designers and developers with some of the challenges that they may face. Creating and maintaining a website requires someone to be familiar with graphic design, computer programming, server adm...
Conversion
Grow Profits by Split-Testing Ads

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Successful business owners and marketing professionals know that great results from advertising are rarely owed to luck and guessing. Whether they specialize in online or offline promotion, they have known for years that the secret to achieving high return of investment is through split...
Business
Quick Query: ProStores’ Julian Green

June 1, 2006 • Kerry Murdock

In January 2005, eBay Inc. purchased Kurant’s StoreSense, an online ecommerce provider. Using Kurant’s technology, eBay subsequently launched ProStores, an ecommerce solution for small to medium-sized merchants. ProStores has since signed up “tens of thousands” of online merchants. Juli...
SEO
Black Hat SEO

June 1, 2006 • Stephan Spencer

Search engine spammers – also known as “black hatters” – never prosper. Sooner or later, they get caught. And when they do, it’s almost never pretty.
Business
BuySafe.com Founder Steve Woda

May 31, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

For every person who shops on the Internet, there are hundreds of others who don’t – who won’t. They don’t want to. They feel, with some justification, that doing so would lead to the nightmares...
Business
Sourcing Options for eCommerce Firms

May 31, 2006 • PEC Staff

Finding products to sell remains one of the hottest topics for online entrepreneurs, and it’s the top question eBay Radio gets from its listeners, according to Chris Malta, Product Sourcing Editor for The eBay Radio Show and Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. Malta defines produc...
Business
Clear Block! TracksideSales.com Rides The Mainline

May 31, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

Clear Block is a railroad signal, indicating that the block of track ahead is clear and no train wrecks are in the offing. Joe Derouin, a 48-year-old who loves trains, dreamed of being in the model-railroad business. He got the “clear block” call from his wife Jeanne almost eight years ...
Design & Development
Robust International Market for Stolen Credit-Card Numbers

May 30, 2006 • Kerry Murdock

Think of it as sort-of a smorgasbord. For one dollar, a thief can purchase a stolen credit card number. He could buy it from another thief in one of hundreds of online, international chat-rooms set-up for that purpose. For three dollars, he could buy the credit card number with the thre...
SEO
SEO Report Card: As-Seen-on-TV-Store-1.com

May 30, 2006 • Stephan Spencer

Even though I’ve received dozens of requests for site gradings, this month I’ve decided to pick a site that didn’t ask for it. Why? Because this month I’m going to air some poor, unsuspecting black-hat SEO’s dirty laundry in order that you might learn from their mistakes and indiscretio...
Conversion
Consider a Catalog to Enhance Your eCommerce Business

May 30, 2006 • PEC Staff

A print catalog and an ecommerce store work extremely well together. The strengths in each channel complement the other’s weaknesses, and consumers frequently browse the catalog first and then go online to purchase the products. The tangible nature of a print catalog makes it great for...
Business
Web Hosting: Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst

May 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Last month we discussed web development agreements. Next question: Who is going to host your site? My advice is to know whom you are dealing with, and then make sure that if something goes wrong you have an exit strategy. In other words, do your due diligence. Then hope for the best and...
Inventory
Quick Query: Jeremy Hanks of Doba

May 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Jeremy Hanks, founder of Doba, a product sourcing provider, introduces the company and its benefits to ecommerce merchants.
Conversion
Website Conversion – Revisited

May 1, 2006 • Mat Greenfield

For those of you new to the concept of web conversion, I thought that it might be useful to address some of the key ideas around this strategy. What is Conversion? A website is a corporate resource, and like any other resource, it should provide a return on investment. That return sho...
Design & Development
Tech Support: May 2006

May 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

What is “keyword density” and how does it affect me? Keyword density is a phrase that is used to describe how relevant a keyword “topic” is to text on a web page. Keyword density is measured in much the same way that normal density is measured- by comparing the number of times a keywor...
Checkout Tactics
Giving Them What They Want

May 1, 2006 • Pamela Hazelton

Listen to your customers. Part of my job is to rip online stores apart and present solutions, all focused on existing and potential customers. It still shocks me to see so many online businesses implement bad ideas because the head honcho thinks something is “good”, without ever asking...