Due to recent change to item and feed limits, you may experience errors when submitting your items or registering a new feed.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 | 3:43 PM

Labels: alert

Google recommends that data feeds be under 20MB for upload within Google Merchant Center, while scheduled fetch and FTP uploaded feeds can be up to 1GB. Compressed feeds must be under 500MB or you will need to split them in to 500MB or less files.

While most will not be affected by this, I think new feeds will come under deeper scrutiny with regard to size, data quality, freshness and so on.

Preparing for Holiday Shopping

Here is a pretty helpful list of things to check, secure and generally optimize to make sure your company, website and customer service are all shored up and ready to bust out the best sales numbers of the year.

Remember, that although "Black Friday" is generally known as a physical shopping day you will still see increased sales. Many retailers are controlling the masses of people flooding their brick and mortar storefronts with special holiday bonuses, sales and deals for shopping online.

From "Black Friday" you move in to "Cyber Monday", which is your day as ecommerce owners. "Cyber Monday" is the day that shoppers shop from work to get holiday bargains and things they need for the gift giving season. Note that the biggest time of the day you will see traffic is lunchtime EST. While many shop on the clock, many more will eat at their desk shopping away their lunch hour.

Being prepared for these sales is certainly no joke and requires that you put forth extra effort and planning to be successful. Here is a list to get your brain juices flowing.

• Check your website for broken links (http://validator.w3.org/checklink)
• Place several orders on your website. Check the flow, ease and function in FireFox, IE and Chrome browsers.
• Check that there are no "broken lock" errors for your SSL pages in your checkout. (http://pro-webs.net/blog/2009/08/26/ecommerce-checkout-suicide/)
• Contact information on your website is prominent, easy to find and use.
• Shipping fees, holiday shipping schedule and return policy are clearly stated in the simplest manner possible, with high visibility.
• Special sales, coupons and shipping campaigns clearly posted.
• All specials for each sale are in place and any product data feeds (such as Google Shopping) are up to date.
• Check your bandwidth (transfer) use for the month and make certain your hosting account has enough to cover a 100% increase.
• Check that you have ample products in stock and ready to ship.
• If you are using an API such as USPS, FedEx or UPS to deliver shipping quotes make certain that you have a standard table, flat or zone rate turned off but configured for use if the API for your carrier fails. This has happened in the past and can be down for days.
• Check with your processing gateway to make certain that daily and transaction limits are going to be adequate for the increased sales. We certainly don't want to lose sales because we have done to much sales in a day!
• Make sure you have ample staff to handle calls and emails.
• Ready to ship? Don't wait, start shipping orders as quickly as you can. Many times very quick shipping notifications will lower canceled orders and actually help promote your store with your shopper's co-workers and friends.

Holiday Marketing Ideas

Holiday marketing techniques are a dime a dozen, and you cannot do them all. However, have a look at the ideas below to see if any will help you in your niche to maximize sales this holiday shopping season.

Email Marketing

If you plan to do an email blast for Cyber Monday... You better get it out by Saturday night. Many people will shop from work on Cyber Monday. Get them your deals early so they can take it to work.

Use a awesome subject line to engage the shopper. Most people will read the subject at least before deleting your email, so your subject alone carries most of the burden in email marketing.

Keep the email, clean, informative and short.... Holiday shoppers are an impatient bunch.

Segment your email list to help you send offers best related to your shoppers. If you are using email software to segment your list, now is the time to flex your marketing mojo by hitting each of your segments with a planned and targeted email offer. Cyber Monday is not the only opportunity this holiday season.... so make certain you also have the ability to properly measure your results for improvement.

Consider offering special coupons or information to your subscribers only.... They are generally intrigued and will check it out!

Linkbait - PR

Any kind of great link / promo bait is going to be very effective... For example, create a press release that Santa himself or one of his elves is at your shop answering your phones. This will get people's attention and if you have the right product, folks will be happy to spend money in your store... Not to mention all the great social share links you can grab as well.

Funneling

Create a category and link products in to a "gift giving", "gifts for her" or "holiday gifts" category for quick access and promotion of products that are expected to make great gifts for holiday shoppers.

Promos

Offer free anything... Free gifts, free shipping, free gift wrapping, BOGO etc. Free is always good marketing.

Run silly and fun Holiday Pay Per Click Ads... Target some very tight terms and throw up Ads like, Santa dropped the load at our shop! This will grab attention and get some folks in your door... send them to a page with great deals and Holiday offerings.

Submit a Holiday themed coupons to a bunch of FREE coupon repositories.

Offer gift certificates in BOGO or get $20 for $15 types formats.... Shrink on these is awesome. Make sure you advertise that your Zen Cart can deliver these to anyone, anywhere in an email!

Run a holiday contest or give away in your shop... Customer # 333 will receive a $25 gift certificate for their next purchase... Then track the winners and results in a very prominent location for all to see. this would make an awesome Facebook promo!

Add special product bundles to your store, Holiday shoppers are in a rush and will be more inclined to checkout with a item bundle containing everything they need... Like the mp3 player, case and headphones all in one shot.

Swap out some template images for Holiday themed, feel good images to get your shoppers in the "mood". Maybe even make it snow on your website with a pinch of Java Script!

Advertise your ability to ship directly to the gift recipient and offer holiday wrapping and gift messages.

Addon Orders - Offer a coupon, which very simply enables the shopper to return in a set time frame (such as 24 hours) to shop for more items and pay no additional shipping for the additional items; the orders are combined.

Include a coupon in your order confirmation emails to entice shoppers to return again. How many times have you shopped for your early and then had to return to the same store later and shop again. Bounce back coupons are 100% safe as they do not affect the checkout ability of the current order, but rather attempt to get the shopper to return for additional sales.

Shoppers are in an absolute crazy frenzy this time of year. They are shopping around, price and selection and service checking... Comparing shipping and delivery options. Often in this process the can get "lost". If you are using the abandoned cart module for Zen Cart, you have the opportunity to "recover" these lost sales by emailing them their cart contents and a nice letter to persuade them to return and checkout.

If you are using Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform, then use it to maximize sales this holiday season. Offer "Facebook Only" specials, promos, gifts and coupons, write about great gift ideas and ask for others from your fans... Most importantly make sure your fans know you HAVE the holiday spirit. Believe it or not, people want to know that you are a company comprised of "real" people and are not all business this holiday season.

Use gift selectors like "gifts for guys", "gifts under $50.00" and other vertical browsing options to help shoppers better find and BUY what they need. This type of ease in shopping can easily convert a "one item cart" sale in to a really nice order. Shoppers appreciate this and will share their ease in shopping with friends as well.

Shipping

Shipping promotions is big business in the holiday season. Free shipping is always a huge holiday shopping promotion. I, however, prefer to use the "spend x$ to get free shipping" type promotion. This guarantees a minimum (necessary) profit margin, increased your average order total average and adds additional sales you may not have gotten otherwise. You will find holiday shoppers more likely to stay on site longer, navigate deeper and find more things to purchase in order to attain free shipping.

A guaranteed delivery promo is most effective the closer we get to Christmas. It can be bit tough to administer, but can also maintain the holiday sales increase for another week to 10 days past the "grey shipping period". Big money here, but plan and explain carefully, as it only takes one bad shopping review to ruin the remainder of the year's sales.

Once more for emphasis... Don't wait, start shipping orders as quickly as you can. Many times very quick shipping notifications will lower canceled orders and actually help promote your store with your shopper's co-workers and friends.

Google's Snake Oil Sales

I have in the past defended Google's business practices and desire to make the index a more user friendly and productive experience..... BUT now I'm not so sure Google isn't the capitalists that many claim they are.

So here's the deal.

As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, particularly for signed in users, we believe that protecting these personalized search results is important. As part of that effort, today the Google Search team announced that SSL Search on https://www.google.com will become the default experience for signed in users on Google.com (see the Official Google Blog post to learn more). Protecting user privacy is important to us, and we want to take this opportunity to explain what the Google Analytics team is doing to help you continue measuring your website effectively in light of these changes.

How will this change impact Google Analytics users?
When a signed in user visits your site from an organic Google search, all web analytics services, including Google Analytics, will continue to recognize the visit as Google “organic” search, but will no longer report the query terms that the user searched on to reach your site. Keep in mind that the change will affect only a minority of your traffic. You will continue to see aggregate query data with no change, including visits from users who aren’t signed in and visits from Google “cpc”.

Now in a more digestible language. When a searcher is logged in to ANY Google service and uses Google.com we will no longer get to see what the searcher searched for. For example:

If I have a page about crab apples and am getting a great deal of traffic I cannot see if Google understands the page.... Because I cannot see what is being searched for by logged in users. They could be searching for green apples, in which case my page needs better topical information to help searchers who are looking for crab apples find it.... AND to stop the frustration of searchers who are looking for green apples and finding my crab apples!

Google plays this out as being a small percent of all searches..... But with the stickiest damn cookies of any service in the world you are always friggin logged in! Google +1, Analytics, Gmail, Google Aps, Moodle, Google Shopping.... you name it and you are logged in. Come back in 2 weeks and you are STILL LOGGED IN!

Google claims this is an effort to protect the privacy of searchers. So, only logged in searchers are worthy of protection? Worse than that, NO PII is released in provided searcher's queries... So this is NOT at all a privacy issue. Fact, all statistical formats for websites will lose the ability to see Google referrers with queries for logged in customers.... EXCEPT Google Adwords, which will continue to have this "protected data". So, this looks bad for Google.... It's only private data if we are not paying Google for traffic? Bullshit!

So the question in my mind just begging to be asked... "Has Google collected, restricted availability and charged for and thus created a Monopoly on search data from the worlds largest market share of users?" I suspect we will see this information available to Premium Analytics Users (who PAY) as well. I think this is an outright attempt for Google to maintain it's already prominent market share, while using the data collected by Google users for profit ONLY.

You see, in your Google account you have ALWAYS been able to turn off the collection of this type of non-personal data. Google isn't worried about your privacy, they are worried about their pockets. I realize that many non-web people will not understand this, but I think presented in the true light, anyone can see Google is taking non-personal data collected to make the searchers experience, websites and usability better out of the hands of the webmasters and selling it to the people who pay to have your search data.

Here are some comments from the blog post I found interesting:

ADN said...
Where's the -1 button?

admin said...
It's a big, big BS...we are getting summary of those searches, and we can't see the "personal data" and searches done by a certain user...

Martin Aberastegue said...
This really sucks, I'm sure you will be providing this on the premium version. And why this only affects to organic and not paid search too? This is BS....

Claye Stokes said...
Showing search queries for CPC suggests that you're not really interested in making search more secure, as the title is trying to spin it.
What gives?

Anonymous said...
And how is this a security feature? That same SSL connection is obviously working fine for non-Google users and PPC hits, so there is no technical barrier. So really it's not the SSL security that changed; it's that Google's "protecting" Google users from GA users. Aka, us.

pittfall said...
FAIL
Analytics data is already private... I don't see "John Doe" searched for this keyword in my reporting.
If Google wants webmasters and marketers to be able to improve their websites for visitors, then this data would remain as is. This is imparative to providing the best landing page and experience. Example: if Google determined that a single page ranked for two keywords and one has a better experience for keyword 1 but not for keyword 2 then a webmaster would work to build a better page for keyword 2, however, if the data is split in half or more people using keyword 2 are signed into their Google account, you wouldn't be able to provide a positive experience.
Who is looking out for the visitors?

In closing.... I am LOGGING OUT OF GOOGLE. I may even dump our company's Google Aps for a less carnivorous company.

• First make sure you are using the Facebook Like button on your product pages. Next you are going to add a simple edit to your html_header.php
• So navigate to includes/templates/your_template/common/html_header.php and back it up!
• If you lack a html_header.php in that loaction got to includes/templates/template_default/common/html_header.php download it and upload it to includes/templates/your_template/common/
• Now, at some logical location we will add one line of markup using the Facebook Open Graph protocol for the meta property="og:image"
• Generally speaking we want to add this without breaking up a php process. I suggest you add it right after <?php } //endif FAVICON ?>

You will be adding the following line:

<meta property="og:image" content="<?php echo zen_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . $product_info->fields['products_image'], $product_info->fields['products_name'], IMAGE_PRODUCT_LISTING_WIDTH, IMAGE_PRODUCT_LISTING_HEIGHT) ?>"/>

That should do it, now Facebook should use your product images and not some rogue image from wherever they decide to latch on to. Please click here to download the text version of these instructions to avoid issues. Like us to install the Facebook Like, Facebook send and this image fix for you? Order the Facebook Like installation for your Zen Cart and get it half off until 8/1/2011 with coupon code BLOGREADER.

Get one!

Looking  at the changes and trend of Google and the other search engines, I thought it might be a good time to plot a new plan of attack. Sure, many things remain as they were... But there are also many new things we are looking at more deeply, as well as things we no longer concern ourselves with.

In my mind's eye you need to have a plan to accomplish anything well. So I always develop a plan of attack for our shops, every year.  This plan of attack is intended to not only keep me on track and focused... But it helps me muster the desire and dedication needed to be more successful every year.

In this plan, I generally try to prioritize the tasks as well as keeping them simple and targeted. Below is the list we are using in house for 2011 for our own shops. Your own list is likely going to be a bit different, but this may help you develop a customized plan of attack for your store more easily.

1. Speed. We are spending some resources, time and training  to improve the speed at which our shop's pages are being delivered to shoppers and spiders alike.
2. Uniqueness. We have always endeavored to create high quality content on our websites, but this year we are putting a great deal of time in to creating not only high quality content... But high quality 100% unique content.
3. Regularity. All of our shops have adequate opportunity for related content, we are making a huge effort to post fresh, top quality relevant content regularly. Such as once a month or once a week, depending on the size of the site.
4. Usability. We are split testing several different product page layouts, navigation and checkout options to find the best system to improve click through, trust and of course the shop's ability to convert.... by lowering abandonment.
5. Link bait. This is a term you hardly ever hear in ecommerce, but since Google has gone commando on low quality and reciprocal links we will shoot to create content so excellent on our store's content pages that people will naturally share and link to it.
6. Optimizing for feeds. We are working hard to include proper information, killer images and high converting information in our product pages so that our product feeds are bringing in the highest quality clicks possible.
7. Low hanging fruit. We are looking to our deep analytics reports to find high converting, but low traffic searches... We then properly optimize the product for these smaller phrases to reap the better conversions.
8. Content containers. We are working extremely hard to correctly segment our page's content in to proper containers for better snippets, readability and  to answer Google's new patent for analyzing page content.

Hope you find a helpful start to your own 2011 plan of attack!

Hello,

Thank you for participating in Google Product Search.  We are reaching out to you to inform you about important changes we’re making to our Product Search attribute requirements for unique identifiers and tax and shipping information.

Starting May 3rd, 2011, we’ll require your product listings to include at least two of the three unique identifiers (Brand, MPN, GTIN). In order to provide as much information as possible to our users, we need your help in matching your products to our "product pages", where users are able to view useful data such as product specifications or reviews. While these attributes will not be required for your data feed to process correctly, they may prevent your items from appearing in Product Search results if not included. For more details, including what specific identifiers you should include for each category of item, please see our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161

Starting June 6th, 2011, we’ll also require your product listings to include tax and shipping information to provide buyers with important price information. This information will be required at either the account or item level (in the “tax” or “shipping” attribute) in order for your items to process and appear in Google Product Search results. For instructions on how to include tax and shipping information, please visit http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160162

Please update your account settings or data feeds as soon as possible to ensure that you are complying with these new requirements by the dates specified above.  For more information about these changes, please visit our Google Merchant blog at http://googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/changes-for-google-product-search.html

Sincerely,

The Google Product Search Team

© 2011 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Merchant Center product or account.

So we are here today to give you the skinny on what you will need to do to meet these new requirements. Your product listings to include at least two of the three unique identifiers (Brand, MPN, GTIN). So here we need 2 of 3... Well not really as Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), which include UPC, EAN (in Europe), JAN (in Japan), and ISBN.

So here is the shortlist of your options:

• Brand
• Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
• Universal Product Code (UPC) - 12 numeric digits
• International Standard Book Number (ISBN) (for books)

Why should I include these values?

Please note that products in all categories except for the apparel and custom made categories may not appear in Product Search if your product data does not include the following unique product identifiers:

Category	Identifiers necessary for each product
Media (i.e., Music, Movies, Video games)	UPC, EAN, or JAN
Books	ISBN (Either ISBN-10 or ISBN-13. Exceptions apply for books published before 1970.)
Apparel, custom made goods	No identifiers are required at the moment
All other	At least two of the following three identifiers:  UPC, EAN, or JAN Brand MPN

How do I find the correct identifier values for my products?

If you don’t have the identifier data, you can find it on the Product Search "Compare prices" pages, under the “technical specifications” section for Electronics items, the "Tracks" or "Details" section for Media, and the “Overview” section for books.

What is an invalid unique product identifier?

We may provide you with feedback that the unique product identifier you submitted is invalid. There are several potential reasons for this, including:

• Too many or too few digits
• Letters or symbols (instead of numbers only)
• Invalid check digit*

As you can see Google will squash the little guy here as price shopping will be the only metric that benefits from this change. Many of you, including myself will not be able to supply all 3 metrics, and thus will suffer at the hands of the big box price fixers with the rest of you who will be able to supply all three. While some will be able to provide 2 as needed, we cannot compete in the price war. I am very disappointed that Google should toss the small merchants to the lions.

Starting June 6th, 2011, we’ll also require your product listings to include tax and shipping information to provide buyers with important price information. This information will be required at either the account or item level (in the “tax” or “shipping” attribute) in order for your items to process and appear in Google Product Search results. For instructions on how to include tax and shipping information, please visit http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160162

This part is easy and you likely should have done it already, login and provide your shipping and tax info... Quick and painless.

I really hope that Google lessens the required identifiers to 1 as smaller merchants, specifically drop shippers really cannot do this and thus the smallest of vendors such as ourselves who stock some and drop ship the rest cannot compete and get by on our great service and easy to navigate websites any longer.... Cheaper will be the commanding metric for Google product search... As if it is the only value merchants provide.

Advice, do the best you can to meet the new requirements using the tools you have and live with it. Even if you spend development dollars to meet all identifier requirements that won't bring sales if you're not the cheapest price. Why build great websites, write unique and descriptive content and provide great and honest service if Google is going to throw our great product images, unique content and fair prices in with Wal Mart and the other price fixing big box stores which we can never compete with? Face it, if you have in front of you 3 widgets in product search with the same product codes... what is left to cause you to click? PRICE ONLY.

I ran a quick Google search for "buy dog jacket" and as expected was delivered some shopping results in a high visibility location with image(s), titles, prices and company/site names. So as you look at this result layout it is very simple to see the opportunity to elicit a click lies in title, price and company name.

As you can see here Orvis gets some additional eye tracking by having physical stores nearby. I don't think that online shopping searches are very likely to drop in to a local brick and mortar store because of this result.... But the simple difference in their listing can easily get attention, build trust and get a click through more effectively. Next we note that Amazon has done a very poor job here with a product title which is both bland and cut off due to length (Sophisticated Polar Fleece Varsity Dog Jacket -(Black and Gray, XXXXXLarge). Land's end wins this battle with price, brevity and trust. But there are ways to beat out the big box brands in product search....

Small shops have a great opportunity with product search... We just need to understand it better to maximize it's potential.

Writing Great Product Titles

A great product title describes the product in a short (63 characters or less) and concise manner, but there is no reason why you cannot add some flair to elicit clicks more efficiently. Additionally, page titles and product titles are quite different. In page titles we may find it helpful to include model numbers and prices, but for product search pricing is redundant and most times the model is in the searcher's query already. How about these examples:

3x5 Nylon US Marines Flag - Semper Fi!

Nice, describes the product effectively and has flair. Not only is this an excellent product title, but it certainly builds trust by using "US" and "Semper Fi" in it. It conveys patriotism and marine pride, which are generally both traits people searching to buy a Marine's flag would posses.

Natural Vegan Lipstick - 14 Colors & Cruelty Free!

How about this one, zeros in on the "vegan" need, boasts color selection and finally builds trust by adding "Cruelty Free".

So looking at these examples we can easily surmise that product titles are more than just content on your page, they have a very important job in product searches (organic and paid). We can use just a few words to convey purpose, description and trust. We just have to use our creative minds! The big box stores have far too many products to effectively create and manage great product titles, but you the smaller shop owner can make this small investment and get a great return.

I just want to touch a minute on price. While most product searches are or can be sorted by price, it isn't the final word on purchasing for shoppers. If 3 listings were displayed to the shopper and they were all the same, the shopper is most likely to select the price in the middle... Not the lowest. The reasoning for this is quite simple really. We have been groomed to believe that low low pricing equates to low low quality and service. We also rationalize that the higher priced items, while we observe they may be higher quality are perhaps just more money for the same thing or equivalent item for less right above it. So do not let pricing deter you from creating and capturing the value of product search for your store.

These ideas are not for everyone, some will be opportunities for you and you shop ... and some will not. The biggest thing this "think tank" can do is get your brain moving to develop the holiday promotion best suited for your store and products! Please feel free to comment with other great ideas for shop owners, we would love to hear them.

Ideas to Maximize Holiday Sales

Free Shipping: Free shipping is always a BIG holiday shopping promotion. I, however, prefer to use the "spend X$ to get free shipping" promotion. This guarantees a minimum profit margin, raises your order total average and adds additional sales you may not have achieved otherwise. You will find shoppers more likely to stay on site longer, navigate deeper and find more things to purchase.

Addon Orders: This is directly from Mark Hudson at Incon Lighting. Mark had us add a free shipping coupon to his order confirmation email. This coupon, very simply enables the shopper to return in a set time frame to shop for more items and pay no additional shipping; the orders are combined. Love it when shop owners think outside the box!

Free Gifts: We use this one commonly during many holiday shopping promos on our pet store. We will simply make orders over X$ eligible for a free dog toy or similar free item. Again, this causes shoppers to stay on site longer and shop deeper. Free gifts are a hot deal for holiday shoppers, but only if they are really free. I was shopping yesterday on a store that offered free gifts, BUT when I got to checkout I found they were not free at all... A handling fee (equal to the retail product price) was sneakily added to my cart. This shop owner lost a $500 sale and I went elsewhere!

BOGO: Buy one get one or buy one get one half off are another hot holiday promo. Holiday shoppers will be glad to get the 2'fer and cross another happy recipient off of their list! Watch your margin here and make certain the BOGO offers are clearly marked and explained.

Guaranteed Delivery: This promo is most effective the closer we get to Christmas. It is a bit tough to administer, but can mean holding the holiday sales increase for another week to 10 days. Big money here, but plan and explain carefully, as it only takes one bad review to ruin the remainder of the year's sales.

Gift Wrapping: Gift wrapping, especially with the ability to ship directly to the recipient is another great marketing tool for holiday shoppers. Free or low cost gift wrapping saves shoppers time and money while securing the sale for you.

Gift Certificates: Most times shoppers will come to your store because they know or like the products you sell, even if they are shopping for another. Offering a buy a $X gift certificate and get a $X gift certificate free is an awesome sales builder. Remember the "shrink" (gift certificates never spent) means that these is a highly "safe" holiday promo. It can also extend the sales period well in to January, as people rarely spend "just" the gift certificate.

Followup Coupons: Include a small coupon in your order emails to entice shoppers to return again. How many times have you shopped for your uncle early and then had to return to the same store later and shop again for your nephew for example. Bounce back coupons are 100% safe as they do not affect the checkout ability of the current order, but rather attempt to get the shopper to return.

Newsletters: If you send newsletters, now is the time. Include great gift giving ideas for your target sales group, savings and coupons. Have you ever been to the grocery store and seen the half full cart from the store's competitor and the full cart from the store for the same price? I got a VERY compelling newsletter from a shop the other day using the same logic. The top image was 2 Christmas trees with gifts under them... One with more and one with less, same $ spent to purchase.

Cross Selling: Make sure you are using cross selling or attributes to not only help shoppers find related and needed product compliments, but other logical ideas as well. I find that attributes are easiest and the highest converting for the shopper. If I buy the MP3 player, I would certainly check the box to add the car charger for example. However, if I have to look for it too hard or don't know you have it... I cannot buy it.

Recovering Carts: Shoppers are in an absolute frenzy this time of year. They are shopping around, price and selection checking... Comparing shipping and terms. Often in this process they get "lost". If you are using the abandoned cart module for Zen Cart, you have the opportunity to "save" these lost shoppers by emailing them their cart contents and a nice letter to get them back.

Coupons: Coupons are for impulse buyers. Make holiday coupons easy to use, find and remember. Instead of a coupon code like HG345t, how about something simpler and easier to remember like SHOP2010 or SANTA? Customers appreciate this and are more likely to visit your store.

Getting Social: If you are using Facebook, Twitter or some other social media platform, then use it for increased following and sales this holiday season. Offer "Facebook Only" specials and coupons, write about great gift ideas and ask for others from your followers... Most importantly make sure your followers know you HAVE the holiday spirit. Believe it or not, people want to know that you are a company comprised of "real" people and are not all business this holiday season.

Bundles: This speaks a bit to the cross selling, but is more effective, direct and helpful to shoppers. Offer special holiday bundles (set them up as regular products) with everything you need/want for specific products. This makes shopping fast and easy while raising your order average sales.

Free Giveaways: While I haven't specifically noted these as overly successful for holiday sales, they could be. Maybe you have the type of products that shoppers want, but do not buy for themselves? They may very well be in to signing up for a "free something"... Even better that they feel inclined (easy sharing buttons and opportunities) to share your "free giveaway". This is also a list builder if you use it with your social media or newsletter subscribers.

Gift Selectors: Use gift selectors like "gifts for guys", "gifts under $50.00" and other vertical browsing options to help shoppers better find and BUY what they need. This type of ease in shopping can easily convert a "one item cart" sale in to a really nice order. Shoppers appreciate this and will share their ease in shopping with friends as well.

I hope you have found a helpful idea to be successful this holiday shopping season... More importantly I hope you have those "creative juices" flowing to customize or develop a great promotion for your own store and specific products. We would love to hear your ideas and suggestions, comment below.

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 =-)

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.

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?

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.

Let's kick this off with polled data ...

"How frequently do you use the following tools when shopping online?"

Note the green and red areas where I have noted what I believe to be expected growth/decline of these metrics in the coming year.

I think, and this is my own opinion (take it or leave it), that the areas noted will grow or decline for many reasons, not withstanding the new push among search engines for real time results and the weight they do and will carry in the future.

Coupon sites will continue to grow as they continue to gain authority and social media love from their users... As they rank better, they will be used more frequently. Look for many of these higher ranking sites to start offering "premium" paid types services and exposure.

Emails advertising I believe will decline for a good many reasons, mostly because people are generally irritated by spam mail. Shoppers are even afraid to create accounts on websites for "fear of spam". Secondly, your email shoppers are far more likely to be a one hit wonder. They shop for price and have little or no loyalty.... IMPULSE

Product reviews is a tricky one.... and while they can be very effective, I believe they will soon be so abused that no one will trust them. Face it, how do you know a "real shopper" said that instead of a savvy marketer? You don't, and just like many other diseases the web has caused, "fear of fake reviews" will in my opinion join the "fear of shipping" eBay disease in record time.

Shopping comparison sites and portals will continue to grow. Here shoppers can get what appears to be a fair representation of products to compare, see and get information about them in a comfortable... No pressure setting. Everyone will have a favorite, and we will see these continue to grow.

Social networking for ecommerce is still a baby, but expect its effectiveness to grow. Right now for **most ecommerce sites, this is just something you do. However, as we see the decline of reviews and other sharing platforms like gift tagging, this will become the safe way to ask a friend about a product they bought, or compare products for sharing. People on Facebook will seem more "real" and believable, thus more effective. Niche sites are already and will continue to kick ass here!

Most ecommerce stores have some season trending. This is very unique to both the store and the product line. So a store selling green widgets can be expected to trend sales in a similar manner to another shop selling green widgets... But not exactly, as they are many additional metrics that influence one's sales.

So you should be planning for your spring and early summer products, marketing and trends now... So that you are prepared for this period in your business. Even especially if traditionally spring is a low volume period for sales.

Here is a checklist of sorts to help you get started for planning any marketing period, including this spring.

Trending: Unless you site is brand new, you should have some sales and traffic data that you can use to trend or predict the data for the upcoming period. I tend to concentrate on sales and traffic. I use both as they can be very unrelated for some websites. There are clearly some periods where even if the traffic is there, conversions are down... So to properly trend our potential for this upcoming period we should use both. You may even have other metrics such as, bounce, average order or similar that are specifically a target for your store.

Gathering the data is the easiest part, as you should be using a proper analytical stat program to record your data. We will use Google Anayltics for our example, as it is very popular.

When gathering your data, we are looking for specific trends within the matching period from previous years to predict, affect and produce a proper marketing plan for the upcoming period. So login to Google Analytics and lets get to work.

So we will pull data for all of March, April, May and June to cover our bases and provide some overlap. You will want to pull at least on year, more if you have them. I would not be concerned with using more than 3 years as things in your business and on the web change very quickly and it's not likely to be very relevant any longer.

The example store I am using had a 2009 average daily visits of 279 uniques a day. There conversion rate for the year was 3.87%. You can see by the graph that holiday traffic is a crucial part of this store's success and that spring is rather soft by comparison. You can also see that our spring period it right at or just a bit above average for them.

2009 Unique Visits

We can clearly see from this data, that traffic could be improved for this period.... Especially because they have a genuine promotable product line for spring sales. Now let's have a look at conversions in relationship with this traffic... Do they convert well in this period?

2009 Conversions

We can see that last year, while traffic was average, they converted pretty well the end part of spring. looks very much like March should be our focus area.

Next you will determine your trend. You can use data from previous tears to do this... But if you lack that data no worries, this old restaurant manager has the equation to get you close.

Obviously, any data you do have is clearly relevant... But let's say you have little or none. To determine your current rate of growth in both of these metrics we will poll the last 4 months. This is a weighted process with the greatest weight on the most recent data.

This applies to any metric. Gather the data for these metrics for Nov 2009, Dec 2009, Jan 2010 and Feb 2010.

We will start with March's data from last year 8,043 unique visits and a conversion rate of 3.13%.

• Nov 2009 8,789 & 4.85%
• Dec 2009 14634 & 4.5%
• Jan 2010 7,604 & 3.67%
• Feb 2010 6,395 & 3.52%

For this purpose, with holiday data so much higher we will exclude Nov & Dec, unless we have 2008 numbers... Which we do. Nov 2008 7,419 & 3.18%, Dec 2008 8,861 & 4.00%, Jan 2009 6,146 & 2.99% and Feb 2009 5,742 & 3.22%.

Here is the math:

The math is easier than it looks....

Step 1: YOY growth, which is simply current year minus previous year.

Step 2: Trend. Like I said we will weight this for the most current monthly data. So 100% being the whole, we will use 12.5% from Nov & Dec, 25% from Jan and the remaining 50% from most current Feb. Something like this:

• 1 part : Nov. 18.49% plus Dec. 65.15% = 83.64 divided by 2 = 41.82%
• 1 part: Jan. = 23.72%
• 1 part: Feb. =11.37%
• 1 part: Feb. =11.37%

= The whole (88.28) divided by 4 = (22.07%) Current Trend

Last year March (8043) apply trend 22.07% = (1775 growth) This year March forecast (9818) unique visits... Into 318 average daily visits.

Check our math:

Last year average daily visits March = 260

This year forecast = 318

% of predicted growth = 22.3%

**Note that rounding changes these just a hair, but not to worry this should be pretty reliable data.

So this "math" can be applied to the entire period as a whole, or each month individually computed. The point here is to have an idea of what to expect, AND and basis to measure the effectiveness of your marketing this spring. For example if you did nothing last spring, and you know (above) what to expect if you do nothing this spring... Then you have a pretty good benchmark to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign this spring.

Merchant Processing Survival Tips 2010

If you haven't read about the new "Brand Damaging" issues and you accept credit cards on your website... You need to. The potential impact on your business is too large to ignore.

Now that you have hopefully informed yourself, let's concentrate on keeping you out of trouble and getting canceled.

The new rules may seem a bit daunting, but they are really pretty simple.... If it's trickery, you cannot do it anymore. You may be sitting there thinking, "I have been running this "Free Money" website for 10 years.... This doesn't apply to me. You are most certainly wrong. These are new rules, new implementations and new punishments for violations.

The cost for violating one of these rules and getting caught (and you will) is at it's best cancellation of your merchant account or gateway account.... At it's worst, very large fines and cancellation. Heed this warning, even if you haven't received any communication from your Merchant services providers.

Merchant Processing Survival Tips 2010

Online marketing campaigns that employ any “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only” are considered trial offers and are subject to the new rules. Consumers must receive a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for the credit card charge(s). Incentive type discount offers are acceptable ONLY when the cardholder is receiving goods or services in exchange for payment. Having said this, note for example that e-Online will no longer support

accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly free.

1. Avoid using  "free" or "risk free" language on your website and in marketing campaigns (including PPC) .. Unless it is 100% really free.
2. If you use the "Pay Shipping & Handling Only" technique, then these charges must be fair, reasonable and fully disclosed. So if you have been slipping by on the $5 shipping and $20 handling fee, you must stop. Also note that inflating your actual shipping has additional implications as well... Did you know that most states expect you to pay sales tax on overcharged shipping fees?
3. Trial offers need to be no less than 10 days and the trial period should not begin until product is shipped to the consumer or the service has begun. You are not permitted to offer trails with exemptions, filtering or special rules for age, weight, height, geographic location, race etc.
4. Avoid creating a false sense of urgency because if the matter is not genuinely urgent you are in violation. For example if you have the "10 day only" message running on your website for 3 years now... You are in violation. These periods of offers must be genuine and accurate. e-Online has strictly forbid the use of  applications such as countdown clocks, tickers, or language such as “Offer Expires Today!”, for example already.
5. By mandate of the FTC, product claims, promises, guarantees and research claims MUST be accurate and proper. This is pretty unlimited and includes testimonials, endorsements and even product reviews. Don't think for one second that user supplied product reviews are exempt... It is your website right? Not only do you risk loss of merchant services with these issues, but the FTC can fine 11K on top of whatever the credit card companies may choose to fine you for your "Brand Damaging" behavior.
6. How about the FTC's new rules for pricing? Prices must be within reasonable “fair market value”. Any negative options must be clearly disclosed, and you cannot bill for any product or service that the shopper/consumer did not knowingly purchase... Including things like upgrades and software updates, for example.
7. If you have a special offer which includes some shady marketing like exclusions or negative options you are required to have that customer agree to the terms twice before charging them.

The first validation can take place with the initial offer presentation prior to submission of credit card information, and the second during the checkout process. The confirmation order page must also require consumers to acknowledge that they agree to the Terms & Conditions and authorize the merchant to charge the credit card for the disclosed dollar amount. Terms must be displayed adjacent to the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button confirming the order. The price must be within 100 pixels of the “submit”, “confirm” or any other “call to action” button.

• Shipping and Handling should not be billed separate from charges for the product or service.
• Terms must be in a minimum 12-point “easy to read” font.
• Avoid visually distracting graphics from the display of terms.
• Pre-checked boxes must never be used.
• Consumers should be required to actively and individually select each offer or bonus during the checkout process when there are multiple offers or up sells presented. No offers or up sells should be pre–selected or pre-checked.
• Consumers should not be able to move forward in the offer or checkout until the box acknowledging the terms is checked.
• Verbiage must clearly disclose the enrollment into an ongoing membership with no distraction. An example of an acceptable disclosure is: “By clicking “Submit” you acknowledge that you understand you are being enrolled in a 10 day trial for $4.95, and after expiration of the 10 day trial period you will be charged $59 per month until you cancel your service”
• All products or services purchased when the call-to-action button is clicked should be billed as a single charge unless the order is fulfilled at different times requiring multiple charges.

REFUND POLICIES

Merchants must not make it difficult for consumers to exercise the disclosed cancellation procedures and all cancellation requests must be honored in accordance with the stated terms of the transaction.

1. Refund policies must be disclosed prior to the sale completion. Establish a clear, concise statement of your refund and credit policy. Your policy should be consistent with the objectives of your business and the products or services sold.
2. Merchants must not require return of any trial offer product samples in order for the consumer to receive a refund, or cancel their ongoing subscription.
3. “Full Money Back” or “Full Satisfaction” guarantees are considered false and prohibited unless the offer provides a full refund on all products, including but not limited to Shipping & Handling charges.
4. Refunds should be for the full amount charged including shipping and handling
5. All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a refund is issued.

All future billing to a customer should be canceled when a chargeback is received.

RESOURCES:

The FTC has published the regulations along with many resources online for businesses and consumers like yourself to learn and understand the new regulations.  A few helpful links provided by e-online are included below:

Commercial Practices Part 425, Use of Prenotification Negative Option Plans

Prenotification Negative Option Plans

Advertising and Marketing on the Internet

Dot Com Disclosures

Direct Response industry publications have provided articles with some clarification regarding these guidelines:

http://www.responsemagazine.com/resources/legal-resources/legal-review-getting-strict-with-negative-option-marketing-1351

http://www.dmnews.com/get-comfortable-with-new-ftc-regs/article/136023/

So, are you scared?

If you have been utilizing these techniques, then you probably should be. Realize that the allowable fines and penalties for violations of these rules can mean the death of many if not most small businesses. On the lighter side, even receiving the cancellation email from a merchant provider, allowing you a very short 2 weeks to make other arrangements for processing or gateway services is enough to put you in the poor house.

Take heed, learn and understand these practices, and when in doubt contact your merchant providers... speak with someone in underwriting and have them look at your website and marketing materials and provide you the correct way to market your products.... Before the axe falls.

Ecommerce Blogging

The need for "fresh" content has sent many shop owners looking for a blog. We have built many WordPress Blogs for shop owners in the last few months.... shop owners who realize the need to deliver content in a more effective manner. So today I want to give you some tips for looking at your planned or existing ecommerce blog.

First off, no offense meant to other blogging software... But I highly recommend WordPress. The features, speed and ease of use is the perfect match for most shop owner's needs. Add the awesome widgets and other tools to take full advantage of your content for social media, and you have the perfect application for your online store's blog.

Caution number 1.... I do NOT recommend that you host your blog anywhere else except your OWN DOMAIN. Something store.com/blog is perfect! Subdomains are redundant and unnecessary as well... They are in fact viewed as folders by Google and not a separate site anyhow. Host your own blog as the content is far more valuable to your business than any link from it hosted elsewhere.

Caution number 2.... I do NOT recommend using a module to integrate your WordPress within Zen Cart. Fact is you lose a bunch of WordPress ability and worse the issues caused by the integrations.

I agree that you want your blog consistently branded to look like your shop's pages, but the level of skill needed to create a good looking, branded WordPress theme is pretty low as far a templating software applications goes.

Here is an example we did recently for a Zen Cart owner to port his offsite blog content in to his own site http://www.horseprerace.com/blog/. Notice that while it's a blog the navigation on both the store and blog are linked to each other and it's consistently branded (styled).

Caution number 3.... Do not build a blog unless you have something useful to post. Things like articles about your products alone will not fit the bill. You have to create content that is useful and searchable. A great example is another customer we built a branded blog for, Silver and Pewter Gifts. This Valentine's Day post is excellent, and EXACTLY the type of content you will need to attract readers, searches and backlinks!

Creating valuable and unique content for your website is a big commitment.... with big rewards. The most effective thing you can do it create 1-5 brand new pages with great content on your site weekly. Google especially respects the frequency of the content and rewards you in rank and crawl rate increase.

But how will you write all of that content? Well, to be honest... you don't have to write it all.

You can hire a writer to create content on the topics you supply. Make sure to check their copy here so you know it is unique and not copied. Content that has been duplicated... just doesn't rank well.

You can solicit guest bloggers... Employees, distributors, high school kids... you name it. Find people who are passionate about your website's theme and let them express themselves. You will find that many more are interested than you think.... AND guest bloggers are a great way to help to promote your blog as well.

You can buy private label articles related to your content needs.... BUT these articles, unless unique will need to be rewritten to remove the duplicate content. However, they are excellent inspiration for the new writer and provide a nice framework for the post.

You can write great blog posts yourself. Just jump in. There are ton's of great resources availiable to help you get started. Check some of these out:

• Writing great content http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content/
• What makes great blog writing http://writetodone.com/2008/01/10/what-makes-great-blogwriting/
• One of my all time favorites... Writing great blog headlines/titles http://www.copyblogger.com/10-sure-fire-headline-formulas-that-work/

Some things I would like to add....

Blog with your own voice, words from you with your passion and emotion will be the most effective content and serve to build your readership as well.

Write your posts in 2 steps... If you are like me the ideas are just swimming around in my head and I can't even type fast enough to get them all down. So when I finish fishing my head for ideas... I have to reorder, restructure and polish the gibberish I have pounded out on my keyboard. I am am really so bad that I will generally have 3 to 4 sloppy copies before I am done... My brain is much faster than my fingers. Read every post in preview view all the way through at least twice before you embarrass yourself by publishing poorly written or unprofessional content.

Lastly... NEVER leave a user comment unanswered. NEVER

Google Social Search

Impressed? Well you should be! Google has just supplied you the glue to bind and promote your entire social media campaign! In October 2009 Google released the new Google Social search for the purpose of experimentation. The experiment, deemed successful as many jumped in and tried it out, is now released in the Beta public format.

Cool, how do I get started?

If you have a Google profile already, just update it. If not get one!

Most of the information is general social media profile stuff.... But low and behold some great networking opportunities exist too.

1. The ability to supply a short Bio in html, including those precious links!
2. Custom links to your blogs and other promotable websites ... and Your Google reader and YouTube profile as well.
3. Contact Info
4. Last but certainly not least.... a Cool Vanity URL with your username to link to. Here is mine http://www.google.com/profiles/MPrough

Missing?

Well there are a few things we like to see in a social media platform that are missing... Well maybe not implemented yet.

1. RSS feed opportunities ... Well we can add a link, but...
2. Better image loading opportunities
3. More robust business related tools such as testimonials and recommendations

All in all, great way to give your social media campaign a nice boost.... In true Google fashion, for FREE!

Losers?

With the current climate of Google's new algorithm, I have had cause to reflect on a basic idea.... Seemingly long forgotten. Are you getting the sales you need from your existing visits? Or are you a "build it and they will come" person?

If you plan to increase your traffic to meet your sales needs and never worry about what you could be missing... Stop reading, this will bore you =-) However, if you want to build your qualified traffic and get the sales from them you need, then read on.

Conversions! Yes folks SALES! This is the point right?

So in light of all the indexing and rank changes, we sent our SEO clients a "Biggest Losers List". The concept here is that these visits are lost sales, for some reason. Price? Usability? Information? Something is missing and the page cannot make the sale.

First off, lets find your top 5 biggest losers for the last 30 days. Login in to your Google Analytics account, hopefully it is set up properly to track conversion data. Unless you have moved things around from your lower dashboard click "View report" on the "Traffic Sources Overview" box. Then under the sources area, choose Google Organic for example.

In the gray bar, there is a dropdown set initially for keyword, drop this down to landing page. Now click the header link in the "Visits" column to sort them by visits, more visits at the top. Now click on your ecommerce tab.

We are looking for the pages with many visits and no conversions. I have one of my own sites open right now to provide some examples.

Loser Page #1 had 52 visits and no conversions.

Loser Page #2 had 29 visits and no conversions.

Loser Page #3 had 20 visits and no conversions.

Now, we can clearly see without going a step further there is something wrong here. In this shop, for example, the "per visit value" in the upper bar is $4.86..... So we know that for some reason these losing pages lost at least $490.86 in potential sales..... OUCH!

Now lets gather some more information. In the dropdown next to "Landing Page" select "Keyword" to add the column. This complicates things a bit, but sometimes, Google needs more information from you to send your pages qualified leads. If you find that one of your losers is getting a bunch of seeming unrelated search traffic, then it is a good bet that the text on the page is not clear enough to Google.

A good example of this is our pet store example, the 29 searches are for "bows in bulk"... which we sell, except they are dog grooming bows. So I will be updating this page so Google can deliver it for more proper search queries. This part is easy....

What if these losing pages have good, relevant searches?

In this case, we have to have a good old fashioned, come to Jesus look at the page. Is the price too high? Information unclear? Terrible images? Missing selections? Or just plain poorly organized even. Trust me when I say, you must train your eyes to shop like a consumer. In reality it doesn't matter what you think or what your competitors do.... Matters that there is a problem with this page you need to solve.

These things can really be very small... Layout, color, button positions etc. So your best course of action is to have some friends look at it. The trick here is two fold. First, whatever you think about what they say doesn't matter... You are not an average consumer. Listen to them, analyze what they have said and act on it. Secondly, don't go changing a hundred things on the page.... Nothing you cannot measure can ever be successful. Take your list, make a few logical changes and watch it for 3 weeks.... Then measure your results and continue to implement the needed changes in small doses as well. Pretty soon this page will not be a loser anymore!

Need a hand? If you post your page link in a comment, with your own thoughts and the visits & conversions... I will be glad to have a look and make suggestions as I can =-)

Brand Damaging

First let's attempt to define what "brand damaging" actually means. It's really a rather ambiguous, mostly legal term referring to statements, actions, images, content, theft and other actions causing damage or harm to one's brand. Be that brand an authors name, a business or a service.

Many times this type of issue involves another nasty term, "identity theft". The connection comes from associating a known brand, such as the case with Jeremy Schoemaker in 2008. This matter was one of the first notable cases I have seen reported. In this case,  the Hydra Network or one of its affiliates made unauthorized use of a picture of ShoeMoney holding a check and the accompanying ad claiming he had made the money using a scam called "Google Money Tree".

How does this affect shop owners?

Many of you will have already received a letter of intent, or decided changes from your merchant bank if you process credit cards. The changes or proposed changes are quite frankly in answer to Visa Mastercard's intent to take action in response to increases in consumer disputes related to card not present and direct response products and services.

It's not really Greek, in a nutshell, if you, your practices, your security or your products and services are a bad risk, Visa Mastercard feels that this damages their brand.

These forthcoming and anticipated payment brand mandates and requirements will change a great many things for some merchants. For example e-online has already adapted the following policy changes:

e-onlinedata cannot accept merchant applications for products and/or services employing “Negative Option” enrollment, in addition to the following practices:

• Marketing models that employ “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only”. Customers must be receiving a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for charging of payment cards. Incentivized discount offers are acceptable when the cardholder is receiving something in exchange for payment, however we will be unable to support accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly free.
• “Cross-Selling” and “Up-selling” business practices. All sales should be directly between the business entities (merchant) processing the transaction and the cardholder, with cardholder authorization for all purchases.
• Per Payment Brand guidelines, the use of multiple merchant accounts, billing descriptors and merchant processors may be viewed as an attempt to avoid chargeback monitoring programs and is prohibited. Perceived non-compliance has led to termination of processing relationships. e-onlinedata will review the business consideration for opening multiple merchant accounts to ensure compliance with Payment Brand guidelines.
• Transactions generated from internet traffic and all other lead sources must be managed and monitored for potential fraud using an approved system. Third Party service engagement may be a requirement for account approval.

Of these, the most likely ecommerce merchant concern is the last. The last statement refers to properly managing, monitoring and PCI compliance of your shopping cart, hosting and merchant gateway. These are not recommendations, but rather already required for merchants. When you signed your merchant agreement, you also agreed to maintain the proper PCI/DSS standards and mandates.

Originally, PCI was Greek, however, merchants are learning and much support is available to meet the needs of small businesses whose budget for these matters can be quite small. Your merchant provider, merchant gateway provider or PCI approved scanner can help you to understand and manage the protocols necessary to keep not only yourself, but your shoppers safe. I have a post here to get you started on the road to PCI compliance.

It is clearly worth noting that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has already moved on the "Negative Option" marketing technique. Additionally, the FTC recently made changes to the requirements for paid testimonials, blog posts and endorsements. These are also clearly targeted at the web, and I think we can expect to see more of the same with big fines from the FTC in the future.

Not only are these things right and proper in my opinion, but changes to protect consumers on the web are long overdue. I think if you run and honest business in good faith you will not have any issues, frankly, those sapped by the movement to protect Internet consumers are in general those who would strive to deceive and take advantage of consumers.... Giving us all a bad name and damaging our brand as well!

Cyber Monday 2009

Let's face it, this Monday you and your website will be facing one of, if not the largest online shopping days all year.... Cyber Monday. Preparing for this day is crucial to your business. So below I have some ecommerce and Zen Cart specific things to help you prepare and succeed this Monday.

Certainly you should be prepared everyday, but this Monday is a very special day, which requires some special planning and preparation to ensure that you succeed.

Housekeeping

1. Check your site for broken links
2. Check your add to cart buttons
3. Check your checkout buttons and functions
4. Contact info (preferably toll free phone number) displayed prominently
5. Shipping fees, schedule and return policy clearly stated in the simplest manner possible
6. Special sales, coupons and shipping campaigns clearly posted
7. All of your product feeds are up to date with any sale prices
8. Verify that your pages load quickly
9. Make sure you have enough bandwidth left this month in your hosting plan
10. View cart / checkout links are easy to find on all pages
11. Specials and holiday promos easily located
12. Ample products in stock and ready to ship
13. Navigation clear and easy to follow
14. Search is working properly
15. Most common products and sale items are clearly advertised with direct links for purchase

Shipping Tips

While free shipping is your best and most effective holiday promo, even flat rate shipping will fare substantially better than standard shipping. Make sure you have the shipping options necessary and working. People will want to be able to know your shipping rates BEFORE, they begin to checkout. Keep them reasonable, upfront and completely transparent.

If you are using a module which calls out to UPS, USPS or FedEx for example, make certain you have a backup shipping policy ready to go. Last year, both USPS and UPS were down on several occasions for long periods of time during the holiday shopping season. If these live webtools fail, people cannot checkout on your cart.

Shop your competition and see what you are going up against. Holiday shoppers are less spontaneous and far more likely to price shop you. The most common way for them to do this is to compare shipping options... flat or free is much more discoverable and thus effective.

Checkout Tips

1. Shipping rates available before shoppers begin checkout
2. Short and funneled checkout process, remove distractions and ways to get off track
3. Check your site for the secure/non-secure error on SSL pages (even if you have before... do it again)
4. Good selection of payment methods available and easily able to be discovered BEFORE checkout
5. Coupons and sales tested and working

Email Marketing Tips for Cyber Monday

If you plan to do an email blast.... You better get it out by Saturday night. Many people will shop from work this Cyber Monday. Get them your deals early so they can take the info with them to work.

Use a great subject line to engage the shopper. Most people will read as far as the subject before deleting your email, so your subject alone carries most of the burden in email marketing.

Keep the email, clean, informative and short.... Holiday shoppers are impatient.

Segment your email list to send the best offers to the most related shoppers. If you are using software to segment your list, now is the time to flex your marketing muscles by hitting each of your segments with a planned and targeted email offer. Cyber Monday is not the end of this.... so make certain you also have the ability to measure these results for improvement in the holiday shopping season.

Impression

Remember, this is ecommerce... You haven't the ability to speak with every customer. Make sure your store is putting forth the feeling and impression you want your customers to have. There are no second chances to make a great first impression.

Preparedness

Ready go phones.... Make sure you have ample staff to handle calls and emails this Monday. Tools like live help can help to unclog your phone lines.... But people are going to call. The people answering your phone should be well fed, happy and completely aware of every product and promo. Empower them and unclog your own phone line by creating a coupon for each customer service person to use in handling issues and complaints as they arise... Instead of the customer waiting for you or other management. There is no better customer than that of a recovered sale.

Fulfillment

Ready to ship those products? Do not wait, start shipping orders as quickly as you can keep up . Many times a very quick shipping notification will lower canceled orders and actually help promote your store with your shopper's co-workers.