E-Commerce for All

Facebook Fan Pages

Many shop owners are really lagging behind on the social media angle. Let face it, time is short and so much to do. Fact is, so many things to promote your ecommerce business cost money, this one is free… Just a bit of you precious time to get free promotion for your online shop. There are some very good business reasons to spend a few hours creating your business’ Facebook fan page.

Did you know that someone else could steal away your business name for their own fan page?

We talk with shop owners about a great many things, one thing we advise on frequently is protecting your brand. Now I know you are not Coca Cola or Gieco, but your brand is the heart of your business. It may not seem important now, but what if I told you that if you do not act, when the importance of brand protection smacks you in the face it may be too late?

Yes, too late. There are some things you just MUST do to protect your brand, NOW…. Not later.

Register the alternate spellings, TLDs and versions of your domain. This might cost you $50 a year, but it’s probably one of the best investments you can make. What will you do if years from now, when hopefully you are knee deep in success, a competitor has a misspelling of your domain?

You will lose traffic is what you will do…. To your competitor at that. A great example is a client of our who registered a domain with a number in it. The number 4 instead of for. His competitor using the “for” domain, grabs a great deal of his traffic…. and sales, as they sell very similar products. Hell, he even gets phone calls for the other business…. Imagine how many of his customers are calling them.

Another recent situation involves a shop owner who has the .NET version of their domain only. Now this is a bad move to start with, but if you have the .COM as well, no worries as you can redirect them. Like we do PRO-Webs.com. This client has only the .NET and the .COM houses a VERY adult website. Many returning customers will not only be lost, but very likely offended as well.

Facebook and Twitter are important for the same reason. They both have vanity urls, like http://www.facebook.com/prowebs and http://twitter.com/prowebs. Once someone else registers YOUR business name, that’s it…. Gone.

So while I realize you are long on work and short on time, spending a few hows setting up your Facebook fan page… and your Twitter account as well, is a damn good investment. In the future we will see these social media profiles and pages become an active part of your business’ equity and domain worth. Not to mention, how awful to find that your customers are being stolen away by some look-alike business using your rightful Facebook url. Worse yet… Find out there is nothing you can do, because you failed to spend a few hours when it counted.

Interested? Let’s set up your Facebook fan page.

First thing is to get a fan (official) page here. Note that businesses have fan pages, not profiles. See this isn’t so tough. hey you are on a roll, get your Twitter page while you are at it, here.

You probably noticed that Twitter, unlike Facebook gives you a personalized url right off. Facebook requires an act of dedication on your part to get your personalized fan page url. There have been many numbers for the amount of fans it takes, but currently you need 25 fans before you can secure your own url. We’ll talk about getting those fans in a bit.

Here is a pretty easy video to make your fan page, no excuses here =-) For my readers, check this very good tutorial to create your fan page.

I have some additional tips to share with you, so you can maximize your time and effort.

While Facebook has a pretty standardized structure, they do have some cool aps to help you promote your page and build your followers. One in particular, profile HTML is a very handy ap which will allow you to add custom HTML to your profile or fan page.

Very important to add your RSS feeds for your store and/or blog to your fan page. This is really a snap to do an only take a few minutes… Then it will work automatically for you.

Adding RSS to Facebook

Facebook allows you to quickly and easily import an external blog from another website.

1. On your notes about me page, click the Import a blog link on the right side of the page. (hard to find in the new layout — But here’s a link)
2. Enter the URL (web address) of your blog into the text box, and check the box underneath that states that you agree to FB TOS. This is the whole URL, like http://pro-webs.net/blog/feed/
3. To complete the process, click on “Save Settings.” Once you do this, your previous posts will appear as notes and any new posts you make will automatically display.

See easy! I also highly recommend the Networked Blogs ap for Facebook.

Going through the settings and such are pretty logical, just read and fill them out. Believe it or not, your teenager is a great resource for this! You can spend a few minutes a week to post tips, coupons and other business related items in a snap.

Now for the important part…. Getting the fans required to get your personalized url.

• If you already have a Facebook profile page, send a note to all of your friends and ask them to click the “Become a Fan” link to your page.  <– Selfless promotion =-)
• Include your fan page link in the signature of all your emails
• Add the “Become a Fan” widget to your site and blog
• Offer additional savings or promotions specifically for your Facebook fans
• Beg…. LOL

Once you have the required number of fans (currently 25), you will see a link on your home page, but here’s a link to grab your personalized Facebook url and protect your brand!

This isn’t so hard, and even if you choose not to promote it actively… at least someone else won’t =-)

Melanie E-Commerce Marketing

Got Blog?

There has been an absolute onslaught of shop owners wanting a blog. This is not very unexpected, as the freshness and regularity of content carry far more weight then they ever have before in Google’s algorithm.

Certainly, I advise clients that this creation of fresh content on a regular business is a very good thing…. But I also tell them how NOT to shoot themselves in the foot.

Okay, so that sounds funny, but it’s very true…. Your shiny new blog can do you a huge disservice if you don’t know the basics. So today tonight I will attempt to give you new bloggers a fighting chance.

Perhaps in many cases the word content, by its very definition is too vague or not as descriptive as we mean to say. So if you read somewhere or your SEO tells you you need to create fresh content…. We should in fact say: You need to create unique, descriptive, fresh, honest, longtail keyword enriched content. Wow, that’s a mouthful. But, true none the less.

Unique is a word you should really wrap your head around for everything web you do. In a nutshell it means simply that the content is not published anywhere else on the web. So clearly grabbing those free articles and republishing them on your blog is not the ticket. Every page on your website should be unique from your other pages and all other web pages. It’s this uniqueness that holds the advantage.

Descriptive content is also often misunderstood. I will ask a client to write more descriptive product descriptions and he will provide me a product description with 50 key points in a bulleted list. Okay, so again, I was too vague… I mean that your pages should contain copy descriptive enough for users to read and scan naturally which generates an image or understanding of the product or page.

For example, if I called you on the phone to inquire about the widget for sale in your shopping cart, would you blow through 50 key points? No, you would use descriptive language and natural language to help me to visualize the product and it’s qualities. You would use examples and experiences to instill trust in your product, and lastly you would most certainly speak in a confident tone. My point is simple, you do not have to be a very talented writer to write descriptive text… Mostly, you just have to want to.

Fresh content is pretty simple to understand, this is new content. While updating existing pages is very good and important, your site will perform much better if you are creating new pages on a regular basis. Face it, this demonstrates both maintenance and growth.

Honest content is something every blogger should know and understand. This is simply the fact that this blog, while an incredible marketing tool is an extension of you and your company. These are posts, not white papers. Reach out to your readers, show some humanity and personality.

Sanitized blog posts will never bring you the readership and following needed to make your blog a success. If you are Joe, then blog as Joe…. Not admin. Make yourself approachable, identifiable and easy to follow, and your readers will love you.

Longtail keyword enriched content is rather a simple thing and easily accomplished. The best advice I can give you to create great longtail keywords is to refer to descriptive content above.

Too many times a week to count, clients will ask me what I think they should be targeting in their keywords. Now they don’t mean the Meta keyword tag, most of the time anymore… Instead they mean for me to give them a list of keywords to stuff in their content. Aside from coming up empty handed, they have now made me get my soap box out and begin to preach.

You see, most of you are not in a position to know what keywords you should be targeting. Instead you should be creating unique, descriptive content so in a year you will know.

For example, if you sell bananas, you will inevitably tell me you need to get to page one for bananas. This produces 2 problems. 1 the shorter keyword phrase is much harder to rank for, 2 it’s not likely to be a high converting or money making phrase. Something like buy bananas, or fresh green bananas are more convertible search queries. These longer phrases are created by descriptive content, AND they do support the necessary relevance and content for the bigger box search query bananas.

So after you have some data, you will begin to see in analytics that some phrases you are ranking for, which you may have NEVER thought of trying to…. are making sales. Bingo, that’s a phrase we want to target.

So now that we have covered some geek translations for shop owners, lets cover some do’s and don’ts for your new blog.

1. Do post regularly and about topics related to your whole website theme
2. Do Not post exclusively about sales, products and other marketing venues
3. Do answer every comment you ever receive
4. Do use catchy post titles
5. Do make your posts at least 3 paragraphs <– Yes folks, I mean text
6. Do use images and other media to engage your readers
7. Do encourage comments and discussions from your readers
8. Do use 10 or less post tags
9. Do categorize your posts in a logical manner
10. Do have your blog designed in the likeness of the rest of your website (brand continuity)
11. Do use natural language that all most of your readers can understand and identify with
12. Do try to use some semblance of proper grammar, so your posts can be scanned and read
13. Do have fun and stay positive

Topic selection is a big hurdle for many shop owners… What the hell do i have to blog about?

Well, honestly, this is a tough one for many. You will have to think outside of the box to find your blog’s calling. To start your creative juices flowing consider related groups, events and organizations. How about historical points and tradition, myths, news and hey… Your own personal experiences?

These posts will be the meat and potatoes of your blog, the link bait so to speak. You cannot just run sale ads and product reviews in your blog…. No one shares these much, heck many don’t even read them. When you only market from your blog you seem fake, pushy and certainly uninteresting. So look for the things in your niche that your readers will find value in.

I have used these guys as an example before, but I will again as I am very proud of them. Silver and Pewter gifts is a Zen Cart store who has had their blog for about a year now, but their posts are incredibly intelligent. They go out of their way to find stories, traditions, uses and tips for their products in their posts.

This recent one is a favorite of mine, the post is about Salt Cellars and Shakers… Yeah I know, what the heck is a salt cellar. Well, that’s the key folks, they posted the history and the current trends into a very informative post that also effectively markets their products. Bravo!

Don’t be scared, you can blog successfully… Just loosen up a bit and relate to your site visitors on a more common and approachable level.

Melanie E-Commerce Marketing, Small Business

Ecommerce Deal Breakers

So what is a deal breaker? Simple, these are the things in your cart that shoppers fret about, thus causing them not to make a purchase. So while every shopping cart, product and website is different, there are some very common factors which cause your shoppers to leave. Let’s address them and some of the solutions you can use to set your shopper’s minds at ease.

We are going to address these issues in a common navigational flow, so that you get a feel for the entire process.

Step 1 Landing Page:

Certainly many people do land on your main page, but usually not as many as your other pages combined. So treating only your main page with some TLC will certainly do nothing for the majority of your customers.

Landing Page Factors:

• Trust: Is your phone number (preferably toll free) highly visible and easy to find?
• Navigation: Can your shoppers easily navigate your shop to other interests and products?
• Text: Does each page have enough text near the top of the page for shoppers to scan and determine that this is where they should be?
• Images: Are your images, descriptive, fresh and professional?
• Load: Do your shoppers have to wait and wait for your pages to load?
• Presentation: Does your site work and display properly in all browsers?

Step 1/2 Product Page Marketing:

Many brick and mortar stores spend high dollars to hire the best salesmen they can, they do this to improve sales and be successful. But what about your ecommerce website? You are not going to have the individualized opportunity to make the sale. So let’s eliminate some of the common stresses and frustrations your shoppers experience.

• Is your price clearly marked?
• Are options easy to use and find?
• Are your description and images detailed enough for shoppers to make a decision?
• Is your return policy and payment methods posted clearly and easy to understand?
• Can they contact you easily from the product page to ask a question?
• Do you have live help of some sort?
• Is your add to cart button clear and noticeable?
• Is your product information above the fold on your pages, or do your shoppers have to continuously scroll?
• Is your price fair and competitive?

Step 2 Shopping Cart Summary Page:

This is a very difficult page to measure the genuine abandonment because so many people will check shipping prices here or return many times with additional items. However, I suspect that this is likely the most crucial deal breaker of all.

• Can I clearly get the shipping cost without giving you my information or creating an account?
• Do you display a secured seal, phone number and other trust factors here?
• Do you have a “Checkout Now” button above the fold as well as below?
• Do you use pictures of the products within your cart summary?
• Can I change my quantities and remove products easily and logically?
• Is this page fast enough to deliver the data, such as a shipping quote, before I become impatient and leave?

Step 3 Checkout:

If you have been thinking about abandonment and conversions at all, this is likely where you spent most of your time. While I agree this is a very large factor, I would also say that most of you are probably losing them well before checkout.

• Is the text and information sorted properly and easy to read?
• Are your payment, shipping and other options clearly noted?
• Do you force shoppers to reconsider by making them create an account?
• Do you tell your shoppers how long the shipment will take in your checkout?
• If your checkout is several steps, do you control the flow and keep shoppers on track by removing distractions and highlighting the necessary action areas?
• Is your checkout secured with SSL? Do you have a broken lock?
• Do you bother your shoppers in checkout with pop up offers and other things to get them off track?

Step 4 Checkout Success:

• While this may seem obvious, you would really be surprised… But do you thank your shoppers after checking out?
• Do they get an order summary, shipping and customer service information on your checkout success page?
• Do they receive a TEXT email (for maximum deliver-ability) with their receipt and order information following checkout?
• Do you welcome your shoppers back with a coupon or loyalty program?

While this is certainly not meant to be a bible for your usability, it is rather intended to make you think and consider the fears, stresses and reasons shoppers leave your site. I find that many shop owners have never checked out on their own site…. and many more stumble to describe the navigation needed to direct me to a certain product. Certainly, you and your staff should know your website inside and out. Just think, if it’s hard for you can you imagine your shopper’s frustration?

Melanie Checkout Improvement, E-Commerce Design, E-Commerce Marketing

Security

First and foremost make sure your Zen Cart is fully patched! No exceptions. Your Zen Cart you just downloaded and installed still needs these.

Now, do these items on Zen Cart’s recommended security list. On this list please ignore the following. If you choose to do these things, your robots.txt cannot be accessed and the php command will not work properly for you in most server environments.

#.htaccess to prevent unauthorized directory browsing or access to .php
files
IndexIgnore */*
<Files *.php>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>
#add the following to protect against people discovering what version your
spiders.txt file is
<Files *.txt>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>

Now, lets add some cool stuff to help you stay safe.

Tip #1: Use strong passwords for everything! Change them every 30 days.

Tip #2: When renaming your admin DO NOT use any admin or business related
term. Try banana for example, something like manage, control or anything XXadmin is a dead guess for most hackers to discover your admin directory.

Tip #3: Make sure all admins have their OWN accounts and install this module to track their access more conveniently.

Tip #4: Protect your admin directory with an additional auth when possible. Perhaps you can password protect the directory or allow access by IP address for example.

# password-protect the directory
AuthType basic
AuthName "This directory is protected"
AuthUserFile /home/path/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user

# deny all except
<Limit GET POST PUT>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from 192.168.1.1
allow from .*domain\.com.*
</Limit>

Tip #5: Protect ALL directories from browsing with an index.html file. This file can be blank, it just prevents the directory from displaying in an index to browse. If a folder has an index.anything… It’s protected.

Tip #6: Protect your images directories (all) with the following .htaccess to prevent browsing, executing php files and more. These directories will also need an index file. When done, login to your hosting control panel and change the permissions on both the index.html and .htaccess files to 444 to prevent modification.

#PRO-Webs ver 1.8 1/2010
#Prevent directory viewing and the ability of any scripts to run.
#While a bit overkill this file prevents a wide array of access and executions
#of known exploits in your Zen Cart
#This file and a index.html should have the chmod 444
#This low setting allowance differs from server to server and should be set as
#low as possible and no higher that 644
#Permissions this low will likely need set in filemanager
#Place this in all images directories except BMZ_Cache
Options -ExecCGI -Indexes
IndexIgnore *
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} libwww [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)=http [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]
<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>
<Files ~ "\.php$">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>
chmod .htaccess files 444

Tip #7: If you have an SSL force all of your admin pages to load in only secured urls with the following htaccess code.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /admin_dir/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://domain.com/admin_dir/$1 [R,L]

Tip #8: Make sure your cache folder has the correct index.php and .htaccess. Download a fresh version of Zen Cart and upload them to be sure. Now CHMOD, change the permissions of these to 444.

I may be adding to this, as we are always testing… so stay tuned.

Melanie E-Commerce Marketing, Store Development