As eCommerce and online sales revenues have grown over the past 15 years, so have the tools to develop, stock, and maintain an online store. Where once all online stores were developed as custom sites that had to be maintained by your web designer, today the most successful stores start with a full-featured eCommerce engine that is then customized by …
The Evolution of Online Stores, Part One
It was only about 15 years ago that most of us were wondering how anyone could make money with this new internet thing. The slow speed of dial-up access kept a regulator on the numbers of web users and what could be done online. But there were many who tried and some who were successful, surviving the “dot.com” bust of …
When is a Website Done?
Let’s say you’re going to get a brand new website. You might decide to create it yourself, hire your nephew, or have it built by a professional firm. (I know which of those three you should choose, but that’s for a different article.) Regardless of your choice, when will the website be done? On the due date, before the due …
Getting Customer Feedback
What kind of products, services, or information does your customer want? Are you regularly asking them? Sometimes getting your customers and prospects to open up about what they want is difficult at best. You call them up and they haven’t thought about it, so you don’t get good information. Or you send them a survey in the mail, it sits …
“Natural” Linking to Your Website?
When discussing methods of driving traffic to your website someone will undoubtedly say that you need to build “natural links” to your site. What are natural links? And is natural linking really natural? Let’s start by taking a look at what natural linking is. Basically it is linking to your site that occurs naturally. Duh, pretty straight forward. But consider …
Contact Info, Where?
I just went to a website and became very frustrated so I need to share this tip with you today. Here is the tip: put contact information in your calls-to-action within the text of your website! For example, if one of your paragraphs ends with “pick up the phone and call us right now” then you should make absolutely sure …
Drive Traffic with Your Corporate Blog
“Why don’t I get good website traffic?” “Is something wrong with my website?” “Do I have to spend more money?” “Is there something I can do that won’t cost much?” “I know that if people actually got to our website, it would sell for us.” Maybe you’ve had some of these thoughts regarding the poor performance of your own website. …
Solving a Form Security Issue
You may or may not realize that we develop websites and host them for our clients. What I’m about to tell you comes from that expertise. Over the past few months we’ve noticed a security issue that has become a major concern. If you have your own website, you should be aware that SPAM Bots and Form Bots have been …
List Building Club – Review
Whether your business is online or offline, virtual or brick and mortar, one of your biggest assets is your customer and prospect list. Don’t get me wrong, simply having a list does not create value. Copying names out of a phone book doesn’t create value. Buying a list from a list broker doesn’t create value. Having a list of people …
Writing Titles for Your Web Pages
Take a close look at the page titles on your website. To do this you need to examine the order of your words within the title. While your title may contain relevant information and keywords it may not be laid out in the best manner. The rule to follow is that the most relevant information should go first in a …