eCommerce and Marketing News & Tips

Duplicated content - the Myth is busted by Google

Google has been on the warpath to dispel some of the rumors that have been circulating the net about...

Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part V

Posted in SEO News and Analysis February 2nd, 2010 by admin - Comments (1)

The primary purpose behind linkbaiting is self evident: you are trying to capture more links for the sake of exposure. But what are the other reasons? As a basic marketing strategy, there are several other primary purposes behind using linkbaiting to bring in traffic for your site. Each one is a way of building on the original purpose, and when you keep them all in mind you will be able to create better content for the sake of backlinks. If you don’t keep them all in mind, you will lose several key resources, which means wasted time, and lost profits.

Establish a Base Audience

There is nothing so precious to a webmaster or company than having a group of people dedicated to their website/product. Not only will this ensure a group of regular visitors, but it will lead to users spreading the word about you. They will tell friends, create links, and provide a crucial network beyond that of which is provided by affiliates and standard marketing.

What the New Small Business Plans Mean for You, the Business Owner

Posted in eCommerce January 31st, 2010 by admin - Comments (1)

As the economy slowly begins to bottom out, opening the way for improvement, there is one major point that seems to be being proven again and again: small businesses will be a major part of that recovery. Without an emphasis being placed on the smaller businesses that have suffered for years under the dominance of large (and often corrupt) banks and businesses, the job market will continue to slow, and the annual revenue will once again decline on a country-wide basis.

Because of this fact, those who watched President Obama’s address may have noticed that small businesses were a main focus of the direction of the way forward. Several plans have been put into play that will help small businesses once again prosper and become more focused in a new era of the job and business market. However, the opinions of how much these plans will help are mixed, with some feeling as though it will not be enough, and others saying that something is better than nothing. But what will it mean for you, the small business owner?

Exclude zenid query parameter from your Google Analytics to get better site reports

Posted in SEO Tips,Tips & Tricks January 31st, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

To track the customers and save their information, Zencart utilizes cookie and session. You will see Zencart usually automatically appends a random string to the end of your links on the very first page of your visit to your site.

For example, if you are not on your website now and you open it in a new window, you will the links look like this:

http://yourstore.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&zenid=asdsadlkadjlqwjdascdas

http://yourstore.com/index.php?main_page=specials&zenid=asdsadlkadjlqwjdascdas

If set up correctly, when you click on one of those links, on the next page load you will see all link appear without the zenid string. Also, if set up correctly, those links with zenid appended to them should never be displayed to search engine (check your settings under Admin-Configuration: Prevent spider sessions should be set to True).

However, that setting does not prevent zenid appears in some of your reports you get from Google Analytics however (assume that you use G.A). For example, if you check your “site overlay” you might be in for a surprise, most of your links might have a 0% click rate, and you know this cannot be true. If you look closer, however, you will discover that the zenid is in those links. This perhaps can be explained by 2 reasons:

1. Although zenid is never shown to search engine spiders, it does get shown to normal visitors for the reason given above.
2. In any case, the links with zenid are recorded by Google Analytics and since each customer is assigned a different zenid per visit session, the links then appear to be different links

http://yourstore.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&zenid=asdsadlkadjlqwjdascdas

http://yourstore.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&zenid=quheyiuahdkjasndkajoi

(from Google Analytics point of view, the 2 links above are totally different)

The cure to this is surprisingly easy. Google knows that some parameter(s) in your links should be ignored, and it allows you to do so by the Exclude query parameters setting which only takes a few minutes to do. For all Zencart store, zenid the one you MUST exclude, and depend on the customization you have done on your store you may decide to exclude some other params as well.

I hope this info will help you to use G.A more effectively in the future.

Basic HTML for startup business owners

Posted in Web design's Tips January 25th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

Do You Need to Know HTML for a Business Website?

If you are like me when I first start your business and you try to handle anything you can to save your money, or if you are in charge of editing content of the site (even with the assistance of those What You See Is What You Get WYSIWYG text editors), basic knowledge of HTML is a must.

I’m not going into great details regarding html code here, W3C is a great place for you to learn all that for FREE. Please have a look at that page, at least just skim through it to get the basic ideas of how website “work” in general.

Simple Seo Url + Zencart news

Posted in News & Discussion January 24th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

Recently some hosts have made a move to php 5.3x, this causes a bunch of problems for many Zencart store owners because ZC 1.3.8a and older versions of SSU are not compatible with php 5.3x.

If one day you find your website suddenly stops loading, first thing to do is to contact your host to see if they have made any recent changes on the server. If they upgraded to php 5.3x, you should go to Zencart and grab the patches for php 5.3x

For stores that are using SSU, we have also released a new version for SSU just a few hours ago which fixes compatibility issue with php 5.3x (this version also has some changes that should improve performance of SSU)

Please download new version on eazyecommerce.com
Please also upgrade module manager
Make sure you clear up SSU cache after upgrading

The Basic Principles of Branding

Posted in Marketing January 22nd, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

Branding is one of the most important elements to any business. Without a brand you cannot create customer loyalty, which will keep your profits from flourishing. It is more beneficial to keep a customer than to find ten new ones, which should show you just how crucial establishing a brand really is. It will also make you recognizable in a crowd, which will draw in new customers that will, in turn, become loyal shoppers of your product or service.

But it is one thing to know what branding is; it is another to know how to do it. The main thing is knowing the principles behind it, so you can begin creating a plan for marketing your business. Each one is another step that you have to check off before you know you are making the progress necessary to becoming a recognizable brand.

Business Basics: Going Green

Posted in eCommerce December 20th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

Going green. It is a term that has become increasingly popular since 2006, when Al Gore released his award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. Since then, a craze has taken off that is dedicated to creating a cleaner, more energy efficient world, and battling the phenomenon of global warming. There are still skeptics out there, and those that have believed from the beginning. Whichever category you fall into hardly matters; the benefits of going green as a small business speak for themselves.

The truth is, there a number of pros to becoming more environmentally conscious, both in terms of saving and making money. Companies that cater to a growing client base that is dedicated to frequenting eco-friendly businesses are becoming more popular than ever, and for the first time a large number of people will choose a business based partially on this ideal.

greenideas

Business Basics: Is My Business Going to Work?

Posted in eCommerce December 14th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

Alright, so you have your business ideas, your business plans, your target audience, your niche, advertising campaigns worked out…it is all coming together. But before you invest your money and launch into a new business venture, there is one thing you may want to know for sure: does it have a chance of succeeding.

There is a common misconception – albeit an optimistic one – that if you have a good idea and a willingness to work hard your business will be a hit. This is the American way, combining innovation with good old fashion sweat. This may have been the case fifty years ago, but today’s market is very different, and there will be plenty of failed businesses to tally as 2009 comes to a close, with may more to follow in the years to come.

Luckily, there is a way around this. As long as you analyze your business idea in a structured and honest way, you will be able to avoid a pitfall that could be potentially hazardous. But you should take this a step even further and analyze yourself. If you are not the kind of person who can effectively run a small business you shouldn’t be attempting it. There are many check lists that can offer you assistance in this regard, and there are even consultant you can hire that will speak to you in depth about yourself, and your idea. But some questions are more common than others, and completely necessary to answer.

Viral Marketing & Linkbait Basic: Part IV

Posted in SEO News and Analysis November 27th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment

We covered the first tier of the ‘Linkerati’, the people who are most likely to help you to gain exposure using viral marketing tactics. While these three will always be your number one priority in getting your name and content out onto the great expanse of the World Wide Web, there are three others that can prove beneficial, as long as you provide content that will be directly related to their interests. Unfortunately, the two out of three can be difficult to expand to, but knowing of their existence will be the first step into catching their attention, and provide a secondary resource to linkbaiters.

Page 5 of 11« First «...3 456 7...10...»Last »