Staffing Archives

How to Find (Great) Ecommerce Employees

June 10, 2018 • Armando Roggio

You’re hiring. Your ecommerce operation is growing. You need help. But how do you find that just-right person for your company? I recently had hiring opportunities. I added five roles to ...

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When Hiring an SEO Pro, Look for These 11 Skills

March 14, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

Hiring a search engine optimization professional is challenging. It’s relatively easy for a would-be practitioner to portray “book-learning” as actual, on-the-job experience. But I’m a firm believer in the importance of soft skills — personal qualities that enable someone to work well in a role with others — in hiring a quality SEO pro.

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For SEO, Better to Hire an Agency or an Employee?

December 8, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

The decision to hire in-house search engine optimization talent or to contract with an agency is not easy. Consider these points when deciding for your company. In-house SEO In-house advantages stem primarily ...

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How to Hire for Ecommerce SEO

August 6, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

One of the hardest parts of search engine optimization is finding the right professional to manage it. Since there are no universal SEO accreditations, hiring comes down to a resumé

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6 Tips for Managing an SEO Team

June 23, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

Whether your search engine optimization team is in-house or at an agency, staying in touch with what they’re working on is critical. A team left to their own devices may ...

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5 Reasons to Hire Remote Workers

April 28, 2017 • Armando Roggio

Your ecommerce business is growing. You need developers, marketers, and customer service representatives. But how do you find the best employees? It’s simple: hire remote workers. Often ecommerce businesses start small.

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7 Signs Your SEO Agency Isn’t Working for You

December 23, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Do you wonder whether you’re really getting your money’s worth from your search engine optimization agency? It’s one of the biggest concerns with contracting any agency. These seven signs will ...

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How to Hire an SEO Pro, for Ecommerce

December 4, 2015 • Jill Kocher Brown

Hiring search engine optimization professionals is tricky. SEO requires a rare combination of business, marketing, creative, and technical skills. For an ecommerce business, where a significant portion of customer acquisition ...

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U.S. Puts Short Leash on Independent Contractor Status

September 20, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

Independent contractor or employee? It is a question that most business owners face as they grow from being self-reliant to needing help. Initially, many business owners choose to classify individuals ...

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How to Hire an Ecommerce Consultant in 2015

January 26, 2015 • Armando Roggio

An ecommerce consultant can bring insights, information, and expertise that a small or mid-sized retail business doesn’t have. But hiring an ecommerce consultant can be relatively expensive, so you’ll want ...

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10 Tools to Research Ecommerce Employee Pay

August 4, 2014 • Sig Ueland

You’ve grown your ecommerce business so much that now you need full-time employees. But how much should you pay your new employees? Here is a list of tools and resources to ...

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Executive Compensation at 13 Ecommerce Companies

June 30, 2014 • Sig Ueland

If you’re interested in salary levels at public ecommerce companies, you can locate compensation information at the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Federal securities laws require public companies to provide clear disclosure about compensation paid to CEOs, CFO

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Nonprofit Organizations: Employee Training Key

June 2, 2014 • Cathy Qori

All too often in the nonprofit world, budget constraints force organizations to make hard choices between funding programs and training employees. Important charity rating services like GuideStar.org and CharityNavigator.org weigh their evaluations heavily against high levels of “administrative spending,” and unfortunately employee training falls in this category.

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How to Hire Holiday Ecommerce Help

November 15, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Booming holiday sales require online retailers to pack and ship more orders, respond to more chat sessions, emails and calls, and closely manage marketing campaigns like pay-per-click advertising or promotional ...

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5 Considerations for Choosing a Developer or Designer

June 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Software developers and website designers can be an extension of your online store’s marketing and branding team since these professionals have a significant amount of influence over how your ecommerce site looks and functions. Choosing an individual freelancer or agency to do design o...

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Outsourcing v. Hiring In-house: Pros and Cons

August 22, 2012 • Dale Traxler

Looking back at my 10-years of managing a growing ecommerce business, I realize that online retailing is not simple. It requires many specialized skills and resources to succeed. I've listed some of these, below. Website design and development. A moving target, with new releases, d...

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How to Hire an Affiliate Manager

June 28, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet

Online retailers frequently ask me, “How much time am I going to need to run an affiliate marketing program?” Larger companies often employ an internal, full-time, dedicated marketing manager who focuses her attention on growing the affiliate program. However, for smaller companies, t...

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10 Tips to Hire a Great SEO Agency

January 10, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

Staying on top of search engine optimization requires time and effort that many small businesses can’t afford in-house. One obvious solution is to turn to an agency. But which ones can be trusted and which will under deliver and overcharge? Before just picking the number one result in a...

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Try Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for Inexpensive Labor

January 9, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowd-sourcing marketplace has been online since November 2005 and serves as a way of getting humans to perform common, repeatable tasks that computers have not yet mastered. For ecommerce, the Mechanical Turk service can help produce product descriptions, sor...

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Crucial Skills for Ecommerce Entrepreneurs

April 28, 2011 • Armando Roggio

What does it take to be a successful ecommerce entrepreneur? The answer might surprise you. If you did a quick search for "crucial small business skills" or "must have entrepreneurial skills" in your favorite search engine, you would find dozens of articles each offering their own spin...

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Ecommerce Know-how: Selecting a Search Engine Optimizer

August 3, 2009 • Armando Roggio

A steady flow of organic search engine traffic can be the difference between a successful ecommerce business and a failed one. Thus choosing a professional to help optimize your online store is a critical business decision. But how will you decide which SEO professional to hire? But how will you decide wh...

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Ecommerce Know-How: Selecting a Web Designer or Developer

March 31, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Often with ecommerce sites success is not a matter of how good you are but rather how good you look. Consumers often judge how professional and how trustworthy an online store is by nothing more than its aesthetics. While many online retailers are experts in their field (i.e., apparel,...

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When Is It Time To Hire A Call Center?

April 30, 2007 • PEC Staff

More business is a good thing, but it creates challenges: A backlog of tasks, costly space and equipment demands and, frequently, a phone that won’t stop ringing. Many ecommerce business owners turn to customer call centers for help. That was the case for Revival Animal Health of Orang...

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Tips To Hire The Right Website Designer

March 5, 2007 • PEC Staff

Websites don't just build themselves. The conundrum for the small business owner is that there is a host of choices as you establish an online presence. The decisions are important: They'll determine the online business activity that comes with the new sales channel and, of course, the ...